Spotlights
Dr. Johnson Memorializes American Literary Greats
Professor Johnson organized and chaired the panel, “Calypso Magnolia: Southern Literary Intersections Abroad,” at the American Literature Association (ALA) in Chicago, IL, 2024. The panelists honored the late Professor John Wharton Lowe, Barbara Methvin Distinguished Professor of Southern Literature at the University of Georgia, who famously worked with the late great Southern American author, Ernest J. Gaines. It’s not surprising then, that in speaking of Lowe, the panelists also spoke in honor of Gaines and the multiscalarity of his work. Herman Beavers, president of the Modern Language Association (2026-2027), and Nathan Dixon, professor at North Carolina Central University and Dr. John W. Lowe’s former student, as well as Martha J. Cutter, Professor in the departments of English and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut, all presented.
The Ernest J. Gaines Center at U of Louisiana at Fayetteville co-sponsored the panel with the Society for the Study of Multiethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS), the latter of which Dr. Johnson is the Vice President and Program Chair. “Of course, this work is about my late mentor, John, but it’s also about holding up American authors whose prescient works continue to hold relevance in this contemporary moment,” Dr. Johnson said. “No matter the circumstances, I’m the professor who turns to the literature in the classroom so that together, my students and I can imagine better futures for us all. For example, what did Gaines write about in A Lesson Before Dying (1993) that can help us make sense of what’s going on today?” Following in the same vein, Dr. Johnson recently published an essay about teaching Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man in Approaches to Teaching the Works of Ralph Ellison, 2024. Considering interstices between past and present, research and teaching and/or faculty and students continue to inform Dr. Johnson’s teaching, service, and scholarship.
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