A native of Philadelphia who has taught at Emory University and the University of Pennsylvania, Michael Awkward is the Gayl A. Jones Professor of Afro-American Literature and Culture at the University of Michigan, where he began his career in 1986. His published work has focused primarily on representations of race and gender in 20th century black American expressive culture. Since his first book, a study of black women's literary tradition, he has sought to describe the impact upon the art and lived experiences of black Americans following World War II of received and perceived notions of black identity. In addition to examining literary texts by such major figures as Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, and August Wilson, he has taken up such varied subjects as Mike Tyson's rape trial, Michael Jackson's attitudes about race, Al Green's negotiations of the divide between sacred and secular life, and his own coming-of-age as a young boy aware of some of the implications of gender inequity. Most recently, in "Burying Don Imus: Anatomy of a Scapegoat," he has contextualized reactions to Imus's description of members of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" in terms of both the broadcaster's brand of comedy and reactions by black Americans to other recent controversies involving whites' seemingly racist language.