Rafael Walker

Books

Walker, R. (2025). Realism after the Individual: Women, Desire, and the Modern American Novel. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. In Progress.

Walker, R. (2023). Passing. Tonawanda, NY, Broadview Press.

Walker, R. (2020). The Awakening and Other Short Stories. New York, Warbler Classics.

Journal Articles

Walker, R., & Wolff, N. (2026). Introduction: The American Novel at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Arizona Quarterly, 82(1). 1–14.

Walker, R. (2026). 'No White Person of Sound Mind Would Ever Claim To Be a Negro': Charles Chesnutt's Ambivalence. ELH, (forthcoming).

Walker, R., & Moriah, K. (2025). “A Pleasant Gathering of Friends”: Celebrating Frances E.W. Harper at Last. J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, 13(2). 199–205.

Walker, R. (2021). Ernest Gaines's The Tragedy of Brady Sims: A Final Nod to Toni Morrison. Arizona Quarterly , 67(4).

Walker, R. (2019). Did Howells Give Up on Realism?. J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists, 7(2). 277–300.

Walker, R. (2018). James Weldon Johnson’s Feminization of Biraciality. Twentieth-Century Literature, 385–406.

Walker, R. (2017). The Second Phase of Realism in American Fiction: The Rise and Fall of the Social Self. Studies in the Novel, 49(4). 493–517.

Walker, R. (2016). Nella Larsen Reconsidered: The Trouble with Desire in Quicksand and Passing. MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 41(1). 165–92.

Walker, R. (2016). The Bildungsroman after Individualism: Ellen Glasgow’s Communitarian Alternative. Genre: Forms of Discourse, 49(3). 385–405.

Book Chapters

Walker, R. (2026). Democracy in Anti-Autobiography: Whitman’s "Song of Myself.". A History of Gay American Autobiography (p. 21–33). New York, NY. Cambridge University Press.

Walker, R. (2015). Kate Chopin's and the Dilemma of Individualism. In Ostman, H., & O’Donoghue, K. (Eds.), Kate Chopin in Context: New Approaches. (p. 29–46). New York, NY. Palgrave Macmillan.

Walker, R. Racial Passing and Colorism in Harlem Renaissance Fiction. The Cambridge Companion to the Fiction of the Harlem Renaissance New York, NY. Cambridge University Press.

Walker, R. Manifestly Queer Domesticity: Empire and Nineteenth-Century Queer Fiction. In Brickhouse, A., & Gillman, S. (Eds.), Cambridge Companion to American Literature and Empire. New York, NY. Cambridge University Press.

Media Contributions

Walker, R. (2025). James Baldwin: The Man and His Work.

Walker, R. (2025). Junot Díaz's Forced Disappearing Act.

Walker, R. (2025). Roundtable on Tess Chakkalakal’s A Matter of Complexion: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt, C19 Podcast.

Walker, R. (2024). The Cultural History behind Trump's Attack on Kamala Harris's Race.

Walker, R. (2023). Why the Presidents Couldn't Answer 'Yes' or 'No', (12 Dec).

Walker, R. (2023). What Comes after Affirmative Action?, (July 21).

Walker, R. (2023). Faculty Workloads Are Unequal. This Must Change., (January).

Walker, R. (2022). Rafael Walker on Ernest Gaines's Final Nod to Toni Morrison, (November).

Walker, R. (2022). Who Gets to Write about Whom?.

Walker, R. (2022). A Vindication of Academic Twitter.

Walker, R. (2021). Colleges Need to Get Serious about Gun Violence.

Walker, R. (2021). You Can’t Legislate Away Black and Gay Educators and Students..

Walker, R. (2021). Doctoral Students Hiring Career Consultants? This Must Stop..

Walker, R. (2020). Guilt Lit.

Walker, R. (2020). A Breakdown of Trust. (Invited Contribution on Future of Academic Labor).

Walker, R. (2020). The Emptiness of Administrative Statements.

Walker, R. (2017). How Canceling Controversial Speakers Hurts Students.

Walker, R. (2016). The Next Step in Diversifying the Faculty.

