Venetria Patton
Associate Professor, Department of English; Director, African American Studies Research Center
| Education: | Ph.D. University of California - Riverside |
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| Office: | HEAV 403 |
| Office Phone: | (765) 49-61647 |
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| Specializations: | African American and Diasporic Women’s Literature, African American Literature, 19th c. American Literature, & Feminist Discourse |
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Dr. Venetria K. Patton joined Purdue University on August 1, 2003, as Director of African American Studies and Research Center and Associate Professor of English. She is also affiliated with the American Studies and Women’s Studies Programs. Prior to her appointment at Purdue, Dr. Patton was an Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she served in a number of administrative capacities including a term as Coordinator of African American and African Studies. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of La Verne and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of California-Riverside. Dr. Patton’s teaching and research focus on African American and Diasporic Women’s Literature. In 2003, she won two teaching awards: the Annis Chaiken Sorensen Distinguished Teaching Award in the Arts and Humanities and the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Patton is the author of
Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women’s Fiction (SUNY, 2000), the Co-editor of
Double-Take: A Revisionist Harlem Renaissance Anthology (Rutgers, 2001) and editor of
Teaching American Literature: Background Readings (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006). Her essays have appeared in Black Studies and Women’s Studies journals as well as the essay collections,
Postcolonial Perspectives on Women Writers From Africa, the Caribbean, and the US (Africa World Press, 2003) and
White Scholars/African American Texts (Rutgers UP, 2005). She is also the co-editor of the spring 2004 issue of
The Black Scholar. Dr. Patton is pursuing several new research projects, including a book-length study on elders and ancestors in African American women's fiction.
