Pearlie-Mae Peters

Pearlie-Mae Peters is a Professor and Director of the Multicultural Studies Program in the Department of English at Rider University. Her scholarship focuses on African American literature and folklore, nineteenth-century American literature, and multi-ethnic American literature. Dr. Peters earned her B.A. from Grambling State University and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Her primary research examines the life and works of Zora Neale Hurston, with publications in The Oxford Companion to African American Literature and The African American Encyclopedia. She is currently editing a critical study of Hurston's work titled The Assertive Woman in Hurston's Fiction, Folklore and Drama.

Awards and honors include:

• Teacher Appreciation Award from Rider University (1995)
• NEH and Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowships
• Selection for the Asian Studies Development Program hosted by the East West Center and University of Hawaii