SARAELLEN STRONGMAN

5506 Haven Hall, 505 S. State Street

Ann Arbor, MI 48109
sstron@umich.edu

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2020-present

Assistant Professor
Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2018- 2020

LSA Collegiate Fellow
Department of Afroamerican and African Studies

EDUCATION

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 2018

Ph.D. with distinction, Africana Studies
Certificate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies

Columbia University, New York, NY 2011

A.B., Women’s and Gender Studies
Cum Laude

RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS

Black Feminism, Twentieth-Century African American Cultural and Intellectual History,

Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century African American Literature, Gender and Sexuality Studies,
Queer Theory

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-Reviewed Articles

“The Archaeological Impulse, Black Feminism, and But Some of Us Are Brave.” Special Issue. Feminist
Studies. Feminist Studies 48, no. 1 (2022): 33-52.

“‘Creating Justice Between Us’: Audre Lorde’s Theory of the Erotic as Coalitional Politics in the
Women’s Movement.” Special issue. Feminist Theory vol. 19, no. 1 (2018).

Book Reviews
“Feeling Black Feminism” Review of Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality by Jennifer Nash
in the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society (April 15, 2021): 1-9.

Public History and Writing for Non-Academic Audiences

“‘Choice is the Essence of Freedom.’” Program for Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky at the
National Theatre, London, 2022. 17-20.

“Despite antiabortion campaigns black feminists support abortion rights.” Made By History. The
Washington Post. June 29, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/29/despite-
anti-abortion-campaigns-black-feminists-support-abortion-rights/

“The Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearings Showed the Power of Black Sisterhood.” Perspectives. The
Washington Post. March 25, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/03/25/black-
women-ketanji-brown-jackson/

“No more Ms. Nice Girl.” Sinister Wisdom 123: Special Tribute to Conditions magazine. (Winter 2022):
179-184.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

The Social Life of Black Feminism, 1968-1993 (book manuscript)

The Essential Pat Parker (edited collection)

“Revisiting Early Second-Wave Black Feminism: Alice Walker and Meridian”

“Pat Parker’s 1975 Cross-country Reading Tour” (Digital Mapping Project)

FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS, and HONORS

2023 Career Enhancement Fellowship, Institute for Citizens & Scholars, $17,500
2022 Provost’s Early Tenure-Track Faculty Research Support Initiative, $3000
2017 Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts & Sciences
Graduate Division, $27,500
2017 Rose Library Short Term Fellowship, Stuart A. Rose Library, Emory University, $1000
2017 Joan Challinor Dissertation Grant, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced
Study, Harvard University, $3000
2017 Summer Dissertation Research Grant, Center for Africana Studies, University of
Pennsylvania, $2500
2017 SAS Summer Dissertation Research Fellowship, School of Arts & Sciences,
University of Pennsylvania, $2800
2017 William Fontaine Summer Research Grant, William Fontaine Society,
 University of Pennsylvania
2017 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, Honorable Mention
2017 Graduate Student Research Grant, Alice Paul Center, University of Pennsylvania
2016 Center for Teaching and Learning Graduate Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, Center
for Teaching and Learning, $6000
2016 Graduate Student Research Grant, Alice Paul Center, University of Pennsylvania
2015 Distinction in Qualifying Examinations, Africana Studies Department, University of
Pennsylvania
2014 Mellon Mays Graduate Enhancement Grant, Social Science Research Council/Mellon Mays
2014 Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, Alternate
2014 Mainwaring Graduate Prize, University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts & Sciences
2012 William Fontaine Graduate Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts &
Sciences
2011 Women’s Studies Paper Prize, Columbia University, Institute for Research on Women and
Gender, $250
2009 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Columbia University

INVITED TALKS AND PUBLIC SPEAKING

Movement in Black: Pat Parker and Black Feminist Literary Culture in the 1970s. Sharon Seager
Memorial Lecture in Women’s and Gender History. Ball State University. September 2023.

Black Power Conference. Invited Speaker. Goethe-Universität. Frankfurt, Germany. June 2023.

