Virginia Foundation for the Humanities awards resident fellowship to University of Richmond professor

June 4, 2007

The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities has awarded Suzanne Jones, professor of English and women's studies at University of Richmond, a resident fellowship for the fall semester.

Her project, expected to result in a book, is titled "Rethinking the One-Drop Rule: The Reappearance of the Racially Mixed Figure in the American Imagination." It is an interdisciplinary study of the narrative and rhetorical techniques that contemporary American writers use to rethink the long-practiced "one drop" rule, which renders black any person with any known black ancestry.

Jones will examine how a wide variety of recent works, such as popular films, serious fiction, introspective memoirs and carefully researched family histories, either break down or bolster current notions about racial identity and race relations.

The competitive fellowships provide time, space and resources in Charlottesville, Va., to scholars conducting research on matters of public concern.

Jones has taught at Richmond since 1984. She is author of many articles on 20th-century literature and a book, "Race Mixing: Southern Fiction since the Sixties." She also has edited or co-edited five books on Southern literature and culture, race relations, and women writers.