Shirley Moody-Turner is a critical race studies scholar and literary and cultural historian, whose work centers on exposing and critiquing systems of power, especially as related to constructions of race and the gendered politics of knowledge production. In her first book, Black Folklore and the Politics of Racial Representation, she showed how folklore studies became a lynchpin in 19th century debates over Jim Crow segregation, and in her current project, Privately Printed, she looks at the gender politics of black women’s publishing, recovering what she refers to as a “shadow-tradition” of black women’s writing. She is currently an associate professor of English and African American Studies at Penn State University.

I'm an Associate Professor of Literacy and Language, African American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. I focus on dismantling supremacist patriarchies through research, teaching, and coaching. As a sociocultural literacist, I work to understand personal and public voices and stories to solve personal and public problems. I do this by researching the evolutionary nature and function of literacies and texts through the discourses of narrative research. My work exposes impetuses for various personal and social ills such as racism, sexism, and ableism.

I love to meditate way before dawn, work out like a soldier, and shop alone. I prefer rum to wine, jeans to skirts, and like my heels sky high (except when I'm wearing cowboy boots). Every year I ask my stylist to cornrow and bead my hair in homage to Patrice Rushen and Stevie Wonder (if you know of these artists and understand why demonstrating embodied respect for them is important, we can probably be friends). I believe in ghosts, fairies, and hobbits (for real). Musically, I vibe to old school everything (hip hop, R&B, jazz, rock, and classical) and especially dig Hildegard von Bingen. I trust children a little bit more than adults, respect teens for their fearlessness, admire elders for their tenacity, and occasionally prefer the company of dogs to people. I'm really getting into interior design and have a penchant for acquiring east coast real estate. I'm also a survivor of multiple terrors in love.

I invite you to learn more about me and the projects I am involved with at JeanineStaples.com.