Chante Mouton Kinyon

Dr. Chante Mouton Kinyon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Notre Dame. Her research focuses on transnational African American literature and culture, particularly examining intersections between Irish and African American cultural productions. She holds a PhD from the National University of Ireland Galway and has held prestigious fellowships including the NEH-Keough Fellowship (2018-2019).

Education: B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State University; PhD in English from National University of Ireland Galway (2017). Her doctoral dissertation explored comparative ethnographic practices in John Millington Synge and Zora Neale Hurston's works.

Research interests include: transatlantic cultural exchanges between the Irish Renaissance and Harlem Renaissance, ethnographic performance in theatre, and comparative studies of marginalization through literary forms. She has published work on Synge/Hurston dialectics, the film Uptight, and the 19th-century memoir The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict.

Teaching highlights include courses like The Black and Green Atlantic and Irish Identity and the West of Ireland. Prior academic roles include Visiting Scholar/Lecturer at Dartmouth College (2013-2018) and editorial work with literary publications like Instant City.

Her work critically examines how ethnographic practices in theatre both challenge and reinforce cultural stereotypes, particularly in colonial/postcolonial contexts. Current projects include analyses of cross-cultural connections between Afro-America and Ireland spanning centuries.