Faculty Profile for Dr. Drea Brown

profile photo for Dr. Drea Brown
Dr. Drea Brown
Assistant Professor — English
phone: (512) 245-3822
Scholarly/Creative Work
Awards
Grants
Service

Biography Section

Biography and Education

 drea brown is a queer Black feminist poet-scholar whose writing has appeared in journals and anthologies such as Stand Our Ground: Poems for Marissa Alexander and Trayvon Martin, the Smithsonian Magazine, Southern Indiana Review, Bellingham Review and About Place Journal. drea is the author of dear girl: a reckoning, winner of the Gold Line Press 2014 chapbook prize, and co-editor of Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature (U Pittsburgh 2021). Their forthcoming monograph Conjuring the Haint: The Haunting Poetics of Black Women (UPM 2025), explores the role of haunting in Black women’s literature and lived experiences.

Education:
BA Hollins University, English & Creative Writing
MFA University of Oregon, Poetry & Poetics, Women & Gender Studies
PhD African& African Diaspora Studies, Women& Gender Studies

Teaching Interests

 20th & 21st century Black literature, Black women's intellectual traditions, Black feminisms, poetry and poetics, Black speculative writing, haunting & horror

Research Interests

 Black women's literary traditions, Black feminisms, poetry and poetics, haunting

Selected Scholarly/Creative Work

  • brown, drea. (n.d.). “The Afterlives of Phillis Wheatley.” In B. Mccaskill, S. Ruffing Robbins, & M. Narain (Eds.), The Genius of Phillis Wheatley. Scotland: Edinburgh UniversityPress.
  • brown, drea. (2024). How Strangely Changed: Phillis Wheatley in Niobean Memory. In M. Telo & A. Benjamin (Eds.), Niobes: Antiquity, Modernity, Critical Theory. Columbus, OH, US: The Ohio State University.
  • brown, drea. (2023). karintha at dusk noon and midnight. In Anne deMarcken, D. Exavier, & C. Syrah (Eds.), Cane: A New Critical Edition & Oracle Deck. The 3rd Thing Press.
  • Brown, drea. (n.d.). CONJURING THE HAINT: THE HAUNTING POETICS OF BLACK WOMEN. Jackson, Mississippi, US: UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI.
  • brown, drea. (2021). A Question of Victory: Teaching Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric. In Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature (pp. 117–124). Pittsburgh, PA, US: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Selected Awards

  • Award / Honor Nominee: Best of the Net: Poetry, About Place Journal. October 2021 - Present
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Sigma Tau Delta Outstanding Professor of English, Sigma Tau Delta. May 2024
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Pushcart Prize, About Place Journal. November 2020
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Merit Award, Bryant University. May 7, 2020
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Deans List Honoree, UT Austin. 2016

Selected Grants

  • brown, drea (Principal). Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University, Institutional (Higher Ed), $8000. (Submitted: October 2021, Funded: 2022 - Present). Grant.

Selected Service Activities

Chair
TKL-Visiting Scholars Committee
August 2024-Present
Co-Chair
Therese Kayser Lindsey Literary Series
May 2024-Present
Member
African American Studies Minor Advisory Board
October 2023-Present
Organizer
Tenure Track Faculty Writing Retreats
April 2023-Present
Organizer
Black Women Writers Series
March 2022-Present