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WORK TITLE: Grounds of Engagement
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http://english.rutgers.edu/department/faculty/947-stephane-robolin.html * http://english.rutgers.edu/images/documents/faculty/cv/robolin_stephane_cv.pdf * http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/23csm4mc9780252039478.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1975.
EDUCATION:Tulane University, B.A., 1998; Duke University, M.A., 2001, Ph.D., 2005.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and educator. Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, visiting instructor, 2004-05; Williams College, Williamstown, MA, assistant professor, 2006-09; Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, assistant professor, beginning 2009, associate professor.
MEMBER:African Literature Association, African Studies Association, Modern Language Association, Phi Beta Kappa.
AWARDS:Grants and fellowships from organizations, including Williams College, Ford Foundation, and Duke University.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to publications, including Modern Fiction Studies, Safundi, and Research in African Literatures. Contributor of chapters to books.
SIDELIGHTS
Stéphane Robolin is a writer and educator. In 1998, he earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Tulane University. Robolin went on to attend Duke University, where he earned a master’s degree in 2001 and a Ph.D. in 2005. From 2004 to 2005, he served as a visiting instructor at Wake Forest University. Robolin went on to join Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He worked there as an assistant professor from 2006 to 2009. In 2009, Robolin began teaching at Rutgers University. He was hired as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor of English. Robolin has written articles that have appeared in scholarly journals, including Modern Fiction Studies, Safundi, and Research in African Literatures. He has also written chapters of books. Robolin’s research is focused on literature related to African and African diaspora populations.
In 2015, Robolin released his first book, Grounds of Engagement: Apartheid-Era African American and South African Writing. In this volume, he compares the work of black authors in America and South Africa. Robolin examines the writers’ intentions for their respective works and highlights interactions among the writers. He explains that blacks in South Africa and blacks in America were both subjected to segregation and to various other indignities because of the color of their skin. Robolin pays special attention to the ways in which these authors described geographical locations in their works. He argues that they often created fictional places in which inhabitants possessed the freedoms that they themselves did not have in reality. Robolin also suggests that elements of these authors’ works indicate their desire to connect with other black oppressed peoples. Literary exchanges between black South Africans and African Americans existed, and Robolin examines the ways in which the authors communicated with one another. He highlights exchanges between the South African writer Keorapetse Kgositsile and various black American writers whom he met while living in the United States after having been exiled from his home country. Other authors mentioned in the book include Richard Wright, Peter Abrahams, Bessie Head, Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Richard Rive, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Michelle Cliff, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Robolin comments on how the interactions with other authors impacted these writers’ work. He draws his information mostly from archival documents found in both the United States and Africa.
E.R. Baer, writing in Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, offered a favorable review of Grounds of Engagement. The writer asserted: “This fascinating, well-documented study makes a significant contribution to understanding intertextual and transnational interactions of South African and African American writers.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, April, 2016, E.R. Baer, review of Grounds of Engagement: Apartheid-Era African American and South African Writing, p. 1169.
ONLINE
Project Muse, https://muse.jhu.edu/ (March 5, 2017), review of Grounds of Engagement.
Rutgers University, Department of English Web site, http://english.rutgers.edu/ (March 17, 2017), author faculty profile.
