Biography:

Kimberly Blockett received her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (Director: Nellie McKay). Her research interests include African trans-Atlantic studies, 19th century African American literary and religious studies; archival studies; American women’s literature; and cultural studies.

At Penn State Brandywine, Dr. Blockett enjoys teaching literary theory, African American literature, American studies, and Gender Studies. She recently completed two books Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Nineteenth-Century Travels of Zilpha Elaw, Black Woman Evangelist (Duke UP, forthcoming) and a scholarly edition of Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw, an American Female of Colour for West Virginia UP Regenerations series (2021). Blockett is currently working on a special issue of a/b: Autobiography Studies. The essays employ diverse and/or interdisciplinary methodologies to recover and situate (geographically and theoretically) Black female lives throughout the African diaspora. Winter Issue 36.1