| HOME | PSU YORK | PSU UNIVERSITY PARK |
|---|
|
"Education and work are the levers to uplift a people.
Work alone will not do it unless inspired by the right ideals and guided by intelligence. Education must not simply teach work—it must teach Life." William Edward Burghardt Du Bois b. 1868; from “The Talented Tenth” |
|---|
| Dr. Sandra L. Staton-Taiwo Assistant Professor of English Pennsylvania State University, York Campus ISTC Building, Room 219 |
|
|---|
| I chose to teach English because, since kindergarten, I have loved reading and writing. I believe the skills involved in writing overlap with many other disciplines--philosophy, psychology, communication, history--to name a few. My objective is to use my skills, training, and life experiences to participate in the interdisciplinary studies of American and African-American literature, multi-cultural literature, writing--creative and technical, women’s studies and/or black studies. For this reason, I am excited to be a part of Penn State York, where all of my areas of interests "sing in perfect harmony." In other words, many institutions departmentalize, but here at PSY, teachers can use various perspectives and viewpoints to challenge the diverse population of students and interests. |
|
|
|---|
| I began my education in the public schools
of eastern North Carolina and, after earning in 1992 a Bachelor's
of Science degree in English from East
Carolina University, continued in eastern Carolina as a high school
teacher . My interest in writing led me to earn in 1996 from ECU a Master's
of Art degree in English with a concentration in technical writing,
with which, from 1997 to 2002, I worked as a government contract worker
in the area of technical writing and information technology .
ECU is the university in Greenville, NC, the town where I grew up,
but immediately after earning my Master's degree in 1996, I relocated
to Washington, DC to pursue a Ph.D. at Howard University . In
2001, from Howard, I earned a Ph.D. in literature with a concentration
in African American literature, having studied William Edward Burghardt
Du Bois in particular. The title of my dissertation is “They have
girded themselves for work”: The Emergence of the Feminist Argument
in the Novels of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois." Throughout
graduate school, I taught college as a part-time instructor while working
full-time as a technical writer. I began teaching college full-time
in 2002, when I taught at Gettysburg
College . I have been with Penn State York since 2003. |
|
|
| My interest in W. E. B. Du Bois began with
my master's thesis, when I first began researching the history of
African Americans. I read the seventh edition of John Hope Franklin's
From Slavery to Freedom and was captivated and yet frustrated that I
had known so little black history. Soon, I began to live black history.
At Howard University, I walked the grounds that many before me had
walked: Debbie Allen, Houston A. Baker Jr., Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn
Bennett, Sterling Brown, Ralph Bunche, Lucille Clifton, Arthur P. Davis,
Ossie Davis, David Dinkins, Owen Dodson, Stephen Henderson, Zora Neale
Hurston, Elaine R. Jones, Vernon Jordan, John O. Killens, Alain Locke,
Haki Madhubuti, Thurgood Marshall, Julian Mayfield, the "brave" Dr.
Jeanne-Marie Miller, Toni Morrison, Phylicia Rashad, Sonia Sanchez, our dear
Dr. Eleanor Traylor, Sherley Anne Willams, and a host of others. My most recent publication is an article in Philosophia Africana, August 2004: "The Effect of Cooper's A Voice from the South on W. E. B. Du Bois's Souls and Black Flame Trilogy." I especially honor Cooper as a fellow North Carolinian who, like me, migrated to Washington, DC in order to educate and, in turn, be educated. I am currently seeking to publish a book-length manuscript of the suppressed stories revealed in the literature of Du Bois: “Lies Agreed Upon: History Immersed throughout Du Bois’ Black Flame Trilogy.” Other works in progress include an article on the role Du Bois played in honoring black women throughout his The Crisis editorials from 1910 - 1921. Throughout his The Crisis editorials, Du Bois gives voice to otherwise silenced people, such as to black women who have, throughout history, silently endured rape. Questions and/or comments? E-mail me: sls63@psu.edu
|