Critical Race Theory motivates summer reading list, 'cluster hire' at ASU
A new professor at Arizona State University publicized her recommended summer reading list after being part of a 'cluster hire' based on CRT tenets.
The new professor is 'working on a chapter for a collected volume on the relationship between premodern critical race theory and book and reading history.'
Dr. Brandi Adams is a newly-hired assistant professor at Arizona State University and has already recommended a summer reading based on Critical Race Theory.
”Right now, I’m working on a chapter for a collected volume on the relationship between premodern critical race theory and book and reading history,” Adams said in an interview with the university.
Adams’ recommendations, which she enumerated in the interview, include: American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson; the Broken Earth series, by N. K. Jemisin; Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee; and The Old Drift, by Namwali Serpell.
ASU brought on Adams as part of a “cluster hire” that the school touted for the new professors’ ethnic backgrounds.
ASU’s Ayanna Thompson, a professor of English, coordinated the cluster hire.
“With the five BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) scholars joining our seven other early modernists, ASU will have the strongest Shakespeare program in the country,” Thompson said to the ASU website.
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Thompson also spearheads RaceB4Race, an “ongoing conference series” at the university “for scholars of color working on issues of race in premodern literature, history, and culture.” The website also states that “RaceB4Race centers the expertise, perspectives, and sociopolitical interests of BIPOC scholars, whose work seeks to expand critical race theory.”
Campus Reform reached out to Dr. Adams and ASU for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
