Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting
Tracy Denean Sharpley-Whiting (born January 1, 1967) is a feminist scholar and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of French in the Department of French and Italian at Vanderbilt University where she serves as Associate Provost for Academic Advancement. She is also the Chair of African American and Diaspora Studies as well as Director of the Callie House Research Center for the Study of Global Black Cultures and Politics. She is editor of "The Speech: Race and Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union"", and editor of the academic journal "Palimpsest: A Journal on Women, Gender , and the Black International". She is also series co-editor of "Philosophy and Race" (SUNY Press) with philosopher Robert Bernasconi. Biography. Sharpley-Whiting received the PhD in French Studies from Brown in 1994. She served as Director of the William T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies from 2006-2012. In September 2007, Sharpley-Whiting testified before Congress at the hearing, From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images. She served on the Executive Council of the Modern Language Association from 2014-2018. She also served as chair/president of the Executive Advisory Committee for  the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Sharpley-Whiting is a former Camargo Foundation Fellow (Cassis, France); a George and Eliza Howard Foundation Fellow; and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at the Bellagio Study Center (Bellagio, Italy). Awards and honors. In 2020, Sharpley-Whiting won the SEC (SouthEastern Conference) Faculty Achievement Award for Vanderbilt University for her research and teaching. Sharpley-Whiting was named one of the top 100 young leaders of the African American community by "The Root", an online magazine founded by scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. She received the 2006 Horace Mann Medal from Brown University . The award is given annually by the Brown Graduate School to an alumnus or alumna who has made significant contributions in his or her field, inside or outside of academia. Her book, "Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women", received the Emily Toth Award for the Best Single Work by One or More Authors in Women's Issues in Popular and American Culture in a specific year from the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association. Her book, "Bricktop's Paris: African American Women in Jazz-Age Paris and The Autobiography of Ada Bricktop Smith , or Miss Baker Regrets" was a 2015 "Choice" Outstanding Academic Title and The American Library in Paris 2015 Book Award Long List Nominee"."