Dr. Philathia Bolton (on sabbatical for AY 2023-2024)

Title: Associate Professor, Honors Advisor & Internship Liaison
Dept/Program: Department of English
Office: Olin 356
Phone: 330-972-6948
Email: pbolton@uakron.edu
Curriculum Vitae: Download in PDF format

Biography

Philathia Bolton teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in African American literature and culture at the University of Akron. She serves on the Advisory Committee for the Pan-African Studies Program and is an affiliate faculty member of the Women Studies Program. Her research interests more broadly involve women writers, the U.S. civil rights movement, and critical race studies. 

Publications

“Forever on the Same Horizon: James Baldwin and Toni Morrison in a Hurstonian Tradition.” In
Hurston in Context. Ed. Christopher Varlack. (in progress)

“(En)gendering Complexities: A Look at Colorism in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and James Weldon
Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex Colored Man.” In Women's Lived Experiences of the
Gender Gap: Gender Inequalities from Multiple Global Perspectives. Ed. Angela Fitzgerald.
Springer, 2021. Hardcover and electronic.

“Audience, Gender, and the Construction of Antebellum Slave Narratives.” Philathia Bolton and
Venetria Patton, A Companion to American Literature: The Blackwell Companions to
Literature and Culture, Eds. Susan Belasco, Theresa Strouth Gaul, Linck Johnson, and
Michael Soto. John Wiley and Sons, 2020. Hardcover, electronic, and Wiley online library.

Teaching with Tension: Race, Resistance, and Reality in the Classroom. Edited with Cassander L.
Smith and Lee Bebout. Northwestern UP, 2019. Hardcover, paper, and electronic.

“The Potential of a Moment: Race Literacy and Black American Literature.” In Teaching with
Tension: Race, Resistance, and Reality in the Classroom. Eds. Philathia Bolton, Cassander L.
Smith, and Lee Bebout. Northwestern UP, 2019. Hardcover, paper, and electronic.

Education

Ph.D. in American Studies, Purdue University (2012); B.A. in English, Spelman College (2002).

Courses

Black American Literature, Afro-American Novel, Women Writers, Ethnic Women in Literature, Critical Reading and Writing, Fiction Appreciation, English Composition 111, English Composition 112, Graduate or dual-level courses: Harlem Renaissance, Toni Morrison, Wright/Ellison/Baldwin