By Bailey Fernandez, Graduate Writer
Danielle Christmas, Assistant Professor in the Department of English & Comparative Literature, had a lot to say on her September 8, 2019 podcast for UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities. During the podcast, titled “Examining the Literature of Hate,” she was interviewed about her recent research and the courses she has taught: one on religious slave narratives and another on the literary culture of white nationalism.
A discussion of white nationalism is bound to attract attention, and Christmas stresses the urgency of confronting this topic: “I think it is emotionally difficult to admit that there is something so seductive about hate discourse.…These are people that we know; these are people we are running into. This is no longer fringe—it is becoming mainstream.” Analyzing the literary culture of a movement with such a widespread and nefarious influence thus becomes extraordinarily pressing.
Christmas also received a shout-out at UNC’s New Student Convocation, where Interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz stated: “Danielle Christmas in the English department researches how slavery and the Holocaust affect socioeconomic discourse, and she will teach you how to write.”
If you are interested in following up on Christmas’s research, listen to the podcast here.
