Deborah E. McDowell facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Deborah E. McDowell
Awards	Honorary Doctorate, Purdue University, Helen Homans Gilbert Prize Lectureship, Harvard University, Zintl Leadership Award
Academic background
Alma mater	Purdue University
Thesis	"Women on Women: The Black Woman Writer of the Harlem Renaissance--Jessie Fauset, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston"
Academic work
Institutions	University of Virginia, Carter G. Woodson Institute of African-American and African Studies
Main interests	African-American Literature and Culture,Women's Literature

Deborah E. McDowell (born 1951) is a scholar, author and member of the University of Virginia faculty since 1987 where she serves as the Alice Griffin professor of Literary Studies. In 2008 professor McDowell was named director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, at the University of Virginia.

Early life

McDowell was born and raised in Bessemer, Alabama. She wrote about her childhood in her debut memoir Leaving Pipe Shop: Memories of Kin.

Academic and writing career

McDowell received a B.A. from Tuskegee University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from Purdue University. She has been on the faculty of the University of Virginia since 1987. She founded the African-American Women Writers Series at Beacon Press, and was its editor from 1985 to 1993. Deborah McDowell was featured in the documentary Unearthed and Understood.

In 2018, she was awarded the Zintl Leadership Award by the Maxine Platzer Lynn Women's Center.