Shirley Moody-Turner, Ph.D.
Throughout American history, Black women have navigated impossible odds to survive and thrive. They have supported each other and their communities, nurtured their own intellectual pursuits, and enacted transformative change — all while holding America accountable for living up to its professed ideals of equality and freedom.
It’s an honor to uncover and share these powerful stories.
Recovering lost histories
As a young girl growing up in Buffalo, NY, I felt a deep longing to learn more about my family history. I would listen and ask questions as my family shared stories and talked, but I always felt there was much more to our history — stories laying beneath layers of silence…
At the University at Buffalo, I began my formal journey to recovering lost histories. I studied African American literature and took my first classes in folklore and ethnography. Like my literary hero, Zora Neale Hurston, it was during this time at college that I started to gain a lens through which to see how my personal and family histories were tied to larger stories of race in America.
After earning degrees in literature and international relations, I spent time in my community working with K–12 students in Buffalo city schools. This is where my commitment to teaching and education took root. I went on to earn a Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, where I specialized in African American literature, literary history, Black women writers, folklore studies, and race.
Now, as a teacher, speaker, researcher, and writer, I focus on recovering and sharing the often silenced but formative histories of Black women intellectuals and activists, Black folklore studies, and the legacy of Black organizing in the United States.
AUTHOR & SCHOLAR
2022–2023 Fellow, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University
Faculty Director, Black Women’s Organizing Archive
Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, Penn State University
As a literary historian and archival researcher, I am drawn to buried stories of resistance, self-determination, and triumph. I am particularly interested in stories about how Black women and Black folklorists have worked as individuals and as part of collectives to challenge inequalities and address the needs of their communities — all while living extraordinary lives that created pathways for future generations.
I have authored and edited numerous books, essays, and articles on topics related to African American literature, Black women’s writing, and African American folklore. I am passionate about sharing these histories with scholarly and public audiences alike. My recent edition, The Portable Anna Julia Cooper was published with Penguin Classics, and I am now at work on an interpretative biography of this trail-blazing Black feminist to be published by Yale University Press in 2024.
Honoring the legacy of the intellectuals and activists I study, I also work in partnerships to carry these histories out into communities beyond the university. Through the Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk and the Black Women’s Organizing Archive, I work with extraordinary individuals to help public and scholarly audiences forge meaningful collaborations with the shared mission of bringing the buried and scattered histories of early Black organizing to digital life.
AWARD-WINNING EDUCATOR
Faculty Award for Mentoring, College of Liberal Arts, Penn State University, 2021-2022
University Alumni Teaching Award, Penn State University, 2016-2017
I have always loved teaching as a means of illuminating new horizons of self- and collective discovery. I enjoy engaging students in dialogue, raising awareness, challenging thinking, and supporting students in their own purpose-driven journeys. I am particularly committed to sharing new ways of “reading” and “seeing” historical texts and sources to illuminate histories that have been under-appreciated or unrecognized for far too long.
Beyond the graduate and undergraduate classrooms, my speaking and workshops invite broader collectives and communities to examine the impacts of race in American society, engage with the histories and legacies of Black organizers, and discover the work and influence of Black women intellectuals.
My work creates spaces for dialogue and conversation, illuminating and honoring the power of working together as we share these remarkable stories.
fun facts
~ The child of a professional football player, I ran varsity track starting in the 6th grade and then went on to run division one track in college.
~ While in graduate school, I began Muay Thai kickboxing. I trained for several years before deciding to compete at the national level. In 2021, I won a World Kickboxing Association (WKA) amateur championship!
~ In January 2022, I was tapped by Business Insider Magazine as a source to recommend powerful readings on Black history and journalism. You can read my recommendations on Business Insider Online.