Research Interests
20th century and contemporary African American cultural history, cooperative economics, humor studies, social movement theory, performance studies, and affect theory.
My manuscript, Dreaming the Present: Time, Aesthetics, and the Black Cooperative Movement (UNC Press 2022) uncovers how four generations of African American artists, in particular—W. E. B. Du Bois, George Schuyler, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, and their circles—established local cooperatives as alternatives to global capital. These luminaries practiced new orientations toward historical time, as they formed social movements beyond the promise of progress. Where do you move to, they asked, when not to a better tomorrow? In the end I show how one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history profoundly speaks to the challenges of our time.
Education
- Ph.D., Columbia University (2014)
- M.A., University of California, Berkeley (2007)
- B.A., Morehouse College (2005)
Awards and Honors
- Postdoctoral Fellowship in African American Literature, Rutgers University, New Brunswick (2016-17)
- Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship (2017-18)
Courses Taught
- Introduction to Literature and Culture (ENG 200)
- Mourning in Comic Time (ENG 553)
- Black Literature in America from the Beginnings to Today (ENG 150 / AFRO 105)
- The End of Poverty in the African American Novel (ENG 461)
- Writing about Literature: Love and Sound in the Age of Consumption (ENG 300)
- American Literature after 1945 (ENG 452)
- Afro-American Literature I & II (ENG 259 & 260)
- The American Novel since 1914 (ENG 251)
Additional Campus Affiliations
Dean's Fellow in Inclusive Excellence, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Associate Professor, English
Associate Professor, African American Studies
Work in Progress
"The Ethics of Reading Poverty: Charles Wright, Empathy, and the US Welfare State," (revise and resubmit at Contemporary Literature)
Highlighted Publications
Hunt, I. J. (2022). Dreaming the Present: Time, Aesthetics, and the Black Cooperative Movement. University of North Carolina Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/95080
Hunt, I. J. (2020). Planned Failure: George Schuyler, Ella Baker, and the Young Negroes' Cooperative League. American Quarterly, 72(4), 853-879. https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2020.0050
Hunt, I. J., Nishikawa, K., Callahan, C., & Entin, J. (Eds.) (Accepted/In press). How Literature Understands Poverty. American Literature.
Hunt, I. J. (Accepted/In press). Unco-Opted: Cooperative Economies as Counter Surveillance. In African American Literature In Transition, 1940-1950 (African American Literature in Transition). Cambridge University Press.
Hunt, I. J. (2019). Commentary: Necromance. American Literary History, 31(4), 829-839. https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/ajz046
Hunt, I. J. (2019). The Hesitations of Speculative History. Post45. http://post45.research.yale.edu/2019/01/the-style-of-speculative-history/
Hunt, I. J. (2019). The Humor We Fear Most. Post45. http://post45.research.yale.edu/2019/02/the-humor-we-fear-most-a-response-to-sarah-wasserman/
Hunt, I. J. (2017). Not an Invitation, but a Warning. Public Books. http://www.publicbooks.org/virtual-roundtable-get/#hunt
Hunt, I. J. (2016). On Ava Duvernay. Public Books. http://www.publicbooks.org/virtual-roundtable-on-women-directors/#hunt
Hunt, I. J. (2014). Saints on the Dollar. Public Books. http://www.publicbooks.org/saints-on-the-dollar/
Recent Publications
Callahan, C., Entin, J., Hunt, I., & Nishikawa, K. (2022). Introduction: How American Literature Understands Poverty. American Literature, 94(3), 383-397. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-10084470
Hunt, I. J. (2022). Dreaming the Present: Time, Aesthetics, and the Black Cooperative Movement. University of North Carolina Press. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/95080
Hunt, I. J. (2021). This Bridge Called the System: An Interview with Stephanie Morningstar, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust. Diletante Army. http://www.dilettantearmy.com/articles/this-bridge-called-the-system
Hunt, I. J., Nishikawa, K., Callahan, C., & Entin, J. (Eds.) (Accepted/In press). How Literature Understands Poverty. American Literature.
Hunt, I. J. (2020). Planned Failure: George Schuyler, Ella Baker, and the Young Negroes' Cooperative League. American Quarterly, 72(4), 853-879. https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2020.0050