High Stakes Culture: How Do We Understand Abortion, Control, and Reproductive Justice? Invited
Panelist. Institute for the Humanities. University of Michigan. October 2022.

Black Research Roundtable RIW Professional Q&A. African American Caucus. Invited Speaker.
Department of American Culture. University of Michigan. March 2022.

Anti-Racism is Never Not Intersectional. Invited Panelist. Institute for Research on Women and
Gender. University of Michigan. December 2021.

The Racial Politics of Beauty: Self-Care and Self-Esteem. Invited Speaker. Sigma Gamma Rho,
Sorority Incorporated. Iota Psi Chapter. University of Michigan. November 2021.

The Black Feminist Retreats and Community Building. The Roundtable for Black Feminist and
Womanist Theory. Virtual Event. November 2021.

#ScholarStrike Anti-Racism Panel. Invited Panelist. Introduction to Women & Health, Prof.
Rebecca Jordan Young, Barnard College, September 2020.

When & Where I Enter: The Labor, Struggle, and Joy of Black Women's Activism. Invited Panelist.
University of Michigan Libraries, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, February 2020.
Collecting and Copying: The “Archaeological Impulse” and Black Feminism. Department of
English, Boston University, January 2020.

Collecting and Copying: The “Archaeological Impulse” and Black Feminism. Department of
English, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, January 2020.

Black Feminist Sex. Critical Conversations. Department of English. University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, October 2019.

Toni Morrison’s Work and Legacy. Top of the Mind with Julie Rose, BYU Radio, Sirius XM 143,
August 2019.

Faculty Biography Series. Invited Speaker. Black Research Roundtable. University of Michigan.
October 2018.

Poetics and Power: Pat Parker. Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, February 2018.

Poetics and Power: Pat Parker. Department of Women & Gender Studies, University of Colorado,
Boulder, February 2018.

PRESS COVERAGE

“Carrying on a Tradition.” LSA Collegiate Fellows Spotlight Series, December 2020.

COURSES TAUGHT

Introduction to African American Studies

Black Arts Matter: Black Women Performers
Black Feminism(s)
Writing Sex: Contemporary Black Women Writers

CONFERENCE PANELS ORGANIZED

“Black Women Writers Respond to Crisis.” American Studies Association. New Orleans, LA.
November, 2022.

“Fighting for Our Lives: Toward a Wider View of Black Women’s Activism.” American Studies
Association. Honolulu, HI. November, 2019.

“Ephemeral Utopias: Reconsidering Feminism’s Queer Histories.” (with Rachel Corbman) National
Women’s Studies Association. Atlanta, GA. November 2018.
“Radical Black Women and Cultural Resistance in the 1970s and 1980s.” National Women’s Studies
Association. Baltimore, MD. November 2017.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“Aesthetics of Lesbian Sociality.” Roundtable panelist. American Studies Annual Conference.

Montreal, Canada. November 2023.

“‘Yours in Struggle’: Black and Jewish Feminist and the 1982 Lebanon War.” National Women’s
Studies Association Annual Conference. November 2022. Minneapolis, MN.

“‘Where Are the Women?’: Black Women’s Literary Activism in the 1970s and 1980s.”
American Studies Association Annual Conference. November 2022. New Orleans, LA.

“Black Feminists Building Community: On the Black Feminist Retreats (1977-1981).” The
Roundtable for Black Feminist and Womanist Theory. Virtual. November, 2021.

“The Queer Practice of Anti-racist Collaboration.” Round Table. American Studies Association
Annual Conference. San Juan, PR. (Virtual, COVID-19). October, 2021.

“The Queer Practice of Anti-racist Collaboration.” Round Table. American Studies Association
Annual Conference. November 2020. Baltimore, MD. (Cancelled, COVID-19)

“Networks of Support; Black Women, Audre Lorde, and Chrysalis.” Eighteenth Berkshire
Conference on the History of Women, Gender, and Sexualities. Baltimore, MD. May 2020.
(Cancelled, COVID-19)

“The Poetic is Political: Pat Parker’s “Womanslaughter” and Black Feminist Coalitional
Politics.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. November 2019. Honolulu, HI.

