Klapper Hall, Room 643
cmoore@qc.cuny.edu
Research Interests
My work examines literature and media through the lens of Black Feminist Cultural Studies. My current book project, Swapping Heels for Capes: Black Womanhood, Speculative Fiction, and the Black Imaginary examines how Black writers and creators have utilized the power of speculation to blur categorization as we know it, moving through and outside of the parochial confines of the white imaginary to expand our perception of everything from what we make of Blackness and Black womanhood to what Speculative Fiction is. This project explores not only how the Black femme body has been limited and defined under dominant modes of white american canonicity and culture, but how in response Black speculative writing from authors such as Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead, and N.K. Jemisin have utilized Black womanhood as “objecthood” to bend the genre towards Black liberation.
Other research interests include Black studies, Posthumanism, Critical Race and Ethnic studies, Gender and Sexuality studies.
Teaching Interests
I’ve taught English 170W: Intro to Literary Studies. When I teach this course I like to introduce students to “traditional” literary forms by way of how contemporary writers of color have reinvented them i.e. using Terrance Hayes to discuss the sonnet, or Audre Lorde’s reinvention of the autobiography in her biomythography Zami.
I’ve taught English 391W: Senior Seminar, titled “Race & the Nonhuman” in which we discussed how authors such as Octavia Butler, Akwaeke Emezi, and Han Kang utilize the nonhuman to make arguments about race, gender, and sexuality.
I look forward to working with MA students interested in African-American Literature, Black Criticism & Theory, Visual culture & media, and Feminist Theory as it intersects with race and sexuality.
Selected Publications
Book Chapters and Edited Collections
“Sister Night & Her Squad: The Healing Power of Black Womanhood in HBO’s Watchmen” in After Midnight: Analyzing the Post-Watchmen Sequels; An Anthology, ed. Drew Morton (University Press of Mississippi, 2022).
Selected Articles and Essays
“Beyond Black Girlhood: An Underground Railroad to Nowhere.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. Forthcoming, 2023.
“Have We Cleared the Intersection Yet?: Black Women in Comic Film Adaptations.” ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comic Studies. 11.2 (2020).
“Swapping Heels for Capes: The Superheroine Alternative to Race-Bent Love Interests.” Transition: An International Review, no. 129, (Indiana University Press, 2020), 190-99.
“Blunt Cinema in the Age of Trump” Post45: Contemporaries. (2019).
