Bio

Dr. Gordon E. Thompson is a professor of English and African American cultural studies at the City College of New York/CUNY. His B.A. in English (1979) is from the City College of New York; his master's degree and doctorate (1987) in African American Studies and American Studies, respectively, were achieved at Yale University.

Currently, he directs the Langston Hughes Festival and RAP-SI (Retention, Achievement, Professionalism Success Institute), an arm of the City University’s Black Male Initiative Program.

Awards

• Simon H. Rifkind and Eisner fellowships from the Division of Humanities at CCNY
• Rockefeller Residency Fellowship at the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean (IRADAC) at CCNY
• Ford Foundation Fellowship
• PSC-CUNY awards

Publications
        Books:

• Black Music, Black Poetry: Blues and Jazz's Impact on African American Versification, edited (Ashgate 2014)
• Chapters in Black America [Two Volumes]: A State-By-State Historical Encyclopedia, edited by Alton Hornsby, Jr (ABC-CLIO Imprint, 2011)
• The Assimilationist Impulse in Four African American Narratives (Edwin Mellen Press, 2011)

       Articles: 

• Essays on Phillis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Zora Neale Hurston, Melvin Tolson, Charles Chesnutt, among others, in the CLA Journal, the Journal of American Literature, Callaloo, the Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, and American Book Review.

Events

• Co-curator: “The Langston Hughes Festival Exhibition: A Celebration of African American Writers” at the Morris Raphael Cohen Library Archives at City College, Sept-Dec. 2010.