S t é p h a n e P . R . R o b o l i nS t é p h a n e P . R . R o b o l i nEDUCATION:Ph.D., Duke University, English Department, June 2005Graduate Certificate Program: African and African American StudiesDissertation: “‘You are Now in Fairyland’: Remapping Resistance in South African and African American Literatures.” Co-chairs: Ian Baucom, Wahneema Lubiano M.A., Duke University, English Department, May 2001Major field: Postcolonial Literature and Theory (Anglophone African Literature)Minor Fields: 20th-Century African American Literature, Cultural StudiesB.A., Tulane University, May 1998 (Summa cum laude)Majors: English, Philosophy Minor: African and African Diaspora StudiesAPPOINTMENTS:2009-Rutgers University (New Brunswick): Assistant Professor, English Department2006-9Williams College: Assistant Professor, Africana Studies Program2005-6Rutgers University (New Brunswick): Instructor, English Department 2004-5Wake Forest University: Visiting Instructor, English DepartmentFELLOWSHIPS, HONORS, AWARDS:2009Hellman Fellows Grant ($10,000), Williams College (declined)2008Faculty/Administrator of the Year, Minority-Coalition/Multicultural Center, Williams College2007Critical Reasoning and Analytical Skills (CRAAS) Course Development Fellowship, “Imagining Africa,” Williams College2004Ford Foundation Summer Seminar Fellowship (“Interrogating the African Diaspora”), Florida International University2003-4William Preston Few Dissertation Fellowship, Duke University2003Graduate Student Teaching Award, African & African American Studies Program, Duke University2003Stephen J. Horne Teaching Award, English Department, Duke University2003Frederick Douglass Institute Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Rochester (declined)2002-3Graduate Fellowship, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (“Race, Justice, and the Politics of Memory”), Duke University2002Summer Research Fellowship, Graduate School, Duke University2001Summer Research Grant, Center for International Studies (“Currents of Culture and Social Memory: Post-Apartheid South Africa and the Politics of National Reconstruction”), Duke University
Robolin 21998 Phi Beta Kappa, Tulane UniversityPUBLICATIONS:“Grounds of Engagement: The Spatial Imagination in South African and African American Literatures” (Book manuscript in progress)“‘Constructive Engagement’: Remapping South African and African American Cultural Imaginaries.” Global Circuits of Blackness: Race, Citizenship, and Modern Subjectivities. Edited by Percy C. Hintzen, Jean Muteba Rahier, and Felipe Smith. (Essay included; anthology under review at University of Illinois Press)“Loose Memory in Toni Morrison’s Paradise and Zoë Wicomb’s David’s Story.” Modern Fiction Studies 52.2 (Summer 2006): 297-320. (Special issue on Toni Morrison)“The Blues.” Entry in Writing African American Women: An Encyclopedia of Literature by and about Women of Color. Ed. Betsy Beaulieu. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2006. “Gendered Hauntings: The Joys of Motherhood, Interpretive Acts, and Postcolonial Theory.” Research in African Literatures 35.3 (Fall 2004): 76-92.“Review of Meditations on African Literature. (Ed. Dubem Okafor)” Research in African Literatures 34.3 (Fall 2003): 177-78.PRESENTATIONS / CONFERENCES:Apr. 2009“Exile and Maps of Transnational Racialized Geographies.” African Literature Association (Burlington, VT)Mar. 2009“South Africa in/and America?: Translating National Geographies.” American Comparative Literature Association (Cambridge, MA)June 2008“Race, Flight, and the Geographies of Richard Wright.” Richard Wright Centennial Conference (Paris)Dec. 2007“Structures of Feeling and Feelings of Structures in Maud Martha.” Modern Languages Association (Chicago) Sept. 2007“Dismembering and Remembering Apartheid.” International Studies Colloquium, Williams CollegeNov. 2006“Keorapetse Kgositsile in the African Diaspora.” African Studies Association (San Francisco)Oct. 2006“Re-reading Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People.” Invited Class Lecture. English Department, Tulane UniversityMar. 2006“Keorapetse Kgositsile in America.” Revisiting the Black Arts Movement Conference, Howard UniversityNov. 2005“Bessie Head, Derangement, and the African Diaspora.” Brown Bag Discussion. Center for African Studies, Rutgers University Aug. 2004“Conjunctions and Identifications: South African and African American Cultural Imaginaries.” Interrogating the African Diaspora Doctoral Students’ Conference, Florida International University (Miami)
