Frances Smith Foster
{{Short description|American researcher and academic (born 1944)}}
{{Infobox academic|name=Frances Smith Foster|
|image=Frances Smith Foster at Emory School of Law.jpg
|caption = Foster interviewed at Emory School of Law in 2012
|alma_mater=University of California, San Diego
University of Southern California
Miami University|thesis_title=Slave narratives : text and social context|thesis_url=http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/917928917|thesis_year=1976|workplaces=Emory University
San Diego State University
University of California, San Diego|birth_date={{birth date and age|1944|02|08}}|children=3}}
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.
Early life and education
Foster grew up in Dayton, Ohio.{{Cite book|last=Koolish|first=Lynda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PuMklxR9RqQC&pg=PA38|title=African American Writers: Portraits and Visions|date=2001|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-57806-258-4|language=en}} 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.{{cite book|chapter="Frances Smith Foster" |title=Notable Black American Women |year=2002 |publisher=Gale | url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1623000939/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=c4f62ef6 |url-access=registration | access-date=8 August 2020 |via=Gale In Context: Biography}} Smith attended the all-black Wogaman Elementary School and graduated from Roosevelt High School.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Miami University, where she studied education. She made Phi Beta Kappa and graduated cum laude. She earned a master's degree at the University of Southern California in 1971. 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.{{Cite thesis|title=Slave narratives: text and social context|date=1976|language=en|first=Frances Smith|last=Foster|oclc=917928917}} She has said that during her graduate studies in the 1970s she did not encounter the work of Black women scholars.{{Cite journal|first=Joycelyn|last=Moody |author2=Elizabeth Cali|date=2013|title=A Tribute to Frances Smith Foster|journal=Legacy|volume=30|issue=2|pages=219–225|doi=10.5250/legacy.30.2.0219|jstor=10.5250/legacy.30.2.0219|s2cid=154460943|issn=0748-4321}}{{Cite web|title=The Study of African American Women's Writing: Pasts & Futures|url=https://www.amacad.org/news/study-african-american-womens-writing-pasts-futures|access-date=2020-08-02|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|date=8 March 2019 |language=en}} She received her Ph.D. there in 1976.
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. 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".{{Cite book|last=Koolish|first=Lynda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PuMklxR9RqQC&pg=PA38|title=African American Writers: Portraits and Visions|date=2001|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-57806-258-4|pages=38|language=en}} 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. When Foster joined Emory University in 1996, she became Director of the Institute for Women's Studies. She contributed to the 1997 Norton Anthology of African American Literature.{{Cite web|title=The Norton Anthology of African American Literature|url=https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393911558|access-date=2020-08-02|website=wwnorton.com|language=en}} She held Fellowships at Harvard University and Leiden University.{{citation | title=Mathilda B. Canter, Recipient of the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in the Practice of Psychology| publisher=American Psychological Association (APA) | year=2002 | doi=10.1037/e565682006-014}}
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.{{Cite web|title=Hubbell Medal 2010 {{!}} Frances Smith Foster {{!}} Report of the Hubbell Award Committee|url=http://www.als-mla.org/HMSmithFoster.html|access-date=2020-08-02|website=www.als-mla.org}}
Awards and honors
In 2009, Foster was awarded the Francis Andrew March award and in 2010 the Hubbell Medal, both of the Modern Language Association. She was the first African-American woman to win such an award.{{Cite web|title=Foster's contributions to literature honored|url=http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_REPORT/stories/2011/01/people_frances_smith_foster_award.html|date=January 12, 2011|access-date=2020-08-02|website=www.emory.edu}}
In 2011, she was awarded the Brandeis University Toby Gittler Prize "for outstanding and lasting contributions to racial, ethnic and religious relations", and the Emory University Feminists Founders award.{{Cite web|title=NewsCenter {{!}} SDSU {{!}} Humanities Vital for Personal Growth|url=https://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news_story.aspx?sid=73912|access-date=2020-08-02|website=newscenter.sdsu.edu|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Frances Smith Foster and Clayborne Carson|url=https://www.brandeis.edu/gittlerprize/recipients/past/carson-foster.html|access-date=2020-08-02|website=www.brandeis.edu|language=en}} The following year, the Society for the Study of American Women Writers announced that Foster was the inaugural winner of the Karen Dandurand Lifetime Achievement Medal.{{Cite journal|last=Tuttle|first=Jennifer S.|date=2013-11-29|title=Introduction|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/527544|journal=Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers|language=en|volume=30|issue=2|pages=217–218|doi=10.5250/legacy.30.2.0217|issn=1534-0643}}
Selected works
- {{Cite book|last=Foster, Frances Smith (1944– ).|title=Witnessing slavery : the development of ante-bellum slave narratives|date=1994|publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-14214-8|oclc=985816329}}
- {{Cite book|last=Foster, Frances Smith.|title=Written by herself literary production by African American women, 1746-1892|date=1993|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-20786-X|oclc=1178676105}}
- {{Cite book|editor-first=William L. |editor-last=Andrews|editor2=Frances Smith Foster|editor3=Trudier Harris|title=The Oxford Companion to African American Literature|date=1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-506510-7|oclc=35305158}}
References
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Category:20th-century African-American academics
Category:20th-century American academics
Category:21st-century African-American academics
Category:21st-century American academics
Category:Emory University faculty
Category:People from Dayton, Ohio