Associate Professor Renee Simms

Associate Professor, African American Studies

Renee Simms is Associate Professor in African American Studies where she teaches courses in African American literature and black feminist theory. She is contributing faculty to English where she teaches Advanced Fiction Writing.

A fiction writer, essayist, and poet, Renee Simms’ writing appears in Callaloo, Oxford American, Ecotone, Literary Hub, Southwest Review, North American Review, The Rumpus, Salon and elsewhere. Honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Ragdale, and Vermont Studio Center. Her debut story collection is Meet Behind Mars (Wayne State University Press). She is at work on a novel entitled Festivals.

Renee’s research interests include African diaspora literature; black women’s fiction; the intersections of law and literature; and community writing pedagogies.

Education
BA University of Michigan 1988
JD Wayne State University 1992
MFA Arizona State University 2007
Classes
Intro African American Studies AFAM 101-B Fall 2024
381 Days: The 1955 Bus Boycott CONN 175-A Fall 2024
The Harlem Renaissance AFAM 375-A Spring 2025
Imaging Blackness CCS 176-A Spring 2025

Contact Information

Howarth 209E