His first book Blood Work: Imagining Race in American Literature was published in 2015 by Louisiana State University Press. His work has appeared in African American Review, Nineteenth Century Literature, Southern Quarterly, and the Journal of Southern History. Professor Salvant’s areas of teaching and research include: nineteenth-century African American literature, Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction African American literature, and racial science and American literature. He received his B.A. in English from Duke University and his Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley.