معرفی
James Ford III is the Mary Jane Hewitt Department Chair in Black Studies and an Associate Professor in the Department of English and Black Studies at Occidental College. He joined the faculty in 2010 as an Adjunct Professor, became an Assistant Professor in 2012, and has held his current rank since 2018. His research focuses on Black radical aesthetics, African American literature from the 19th to mid-20th century, and hip-hop culture. He holds a Ph.D. (2009) and M.A. (2006) from the University of Notre Dame, and a B.A. (2003) from Morehouse College.
Dr. Ford’s scholarship critiques white supremacy through analyses of Black intellectual traditions, including works by Phillis Wheatley and W.E.B. Du Bois. His books include *Thinking through Crisis* (2019), which rethinks trauma through Depression-era Black literature, and forthcoming projects on Phillis Wheatley and hip-hop aesthetics. He teaches courses on Afrofuturism, Black Reconstruction, and Black literary canonicity, emphasizing underrepresented texts.
His awards include the Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship (2019) and Mellon Curricular Planning Fellowship (2011–2012). His publications span literary criticism, film studies, and political theory, with a focus on intersections between aesthetics, radical politics, and Black cultural production. His work frequently engages with Marxist thought, Spinoza, and diasporic critiques of violence.
