Department of English
Department of English
lisa_woolfork

Lisa Woolfork

Associate Professor
woolfork@virginia.edu
434 243-8932

Degrees

Ph.D. Wisconsin-Madison, 2000
M.A. Wisconsin-Madison, 1993
B.A. Simmons, 1992

Books

Embodying American Slavery in Contemporary Culture, University of Illinois Press, 2008

Chapters in Anthologies

  • “‘This Class of Persons:’ When UVA’s White Supremacist Past Meets Its Future” in Charlottesville 2017: The Legacy of Race and Inequity. eds Claudrena Harold and Louis Nelson. UVA Press, 2018.
  • “Looking for Lionel: Making Whiteness and Blackness in All In The Family and The Jeffersons” in African Americans on Television Race-ing for Ratings. Eds. David J. Leonard and Lisa A. Guerrero. Praeger: 2013, pages 45-68.

Articles

  • “I Want To Do Bad Things With You: HBO’s True Blood and Allegories of Miscegenation” Special issue of South Carolina Review, The Spectral South. Summer 2014.
  • “Academic Mothers and their Feminist Daughters: A Remix” African American Review 40(2006): 35-38.
  • “Working Moms in Their Own Words” Black Issues in Higher Education, March 28, 2002.

Reviews

  • Kirby Farrell. Post-Traumatic Culture: Injury and Interpretation in the Nineties. Studies in the Novel. 33.2 (2001): 232-234.
  • Ruthie Bolton. Gal: A True Life . African American Review. 30.3 (1996): 500-502.

Conferences and Invited Lectures (Selected)

  • “Creating the Visual World of Game of Thrones” with HBO’s Game of Thrones Production Director Deborah Riley, The Smithsonian, Washington, DC, February 26, 2015.
  • TEDx Talk, “Daenerys Targaryen Walks Into A Starbucks” TEDxUVA Conference, Charlottesville, VA, March 21, 2015.
  • Moderator and Chair. “Shamefully Delicious: The (Critical) Pleasures of ABC’s Scandal” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, October 2014.
  • “Game of Thrones Comes to UVA” with HBO Program Director Christopher Gary, UVa Club of Los Angeles, November 2014.
  • “Walmart and it’s ‘People’: Race, Class and Spectacle in the Digital Age,” Keynote Speaker, Clemson University, Clemson Colloquium on Race & Ethnicity (CCRE) April 10-11, 2014.
  • “Performances of Black Cultural Trauma and Memory” Roundtable discussant. MLA: Modern Languages Association Convention, January 2011.
  • “Academic Mothers and their Feminist Daughters: a remix” American Studies Association Annual Meeting, November 2005.
  • “Re-embodying American Slavery” Legacies of Slavery in American Life: Politics, Education, and the Arts Symposium, Brown University, October 2005.
  • “Immortality, Reincarnation, and the Traumatic Slave Past” Modern Language Association Convention, December 2004.
  • “Simulating American Slavery in Wax and Deed” Modern Language Association Convention, December 2004.
  • “Teaching the History of American Slavery” Lecturer, March 2003.
  • “Teaching the History of American Slavery” Workshop Facilitator, November 2002.
  • Virginia 2020 Women Writers of Vision Series, Respondent, March 2002.
  • “Uncharted Terrain: Black Feminist Mothers and Their Academic Daughters” Modern Language Association Convention, December 2001.
  • “Immortality, Reincarnation and the Traumatic Slave Past” American Women Writers of Color Conference, October 2001.
  • “Slave Girl, Interrupted: Trauma and Quilting African American Women’s Subjectivity” English Department Faculty Conference, October 2001.
  • “Quilts and Creation” University of Virginia ’s Young Women’s Leadership Program, April 2001.
  • “Knowing Slavery Inside and Out” Montpelier Slave Commemoration, April 2001.
  • “Fantastic Voyage: Returning to the Traumatic Past in Haile Gerima’s Sankofa” Real to Reel: Black Life in Cinema Conference, April 2001.
  • “Sankofa and the Question of Film as Slave Narrative” Texts and Contexts: English Department Faculty Conference, March 2001.
  • “Trauma, Time Travel and Narrative Epistemologies in Octavia Butler’s Kindred” Narrative: An International Conference, March 2001.
  • “Reclamations of the Traumatic Past: Bodily Referents and the Epistemology of Slavery” MELUS: Multi Ethnic Literature of the United States Conference, March 2001.

Honors

  • 2015 All-University Teaching Award
  • 2012 Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Fellow
  • 2012 Recognition by I.M.P for the positive IMPact I have had on University Students experience
  • 2007 Recognition of Teaching and Service, The Seven Society
    An honor awarded by one of the University’s secret societies           
  • 2006 University of Virginia Summer Grant (declined)           
  • 2006 University of Virginia Small Grant
  • 2006 Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Support
  • 2005 University of Virginia Summer Grant
  • 2005 University of Virginia Small Grant
  • 2004 University of Virginia Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Award
  • 2004 Mead Honored Faculty - Awarded in recognition of outstanding teaching and involvement with students
  • 2004 University of Virginia Summer Grant
  • 2004 University of Virginia Small Grant
  • 2004 University of Virginia Sesquicentennial Fellowship
  • 2003 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship
  • 2003 AAUW American Postdoctoral Fellowship (declined)
  • 2003 University of Virginia Summer Grant
  • 2003 “Most Influential Educator” Virginia Athletics, Women’s Basketball Team
  • 2002 Recognition of Teaching Excellence, The Seven Society - An honor awarded by one of the University of Virginia’s secret societies
  • 2002 University of Virginia Summer Grant
  • 2001 University of Virginia Summer Grant
  • 1999 Advanced Opportunity Dissertation Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • 1996 College of Letters and Science Teaching Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison , competitive award for graduate student teaching
  • 1992-1995 Advanced Opportunity Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Teaching Experience/Courses Taught

  • Game of Thrones
  • African American Speculative Fiction
  • Fictions of Black Identity
  • African American Literature II
  • African American Literature I
  • Introduction to African American Literature: The Short Story
  • Introduction to Literary Studies: Black Women Writers
  • Trauma Theory and African American Literature
  • Aesthetics and Politics in African American Literature
  • Black Women Writers 1950 to the Present
Specialties
African American Literature, American
Office Address/Hours
136 Bryan Hall / Zoom or by phone, by appointment. Text 434-202-4467 or email woolfork@virginia.edu
Class Schedule
W 5:30-8:00
Areas of Study