Cornell Research

Expertise

African American literature; print culture in the early United States; African American intellectual history; citizenship studies

Current Research Interest

Seriality and nineteenth-century African American literature; Black pseudonymous newspaper correspondences; Black speculative fiction

Distinction

American Antiquarian Society
Modern Language Association Award for First Book for The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States
Bibliographical Society/St. Louis Mercantile Library Book Prize for The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States
Midwest Modern Language Association Book Award for The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States

Selected Publications

Spires, Derrick R. The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.

Spires, Derrick R. “Genealogies of Black Modernities.” Introduction to Genealogies of Black Modernity. Special Issue of American Literary History 32, no. 4 (2020): 611–622.

Cornell Research Website Article

Black Activism and Early American Media