SMITH, Virginia Whatley 1939-

PERSONAL:

Born July 7, 1939, in Chattanooga, TN; daughter of Norman and Willie Mae (Vaughn) Whatley; married Elworth E. Smith, Jr. (an air force officer), March 11, 1961 (deceased); children: Sydney, Alexis, Elworth. Ethnicity: "African American." Education: North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, B.S. (summa cum laude), 1975; Boston University, M.A., 1981, Ph.D., 1988. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Protestant. Hobbies and other interests: Cooking, travel.

ADDRESSES:

Home—2704 Chou Lake Parkway, Birmingham, AL 35244. Office—University of Alabama—Birmingham, 900 South 13th St., Birmingham, AL 35294; fax: 205-975-8125. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, lecturer, 1984-87, assistant professor of English, 1987-88; University of North Carolina, postdoctoral fellow, 1988-90; William Paterson College (now William Paterson University of New Jersey), Wayne, NJ, assistant professor of English, 1990-91; University of Alabama—Birmingham, assistant professor, 1991-97, associate professor of English, 1997—. School of Criticism and Theory, Dartmouth fellow, 1990.

MEMBER:

Modern Language Association of America, Collegium of African American Research.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Danforth fellow, 1977-81.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Richard Wright's Travel Writings: New Reflections, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 2001.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Richard Wright and the Re/Construction of Blackness; research on blacks and the Holocaust.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, November-December, 2001, Mondella S. Jones, review of Richard Wright's Travel Writings: New Reflections, p. 4.