Renate "Rennie" Marie Simson (March 13, 1934 – February 19, 2017) was an American author and professor of African-American literature and writing. Her work has been influential in African American literature and identity studies. She wrote an essay on Black women's sexuality and identity, ''The Afro-American Female: The Historical Context of the Construction of Sexual Identity''.
Her work posited that victimized black women often avoided intimacy altogether which affected their sexual identity causing them to become self-reliant.
She worked as the English department at
SUNY Morrisville
State University of New York at Morrisville (formerly Morrisville State College) or SUNY Morrisville is a public college with two locations in New York, one in Morrisville and one in Norwich. It is part of the State University of New York syste ...
for several years. She published more than 30 articles and chapters and presented at over 50 conferences throughout in the United States and
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
.
She pioneered a study abroad program focusing on the Austrian African Diaspora in Austria with the
University of Graz
The University of Graz (, formerly: ''Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz'') is a public university, public research university located in Graz, Austria. It is the largest and oldest university in Styria, as well as the second-largest and second-old ...
. She was department chair of the
Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University.
Death
Simson died on February 19, 2017.
Publications
Books
* ''Will the Real America Please Stand Up'' - 2008
Papers
*Afro-American Literature of the 19th Century: A Focus for the 80's - Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Northeast Regional Conference on English
*The Unsung Past: Afro-American Women Writers of 19th Century - Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English (69th, San Francisco, CA, November 22–24, 1980)
*Politics and the race issue as presented in the works of Afro American women writers of the 19th century (Afro scholar working papers) - 1982
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simson, Renate
Syracuse University faculty
African-American non-fiction writers
American non-fiction writers
Black studies scholars
State University of New York at Morrisville faculty
1934 births
2017 deaths
20th-century African-American people
21st-century African-American people