Laura Harris

• PhD, University of California, San Diego 1997
• BA, San Diego State University 1990

20th century African American literature and culture, Feminist and Queer Theory, Harlem Renaissance Studies, African Diaspora Studies, Performance Studies

• Introduction to African American Literature (AFRI ENG12A & B)
• Black Queer/Trans Diasporas Research Workshop (AFRI ENG 132)
• B(L)ack to Nature: Poetry & Theory (AFRI 120)

“Who Is They? Black Queer/Trans Vernacular Grammars,” authors Victor Ultra Omni and Laura Alexandra Harris, Transgender Studies Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 3-4, pgs 212-225, Duke University Press, November 2023

“Aliso Street Worship Corner,” Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature By Women, vol. 31 no. 1, pg 86, winter/spring 2019

Professor Harris spoke about racism in the fashion industry in the Hypebeast article “Why Virgil at Vuitton Only Begins to Combat Industry Racism,” May 4, 2019.

“What’s in a name?” That which we call brilliance by any other name would read as Festus Claudius McKay” invited book review for Radical History Review, “Re-Conceptualizing the African Diaspora,” issue 103. Editors Michelle Stephens, Melina Pappademos, and Erica Ball, Duke University Press, Winter 2009.

Hybrid Italians, Diasporic Africans: Who’s/Whose Meticcio?” Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts & Letters 31.2. Editor Charles H. Rowell. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, Spring 2008.

“Confessions of the Pillow Queen: Sexual Receptivity & Queer Femininities,” in MaryMcAuliffe and Sonja Tiernan, eds., Tribades, Tommies, and Transgressives: Histories of Sexualities: Volume I.University College Dublin: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008.

“On Teaching A Black Queer Harlem Renaissance.” Teaching the Harlem Renaissance: Course Design and Classroom Strategies. Editor Michael Soto. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, African American Literature and Culture Series: Expanding and Exploding the Boundaries, Vol.16, Spring 2008.

“My Boy,” in G. Winston James, ed., Voices Rising: Celebrating Twenty Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing. Washington, DC: RedBone Press, 2007.

Notes from a Welfare Queen in The Ivory Tower: poetry, fiction, letters, and essays. New York: Face to Face Press. Fall 2002.

“L’Abbandono: chi e meticcio, e di chi, nella diaspora eritreo-italiana?” (abridged version in Italian translation). Africa Italia: Due continenti si avvicinano. Editor Sante Matteo. Milano, Italy: Fara Editore. Spring 2000.

Femme: Feminists, Lesbians, and Bad Girls. Edited and Introduced by Laura Harris and Liz Crocker. New York: Routledge. Summer 1997.

“Queer Black Feminism: The Pleasure Principle.” Feminist Review 54. Editor Merl Storr. London: Routledge. 1996.

“Who Is They? Black Queer/Trans Vernacular Grammars,” presenters Victor Ultra Omni and Laura Alexandra Harris, Black Trans Politics Panel, National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Hilton Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2022

“Exorcising Dispossession: Black Womxn’s Activism/Joy/(Re)possession,” Invited Presentation for NWSA Panel: Unreading Dispossession Through Black Womxn’s Activism, National Women’s Studies Association Conference, Hilton San Francisco Union Square, 2019

Invited Workshop Organizer, “Birdwatching: Witnessing the Creative,” Fire & Ink IV: Witness, Detroit, Michigan, October 2015.

Invited Member Archivo QueerItalia/Queer Archive Italy, Feminist and Queer Theory Online Platform, London, England, September 2015.

Invited Chair, “All the Way Live”: The Aesthetics of Pleasure in California Funk
American Studies Association, Los Angeles, Ca. November 2014.

Invited Roundtable Panelist, “Academic Abolitionism: Native/Women of Color Feminist/Queer of Color Learning and Living Beyond the (Re)Production of Death,” UC San Diego, LaJolla, California, May 2014.

Invited Guest Queer Faculty Symposium, “Faith & Birdwatching,” Faculty writing project reading and discussion. Queer Resource Center Pomona College, Ca. April 2012.

“On Theorizing a Black Queer Harlem Renaissance,” paper presented at The Harlem Renaissance Revisited: Politics, Arts, and Letters, University of Connecticut, March 2008.

Invited Plenary Speaker, Feminisms in the Twentieth Century: Lessons for the Twenty-first Century, The Huntington Library Women’s Studies Seminar Series, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, March 2008.

Invited Plenary Speaker, Feminisms in the Twentieth Century: Lessons for the Twenty-first Century, The Huntington Library Women’s Studies Seminar Series, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, March 2008.

Multi-genre Workshop Member, with Professor Naomi Shihab Nye, Macondo Writers: A Homeland for Writers, July 2024

Office of Black Student Affairs, Agnes Moreland Jackson Award, Spring 2018

Honor award for Faculty Contributions to 5 Colleges’ Queer Community, Lavender Graduation, Queer Resource Center, Pomona College, Spring 2012

Honor award for Faculty Contributions to 5 Colleges’ Queer Community, Lavender Graduation, Queer Resource Center, Pomona College, Spring 2007

Notes From A Welfare Queen In The Ivory Tower: poetry, fiction, letters, and essays. Nominated for the American Library Association Stonewall Book Award, 2002.