Christopher Brown

Christopher Brown is the Department Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of English at Wake Forest University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. from Georgetown University. His research focuses on intersections of African American Literature with legal theory, 19th and 20th century American literature, and critical theory. Recent work includes a monograph examining law in African American literary traditions and articles exploring miscegenation, post-racial justice, and slavery narratives.

His awards include the Reynolds Research Leave (2024–25), Humanities Institute Summer Writing Grant (2018), and Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship (2012–13). His teaching spans foundational courses on law and culture, Toni Morrison, and 21st-century African American literature. His scholarship emphasizes incommensurability in literary analysis and the archival recovery of marginalized narratives.

Research trends in his publications center on legal frameworks in African American literature, race and representation, and interdisciplinary approaches to cultural history. He actively engages with postcolonial studies, music-literature intersections, and the legacy of slavery in modern narratives.