Crystal Harris
Co-Director of AAAS Program and Assistant Professor of English
Irby 428
(501) 450-5100
Dr. Crystal Harris (Ph.D., University of Memphis) is co-director of the African/African American Studies Program (AAAS) and Assistant Professor of English at UCA, having joined the department in the summer of 2021. Harris’s research interests span many periods and movements in multicultural and African American literature and culture. More specifically, her research and teaching engage concepts of community, race, gender, and social justice. Harris’s latest article, “Teaching While ‘Biting My Lip’: Overcoming Patriarchy in the Classroom,” was published as a chapter in The Affects of Pedagogy during the Spring of 2023. The chapter explores embodied affects of pedagogy within the university classroom as well as Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun. Her current, long-term project seeks to engage the local community on topics of survival, secrecy, and Black womanhood.