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Sarah Mantilla Griffin

2012 Ph.D. Graduate
Dissertation Advisor(s): Thadious Davis
"'Hush Now Can You Hear It': Black Women's Sonic Literature"

Sarah Mantilla Griffin received her BA with honors in American Studies from Stanford University in 2004.  She received a Teaching Certificate from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009.

Her dissertation, entitled Hush Now Can You Hear It: Black Women’s Sonic Fiction, includes work on the novels of Olympia Vernon, Toni Cade Bambara, and Octavia Butler, and the poetry of Elizabeth Alexander, Rita Dove, and Tracie Morris.

Sarah taught WRIT 039: “Black France” in Penn’s Critical Writing Program in 2008-2009 and HON 101: “World Literature: Africa and the Black Diaspora” in DePaul University’s Honors Program in 2010-2011.

She has presented her work at the M/MLA and Toni Morrison Society annual conventions and has an essay published in Critical Perspectives on Percival Everett, forthcoming from the University Press of Mississippi.

Her interests include: African-American literature, black feminist theory, literature and theory of the black diaspora, sound theory, contemporary African-American poetry, and world literature.