Hello
In addition to being a scholar and teacher, I am also a baker, a gardener, a reader, an active political citizen, and part of a family. In order to create a richer and more compassionate world for everyone, I am convinced it is vital for us all to understand and honor how our work and personal lives are intertwined. Here I am with my husband, kids, and some friendly llamas.
**Scroll further down if you are looking for llama-free professional information.**
MORE ABOUT ME (in third person, no less!)
Susanna Ashton is a Professor of English at Clemson University, and her work has been profiled in the New York Times, CNN and dozens of other media outlets across the country.
She has authored, edited, or coauthored multiple titles on American literary and cultural history, including Collaborators in Literary America 1870-1920; “I Belong in South Carolina.” South Carolina Slave Narratives; (w/ Tom Lutz) These ‘Colored’ United States: African American Essays from the 1920s; (w/ Rhondda R. Thomas) The South Carolina Roots of African American Thought; (w/Bill Hardwig) Approaches to Teaching Charles W. Chesnutt. In addition to those book projects, she has published in many scholarly journals as well as popular newspapers and public-facing digital media. She has appeared in various media interviews and served as a featured expert in the documentary film, Gina’s Journey: The Search for William Grimes.
A seasoned and engaging presenter, Susanna Ashton speaks with humor, verve, and thoughtful storytelling for both public and academic events
Awards, grants, and honors include:
~W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Studies
~Fellow at Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition
~A Fulbright Scholar at University College Cork in the Republic of Ireland
~The National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute -Co-Director for
The Black Archive: South Carolina as Case Study~American Printing History Fellow, Printing History Association~
~Twain Scholar-in-Residence, Quarry Farm Fellowship, Center for Mark Twain Studies
~Irish Research Fellowship, Irish American Cultural Institute
~Hibernian Research Fellowship, CUSHWA Center for the Study of American Catholicism, University, University of Notre Dame
~William Dean Howells Memorial Fellowship in American Literature, The Houghton Library, Harvard University
~Lewis P. Jones Research Fellowship in South Carolinia History, South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina
~Robert Woodruff Library Research Fellowship in African American History, Emory University
Recent Academic Appointments
Summer 2021-present, Full Professor, Department of English, Clemson University
Spring 2022, W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University
Fall 2017-Spring 2021 Chair, Department of English, Clemson University