Karima K. Jeffrey-Legette (NHC Fellow, 2022–23; 2023–24)

Karima K. Jeffrey-Legette is associate professor of English at Hampton University with degrees from Swarthmore College (BA with Honors), Lehman College, CUNY (MA), and Howard University (PhD). She has served as interim chair of the English and Foreign Languages Department, Writing Across the Curriculum Coordinator, UNCF/Mellon Programs Coordinator, ETS-AP Pre-Testing Campus Coordinator, Certifying Campus Advisor for the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, and was, recently, nominated to join the ETS-College Board’s CLEP Composition Development Committee.

Interested in African-diasporic literature and multi-ethnic American studies, she has written and lectured extensively on topics related to cultural/cross-cultural expression. Her particular interest is in the response that scholars/writers have to colonization or oppression. Noted works include Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls: Watch It!, which examines the paradoxical nature of increasingly popular, but oftentimes problematic depictions of African-descended women/girls in contemporary cinema involving the supernatural, science fiction, horror, and/or superheroes. Her current project, Black Girls Write/Right the Future: Speculative Fiction by or about Black Women and Girls, continues the conversation, examining select writers/artists of comics/cartoons/graphic novels, literary fiction authors, singers/songwriters, and directors of popular speculative fiction shows/films. With Black Girls Write/Right, unlike the former text, Watch It!, focal consideration is given to women as the content creators.

Jeffrey-Legette has received numerous fellowships, honors, and awards, including distinctions from the UNCF/Mellon Programs, the University of Richmond Tocqueville Seminars, the New York University Faculty Resource Network (NYU-FRN), and the Historically Black Colleges/Universities-Faculty Development Network (HBCU-FDN). Of note is her current participation in the University of Kansas’s Interactive Black Book Project, which is providing her with tools for developing her website. She can be contacted at blkgirlswrite@gmail.com or karima.jeffrey-legette@hamptonu.edu.

Selected Publications

• Jeffrey-Legette, Karima K. “Gathering the Pieces’ of Our Past: How a Literal and Figurative Connection with the Caribbean can not only Inform but Infuse One’s Global-African Identity.” In Carmen Gillespie: The Catch of Breath, edited by Daryl Lynn Dance. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press. Forthcoming.
• Jeffrey-Legette, Karima K. “‘Sisterhoods’/‘Sisterships’ in the Worlds of Black SF – Unique, Endearing, and Powerful Bonds Amongst Women.” In Sacred Sisterhoods: A Celebration of Black Women’s Friendships on TV & Film 1993-2023, edited by Imani M. Cheers. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Forthcoming.
• Jeffrey-Legette, Karima K. Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls: Watch It! Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023.
• Jeffrey-Legette, Karima K. “Hopkinson, Nalo (December 20, 1960 – ) Novelist, Short Story Writer, Professor.” In Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement, edited by Verner D. Mitchell, Cynthia Davis, 161-63. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
• Jeffrey-Legette, Karima K. “Langston Hughes.” In Icons of African American Literature: The Black Literary World, edited by Yolanda Williams Page, 139-70. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2011.

Fellowship Work Report, 2022–23

Karima K. Jeffrey-Legette drafted several chapters for her Black Girls Write/Right the Future manuscript while also developing a website of the same name. She revised, proofread, and indexed her book Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls: Watch It! (Lexington Books, January 2023). A book chapter was completed, entitled, “‘Gathering the Pieces’ of Our Past: How a Literal and Figurative Connection with the Caribbean Can Not Only Inform but Infuse One’s Global-African Identity,” which is to be included in Carmen Gillespie: The Catch of Breath edited by Daryl Lynn Dance (Bucknell University Press, TBD). She also began work towards “‘Sisterhoods’/‘Sisterships’ in the Worlds of Black SF—Unique, Endearing, and Powerful Bonds Amongst Women,” which was solicited by Imani M. Cheers, who is editing a collection titled Sacred Sisterhoods: A Celebration of Black Women’s Friendships on TV and Film 1993–2023 (The Ohio State University Press, in progress).