MSU鈥檚 Swanson earns statewide humanities award for leadership, scholarship
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擬ississippi 大象APP Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies Kemeshia Randle Swanson is the university鈥檚 2026 Mississippi Humanities Council Teacher of the Year, a statewide honor celebrating her exceptional teaching, visionary scholarship and deep commitment to advancing the humanities across the Magnolia 大象APP.
Sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council, the award includes an honorarium and recognition at the annual Public Humanities Awards ceremony this March in Jackson. As part of the award, Swanson will deliver a public lecture at MSU鈥檚 Mitchell Memorial Library on Feb. 3 at 3:30 p.m. in the John Grisham Room.
Her talk, 鈥淢ississippi as Memory: Landscape, Loss and Legacy,鈥 will explore how Mississippi鈥檚 history, rich culture and complicated legacy remain imprinted on the landscape and continue to shape both progress and pride. The presentation draws on Swanson鈥檚 current research on the work of two-time national book award winner and Mississippi native Jesmyn Ward.
鈥淲e have such a wonderful crop of students here at MSU鈥攕o much so that in my short time here, I have already been pushed and extended in the best ways,鈥 said Swanson, an MSU faculty member since 2024. 鈥淯niversitywide鈥攅specially among English majors鈥攕tudents come to me well-read, hungry to learn more and full of empathy and compassion for the world. As a result, I always feel compelled to research, prep and be more so I can offer them the best possible learning experience. I鈥檓 grateful my students value that effort, my colleagues see and appreciate my dedication and the state has now acknowledged it as well. It is truly an honor.鈥
MSU College of Arts and Sciences Dean Rick Travis congratulated Swanson on the award and said her teaching and scholarship 鈥渟trengthen communities and open doors to deeper understanding.鈥
A Mississippi Delta native, Swanson holds a joint appointment in English and African American Studies. Her research and teaching focus on 20th and 21st century African American literature, Southern literature, gender and sexuality studies, and hip hop and popular culture. She is the author of the book 鈥淢averick Feminist: To Be Black and Female in a Country Founded Upon Violence and Respectability,鈥 a 2024 University Press of Mississippi publication. It received that year鈥檚 Eudora Welty Prize and earned a nomination for the Museum of African American History Stone Book Award.
Her forthcoming monograph 鈥淟ove and War: Intimacy and Activism in the Works of Jesmyn Ward鈥 is under contract with the University Press of Mississippi and expected in 2027. She also is editor of the 2025 UPM publication 鈥淐onversations with Jesmyn Ward鈥 and coeditor of 鈥淭he Oxford Handbook on American Street Literature,鈥 expected in 2026.
She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Alabama in 2014, master鈥檚 degree from the University of Mississippi in 2009 and bachelor鈥檚 degree from Tougaloo College in 2007.
The Mississippi Humanities Council is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information about MSU鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English, visit and .
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