TOYA MARY OKONKWO PH.D. ENGLISH LITERATURE
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YOUR CART

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Toya Mary Okonkwo
Ph.D. Candidate & Graduate Instructor
​Texas Christian University 

I am currently in my fifth year as a Ph.D. student of English Literature at Texas Christian University. My interests include being a fabulous scholar and teacher of African American studies at the university and college education level. 
This website take you through the major projects I did for Teaching College English - a graduate seminar at TCU. You will find my C.V., Teaching Philosophy (and inspiration), Discussion Lead, Pedagogy Presentation, Inquiry Project, Annotated Syllabus, and Sample Peer Responses. Enjoy the tour!
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MY C.V.

EDUCATION

​MAY 2021                           
Texas Christian University                Fort Worth, Texas 
Ph.D. English           
 
AUG 2016                   
VHS Language School                  Berlin, Germany
German CERF Certificate
 
MAY 2015                     
Midwestern State University      Wichita Falls, Texas
M.A. English
 
MAY 2009                 
​Midwestern State University      Wichita Falls, Texas
B.A. Theatre & Humanities w/ English Concentration 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

RESEARCH PROJECTS

African-American Literature, Black Women Writers, Drama & Theatre, (Neo)/Slave Narratives, 19th century Middle Eastern Feminism, Magical RealiSm, Global Literature, Rap and Hip-Hop
SEMINAR PAPERS
Stop Six Heritage Day: An Interactive PDF to Honor the Rich Heritage of This Fort Worth Community

On Womanism: The Black Women’s Club Movement, Antebellum Resistance, and a Sundance Luncheon

Fixing the Voice in God’s Trombones

Majnun and Romeo, Layli and Juliet: Examining Star-Crossed Lovers in a Global Context
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Beyonce’s Lemonade as a Neo-Slave Narrative and Nola as a City of the Dead
 
MASTERS THESIS
A Handful of Gardenias: Short Stories from My Grandmother, Mary "May" Katherine McKenzie
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Publications

SUMMER  2018  
Studies in the Novel 
Book Review 
Precarious Passages: The Diasporic Imagination in Contemporary Black Anglophone Fiction by Tuire Valkeakari
 
JULY  2016 
KUNSTASYL/Museum Europäischer Kulturen Editor 
"daHEIM: Einsichten in flüchtige Leben: Myth of Gilgamesh Seeking Europa"
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Presentations

May 2018 - HOTCUS CONFERENCE - Cambridge, United Kingdom
"On Womanism: The Black Women's Club Movement, Antebellum Resistance, and a Sundance Luncheon"
Panel presentation, at the Historians of the Twentieth Century U.S. conference, on my research into a Fort Worth, TX branch of Black Women’s Clubs. I connected the Black Women’s Club movement to a lineage of black female resistance that began during the antebellum period, while bringing the same issues to a recent example of black women’s resistance in contemporary spaces (the Sundance luncheon).  

MAY 2017 -  SPACES OF CONFRONTATION -  Boston, MA
“Another Black Atlantic: Sites of Confrontation in Mary Prince”
• The III International Conference in Transatlantic Studies, I presented my paper on Mary Prince at the invitation of the Real Colegio Compultense at Harvard University.
 
OCTOBER 2016 
TCU Women and Gender Studies- Fall Symposium - Fort Worth, TX
“Love and Courage in a Time of Oppression”
• Pecha Kucha style presentation on Táhirih, a 19th century Persian feminist and poet.
 
APRIL 2014 
Texas Tech University Annual Women’s Conference Lubbock, TX
“Amazons Among Us”
• Panel presentation titled, “Amazons Among Us: Exploring the Contributions of Women in the Fields of Global Feminism, Neurofemism, and Feminist Pop-Culture.” We each chose women to represent Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s definition of an “Amazon” from her book Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History.
 
APRIL 2009 
Sigma Tau Delta International -Convention,  Minneapolis, MN
“Role of Women in The Wife’s Lament” and “My Parents: From Honduras, Nigeria, and Wichita Falls, Texas”
• Presented my research paper in the British Literature: Early British Women category about the Old English poem’s unique female perspective and how the presented voice is possibly symbolic interpretation about the exile of the Norse goddess Freya from Anglo-Saxon culture, after their introduction to a male-centered Christian faith. Also presented a creative nonfiction piece.
 
APRIL 2008 
Sigma Tau Delta International Convention - Louisville, KY
“Logical Nonsense: A Collection of Poems”
• Presented a series of three free verse poems about my life experiences.
 
APRIL 2007 
Sigma Tau Delta International Convention - Pittsburgh, PA
“Like Nothing I Ever Knew Before” and “A Progression of Thought”
• Presented Creative Nonfiction and Poetry pieces about the realty of dreams and my travels to Guadalajara, Mexico and Havana, Cuba. ​

Teaching Experience 

AUG 2018 - Present
Paul Quinn College
Adjunct Professor - Black American Literature; World Literature; Black American Lit. & Film; Composition I & II
AUG 2017 - DEC 2020                
Texas Christian University   
Graduate Instructor – Intro to Drama, Imagination as Resistance; Writing as Inquiry
 
JAN 2014 – JUL 2014                              
Midwestern State University             
Intensive English Language Instructor
 
AUG 2013 – MAY 2014                         
Midwestern State University                   
Writing Tutor
 
AUG 2009 – FEB 2010     
La Escuela El Alba  - Siguatepeque, Honduras
Primary and Secondary Earth & Life Sciences Teacher

Service 

AWARDS: TCU GO Ambassador; TCU University Fellowship; MSU Graduate Scholarship; Emergency Dentist USA Scholarship; Sealed Air Corp. Scholarship; MSU Bourland Hawley Scholarship

LEADERSHIP: TCU Long 20th Century American Literature Graduate Reading Group; TCU African Student Association; 2017 PIP Talks Judge; TCU CRES Grad Student Association; Chair MSU M.A. Thesis Handbook Committee; President/Community-Chair MSU Sigma Tau Delta; President - Hirschi Class of 2004 Alumni Association; Facilitator Dallas Bahá'í Youth Conference; Little Free Library Volunteer; Community Service Chair- Alpha Psi Omega

International Experience

Berlin, Bonn, & Schifferstadt, Germany – English Tutor & Magazine and Website Editor (2014-2016)

​Haifa, Israel – Religious Volunteer at Baha'i World Center (2010-2012)

Siguatepeque, Honduras – Science Teacher (2009-2010)

London, UK – Study Abraod (2008)

Havana, Cuba – Religious & Cultural Exchange with One World Dance Group (2007)

Guadalajara, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosi Mexico – Cultural Exchange Trips (2000-2004)

References

Dr. Stacie McCormick
Assistant Professor at TCU
s.mccormick@tcu.edu
817-257-6245


Dr. Sarah Robbins
Lorraine Shirley Professor of Literature at TCU
s.robbins@tcu.edu
817-257-5146


Dr. Kristen Garrison
Assoc. VP, Undergraduate Education & Assessment
kristen.garrison@mwsu.edu
940-397-6305




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