Frances Smith Foster
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Frances Smith Foster | |
|---|---|
 Foster interviewed at Emory School of Law in 2012 | |
| Born | February 8, 1944 |
| Children | 3 |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of California, San Diego University of Southern California Miami University |
| Thesis | Slave narratives : text and social context (1976) |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Emory University San Diego State University University of California, San Diego |
Frances Smith Foster (born 1944) is an American researcher and emeritus Professor of African-American studies and women's history. She has previously served as the Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women's Studies at Emory University.
Foster grew up in Dayton, Ohio.[1] Her parents were Quinton Smith, one of the 2 first Black bus drivers in the city and Mabel Smith (née Gullette), a beautician. Frances is the oldest of their five children.[2] Smith attended the all-black Wogaman Elementary School and graduated from Roosevelt High School.[2]
She earned her bachelor's degree at Miami University, where she studied education. She made Phi Beta Kappa and graduated cum laude.[2] She earned a master's degree at the University of Southern California in 1971.[2] After graduating Foster moved to the University of California, San Diego, where she investigated slave narratives as part of a doctoral programme in British and American literature.[3] She has said that during her graduate studies in the 1970s she did not encounter the work of Black women scholars.[4][5] She received her Ph.D. there in 1976.[2]
Research and career
In the early days of her academic career, Foster was appointed as the Chair of Black Students at San Diego State University.[4] In 1994, she published Witnessing Slavery: The Development of Antebellum Slave Narratives, which was the first text to explore the genre of slave literature. She has argued that African-American literature owes a considerable amount to slave narratives; including humour, irony and the creation of the protagonist character of "The Heroic Slave".[6] The Modern Language Association has said: "Frances proved that the slave narrative was a dynamic and ever-evolving genre of black self-expression." She also studied the literary contributions of African-American women, arguing that Black women not only founded the literary traditions of African Americans but that of all American women's literature.[6] When Foster joined Emory University in 1996, she became Director of the Institute for Women's Studies.[4] She contributed to the 1997 Norton Anthology of African American Literature.[7] She held Fellowships at Harvard University and Leiden University.[8]
Foster served on various committees for the Modern Language Association, including the Division of Ethnic Languages and Literatures, Afro-American Literature Discussion Group and executive committee.[9]
