She received her Ph.D. in African American Studies and English Literature from Yale University in 2002. She has authored a critical introduction to James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings, available in the Barnes and Noble Classics series. Her current project at the Beinecke, “James Weldon Johnson: Autobiographical Collage, 1900-1938” is part of her book manuscript, a biography of Johnson’s life. She is also a recipient this year of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Fellowship at the Harry Ransom Center.