Department of English

Dr. Debra Walker King is a full professor of English and an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She is a graduate of Emory University (PhD), the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (MA) and North Carolina Central University (BA) recognized as a Patricia Harris Fellow, Ford Fellow and Schomburg Scholar. Her Administrative experience includes service as Associate Dean for the Humanities (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs (specializing in Affirmative Action and, later, Faculty Development). King is known nationally and internationally through publications that include single-author books such as African Americans and the Culture of Pain (University of Virginia Press, 2008) and Deep Talk: Reading African American Literary Names and Naming (Univ. Press of Virginia, 1998). Her current work on “Womanist Thought” has taken her as a lecturer and speaker to Shanghai University and Nanjing College in China as well as cities across this nation from Florida to California.

King is a motivational teacher who encourages the life visions of her students as she teaches. She is an affiliate professor with African American Studies and Women’s studies, cross listing course such as “Womanist Intellectual Thought,” “Black and White Women Writing about Race,” and “Survey of African American Literature.”