Dr. Julia Sun-Joo Lee has gotten used to the strange looks that sometimes greet her on the first day of class.
“My students may initially be surprised to see me in the classroom,” says Lee, who teaches African-American Literature at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“But I always say that African-American literature is not just limited to African-Americans. It is American literature and is so much a part of the history of this country. It shouldn’t be ghettoized.”
Lee, who is Korean American, earned her Ph.D. in English and American Language and Literature from Harvard University in 2008 and credits Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. with piquing her interest in African-American and transatlantic literature.
“[Gates] is able to make history come alive,” Lee says of her famous mentor, who currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research. “He is engaging and charming and has so much enthusiasm in the classroom.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, Lee developed a strong interest in race relations early on. “I think I always had a sense of racial consciousness.”
