Roderick A. Ferguson

Associate Professor, American Studies
fergu033@umn.edu

Roderick A. Ferguson is associate professor of race and critical theory in the Department of American Studies. He is also affiliated faculty in the departments of Women's Studies and African American & African Studies. He studied sociology at Howard University and critical theory, sociology of culture, and race at the University of California, San Diego. He joined the Departent of American Studies at the University of Minnesota in the fall of 2000. His research interests include the intersections of race, sexuality, and gender in modern political, economic and cultural formations. Pursuant to those interests, he completed Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, a theory of the normative foundations of the American nation-state, capital, and American sociology, a theory that investigates the was in which the gendered and sexual heterogeneity of African American culture disrupts the logics of capital, state, and canonical epistemes. Currently, he is working on a book project that analyzes the emergence of African American and Caribbean intellectual formations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how those formations negotiated with the gendered and sexualized legacies of Enlightenment thought. He is the recipient of the Modern Language Associations Crompton-Noll Award (2000) for his essay, "The Parvenue Baldwin and the Other Side of Redemption: Modernity, Race, Sexuality, and the Cold War." In 2004,he received a University of California Humanities Research Institute Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship. Ferguson teaches courses on social theory, culture, and modern social formations.

Education:

Ph.D., Sociology, University of California in San Diego, 2000
M.A., Sociology, University of California in San Diego, 1996
B.A. Sociology, Howard University, 1994

Scholarly Works:

Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, Univesrity of Minnesota Press.

Awards:

University of California Humanities Research Institute Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship (2004)

Modern Language Association's Crompton-Noll Award (2000) for "best essay in lesbian, gay, and queer studies in the modern languages" for his article "The Parvenu Baldwin and the Other Side of Redemption: Modernity, Race, Sexuality, and the Cold War," in Dwight McBride's (ed.) James Baldwin Now.

Professional Service:

American Studies Director of Undergraduate Studies, 2004-

Recent Courses:

AmSt 3111 American Culture and the Arts
AmSt 8920 Topics in American Studies

home | department | graduate | undergraduate

College of Liberal Arts - University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus
Send comments and suggestions about the American Studies website to amstdy@umn.edu.
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
© 2002 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota.
University of Minnesota Online Privacy Statement.