Paula Marie Seniors
Assistant Professor
Joined Virginia Tech: 2008
| Bachelor's (Dance Performance) | City College of New York |
| Master's (Ethnic Studies) | UC San Diego |
| Master's (Music) | New York University |
| Doctorate (Ethnic Studies) | UC San Diego |
CURRENT PROJECTS:
I am currently working on two projects concerning African American women radical activists:
- African American Women’s Political Activism (1982-1989): The Nicaraguan Revolution and Maurice Bishop’s Grenadian Revolution
- Radical African American Women’s Activism: Mae Mallory and the Monroe Defense Committee
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Comparative U.S. History Race Relations and ethnic identities
African American Studies and History
Ethnic Studies and History
African American Theater, Film and Dance (African American Native American, Asian American, Latin American, White Ethnics)
Ethnic Theater, Film, and Dance (African American Native American, Asian American, Latin American, White Ethnics)
Immigration
Assimilation
Class
Race
Politics
Race and Gender intersections
Black intellectual thought
Black radical political movements
Multiracial radical political movements
African American women radical activists
Multiracial women radical activists
CURRENT TEACHING INTERESTS:
African American Studies and History
Ethnic Studies and History
African American Theater
African American Musical Ttheater, Film and Dance
Native American Studies
Asian American Studies
Latin American Studies
Multi-Racial Studies
RECENT AWARDS AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
South Atlantic Humanities Faculty Fellow for the Virginia Foundation for Humanities fellowship to pursue a project titled "'For Freedom Now' -- African American Woman Radical Activists (1958-1984): Mae Mallory, the Monroe Defense Committee and African American Woman Sojourners of the Grenadian and Nicaraguan Revolution." Fall 2010- Summer 2011.
Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Prize from the Association of Black Women Historians
Verna Hampton, Artist and Educator, Women and Minority Artists and Scholars Lecture Series Grant recipient, 2007-2008
Post-doctoral Fellow, The Center for Africana Studies and Race and Social Policy Research, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2007-2008
Biography. Marquis Who’s Who in America 2006-2009
Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in African American Studies Award, African and African American Studies Research Project, University of California, San Diego
Department of Ethnic Studies Dissertation Fellowship
Committee Member. The Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize. The Association of Black Women Historians
Association of Black Women Historians
Association for the Study of African American Life and History
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Books
Seniors, Paula Marie. (2009) Beyond Lift Every Voice and Sing: The Culture of Uplift, Identity, and Politics in Black Musical Theater. Ohio State University Press.
Articles and Chapters
“Mae Mallory and “The Southern Belle Fantasy Trope” at The Cuyahoga County Jail 21st and Payne PAIN,” CFP: Book Project, Still Maids? Still Toms?: Perspectives on The Help and Other White-Authored Narratives of Black Life in the 'Post-Racial' Era," Claire Garcia, Colorado College, Vershawn Young, editors, University of Illinois Press. Forthcoming.
“Audrey Proctor, African American Female Sojourners of the Grenadian and Nicaraguan Revolution,” (tentative title), "International Black Power" Edited Volume, Jerome Teeklucksingh Editor, University of West Indies Press. Forthcoming.
“Exile and Erasure in Cinderella The African American Cinderella and the Asian Prince,” Images That Injure, Praeger Press, Spring 2011.
“Transforming the Carmen Narrative: The Case of Carmen the Hip Hopera.” Message in the Music: Hip Hop, History, and Pedagogy, The Association for African American Life and History Press, ed. Dr. Derrick P. Alridge & James B. Stewart, Fall 2011.
“Jack Johnson, Paul Robeson and The Hyper Masculine African American Übermensch.” Harlem Renaissance, Politics, Arts, Letters. John Hopkins University Press, Jeffrey Ogbar, Spring 2010.
Seniors, Paula Marie. 2008. “Cole and Johnson’s The Red Moon (1908-1910): Reimagining African American and Native American Female Education at Hampton Institute.” Journal of African American History, Winter.
Seniors, Paula Marie. 2007. “Teaching and Learning U.S. History Through A Multi Cultural Curriculum: Conquest Slavery, and Indispensable Labor,” The Black History Bulletin. Volume 70, Number 2.
Seniors, Paula Marie. 2007. “Ada Overton Walker, Abbie Mitchell and the Gibson Girl: Reconstructing African American Womanhood,” The International Journal of Africana Studies, Volume 13, Issue 2.
Seniors, Paula Marie. 2005. “James Weldon Johnson,” “J. Rosamond Johnson,” “Bob Cole,” “Black National Anthem -“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” “Booker T. Washington,” “NAACP,” “Blackface minstrelsy,” “Tuskegee Institute,” “Hampton Institute,” “Audrey Proctor Seniors.” Entries, The Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora, Carole Boyce Davies (Ed.), ABC-CLIO.
Seniors, Paula Marie. 2003. “Black Beauties: Colorblind Casting and the Black Cinderella.” Elimu Newsletter of the University of California, San Diego African-American Studies Research Project. Winter/Spring.
Biography: Dr. Paula Marie Seniors holds a BFA in Dance from the City College of New York, a MA in Musical Theater vocal performance from New York University, and a MA and PhD in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. She teaches “Africana Studies Graduate Professional Seminar,” “The Civil Rights Movement,” “The History of African American Theater,” “The Introduction to African American Studies,” and “African American Images in Film,” in the Africana Studies and Sociology Departments at Virginia Tech. She is an affiliated faculty of American Indian Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies. Seniors is the proud winner of the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Prize from the Association of Black Women Historians for her book Beyond "Lift Every Voice and Sing:” The Culture of Uplift, Identity, and Politics in Black Musical Theater (2009).From 2010-2011 she was the first Virginia Foundation for the Humanities South Atlantic Humanities Faculty Fellow in Charlottesville, VA where she worked on her book manuscript For Freedom Now:" African American Woman Radical Activists (1957-1990): Mae Mallory, the Monroe Defense Committee and African American Woman Sojourners of the Grenadian and Nicaraguan Revolution. Paula Marie Seniors has also published “Transforming the Carmen Narrative: The Case of Carmen the Hip Hopera,” Message in the Music: Hip Hop, History, and Pedagogy, The Association for African American Life and History Press 2011; “Exile and Erasure in Cinderella The African American Cinderella and the Asian Prince,” Images That Injure, Praeger Press 2011; “Jack Johnson, Paul Robeson and The Hyper Masculine African American Übermensch,” Harlem Renaissance, Politics, Arts, Letters. John Hopkins University Press 2010; “Cole and Johnson’s The Red Moon (1908-1910): Reimagining African American and Native American Female Education at Hampton Institute.” The Journal of African American History, 2008; “Red, Black, and Yellow, Conquest, Slavery, and Indispensable Labor: Teaching and Learning American History through a Multicultural Curriculum,” The Black History Bulletin, 2007; and “Ada Overton Walker, Abbie Mitchell and the Gibson Girl: Reconstructing African American Womanhood,” The International Journal of Africana Studies, 2007. Her forthcoming publications include “Mae Mallory and “The Southern Belle Fantasy Trope” at The Cuyahoga County Jail 21st and Payne PAIN,” Still Maids? Still Toms? Perspectives on The Help and Other White-Authored Narratives of Black Life in the 'Post-Racial' Era," and “Audrey Proctor, African American Female Sojourners of the Grenadian and Nicaraguan Revolution,” (tentative title), "International Black Power" Edited Volume.