Emanuela Kucik
Education
- B.A. with Highest Distinction (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa), English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- M.A., English, Princeton University
- Certifications: American Literature with a concentration in Comparative Race and Ethnicity Studies; Human Rights and Genocide Literature/Studies; Holocaust Literature/Studies
- Ph.D., English, Princeton University
- Doctoral Graduate Certificate in African American Studies, Princeton University
Teaching Interests
Alongside my joint appointment in the Department of English and the Africana Studies Program, I am affiliated with the Jewish Studies Program and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. I teach interdisciplinary courses that examine the intersections of race, genocide, and human rights violations through the study of twentieth-century and contemporary literature(s). In my courses, I help students understand how marginalized populations have used literature to combat violence and turn their stories into art and to highlight how literature emphasizes our global humanity.
Amid the world’s violence, I lead students to literature to illustrate how authors have struggled with the same questions that haunt them, such as: “Where do I fit into freedom fighting movements? How can I help fix our world?” Using these questions as guideposts on a path to transformation, I create spaces in which students can find answers in the imaginative, creative possibilities of literature — and in themselves.
I currently serve as the Director of the Africana Studies Program; the advisor to the Black Students Association; and the Inaugural Fellow in Muhlenberg’s Faculty Fellowship Program in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. I am also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Graduate School Preparatory Program alongside Giancarlo Cuadra, Ph.D.
Research and Scholarship
I study twentieth-century and contemporary African American and American Literature; Human Rights and Genocide Literature; and Global Black Literature to produce work that highlights how literature can combat genocide, its precursors, and its reverberations.
My book, The Black Blood of Genocide, is a transnational literary history of how Black authors across the globe have used literature to raise awareness about anti-Black genocide in the Post-World War II Era. Black Blood is currently under contract with Columbia University Press and was selected to be part of a collaborative series between Columbia University Press and Howard University.
I was an invited contributor to a special issue of Central European History entitled “A Reusable Past: Explaining the Prominence of the Third Reich in Current U.S. Discourse” (December 2022). Additionally, my South Atlantic Review essay, “Fatal Categorizations,” which examines “passing” in twentieth-century African American literature alongside twenty-first century writing about Japanese American incarceration during World War II, was awarded the South Atlantic Review Essay Prize in January of 2021. I also contributed a chapter, “(Re)Framing Black Women’s Liberation,” to Editing the Harlem Renaissance (2021). In this chapter, I examine how contemporary editorial frameworks impact our understanding of the literature of twentieth-century Black women authors.
- Spc: African American Women Writers
- Spc: The Literary Legacy of Anne Franks Diary
Selected Recent and Forthcoming Publications
- The Black Blood of Genocide [Forthcoming Book: Columbia University Press; Series: Black Lives in the Diaspora, organized by Columbia University Press and Howard University].
- Bradley Nichols, Jens-Uwe Guettel, Sabine Hake, Emanuela Kucik, Alexandra Minna Stern, and S. Jonathan Wiesen, "A Reusable Past: The Meaning of the Third Reich in Recent U.S. Discourse," Central European History vol. 55 no. 4 (Dec. 2022): 551-575.
- Book Review: Richard Jean So’s Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction (2021) for The Los Angeles Review of Books, Summer 2021.
- “(Re-)Framing Black Women’s Liberation: Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, and Twenty-First Century Editorial Frameworks.” Editing the Harlem Renaissance, edited by Joshua M. Murray and Ross K. Tangedal. Clemson University Press, 2021.
- “Fatal Categorizations: Disappearance and the Rigidity of American Racialization in Nella Larsen’s Passing and Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” South Atlantic Review (Journal of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association). 84: 2-3 (Summer/Fall 2019): 163-182. This article was awarded the South Atlantic Review Essay Prize in January 2021.
Selected Recent and Upcoming Research Presentations
- “Words of Witness: Hans Massaquoi, the Power of Memoir, and Tools for Black-Jewish Allyship.” Rutgers University, Symposium: “Black Americans, Jewish Americans: Historical Intersections, Collisions, and Passings.” (Spring 2024)
- “Too (In)Visible: Hans Massaquoi, Blackness, and the Paradox of Visibility in Nazi Germany.” Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Conference (NEMLA 2020), Boston, MA (Spring 2020).
- “Fatal Categorizations: Disappearance and the Rigidity of American Racialization in Nella Larsen’s Passing and Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Conference (SAMLA 90), Birmingham, AL (Fall 2018).
- “‘We [Still] Charge Genocide’: The History of Claiming and Conceptualizing Genocide in African American Newspapers.” Department of African American Studies Graduate Conference, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (Spring 2017).
- “‘Her First Death’: Rwanda, Genocidal Rape Warfare, and Romance in Veronique Tadjo’s The Shadow of Imana.” American Studies Association Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada (Fall 2015).
