Faculty Profiles

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Dr. Drea Brown

  • Associate Professor - English

Biography and expertise

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

Education

Doctorate Degree

PhD in African and African Diaspora Studies

University of Texas at Austin, 2017

Master's Degree

MFA in Creative Writing

University of Oregon, 2008

Bachelor's Degree

BA in English

Hollins University, 2002

Teaching Interests

Research Interests

  • brown, drea (Principal). Research Enhancement Program, Texas State University, Institutional (Higher Ed), $8000. (Submitted: October 2021, Funded: 2022 - Present). Grant.
  • Brown, A. N. (2025). praise poem for a grave tender. In Praiseong for the people. Austin, TX, US: Host Publications.
  • Brown, drea. (2025). CONJURING THE HAINT: THE HAUNTING POETICS OF BLACK WOMEN. Jackson, Mississippi, US: UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI.
  • 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.
View all scholarly/creative works
  • Award / Honor Recipient: Eudora Welty Prize, Mississippi University for Women. October 2025 - Present
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Best of the Net: Poetry, About Place Journal. October 2021 - Present
  • Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching, Texas State University. August 2025
  • 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
View all awards
  1. Graduate Advisor

  2. Chair

    TKL-Visiting Scholars Committee

  3. Co-Chair

    Therese Kayser Lindsey Literary Series

  4. Member

    African American Studies Minor Advisory Board

  5. Organizer

    Tenure Track Faculty Writing Retreats

  6. Organizer

    Black Women Writers Series

  7. View all activities