Ernest Julius Mitchell

Ernest Julius Mitchell serves as Assistant Professor of English and Humanities at Yale University, where he contributes to the Department of English within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. His interdisciplinary work bridges literature, philosophy, and religion with methodological grounding in Black studies.

Education:

• Ph.D., Harvard University, 2019
• M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School, 2009
• A.B., Princeton University, 2006

Professor Mitchell's research centers on the intersections of literature, philosophy, and religion, with particular focus on the Harlem Renaissance viewed expansively as integral to transatlantic modernism. His work spans aesthetics and phenomenology in German thinkers from Kant to Benjamin, and religious traditions from the ancient Mediterranean to the contemporary Caribbean. He is currently completing three major book projects: a biography of Jamaican writer Claude McKay for Yale University Press, a new edition of Jean Toomer's Cane for the Norton Library, and a study of theological elements in Zora Neale Hurston's work, all reflecting his interest in questions of literary style—charm, revision, and grace.

His scholarly publications demonstrate consistent engagement with African American literary traditions, particularly examining figures from the Harlem Renaissance era. Mitchell's work shows strong interdisciplinary connections between literary analysis, philosophical inquiry, and religious studies, with particular attention to how these fields shape modern consciousness and identity formation within Black literary production.

Current Teaching:

• ENGL 351: Fictions of the Harlem Vogue (HUMS 370 / AFAM 354)
• ENGL 127: Readings in American Literature
• HUMS 223: Claude McKay: Interpretations (ENGL 242)
• DRST 002: Directed Studies: Literature