- “The Meat Packing-House as a Concentration Camp: (Re)Reading Roald Dahl’s ‘Pig’ within the Legacy of the Holocaust.” The Futures of American Studies Institute, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (Summer 2014).
- “Beloved and the ‘Permanency’ of Slavery: Toni Morrison’s Use of Milk to Elucidate Slavery’s Effects on the Reconstruction Era.” Warren and Beatrice Susman Graduate Conference, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (Spring 2014).
Selected Recent and Upcoming Invited Talks
- “‘That is 800 Children: The United States, Nazi Germany, and (Dismantling) Global Anti-Blackness and Racism.” Holocaust Center for Humanity, Seattle, WA (Fall 2021)
- Keynote Speech. Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) Undergraduate Women’s and Gender Studies Annual Conference, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA (April 2021).
- “Abolitionist Teaching – What Does It Really Mean?” Georgetown’s Education for Liberation Week, Center for Social Justice, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (Fall 2020).
- “Exit West as a Form of Speech and Action.” Center for Ethics, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Fall 2020).
- “Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Black America’s Genocide.” Guest Lecture for Dr. Julia Hori’s “Literary Constructions of Motherhood” Course, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (Fall 2020).
- “Claiming and Creating Your Space at Smith and Beyond.” Women’s History Month Event Series, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland (Spring 2020).
- “Piece by Piece: An Overview of Genocide Studies, Race, and the Road to Decreasing Systemic Global Violence.” Holocaust and Genocide Studies Course, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, Bethesda, Maryland (Summer 2016).
Selected Recent Conferences and Panels Organized
- Organizer and Moderator, “Discussing Intersectional Advocacy and Activism with Amber Hikes, the ACLU’s First Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer.” Africana Studies Program, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Fall 2021).
- Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator, “A Conversation with Rebecca Walker about her Memoir, Black, White and Jewish.” Series: From the Ashes of Relentless Racial Crises: Creating a New United States of America. Africana Studies Program, Asian Studies Program, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Fall 2021).
- Co-Organizer and Panelist, “‘But you don’t look disabled!’: A Conversation about Invisible Disabilities, Blackness, and Systemic Racism.” Series: Blackness, Disability, and Our Current Moment. Africana Studies Program, Black Students Association, Office of Multicultural Life, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Spring 2021).
- Co-Organizer, “Examining the Intersections of Blackness and Deafness: A Conversation with Michael Aygin.” Series: Blackness, Disability, and Our Current Moment. Africana Studies Program, Black Students Association, Office of Multicultural Life, Office of Prevention Education, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Spring 2021).
- Co-Organizer and Moderator, “In Celebration and Support of Black Trans Lives: A Public Conversation with Asanni Armon, Activist and Founder of ‘For the Gworls,’ a Collective for Black Trans Communities.” Series: Inclusive Activism and the Black Lives Matter Movement: Conversations with Young Leaders. Africana Studies Program, Black Students Association, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Fall 2020).
- Co-Organizer and Moderator, “Advocating for All Black Lives in the Era of Social Media: A Conversation with the Muhlenberg Community about Inclusive Activism, Social Media, and Racism Online.” Series: Inclusive Activism and the Black Lives Matter Movement: Conversations with Young Leaders. Africana Studies Program, Black Students Association, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Fall 2020).
- Co-Organizer and Presenter, “Genocidal Medicine: Black American Communities, COVID-19, and the Death Toll of Healthcare’s Systemic Anti-Blackness.” Series: From the Ashes of Relentless Racial Crises amid COVID19: Creating a New United States of America. Africana Studies Program, Asian Studies Program, Black Students Association, Office of Multicultural Life, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Fall 2020).
- Co-Creator and Co-Organizer, Series: From the Ashes of Relentless Racial Crises: Creating a New United States of America. Africana Studies Program, Asian Studies Program, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (Fall 2020 – Present; Ongoing Series).
- Co-Organizer, “Eighteen Hundred and More.” Department of African American Studies Graduate Conference, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ (Spring 2017).
- Session Organizer, Chair, “Refusing Erasure: Black Women’s Bodies as Sites of National, Colonial, and Sexual Oppression and Resistance.” American Studies Association Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada (Fall 2015).
- Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award (2024)
- Robert C. Williams Award for Distinguished Scholarship and Research (2023)
- Center for Teaching and Learning Innovative Teaching Assignment Award (2022)
- Inaugural Fellow for DEI Initiatives (2022)
- Rising Scholars Award (2022)
- Ruth and Joel Spira Prize for Distinguished Teaching (2021)
I have advised numerous student Honors Theses through both the Department of English Literatures and Writing and the Africana Studies Program. I am a member of the English Honors Committee, and, through this role, I provide feedback on all applications for the English Honors Program. I have also worked with many students (in a wide variety of majors and minors) on Independent Studies.
English Literatures & Writing
Women's and Gender Studies
Professional Website
Contact: emanuelakucik@muhlenberg.edu