Elizabeth Swanson

Academic Division: Arts & HumanitiesProfessor Swanson teaches courses in African American literature and culture, international literatures, and human rights. She held the Mandell Family Term Chair (2007-2012), and was voted Professor of the Year by the graduating classes of 2007, 2008, and 2009. Dr. Swanson has received the Faculty Scholarship Award, 2012; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award, 2012; the Lewis Institute for Social Innovation Changemaker Award, 2012; the Nan Langowitz Women Who Make a Difference Award, 2007; the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2006; and the faculty Innovators Among Us award, 2004. Author of Beyond Terror: Gender, Narrative, Human Rights (Rutgers University Press, 2007), Dr. Swanson has published articles in journals and edited collections in the areas of multicultural and international literature and pedagogies, gender studies, and human rights. She edited a special issue of the transnational journal Peace Review devoted to the subject of literature, film, and human rights (Spring 2008), and is currently co-editing a collection of essays on torture since 9/11. She is co-editor, with Alexandra Schultheis, University of North Carolina, of Theoretical Perspectives on Literature and Human Rights (Routledge 2011) and Teaching Human Rights in Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern Language Association Press, 2015). Dr. Swanson has worked extensively on the issue of modern slavery and human trafficking, serving as Board Chair for the NGO Made By Survivors (now Her Future Coalition) and working directly with survivors of both slavery and torture. She also served as Commissioner and Chair of the Barnstable County Human Rights Commission.

Academic Degrees

• Ph D, Miami University of Ohio
• MA, Northeastern University
• BA, Northeastern University

Academic Interests

Literature and Human Rights; Postcolonial and Narrative Theories; African American Studies; Slavery Studies; Critical Theory; Film Studies

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Awards & Honors

2012 - Faculty Scholarship Award, Dean of Faculty

2012 - Changemaker Award, Lewis Institute

2012 - Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Day Award, Council on Diversity and Inclusion

2008 - Professor of the Year, Babson College

2007 - Professor of the Year, Babson College

2007 - Women Who Make a Difference Award, Babson College

2006 - Dean''s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Babson College

2004 - Innovators Among Us Award, Babson College