Christina Elizabeth Sharpe (born 1965) is an American academic who is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

and

Black Studies Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

Toronto, Canada Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. Christina Sharpe is Canada Research Chair in Black Studies in the Humanities at York University, and in 2024 she was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship.

Education

Raised

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, Sharpe attended various parochial, private, and public schools as a child. She received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in English and Africana studies from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1987, having studied abroad at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Initially founded as the University College Ibadan in 1948, it maintained its affiliation with the University of London. In 1962, it became an independe ...

in Nigeria. She completed a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

and a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

; her dissertation was on African writer

Bessie Head Bessie Amelia Emery Head (6 July 1937 – 17 April 1986) was a South African writer who, though born in South Africa, is usually considered Botswana's most influential writer. She wrote novels, short fiction and autobiographical works that are ...

Career and research

Christina Sharpe is a prominent Black studies scholar whose work spans Black visual studies, Black queer studies, and mid-nineteenth century to contemporary African-American Literature and Culture. Sharpe may be best known for the influential concept of "wake work" that she detailed in her book ''In the Wake: On Blackness and Being'', which was published in 2016. In this piece, she probes into the legacies of transatlantic slavery to frame the lives of Black people and how that manifests in contemporary social, cultural, and political lives. "Wake work" calls for insurgent engagement with the ways that Black life and death are figured by anti-Blackness, into practices of survival, remembrance, and resistance in African culture. Her previous book was ''Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects'', published in 2010. The book explores ways in which narration, relation, and representation come together to forge Black subjects and identities in a post-Chattel slavery era. Throughout the book, Sharpe investigates how the legacies of chattel slavery, colonialism, and racial violence continue to be present in Black communities and uses critical race theory, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies to analyse these times. Her research has also extended into Black visual studies through the critical analysis of Blackness in visual media, such as films, photography, and contemporary art. In this respect, her work has made a point that such visual representations further or resist colonial and racial narratives by looking at how Black artists engage with and almost fight against these various narratives. In addition to her books, Sharpe has written essays in various academic journals and edited volumes on issues such as memory and trauma, among others, regarding Black opportunity. Her work is recognized for creative techniques that lend to an understanding of Black living in a world defined by historical enslavement and contemporary systematic racism. Further contributions have been made in Black studies, immigrant studies, and other areas of critical literary thought; she has also lectured at academic conferences and public events.

Employment

Sharpe was employed at

Hobart and William Smith Colleges Hobart and William Smith Colleges is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Geneva, New York. They trace their origins to Geneva Academy established in 1797. Students can choose from ove ...

from 1996 to 1998. From 1998 until 2018 she held positions at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

. Awarded tenure in 2005, Sharpe became a full professor in 2017. She was the first Black woman to be awarded tenure in the English department at Tufts. Sharpe is a senior research associate at the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender & Class (RGC), at the University of Johannesburg. She is a professor and research chair in Black Studies in the Department of

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

in the

Black Canadian Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent. Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...

Studies certificate program At

Books

She is the author of award-winning books: ''In the Wake: On Blackness and Being'', ''Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-

Slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

Subjects''. and ''Ordinary Notes''. She wrote a critical introduction to ''Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems of

Dionne Brand Dionne Brand (born 7 January 1953) is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist and documentarian. She was Toronto's third Poet Laureate from September 2009 to November 2012 and first Black Poet Laureate. She was admitted to the Order of Canada in ...

'' (1982–2010).

''Monstrous Intimacies'' (2010)

In ''Monstrous Intimacies'', Christina Sharpe concerns herself with sexual-racial economies and the "monstrous intimacies" that percolate within, which she describes as "a set of known and unknown performances and inhabited horrors, desires and positions produced, reproduced, circulated, and transmitted, that are breathed in like air and often unacknowledged to be monstrous". Sharpe's articulation is contingent upon an oppositional knowledge that holds in tension freedom and subjection, love and hate; indulging in a "diasporic study" that attempts a "complex articulation" of the sexual economies of slavery to denote how power is constructed at the site of the interpersonal and the intimate. Foregrounding Douglass' primal scene as a scene of subjectivation and objectivation and, later, locating the primality in James Henry Hammond's letters and, later still, Jones' text, Sharpe provides an account of its "psychic and material reach" and its subsequent (re)performances of a double/dubbed birth within sites of monstrous intimacies — the blood-stained gate and the Door.

''In the Wake: On Blackness and Being'' (2016)

Her second book, ''In the Wake on Blackness and Being,'' was published in 2016 by

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...

. The publishers write of it: "In this original and trenchant work, Christina Sharpe interrogates literary, visual, cinematic, and quotidian representations of Black life that comprise what she calls the 'orthography of the wake.' Activating multiple registers of 'wake'—the path behind a ship, keeping watch with the dead, coming to consciousness—Sharpe illustrates how Black lives are swept up and animated by the afterlives of slavery, and she delineates what survives despite such insistent violence and negation. ... Formulating the wake and 'wake work' as sites of artistic production, resistance, consciousness, and possibility for living in diaspora, ''In the Wake'' offers a way forward.

Reception of Books and Critiques

Christina Sharpe's written works have been praised for their contributions to Black studies and critical theory. Her 2010 book, ''Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects'', was considered one of the most interdisciplinary works to date, given its mixture of literature, psychoanalysis, and cultural history in developing a concept on how chattel slavery continues to contour understandings of contemporary Black subject life. Critics and readers noted, however, that it contained dense theoretical language which was considered challenging for general audiences to fully understand the piece. Her 2016 work, ''In the Wake: On Blackness and Being'', received similar feedback, garnering acclaim for its blend of personal narrative with a combination of historical and theoretical analysis. Her work has become an essential reading in Black studies and is frequently cited throughout scholarly literature. However, similar to her previous work, the complex theoretical nature of the piece has been demanding for those outside academic circles or without significant involvement in the subject. Despite these reservations by some, it was awarded many honors and recognized as best book of the year by numerous outlets. See below. Likewise, Ordinary Notes has also gathered a range of varying responses. Many reviewers commend its innovative structure and insights into Black life. Kirkus Reviews described it as "an exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness," highlighting Sharpe's integration of diverse forms and topics. Similarly, The New York Times noted how Sharpe's collection of notes serves as a radical reading of Black life, presenting an alternative to popular misconceptions. However, some critics have pointed out challenges related to the book's fragmented format. The Chicago Review of Books mentioned that while the versatile form supports the ambitious range of subjects, the kaleidoscopic structure might make it difficult for readers looking for a traditional narrative arc. This was echoed by other critics as well, stating that although the structure is innovative, it may pose challenges for readers accustomed to conventional storytelling. Despite these reservations by some, it received many awards and recognized was best book of the year by many, many outlets.

Awards

* ''In the Wake:'' **Finalist, 2017

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards program in the United States honors published Black writers worldwide for literary achievement. Introduced in 2001, the Legacy Award was the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organization ...

in Nonfiction **''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', "Best Books of 2016" **''

The Walrus ''The Walrus'' is an independent, nonprofit Canadian media organization. It is multi-platform and produces an eight-issue-per-year magazine and online editorial content that includes current affairs, fiction, poetry, and podcasts, a nation ...

'', "Best Books of 2016" the James Tait Black Prize in Biography * ''Ordinary Notes:'' ** Winner, 2023

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to the best work of non-fiction by a Canadian writer. Canada's most lucrative non-fiction prize, the winner re ...

** Finalist, 2023,

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

** Finalist, 2023, The National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction ** Finalist, 2023, The Los Angeles Times Current Interest Book Award ** Finalist, 2023, The James Tait Black Prize in Biography **

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...