Robolin 3Dec. 2003“‘A-pulse across earth that is our earth’: South Africa in the African American Cultural Imaginary.” Invited lecture. Africana Studies Department, Bowdoin CollegeDec. 2003 “Internalizing History: Psyches and Solace in Bessie Head’s A Question of Power and Toni Cade Bambara’s Salt Eaters.” Modern Languages Association (San Diego)Apr. 2003“Nervous Conditions and the African Body Politic.” Visiting Class Lecture (Introduction to African Studies, AAAS 106), Duke University Dec. 2002“Preposterous Postcolonial Predicaments: Postmodernism in Zoë Wicomb’s David’s Story.” Modern Languages Association (New York) Apr. 2002“‘Take Me to the Water’: James Baldwin, Paris, and the Politics of Oceanic Identity.” American Comparative Literature Conference (San Juan) Mar. 2000“Replaying Marshall’s Blues-Song: Memory, Temporality, and Politics in Praisesong for the Widow.” MELUS 2000 Conference (New Orleans)Nov. 1997“The Black Consciousness–White Liberal Debate in Apartheid South Africa.” African and African Diaspora Studies Student Forum, Tulane UniversityTEACHING & RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:Williams College:Spring 2009Defining the African Diaspora. AFR 160 (COMP 214/ ENG 251)Revolutionary African Literatures. AFR 140 (COMP 218/ ENG 250)Fall 2008Race, Gender, Space (Capstone). AFR 400 (COMP 269/ ENG 365/ WGST 400)Introduction to Africana Studies. AFR 200Spring 2008Race, Gender, Space (Capstone). AFR 400 (COMP 369/ ENG 365/ WGST 400)Imagining Africa (CRAAS). AFR 377 (COMP 347/ ENG 348)Fall 2007Women Writing Africa. AFR 403 (COMP 361/ ENG 364/ WGST 364)Introduction to Africana Studies. AFR 200Spring 2007South African & American Intersections. AFR 260 (COMP 258/ ENG 252)Defining the African Diaspora. AFR 160 (COMP 214/ ENG 251)Fall 2006Introduction to Africana Studies. AFR 200 (co-taught w/ Erica Edwards)Revolutionary African Literatures. AFR 140 (COMP 218/ ENG 250)Rutgers University:Fall 2005—Literature of the Black World: “Defining the African Diaspora.” ENG 372Spring 2006Issues & Problems in Black Lit.: “Revolutionary African Fiction.” ENG 376Seminar: “Moving Without Moving.” ENG 445Seminar: “African Americans Abroad.” ENG 446Wake Forest University:Fall 2004—“Imagining Africa,” Writing Seminar. ENG 111 (3 sections)Spring 2005“Introduction to British Literature.” ENG 160 (3 sections)Duke University:Spring 2003“Southern African Literature: Borders and Migrations.” AAAS 199/ENG 126Spring 2002“Revolutionary Fiction(s): Radical Discourses in 20th-Century African Literatures.” ENG 26
Robolin 4ADVISING:Williams College Senior Theses2008-09Annette Quarcoopome (High Honors in Comparative Literature), advisorAnisha Warner (Honors in Africana Studies), advisorMolly Klaisner (High Honors in Comparative Literature), reader2007-08Sergio Marte (Honors in Women’s & Gender Studies), reader2006-07Kiana Greene (High Honors in American Studies), readerAmanda LaSane (Honors in English), readerMellon-Mays Undergrad. Fellowship & Williams College Undergrad. Research Fellowship2007-09Annette QuarcoopomeAnisha WarnerIndependent StudiesWinter 2008Claire Schwartz (South Africa)Fall 2009Claire SchwartzSERVICE / COMMUNITY WORK:Feb. 2009Panelist, “Claiming Williams Critique: Community Forum,” Williams College July 2008Reader, “A Tribute to Aimé Césaire: Cahier d’un Retour au Pays Natal,” Harlem, NYSpring 2008Co-Organizer, Faculty Staff Initiative, Williams CollegeApr. 2008Co-Convener & Reader, Aimé Césaire Memorial Reading, Williams CollegeApr. 2008Organizer, Visit by poet and activist Sonia SanchezJan. 2008Discussion leader, Williams Reads: Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Williams CollegeNov. 2007Convener of Teach-In: Jena, Justice, & the U.S. Racial Landscape: Local & National Perspectives, Williams CollegeFeb. 2007Organizer, Visit by South African artist and activist Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa2007-08Member, Committee on Diversity and Community, Williams College2006-09Advisory Committee, Africana Studies, Williams College2006-07Coordinator, Critical Theory Cluster, Williams CollegeApr. 2006Discussant, Post-screening panel, Tsotsi, Southeast New JerseyMar. 2006Planning Committee Member, “Post-Katrina Fundraiser: Poetry & Music for Survivors,” Rutgers University Oct. 2004Workshop Facilitator, “Teaching Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.” (AfricaApr. 2003in the Curriculum.) Duke University/ Durham County Public Schools CurriculumOct. 2002Development ProjectApr. 2004Panel Member, “The Costs and Comforts of Security,” Duke University
