Roland Williams

Roland Williams

  • College of Liberal Arts

    English

    Professor and Department Chair

    Professor

    Programs
    • Liberal Studies
Office Location

Mazur Hall, 1038

Expertise

African American Literature, American Society, and Hollywood Cinema

Biography

Roland L. Williams, Jr. teaches courses on African American culture, American society, and Hollywood cinema. Great grandson of an American slave, he was raised on Race Street in Philadelphia and earned his degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He wrote Black Male Frames: African Americans in a Century of Hollywood Cinema (1903-2003), following African American Autobiography and the Quest for Freedom. He has also written articles for African American Authors, Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, and Ox-ford Companion to African American Literature. The professor has provided reviews for African American Review, Journal of Modern Literature, and Research in African Literatures, plus the Journal of American Folk-lore. For volumes of the MLA Approaches to Teaching Series, he has contributed essays, including “Scrubbed from the Screen: The African American Perspective in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” His next book, entitled Paragons of Discretion, covers African American figures in American fiction that favor Rinehart in Invisible Man who constitutes a maestro of improvisation, a marvel of ingenuity.

Selected Publications

Books

  • Black Male Frames: African Americans in a Century of Hollywood Cinema (1903-2003), Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2014.
  •  African American Autobiography and the Quest for Freedom. West-port, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000.

Articles

  • “Scrubbed from the Screen: The African American Perspective in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” Approaches to Teaching Ernest Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and Other Works. NY: Modern Language Association, forthcoming.
  • “Types of a Tradition: Dutchman, A Raisin in the Sun, and the Histo-ry of Minstrel Theater.” Approaches to Teaching Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman. NY: Modern Language Association, forthcoming.
  • “Film.” Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, p. 376-381, edited by Cary Wintz and Paul Finkelman. New York: Routledge, 2004.
  • “Blacks as Portrayed by White Filmmakers.” Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, p. 389-393, edited by Cary Wintzand Paul Finkelman. New York: Routledge, 2004.
  • “Redemptive Reverie: Denzel Washington as Hollywood Scoundrel.” Bma: The Sonia Sanchez Literary Review 7.2 (Spring 2002): 74-84.
  • “John Marrant.” African American Authors, 1745-1945, p. 334-37. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press 1999.
  • “All God’s Dangers.” The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, p. 13-14. NY: OUP, 1997.
  •  “Briton Hammon.” The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, p. 337. NY: OUP, 1997.
  • “Ned Cobb.” The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, p. 159-60. NY: OUP, 1997.

Courses Taught

  • African American Literature
  • American Literature and Society
  • Black Image in Popular Culture
  • Introduction to Cinema
  • Survey of American Literature