Clenora Hudson-Weems

Clenora Hudson Weems
Professor
213 Tate Hall
573-882-2783
Education

PhD 1988, University of Iowa

Research and Teaching

Professor, Author, Screen Writer and Producer, Dr. Clenora Hudson (Weems) is Conceptualizer of the theory, Africana Womanism – an authentic global family-centered paradigm that prioritizes race, class, gender.  She is the author of five (5) Africana Womanism books, including the new edition of the 1993 classic, Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves (Routledge 2019-20). The sequel for her 1st Africana Womanism book is titled Africana Womanist Literary Theory (Africa World Press 2004). Her most recent book is Africana-Melanated Womanism: In It Together (Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2022), which is the first U. S. based edited volume on Africana Womanism.  She is an Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor (2021-22), U of Iowa, African American Studies.

The 1st International Africana Womanism Conference, hosted by the U of Zimbabwe in OCT 2010, became the seed for its NOV 15-16, 2021 Conference on Women, where she delivered the Opening Keynote Address, “Why Africana Womanism? Authenticity & Collectivity for Social Justice.”  She wrote the Forward and Opening chapter for Rediscoursing African Womanhood in Search for Sustainable Renaissance: Africana Womanism in Multi-disciplinary Approaches, compiled of select global presentations at the 2010 Conference, edited by Muwati, Z. Mguni, T. Gwekwerere, and R. Magosvongwe. 

She was the 1st to establish Emmett Till as the true catalyst of the modern Civil Rights Movement in her 1988 Ford doctoral dissertation, “Emmett Louis Till: The Impetus of the Modern Civil Rights Movement” (U of Iowa), later published as Emmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement (1994). Her culminating Till book, Emmett: Legacy, Redemption, Forgiveness (2014), was endorsed by Barry Morrow, Oscar Award-winning co-writer of Rain Man. Book endorsers for her 1st of 4 Till books include Dr. John Blassingame, preeminent author and Professor of History at Yale U--“Hudson-Weems is absolutely right. We historians missed it;” and Dr. C. Eric Lincoln, esteemed author and distinguished Professor at Duke U-- “She challenges the most sacred shibboleths of the origins of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Initiating the Nation’s 1st graduate degrees in English with an Africana Concentration in 2000, she co-authored, with Dr. Wilfred D. Samuels, Toni Morrison (1990), the 1st critical study of the fiction of the Nobel Laureate.

https://www.columbiatribune.com/opinion/20200620/civil-rights-movement-then-and-now-anti-racism-to-stop-emmett-till-continuum-in-5-step-solution

https://reckonsouth.com/meet-the-black-woman-who-established-emmett-tills-murder-as-sparking-the-civil-rights-movement/

https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/emmett-till-was-murdered-61-years-ago-but-racism-lives-on/

https://www.columbiatribune.com/news/20190810/legacy-lives-on--toni-morrison-1931-2019-nobel-laureate

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ohLwdlEiG1MJHAWb-J5YRtySex1mlZpK/view

 

Awards and Honors
HONORS AND AWARDS

Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor (2021-22), U of Iowa, African American Studies

[Humanities] (ISSN 2076-0787) – Invited Guest Editor

Wikipedia – Clenora Hudson-Weems

Wikipedia – Africana Womanism

IMDb Status

Toni Morrison Society Book Award --Toni Morrison --(Co-authored with Wilfred D. Samuels)

Western Journal of Black Studies Scholarly Achievement & Leadership Award

Distinguished Honoree, 1st International Council of Africana Womanism Conference (U of Zimbabwe)

Ford Foundation Fellowships

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowships    

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Fellowship

Proclamations (TN, DE, MO)

Keys to City (Memphis, TN; Wilmington, DE)

 

 

Selected Publications

Clenora Hudson (Weems), ed. Africana-Melanated Womanism: In It Together. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022

Clenora Hudson-Weems, ed. Africana Paradigms, Practices and Literary Texts: Evoking Social Justice. Kendall Hunt, 2021. https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/africana-paradigms-practices-and-literary-texts-evoking-social-justice

Clenora Hudson-Weems. Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves Fifth Edition--with 5 new chapters--Routledge, 2019-2020. https://www.routledge.com/Africana-Womanism-Reclaiming-Ourselves/HudsonWeems/p/book/9780367253639

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Foreword--Dariro African Theory of Participation and Performance, Itai Muwati, Editor, College Press Harare, Zimbabwe, 2018.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Amiri Baraka and the Black Arts Movement. Gale, 2018--Co-Author, Lorenzo Thomas.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Racism Killed Emmett Till:  His Legacy ‘Hidden,’” Missourian, July 2018.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Emmett:  Still Center of Tragedy,” Chicago Crusader, February 16, 2017.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Emmett Till Was Murdered 61 Years Ago, But Racism Lives On,” Learn Liberty Blog, George Mason U, Aug 28, 2016.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “The Benefits of Campus Activism,” Diverse Issue of Higher Education, March 21, 2016.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “The Link between Emmett Till and Black Lives Matter,” Chicago Crusader, November 21, 2015.

