Erica N Richardson

Asst Professor

Weissman School of Arts and Sciences

Department: English

Areas of expertise:

Email Address: erica.richardson@baruch.cuny.edu

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Books

Richardson, E. N. (2026). Introduction to Passing (1920) by Nella Larsen.. In Progress.

Richardson, E. (2025). How Black Women Count: Empirical Desires, Literary Culture, and Black Feminist Reckonings. Columbia University Press . In Progress.

Journal Articles

(2025). “Ah Reckon It’s Enough”: Black Feminism, Racial Capitalism, and Embodied Black Economies in The Chip Woman’s Fortune (1923). MELUS (The Society for the Study of Multi Ethnic Literature of the United States), 50(4). In Progress.

Richardson, E. (2020). Desire, Dispossession, and Dreams of Social Data: Black Clubwomen’s Intellectual Thought and Aesthetics during the Progressive Era in Public Writing and Print Culture. American Studies , (59.3 (2020)). 33-54.

Richardson, E. (2020).  The Trouble with Tags: The Challenges of Collaborative Metadata and Participatory Culture in Class Blogs  . Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy ,

Book Chapters

(2025). "I'll Take You There:" Reading Autotheory Through Black Feminism. Autotheories MIT Press. In Progress.

Race and Identity. Photography and Literary Studies Cambridge University Press. In Progress.

Staging the Harlem Renaissance Era. Cambridge History of Literature by Black Women in the United States Cambridge University Press. In Progress.

Presentations

Foy, A., Cooppan, V., & Richardson, E. N. (2026, January 2). "The Autotheory of bell hooks". Modern Language Association. Toronto, CA

Richardson, E. N. (2026, July 2). Ephemeral Stages, Enduring Pages: The Little Negro Theater Movement, Circulation, and Legacy of Harlem Renaissance Playwright Willis Richardson. SHARP (Society for History of Authoriship Reading and Publishing). Rochester Institute of Technology and Rochester University

Richardson, E. N. "Ordinary Legends: Legacies, Myths, and the Black, Trans Feminist Politics of Revision". National Women's Studies Association. San Juan, Puerto Rico

Richardson, E. N. Performing Black Futures: Informal Labor and Celebration in Willis Richardson's The Chip Woman's Fortune (1923). ASTR (American Society for Theater Research) Ecologies of Time and Change. Seattle, WA: ASTR (American Society for Theater Research).

Richardson, E. N. (2026, November 2). Feminisms of Color, Embodied Belonging, and Autoassemblages. American Studies Association. New Orleans, LA

Richardson, E. N. Black Futures: Black Studies, Black Ecologies, and African Social Research. Black Futures Symposium. Baruch College: Baruch College Provost Research Innovation Seed Grant.

Richardson, E. N. "Unrequited Freedoms and Satisfying Objects: Nikki Giovanni’s My House (1972) as Autotheory". Autotheory and Black Feminism. Washington DC: Modern Language Association.

Richardson, E. N. "Bad Negros and New Futures: Black Masculinity and Alternative Visions of Progress in Charles Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition". Awakenings, Reckonings and Multiethnic Literature: Woke, Now What?. New Orleans, LA: MELUS (The Social for the Study of Multi Ethnic Literature of the United States).

Richardson, E. (2021, January 9). "Theories of Black Women's Intellectualism in the 19th Century". Modern Language Association. Virtual: Modern Language Association.

Richardson, E. (2021, March 16). Contributors and Editors' Panel on Arts in the Black Press During Age of Jim Crow. The Arts in the Black Press During the Age of Jim Crow. virtual: American Studies, with American Studies International.

Richardson, E. (2021, August 3). Such is Aunt Nancy: Gender, Racial Capitalism, and the Little Negro Theater Movement. Institute for Poverty and the Humanities, Borough of Manhattan Community College. Virtual: Borough of Manhattan Community College; National Endowment for the Humanities.

Richardson, E. (2021, April 15). Stronger Together: Black CUNY Faculty, Staff, and Students Surviving Dual Pandemics. CUNY Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2021. Virtual: CUNY.

Richardson, E. (2020, March 8). The Sociological Sublime: Social Science, Citizenship, and Black Clubwomen’s Periodical Culture. Shaping and Sharing Identities: Spaces, Places, Languages, and Cultures. Boston, MA: Northeast Modern Language Association.

Richardson, E. (2019, March 21). The Innumeracy of the Red Record on the Page and on the Stage. Transnational Spaces: Intersections of Cultures, Languages, and Peoples. Washington D.C.: Northeast Modern Language Association.

Richardson, E. (2019, November 10). Black Thought and the United States’ Power in the World. States of Emergence. : America Studies Association.

Richardson, E. (2019, November 8). Going on the Market. States of Emergence. : American studies Association.

Richardson, E. (2018, November 18). Booker T. Washington's Emergent Imperial Imagination in the Demise of Reconstruction¿. States of Emergence. Atlanta, GA: American Studies Association.

Richardson, E. (2017, November 14). "Have you seen her, tell me, have you seen her”: Visibility and Nonrecognition of Black Female Excellence in American Imaginaries. Forty Years after Combahee: Feminist Scholars and Activists Engage the Movement for Black Lives. Baltimore, MD: National Women's Studies Association.

Richardson, E. (2017, November 9). “Things are so much better now:” The Failed and Potential Lessons of Lynching Play Revivals in Response to Black Lives Matter. Pedagogies of Dissent. Chicago, IL: American Studies Association.

Richardson, E. (2016, May 21). The Evil of the One Room Cabin: Black Clubwomen Apprehending the Problem of Black Female Sexuality in The Woman’s Era 1894-1897. African American Literature and Culture Society. Boston, MA: American Literary Association.

Richardson, E. (2015, June 27). Sociological Aesthetics in Harlem Renaissance Lynching Plays. Restaging the Harlem Renaissance. New York, NY: Heyman Center for the Humantities, Columbia University.

Reviews

Richardson, E. N. (1970,January 1). Class Interruptions: Inequality and Division in African Diasporic Women’s Fiction. Robin Brooks. The University of North Carolina Press, 2022. 238 pages. $95.00 hardback; $32.50 paper.. MELUS (The Society for the Study of Multi Ethnic Literature of the United States).

TitleFunding Agency SponsorStart DateEnd DateAwarded DateTotal FundingStatus
Empirical Desires: Data, Dispossession, and the Aesthetics of the Negro Problem PSC CUNY 5207/01/202106/30/202304/15/20215630Completed
“Black Mathematics and Queering the Red Record”PSC-CUNY 5107/01/202012/31/202204/17/20201850Completed
Empirical Desires: Chapter 2 Intermedial Methods in Opportunity Magazine PSC CUNY 5307/01/202212/31/202304/15/20225999.4Funded - In Progress
Empirical Desires: Data and the Aesthetics of the Negro ProblemEugene Lang Fellowship06/01/202206/30/202304/11/20228577.98Funded - In Progress
BRESI:Student Mentored Research for Public Knowledge Project Black Futures and OER Course "America Literature 1865 to Present: Protest Writing, Civil Rights, and Writing Social Change in AmericaThe Andrew W. Mellon Foundation09/01/202206/30/202308/19/20225000Funded - In Progress
2021 Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior FacultyWoodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation06/01/202106/30/202201/19/202130000Funded - In Progress