Assistant Professor of English Stephen Pasqualina was awarded an honorable mention honor for the 1921 Prize in American Literature for his essay, “Before the Ship and the Plantation: Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon and Blackness as Totality.”
“I’m grateful and wowed that my essay on Hurston’s ‘Barracoon’ received an honorable mention for the 1921 Prize in American Literature,” said Pasqualina.
Pasqualina’s essay was published in the journal MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.
The 1921 Prize is awarded annually for “the best article in any field of American literature.”
Pasqualina examines how Hurston’s book on Oluale Kossola, one of the last survivors of the transatlantic slave trade, offers alternative approaches to understanding the history of transatlantic slavery and its afterlives.
The article, was also selected as the “Editor’s Choice” for the Summer 2023 issue of MELUS. Read the Pasqualina’s essay.