Clenora Hudson-Weems. Closing Chapter, "Establishing Female Competency via Literacy: Reclaiming Our Communities: An Africana Womanist Mission." Literacy as Gendered Discourses: Voice of Women in Global Societies. Information Age Publishing, Inc., 2015.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Forward”--Rediscoursing African Womanhood in Search for Sustainable Renaissance: Africana Womanism in Multi-disciplinary Approach, Itai Muwati and Zifikile Gambahaya, editors. College Press Harare, Zimbabwe, 2012, pp.xii-xv.

Clenora Hudson-Weems. Opening Chapter, "Ending De-Womanization, De-Feminization and De-Humanization vie Self Naming, Self-Definition and Genuine Sisterhood." Rediscoursing African Womanhood in Search for Sustainable Renaissance: African Womanism in Multi-Disciplinary Approaches. College Press Harare, Zimbabwe, 2012.

Clenora Hudson-Weems. Closing Chapter, "Environmental Racism--Black Landowners and Katrina in the Making of a New Hilton Head: A Emmett Till Continuum". Palgrave-Macmillan Publishers, 2009. Paper delivered as Keynote Address for International Conference, Environmental Justice in the New Millennium,” Wellesley College, 2007.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Editor, Contemporary Africana Theory, Thought and Action: A Guide to Africana Studies, Africa World Press, 2007.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Africana Thought-Action: An Authenticating Paradigm for Africana Studies,” Keynote Address, Africana Conference, U of Pittsburgh, The Western Journal of Black Studies, Fall 2006.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Africana Womanist Literary Theory, Africa World Press, 2004.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Opening Chapter, “Africana Womanism: Entering the New Millennium“ in State of the Race, Creating Our 21st Century: Where Do We Go From Here? Edited by Jemadari Kamara and Tony Menelik Van Der Meer, Editors, Diaspora Press, 2004.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Africana Womanism: The Flip Side of the Coin.” Guest Editor for Special Issue on Africana Womanism, The Western Journal of Black Studies, Fall 2001.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “The African American Literary Tradition,” in A Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide to the African American Experience, Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds. Greenwood Publishers, 2001, pp.116-143.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Africana Womanism: An Overview” in Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies, Delores Aldridge, Editor, Lexington Books, 2000, pp.205-217.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Africana Womanism, Black Feminism, African Feminism, Womanism,” in Sisterhood, Feminisms and Power: From Africa to the Diaspora , Obioma Nneameka, Editor, New Jersey: African World Press, 1998, pp.149-162.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Resurrecting Till: The Catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement,” Journal of Black Studies, Sage Publication, Nov. 1998, pp.179-188.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Africana Womanism: An Historical, Global Perspective for Women of African Descent,” Call & Response: The Riverside Anthology of African-American Literary Tradition, Patricia Liggins Hill, General Editor, Houghton Mifflin, Spring 1997.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Africana Womanism and the Critical Need for Africana Theory and Thought,” The Western Journal of Black Studies (WJBS), Summer 1997, pp.70-84.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Emmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement, Bedford Publishers, 1994.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, Bedford Publishers, 1993.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “From Malcolm Little to El Haii Malik El Shabazz: Malcolm's Evolving Attitude Toward Africana Women,” Hudson-Weems, Guest Editor for Special Issue on Philosophy and Human Rights Legacy of Malcom X, The Western Journal of Black Studies, Spring 1993, pp.26-31.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, “Africana Womanism,” Voice: The Caribbean International Magazine, DEC 1992, 37-8, 46.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Opening Article “Claude McKay: Black Protest in Western Traditional Form,” The Western Journal of Black Studies, Spring 1992,1-5.

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Toni Morrison. NY/Boston: Prentice-Hall, 1990. (Co-author--Dr.Wilfred D. Samuels), 1990.