Whit Frazier Peterson

Whit Frazier Peterson is a Lecturer and Research Associate with interests in African American literature, modernism, Black speculative fiction and the Black esoteric tradition. He has published scholarly articles in  Callaloo, the  Polish Journal of American Studies,  Black Perspectives,  The Black Scholar and  Siècles; His monograph  The Image and the Fire  was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in May, 2026.

2017-Present

University of Stuttgart

Lecturer and Research Associate (Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter)

2020-2025

Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies   (COPAS)

Academic Journal, Editor

The Image and the Fire: The Subversive Anthology in the Twentieth Century , University of Massachusetts Press, 2026.

Book Chapters and Journal Articles:

"Whose Heritage? The Curious Case of Countee Cullen’s Poetics in the Harlem  Survey Graphic."  Public Humanities, 2026; 2:e44. doi:10.1017/pub.2026.10150.

"Gothing the Blues: The Afrogothic, the Afrosurreal and Transcending the Blue Devils in the Work of Jean Toomer and Bob Kaufman." Journal of American Studies, (2025): 1–18. Web.

"Du Bois and the Double-Voiced Speech: Contextualizing Classical Education from Both Sides of the Veil,"  America Studies / Amerikastudien, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 45-61.

"The Expansive Vision of Jessie Fauset,"  Women in Publishing: 1900-2020 , edited by Nicola Wilson, et. al., Edinburgh University Press, 2024, pp. 308-322.

"Knotting the Note to the Tone: The Occult Afrofuturism of Jean Toomer and Sun Ra,"  The Black Scholar , vol. 53, no. 2, 2023, pp. 58-70, DOI:  10.1080/00064246.2023.2177974

"Billie Holiday and the Black Arts Movement."  Black Perspectives [online], December 22, 2022,  AAIHS.

"Transnational Aesthetics in "Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro."  Siècles [online], no. 51, 2021.

"A Magnificent Blond Beast: Exploring the Implications of Harlem Renaissance Writer Wallace Thurman as Ghostwriter of a Forgotten Celebrity Gossip Memoir."  Polish Journal for American Studies Special Issue: Digital Humanities in American Studies , edited by Michal Choiński, vol. 14 (Autumn 2020), pp. 225-242.

" The Cotton-Gin Effect: An Afrofuturist Reading of Star Trek: Discovery."  Fighting for the Future: Essays on Star Trek: Discovery , edited by Sabrina Mittermeier and Mareika Spychala, Liverpool University Press, June 2020.

"Oops Upside Yr Head: Black Speculative Fiction, Authenticity & the Political Metaphysics of Stick Fighting in Olufemi Terry's 'Stickfighting Days.'"  Callaloo, vol. 41, no. 3, summer 2018, pp. 145-156.

"Bleeding Past the Margin: A Review of Thomas Pynchon's  Bleeding Edge."  GC Advocate, October 2013.

Conference Papers and Presentations:

“What Is Africa? Recontextualizing Countee Cullen’s Poem ‘Heritage.’”  2025 MLA Convention, Modern Languages Association (MLA), New Orleans, LA, January 9-12.

"Recovering Our Words and Songs- The Intersection of Art, the Academy and Activist Publishing."  The 2023 American Studies Association Annual Meeting: Solidarity: What Love Looks Like in Public. American Studies Association (ASA), Le Centre Sheraton Montreal, November 2-5, 2023.

"The Image Remains: Ezra Pound's  Des Imagistes in the 21st Century,"  30th Ezra Pound International Conference: Ezra Pound and the Legacy of The Cantos, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, June 27-30, 2023.

Chair, "Contemporary Gothics: African American Fiction"  American Literature Association: 34th Annual Conference on American Literature, May 25-27, 2023.

"Black Beats: The Afro-Gothic Origins of the Beat Movement"  American Literature Association: 34th Annual Conference on American Literature, May 25-27, 2023.

"Wheel Whirling in the Middle of a Wheel: A Reading from  Harlem Mosaics  by Whit Frazier."  Annual Zora Neale Hurston Virtual Conference: Woman on Fire, The College of Arts and Humanities, Bethune-Cookman University, February 16-17, 2023.

"From Harlem to Bronzeville: Deprovincializing Black Literary Movements."  The 33rd Annual American Literature Association Conference, American Literature Association (ALA), Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL, May 26-28, 2022.

"The Fire Next Time:  Fire!! Magazine: A Hundred Years Later."  41st Conference of the Portuguese Association for Anglo-American Studies. Portuguese Association of American Studies, May 20-21, 2021.

"The Anthology as Meta-Syllabus: Combining German and Anglophone Approaches to Canon Studies," Guest Lecture Presentation, University of Washington, Department of Germanistics, February 19, 2021.

"Transnational Aesthetics in 'Harlem Mecca'"  Transnational Periodical Cultures: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. University of Mainz, Germany, January 29-31, 2020.

"Black Speculative Literature as Collective Aesthetic Revolution."  The 2019 American Studies Association Annual Meeting. American Studies Association (ASA), Hawai'i Convention Center, Honolulu HI, November 7-10, 2019.

"The Afrofuturist Historical Novel."  The 30th Annual American Literature Association Conference, American Literature Association (ALA), Westin Copley Hotel, Boston, MA, May 23-26, 2019.

"The Panther and the Lash: Black Literary Movement Publications and the Black Aesthetic,"  Intentionally Digital, Intentionally Black, African American History, Culture and Digital Humanities Conference, University of Maryland, October 18-20, 2018. Digital Poster Presentation.

"The Black Arts Movement and the Esoteric Afrofuturism of Sun Ra,"  American Cultures of Dissent, American Studies Leipzig Grad Conference 2018, University of Leipzig, April 28-29, 2018.

Oct 2025 - Feb 2026

University of Stuttgart

Early American Literature

Apr 2025 - July 2025

University of Stuttgart

The American Counterculture

Apr 2024 - July 2024

University of Stuttgart

(Neo)-Slave Narratives

Oct 2023 - Feb 2024

University of Stuttgart

Black Postmodernism

Apr 2023 - July 2023

University of Stuttgart

American Transcendentalism

Apr 2022 - July 2022

University of Stuttgart

Afrofuturism: Theory and Literature

Apr 2021 - July 2021

University of Stuttgart

American Modernism

Apr 2020 - July 2020

University of Stuttgart

African American Literature

Apr 2019 - July 2019

University of Stuttgart

The Beat Generation

Apr 2019 - Present

University of Stuttgart

American Cultural Studies

2018-Present

University of Stuttgart

Case Studies in American Literature

2018-Present

University of Stuttgart

Introduction to Literary Studies

2017 - Present

University of Stuttgart

Essay Writing

2017-2018

University of Stuttgart

Translation

2013-2018

Volkshochschule Stuttgart

English

2018-2023

University of Stuttgart

PhD: Summa Cum Laude, American Studies

2015-2017

University of Stuttgart

Master of Arts, English

1994-1998

St. John's College

B.A., Liberal Arts

1990-1994

Richard Montgomery HS

International Baccalaureate