Jamie Parra

Jamie Parra serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Skidmore College, with office Palamountain 315 and contact email jparra@skidmore.edu.

Her academic foundation includes a B.A. from New York University and M.A., M.Phil, and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Her research centers on 19th-century American literature with specialized focus on African American literary traditions, slavery narratives, and gender/sexuality frameworks. She critically examines narrative theory and literary character construction through interdisciplinary lenses, frequently intersecting race studies with formalist analysis of the novel. Her scholarship demonstrates consistent engagement with ethical dimensions of fictionality and historical representation.

Her honors include the prestigious C3 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Williams College (2015-2016), Columbia University's Marjorie Hope Nicholson Fellowship (2008-2014), and New York University's William Bush Baer Memorial Prize (2007).

She actively mentors students through courses including EN 105: The Afterlife of Slavery in Contemporary Literature and Art, EN 211: Fiction, EN 229: Transcendentalism, and EN 322: Bad Melville, while leading the Scribner Seminar (SSP 100).