University Professor Earns Grant, Fellowship

Jeffrey Tucker, assistant professor of English at the University of Rochester, has been awarded a summer research grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a fellowship from the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (CAAS) at the University of Michigan.

The NEH grant will support Tucker's continued research for his book on African American writer Samuel R. Delany. Delany is a well-known science fiction novelist whose works address social and racial issues. Tucker will focus on Delany's place in African American literary and historical traditions as well as Delany's incorporation of critical theory in his work. As part of the research he will travel to Boston University to study the collections of Delany's papers that are housed in Mugar Memorial Library

Tucker will use the DuBois-Mandela-Rodney Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue his research while he spends the 2000-2001 academic year at the University of Michigan. He will also conduct a seminar and participate in colloquiums and other Center activities.

Before joining the University of Rochester faculty in the fall of 1999, Tucker taught at Ohio University. His courses have covered African American literature, including poetry and drama, while incorporating such topics as slavery and the Harlem Renaissance.