Crystal S. Rudds

Crystal S. Rudds is an Assistant Professor of African American literature and culture in the Department of English at the University of Utah, specializing in twentieth-century American and African American fiction, urban life narratives, Black Feminisms, and black geography/ecology. She earned her PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2016) and MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University-Bloomington (2004).

Her research explores intersections between literary analysis and community engagement, focusing on urban spatiality, public housing representation, and black interiority. She has published works analyzing Frank London Brown and Jasmon Drain's housing narratives, digital archiving practices, and pedagogical identity evolution.

Key grant activities include:

• Gathering, Sewing, Giving: Chronopolitics and Black Women's Quilting (TRIC/Mellon Foundation, 2023)
• Utah Presidential Leadership Fellowship (2023)

Recognitions:

• David D. Anderson Award for Midwestern Literary Studies (2023)
• Mary Blinn Poetry Prize (2022)
• University of Utah Fellowships (2022)

Teaching activities feature:

• Experiential learning with archival documents
• Historic site visits
• Performance-based literary analysis
• Community-focused pedagogy