Writer. Teacher. Speaker. Researcher.
I study how people use loss and grief to make sense of their own and others’ racial identities. As a literary critic, I teach and research how melancholy drives both oppression and resistance in poetry, prose, and drama written in the 16th and 17th Centuries. My published articles, dissertation, lectures, and current book project are about how these issues manifest in Renaissance drama and intersect with representations of disability and gender in both the early modern period and in our own world.
I use he/him pronouns and work as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. I currently serve as a North Star Collective Faculty Fellow, supported by the New England Board of Higher Education, and a CU Advance Fellow, supported by Clark University. I received my Ph.D. in English from Emory University in 2020 (what a year!), where I was also the Kharen Fulton Diversity Fellow and the James T. Laney Dissertation Fellow in the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference. I also proudly hold degrees from Morehouse College and the University of Houston.
Take a look at some of my public scholarship and upcoming talks here.
Email me: jshaw [at] clarku [dot] edu (jshaw@clarku.edu).
On my Contact page, you’ll find more ways to get in touch with me.
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