Presentations

Walker, R. The Mixed-Race Fiction of Charles Chesnutt and Mark Twain. Trouble Begins Lecture Series. Trouble Begins Lecture Series. Elmira, Pennsylvania: Center for Mark Twain Studies.

Walker, R. Reading John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. : 92nd Street Y.

Walker, R. Opening Up the Plot: The American Realist Novel under Consumer Capitalism.. Plot Lines: Reinterpreting “Economic Narratives” Conference-Workshop. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.

Walker, R. (2026, March 3). [Keynote] Jean Toomer's Cane: Modernism's Most Unexpected Alteration?. 2023 English Graduate Student Conference: Unexpected Alterations. Queens, New York: St. John's University.

Walker, R. (2026, January 3). Toward a More Equitable Distribution of Academic Labor. Modern Language Association Annual Conference. San Francisco, CA: Modern Language Association.

Walker, R. Guest Lecture on Uncle Tom’s Cabin for Prof. Ulrich Baer’s Course Fictions of America: To Be the “First.”. New York: New York University.

Walker, R. Nella Larsen's Passing. : 92nd Street Y.

Walker, R. (2026, October 3). Teaching Inclusive History in the Classroom. Teaching Inclusive History in the Classroom. Online: Pride and Less Prejudice.

Walker, R. Realism in Exile. Modern Language Association Annual Conference. Washington, D.C.: Modern Language Association.

Walker, R. (2019, October 20). Realism in Exile. Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference. Toronto, ON: Modernist Studies Association.

Walker, R. (2019, April 12). [Keynote] Ernest Gaines’s The Tragedy of Brady Sims, a Challenge to Black Feminism in the Age of BLM. CUNY Graduate Center English Student Association Conference. New York, New York: CUNY Graduate Center.

Walker, R. (2018, November 9). Biraciality as Neuter: Jean Toomer’s Cane. Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference. Columbus, Ohio, United States: Modernist Studies Association.

Walker, R. (2018, March 1). James Weldon Johnson’s Feminization of Biraciality. 2018 Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference. College Park, Maryland, United States: Critical Mixed Races Studies Association.

Walker, R. (2017, October 25). How American Novelists Remade Realism. Colloquium. Baltimore, Maryland, United States: Department of English, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Walker, R. (2016, March 1). Nella Larsen Reconsidered: The Trouble with Desire in Quicksand and Passing. 47th Annual Conference. Hartford, Connecticut, United States: Northeastern Modern Language Association (NeMLA).

Walker, R. (2016, September 22). Expert Moderator. F. Scott Fitzgerald Life and Legacy Panel. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States: Free Library of Philadelphia.

Walker, R. (2013, May 1). Kate Chopin’s Rejection of Individualism. 24th Annual Conference. Boston, Massachusetts, United States: American Literature Association.

Walker, R. (2013, March 1). Modernizing Realism; or, Why Carrie Must Go to New York. 44th Annual Conference. Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Northeastern Modern Language Association (NeMLA).

Walker, R. (2011, May 1). Edith Wharton and the Problem of Progress. 22nd Annual Conference. Boston, Massachusetts, United States: American Literature Association.

Walker, R. (2008, November 8). ‘Contrairy’ Characters, Prolix Narrators: Adam Bede as a Revision of The Scarlet Letter. Shifting Tides, Anxious Borders: A 19th-Century Transatlantic Graduate Student Conference. Binghamton, New York, United States: Department of English, Binghamton University.

Other Scholarly Works

Reviews

Walker, R. (2026,November 3). Review of Recent Volumes of Henry James's and Nella Larsen's Letters. Edith Wharton Review.

Walker, R. (2019,December 1). Rev. of Racism Postrace. Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

Walker, R. (2019,April 1). The Nineteenth Century Just Got Queerer. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies.

Walker, R. (2016,July 1). Rev. of The Europeans, by Henry James. Baltimore, Maryland,United States: College Literature.

Walker, R. (2013,October 1). Rev. of American Socialist Triptych: The Literary-Political Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Upton Sinclair, and W.E.B. Du Bois, by Martin Van Wienen (peer review). Champaign, Illinois,United States: American Literary Realism.

Research Currently in Progess

Walker, R.(n.d.). Biraciality in American Literature and Culture. In Progress.