Alisha Gaines is an Assistant Professor with a PhD in English and African and African American Studies from Duke University. From 2009-2011 she held a Carter G. Woodson postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Virginia. She is currently drafting her book manuscript, Black Like We Imagine Ourselves: Spectacular Fantasies of Race and Nation. The project rethinks the political consequences of empathy by examining mid-to-late twentieth and twenty-first century narratives of racial impersonation enabled by the spurious alibi of racial reconciliation. She examines the memoirs of temporarily black Ray Sprigle, Grace Halsell, and John Howard Griffin alongside advertising campaigns, photography, and film. Her interdisciplinary teaching interests include African American literature and culture, black queer theory, media and performance studies, and New Southern studies. She is also a life-long fan of Michael Jackson.

Representative Publications

• Book Review. Blood Beats Vol 2: The Bootleg Joints. American Book Review, May-June 2008.
• Book Review. Fettered Genius: The African American Bardic Poet from Slavery to Civil Rights and New Voices on the Harlem Renaissance: Essays on Race, Gender, and Literary Discourse. American Literature, September 2007.
• "'I Just Can't Stop Loving You': Michael Jackson and Queer Cultural Desire." American Sexuality Magazine, August 2006.

Representative Presentations

• "America's Next Top Model and the Fashioning of Race." American Studies Association Annual Convention. San Antonio, TX. November 18-21, 2010.
• "Because Only This Michael Can Teach Us." Be Black Baby: A House Party Presents Michael Jackson 2004. Recess Arts: New York, NY. September 10, 2010. (Invited)
• "'I Am African?': Globalization and the (Black)Face of AIDS." Emerging Scholars Speakers Series. The Pennsylvania State University: State College, PA. February 11, 2009. (Invited)