Ivy Wilson

Ivy Wilson is an Associate Professor of English at Northwestern University, where he also serves as Director of the Program in American Studies. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale University and specializes in comparative literatures of the black diaspora, African American culture, and U.S. literary studies.

• Ph.D., Yale University

His research explores intersections of race, aesthetics, and political discourse, particularly how blackness shaped U.S. citizenship and national identity. He has contributed to critical race studies, postcolonial/diaspora studies, and 19th-century American literature through co-edited volumes and scholarly works.

Wilson’s notable publications include books such as Specters of Democracy: Blackness and the Aesthetics of Nationalism (2011) and co-edited collections on James Monroe Whitfield, Albery Allson Whitman, and Walt Whitman. His work engages with minoritarian critique, challenging traditional frameworks in literary analysis.

He is affiliated with Northwestern University’s Department of English and Program in American Studies, and his email is i-wilson@northwestern.edu.