Her research focuses on race, disability, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. Her first book, Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction (Duke UP 2018) explores how black women writers of speculative fiction use the non-realist genre to re-imagine the possibilities, limits, and meanings of (dis)ability, race, and gender. Dr. Schalk is currently working on a new project on black disability politics in the post-Civil Rights era.