Kinitra Brooks
C622 Wells Hall
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
FacultyEnglish
Associate Professor
Leslie Endowed Chair in Literary Studies
Literary Studies; Film and Media Studies; Popular Culture; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Race and Ethnic Studies
Biography
Kinitra Brooks is the Audrey and John Leslie Endowed Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English at Michigan State University. Dr. Brooks specializes in the study of black women, genre fiction, and popular culture as seen in her weekly column for The Root, “The Safe Negro Guide to Lovecraft Country” and her multiple visits as a commentator on NPR’s 1A. She has co-edited The Lemonade Reader (Routledge 2019), an interdisciplinary collection that explores the nuances of Beyoncé’s 2016 audiovisual project, Lemonade. Her two other books are Searching for Sycorax: Black Women’s Hauntings of Contemporary Horror (Rutgers UP 2017), a critical treatment of black women in science fiction, fantasy, and horror and Sycorax’s Daughters (Cedar Grove Publishing 2017), an edited volume of short horror fiction written by black women. Her current research focuses on portrayals of the Conjure Woman in popular culture. Dr. Brooks recently served as the Advancing Equity Through Research Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University during the 2018-2019 academic year. During the 2022-2023 academic year, Dr. Brooks will serve as the Visiting Associate Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies and African American Religions in the Women’s Studies in Religion Program at Harvard Divinity School.
Media Mentions
Growing the Seeds of Knowledge: Endowed Chair Kinitra Brooks Studies Afrofuturism—Intertwining the Past with the Future
Michigan State University Alumni Magazine
July 21, 2020
Awards and Honors
Bram Stoker Award Nominee
Publications
Searching for Sycorax: Black Women’s Hauntings of Contemporary Horror (2017)
The Lemonade Reader: Beyoncé, Black Feminism, and Spirituality (2019) with Kameelah L. Martin. Routledge Press
Sycorax’s Daughters (2017) with Susana M. Morris, and Linda D. Addison. Cedar Grove Publishing
“Reflecting on the Man in the Mirror: What Lens Should We Use to Critique Candyman?” The Root. August 2021
“He is Both Monster and Hero: Black Horror Scholars Tell The Root What You Should Know About Candyman.” The Root. August 2021
“Infinitum: An Afrofuturistic Tale: Illustrator-Author Tim Fielder looks to the Future With a Modern Epic.” The Root. February 2021
“The Safe Negro Travel Guide to Lovecraft Country.” The Root. August – October 2020. Ten (10) Season One Episodes:
Sundown; Whitey’s on the Moon; Holy Ghost; A History of Violence; Strange Case; Meet Me in Daegu; I Am; Jig-A-Bobo; Rewind 1921; Full Circle
“Beyonce shows that Modern Blackness neither begins nor ends with slavery.” Op-Ed. The Washington Post. August 2020
“How to Be a Strong Black Family Man: The World According to Gabriel Wilson in Jordan Peele’s Us.” The Root: Very Smart Brothas Blog. March 2019
“Us Makes Us Look in the Mirror—What If We Don’t Like What We See?” Elle Magazine March 2019
“What Becky Gotta Do to Get Murked? White Womanhood in Jordan Peele’s Get Out” Very Smart Brothas Blog. March 2017
Videos
Bookshelf
University News