“Collecting and Carbon Copying; Black Women’s Literary Recovery as Movement Work.” American
Historical Association Annual Meeting. Chicago, IL. January 2019.

“‘Because that was all we had…’: Building Black Feminism through Xeroxes, Anthologies, and
Reading Lists.” National Women’s Studies Association Conference. Atlanta, GA. November 2018.

“‘I don’t know how you will read…all this’: White women, Black women, and Chrysalis.” National
Women’s Studies Association Conference. Atlanta, GA. November 2018.

“Black Feminists and Radical, International Politics.” American Studies Association Conference.
Chicago, IL. November 2017.

“Black Feminism and Women’s Studies: Barbara Smith’s Demands on the NWSA.” National
Women’s Studies Association Conference. Baltimore, MD. November 2017.
“Feminism in Black and White: Antagonism and Alliances in the Work of Alice Walker.” American
Studies Association Conference. Denver, CO. November 2016.

“The Struggle for Solidarity: Black and White Women in Alice Walker's Meridian." GSWS Graduate
Research Colloquium. University of Pennsylvania. March 2016.

“Labors of Love: Black Women, The Help, and the Work of Pleasure” National Women’s Studies
Association Conference, San Juan, PR. November 2014

"Janelle Monae's Erotic Ambiguity as Liberatory Politics." Unleashing the Black Erotic: Gender &
Sexuality—Passion, Power and Praxis. Charleston, SC. September 2013.

“Black Humor in the ‘Post-Racial’ Era: The Radical, Anti-Racist Revisions of Key & Peele.” SSRC-
Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Annual Conference. Bryn Mawr, PA. June, 2013.

"Queer Across the Color Line: Interracial Queerness as Sustaining Practice in ZZ Packer's 'Drinking
Coffee Elsewhere.'" Remapping the Black Atlantic: Diaspora (Re)Writings of Space and Place.
Chicago, IL. April 2013

"Selling Selves: Race, Identity, and Narratives of Kinship in Natural Hair Care Advertising.” The
Politics of Black Women's Hair Symposium. Philadelphia, PA March, 2013

TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

University of Michigan
2021 Teaching and Technology Collaborative Workshops
- Online Discussion with Harmonize
- Active Learning with Zoom: Engaging Students in Synchronous Discussion
ADVANCE
- STRIDE Faculty Recruitment Workshop
2020 Teaching Academy, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching
2019 Race & Ethnicity Working Group
2019 Teaching and Technology Collaborative Workshops
- Using hypothes.is for Class Discussion and Participation
- Using Gameful Learning Strategies to Enhance Student Engagement
- Working With Student Teams: Overcoming the Limits of Group Work
- Increasing Student Motivation: Strategies that Work
2018 Teaching Academy, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching

University of Pennsylvania
2017 Summer Teaching Workshop, Center for Teaching and Learning
2016 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Center for Teaching and Learning
2013 TA Training Workshop, Center for Teaching and Learning
UNIVERSITY AND DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE

University of Michigan
2022 Graduate Studies Committee, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
2021 Search Committee, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
2021 Curriculum Committee, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
2020 Critical Contemporary Studies RIW Writing Workshop, Respondent
2020 Graduate Studies Committee, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies
2020 Search Committee, Joint Committee with Philosophy Department
2020 Teaching & Learning Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop, Faculty Q&A

University of Pennsylvania
AY 2014-2017 University of Pennsylvania MMUF, Graduate Coordinator
AY 2014-2016 Africana Studies Graduate Colloquium Planning Committee, Member
AY 2014-2015 Center for Teaching and Learning, TA Training Co-Coordinator
2014 Center for Teaching and Learning, TA Training Trainer
AY 2014-2015 Center for Africana Studies Summer Institute, Graduate Assistant

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION

2021-present WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly, Manuscript Reviewer

2019-2020 HistoryMakers Higher Education Advisory Board, Member
2019-present Feminist Formations, Manuscript Reviewer

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

American Studies Association

Modern Language Association
National Women’s Studies Association