the Beauty & Power

of Black Lives

I see my work as part of a continuum in Black expression that creatively responds to the multiple oppressions that attempt to stifle, at the least, and destroy, at the most, the beauty and power of Black lives.

MY WORKING PHILOSOPHY

A Path Forward

My work reflects the influence of many writers whose works speak to each other both affirmatively and controversially. I seek to explore both that on which select Black writers agree and that on which they disagree to shape a path forward in my critical analyses that keeps me centered on the value of judgment that inspires a positive, balanced human spirit. Following Du Bois’s credo that “all art is propaganda,” I find solace in the hard truths that society, publishers, the academy, and politicians diligently work to deny.

"In Prof. Joyce A. Joyce, the African-centered literary position has found perhaps its most accomplished and learned contemporary champion, a worthy successor to the pioneers of previous generations. ... What moves Prof. Joyce above all is a love of and commitment to people of African descent ..."

Arnold Rampersad Humanities Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

Dr. Joyce A. Joyce is one of the nation’s foremost leading scholars on African American Literary Criticism. Dr. Joyce is Professor of English at Temple University where she served as Chairperson of the Department of English from 2012 to 2015 and Chairperson of African-American Studies from 1997 to 2001. In 1995 she received an American Book Award for Literary Criticism for the collection of essays Warriors, Conjurers, and Priests: Defining African-American Literary Criticism. Her most recent completed project is the forthcoming book entitled The Social Protests of 2020: Visceral Responses to Police Brutality, COVID-19, and Circumscribed Sexuality.

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