Robolin 5Jun. 2003Visiting Lecturer, “Contemporary South African Poetry.” Talent Identification Program (Summer Enrichment Program at Duke University) Apr. 2003Panel Member, “Affirming Dissent,” Duke UniversityMar. 2003Discussion Leader, “War in Iraq,” Freshman Dorm Discussion, Duke University2001-04Graduate Student Representative for Duke University’s Martin Luther King Jr.,Commemoration Planning Committee(Convener of panel, “Scholarship and Activism in a Time of War”)(Co-Convener of panel, “Scholarship and Social Activism”) LANGUAGES:French (fluent)PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:African Literature AssociationAfrican Studies AssociationModern Language AssociationREFERENCES:Professor Ian Baucom, Department of English (chair), Duke UniversityProfessor Grant Farred, Department of English and Africana Studies, Cornell University Professor Karla FC Holloway, Department of English, Duke UniversityProfessor Wahneema Lubiano, African & African American Studies Program and Program in Literature, Duke UniversityProfessor Kenda Mutongi, Africana Studies (chair) and Department of History, Williams CollegeProfessor Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Department of English and Program in Literature, Duke University; Department of English, Brown UniversityProfessor Maurice Wallace, Department of English and African & African American Studies Program, Duke University
Rutgers English
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Faculty Profile
Stéphane P.R Robolin
Stéphane Robolin
Associate Professor of English
Murray Hall | Room 030
College Avenue Campus
Phone: (848) 932-8537
Office Hours: On Leave Spring 2017
Curriculum VitaeCurriculum Vitae
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" In the classroom, I aim for an interdisciplinary line of inquiry that allows historical knowledge and cultural theory to inform close textual analysis. My general goal is to create a setting in which students passionately, critically, and respectfully participate in the collaborative production of knowledge. I work to establish an environment of high expectation and high engagement with black cultural production, so that students take the subject matter and themselves seriously, while always remaining open to the element of intellectual surprise. As a result, participants in a course—myself included—tend become stronger thinkers and writers with a genuine sense of accomplishment. "
Education
Areas of Specialization
PhD, Duke University
MA, Duke University
BA, Tulane University African Literature; African American Literature; African Diaspora Studies; Postcolonial Literature and Theory; and Spatial Theory
Books
robolin 2015
Other Publications
“Introduction.” The Joys of Motherhood. Novel by Buchi Emecheta. 2nd Edition. New York: George Braziller, Inc., [1979] 2013. 1-6.
“Of Color and Blindness in Invictus.” Roundtable on film Invictus. Safundi: A Journal of South African and American Studies 13.1-2 (January-April 2012): 120-25. (Special issue: Beyond Rivalry)
“Black Transnationalism: 20th-Century South African and African American Literatures.” Literature Compass 9.1 (2012): 80-94.
“Properties of Whiteness: (Post)Apartheid Geographies in Zoë Wicomb’s Playing in the Light.” Safundi: A Journal of South African and American Studies 12.3-4 (July-October 2011): 349-71. (Special Issue on Zoë Wicomb, the Cape, and the Cosmopolitan)
“Remapping South African and African American Cultural Imaginaries.” Global Circuits of Blackness: Race, Citizenship, and Modern Subjectivities. Edited by Percy C. Hintzen, Jean Muteba Rahier, and Felipe Smith. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010. 127-51.
“Loose Memory in Toni Morrison’s Paradise and Zoë Wicomb’s David’s Story.” Modern Fiction Studies 52.2 (Summer 2006): 297-320. (Special issue on Toni Morrison)
“Gendered Hauntings: The Joys of Motherhood, Interpretive Acts, and Postcolonial Theory.” Research in African Literatures 35.3 (Fall 2004): 76-92.
