Scholar who specializes in African American literature and print culture delivers Holloway Lecture

Alisha Knight, a scholar who publishes on African American literature and print culture, delivers the college's annual Holloway Lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 24. Titled “Great Authorial Expectations and Intentions: Editing Early 20th-Century Literature for 21st-Century Readers,” the lecture takes place at 7:30 p.m. in McDaniel Hall's Coley Rice Lounge. It is free and open to the public.

Knight is a professor of English and American Studies and the inaugural associate provost for Diversity and Inclusion and senior equity officer at Washington College. She published “Pauline Hopkins and the American Dream: An African American Writer’s (Re)Visionary Gospel of Success” with University of Tennessee Press, and recently co-edited a scholarly edition of Pauline Hopkin’s novel, “Hagar’s Daughter,” for Broadview Press. Her lecture focuses on the short story “Talma Gordon” by Pauline Hopkins and explores the text from a publishing/book culture perspective, looking at the challenges of preparing a scholarly edition of the 19th-century story, which originally appeared in The Colored American Magazine.

Knight's current research centers on the African American book trade in the early 20th-century, which involves a digital database called “Putting Them on the Map." She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Spelman College, master's degree in English from Rutgers University, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in English from Drew University. Knight is the recipient of Washington College’s 2020 Distinguished Teaching Award from the Alumni Association, and the college’s 2020 Cromwell Award for Innovation in Teaching. 

The Holloway Lecture is named for Fred G. Holloway, the college’s fourth president. A graduate of the class of 1919, he went on to earn a divinity degree from Drew University and was ordained by the Methodist Protestant church in 1921. He served in Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland, before he became a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary in 1927. He became an administrator at the Seminary, and, after a short time, president of the college. For more information about the Holloway Lecture, call 410-857-2530.

Requests for ASL interpreters are welcome and should be made as soon as possible (two weeks prior to the event preferred) by contacting the specific event organizer. Other accommodation requests and questions can be directed to Conference Services at 410-857-2407.