Noted Scholar on Zora Neale Hurston to Speak at Marx Library

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Posted on January 31, 2024

Joy Washington

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The University of South Alabama Common Read program will host a discussion on “Drenched in Light: Zora Neale Hurston and the Politics of the Archive” led by Dr. Autumn Womack on Tuesday, Feb. 6, at 4 p.m. in the Marx Library Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will be held immediately following the event.

Womack’s talk will focus on the 2023-2024 Common Read book selection “Barracoon,” which was originally completed in 1931 but not published until 2018. The book is based on a series of interviews by Hurston with West African-born Cudjo Lewis, originally named Oluale Kossola. He is considered the last survivor of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and resided in the community of Africatown in Mobile until he died in 1935.

“Barracoon” documents a first-hand experience of the journey of the last known ship to bring enslaved people to the United States.

“We are fortunate to have Dr. Autumn Womack of Princeton University joining us for the keynote event this year, which celebrates Hurston's “Barracoon,” said Dr. Ellen Burton Harrington, co-chair of the Common Read Common World committee. “Dr. Womack is a noted scholar on Zora Neale Hurston and will elaborate on the significance of Hurston's work and her rich legacy.”

Womack, associate professor of African American Studies and English, specializes in late 19th and early 20th century African American literary culture. She is the author of “The Matter of Black Living: The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial Data, 1880-1930,” which was awarded the Modern Language Association’s 2023 William Sanders Scarborough Prize and was a finalist for the Modern Studies Association’s First Book Prize.”

Womack has also been published in several volumes including “American Literary History,” “Women and Performance, Black Camera: An International Film Journal,” “J19,” and “The Paris Review of Books.”

The Common Read program is hosting several events this spring semester. This year’s selected book, “Barracoon,” is being read and used in classroom discussions.

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