Undergraduate Courses Taught
Graduate Courses Taught
African Literary Theory
Black Literature in Motion
Defining the African Diaspora
Imagining Africa
Postcolonial African Literature
Principles of Literary Studies: Narrative
Race Gender Space
South African and American Intersections
Very Contemporary African Literature
(Post)Colonial Spaces of African Literature
Awards and Distinctions
Professional Memberships and Affiliations
Faculty Fellow, Sawyer Seminar: “Race, Space, and Place in the Americas.” Center for Race & Ethnicity, Rutgers University, 2012-13.
Faculty Fellow, Rutgers University Center for Historical Analysis (RCHA) Seminar: “Narratives of Power,” Rutgers University, 2011-12.
Outstanding Mentor Award for Fostering Inclusive Academic Excellence, Williams College, 2009.
Faculty/Administrator of the Year, Minority-Coalition/Multicultural Center, Williams College, 2008.
Graduate Student Teaching Award, African & African American Studies Program, Duke University, 2003.
Stephen J. Horne Teaching Award, English Department, Duke University, 2003.
African Literature Association
African Studies Association
American Comparative Literature Association
American Studies Association
Modern Language Association
QUOTED: "This fascinating, well-documented study makes a significant contribution to understanding intertextual and transnational interactions of South African and African American writers."
Robolin, Stephane. Grounds of engagement: apartheid-era African American and South African writing
E.R. Baer
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. 53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1169.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
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Full Text:
Robolin, Stephane. Grounds of engagement: apartheid-era African American and South African writing. Illinois, 2015. 237p bibl index afp ISBN 9780252039478 cloth, $45.00; ISBN 9780252097584 ebook, contact publisher for price
53-3409
PR9358
2015-10759 CIP
The double entendre of this book's title signals its focus on both conceptual and literal grounds. As Robolin (Rutgers) writes in the introductory chapter, he "foregrounds the significance of social and physical geography in black South African and African American imaginaries because nowhere is the entanglement of race and space more elemental or pervasive than in these segregated societies." Using what he calls "black transnationalism," which he carefully defines as transnationalism with a "stronger challenge to the category of the nation-state," the author devotes the remaining four chapters to analyzing pairs or groups of writers who entered into literary engagements that were mutually generative and influential: Richard Wright and Peter Abrahams; Keorapetse Kgositsile and his relationship with African American writers during his exile in the US; Bessie Head and her correspondence with Nikki Giovanni, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Michelle Cliff; and Richard Rive, Michelle Cliff, Audre Lorde, and Gwendolyn Brooks and how their early contact impacted their later work. Theory is deftly deployed and never jargon-laden. Based largely on extensive archival research in Africa and America, this fascinating, well-documented study makes a significant contribution to understanding intertextual and transnational interactions of South African and African American writers at a time of crucial struggles against racism in both countries. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.--E. R. Baer, Gustavus Adolphus College
WRITER'S NOTE: NOT A REVIEW, IT'S A SYNOPSIS FROM PUBLISHER.
Grounds of Engagement
Apartheid-Era African-American and South African Writing
Stéphane Robolin
Publication Year: 2015
Part literary history, part cultural study, Grounds of Engagement examines the relationships and exchanges between black South African and African American writers who sought to create common ground throughout the antiapartheid era. Stéphane Robolin argues that the authors' geographic imaginations crucially defined their individual interactions and, ultimately, the literary traditions on both sides of the Atlantic. Subject to the tyranny of segregation, authors such as Richard Wright, Bessie Head, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Michelle Cliff, and Richard Rive charted their racialized landscapes and invented freer alternative geographies. They crafted rich representations of place to challenge the stark social and spatial arrangements that framed their lives. Those representations, Robolin contends, also articulated their desires for black transnational belonging and political solidarity. The first book to examine U.S. and South African literary exchanges in spatial terms, Grounds of Engagement identifies key moments in this understudied history of black cross-cultural exchange, exposing how geography serves as an indispensable means of shaping and reshaping modern racial meaning.