Expert Source: Judylyn S. Ryan, Ph.D.

Judylyn Ryan specializes in African American literature, black feminist theory, black women's cinema, and African diaspora literatures. Other areas of interest include cultural and critical race theory, African diaspora oral traditions, and African diaspora religions. She currently is working on her second book about teaching black women's cinema.

Education:

• B.A., Georgetown University
• M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Areas of Expertise:

• African American literature
• Black feminist theory
• Black women’s cinema
• Cultural and critical race theory
• African diaspora literatures, oral traditions, and religions

Selected Publications:

• Spirituality as Ideology in Black Women’s Film and Literature. (Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2005.
• “Language and Narrative Technique in Toni Morrison’s Novels.” In Justine Tally (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Toni Morrison. (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007): 151-161.
• “Outing the Black Feminist Filmmaker in Julie Dash’s Illusions.” SIGNS: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Beyond the Gaze: Recent Approaches to Film Feminisms Special Issue, (Vol. 30, No. 1) Autumn 2004: 1319-1344.
• “Dismantling Slavery’s Master-Narratives through African Diaspora Cinema.” In Kimberley Phillips et al (Eds.), Critical Voicings of Black Liberation: Resistance and Representations in the Americas, (Germany: Lit Verlag, 2003): 127-145.
• "Jazz . . . On `The Site of Memory'." In Studies in the Literary Imagination, Toni Morrison and the American South Special Issue, (Vol.32, No.2) Fall 1998: 125-152.
• "Spirituality and/as Ideology in Black Women's Literature: The Preaching of Maria W. Stewart and Baby Suggs, Holy." In Beverly Kienzle and Pamela Walker (Eds.), Women Preachers and Prophets through Two Millennia of Christianity, (Berkeley: U of California P, 1998): 267-287.
• "Morrison's Jazz: `A Knowing So Deep'." In Nellie McKay and Kathryn Earle (Eds.), Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Toni Morrison, (New York: MLA P, 1997): 154-160.
• "Contested Visions/Double-Vision in Tar Baby." In Nancy J. Peterson (Ed.), Toni Morrison: Theoretical and Critical Approaches, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U P, 1997): 63-87. Reprinted from Modern Fiction Studies, Toni Morrison Special Issue, (Vol. 39, Nos.3/4) Fall/Winter 1993: 597-621.