Faculty Members

After thirty years in academia and the Federal government, Shirley A. James Hanshaw joined the Mississippi State University faculty in 2005. Her areas of specialization include twentieth century American and African American literature as well as technical writing, which she has taught in colleges and universities in Delaware and Mississippi. In 1980 Dr. Hanshaw was awarded a six-year Associateship for Outstanding Teaching in the Sciences and Humanities by the Danforth Foundation. Later, during a six-year hiatus from academia, she served as technical writer/editor for the Coastal Engineering Research Center, Corps of Engineers, in Vicksburg, MS, where she garnered commendations and awards for her work with the Coastal Engineering Research Board. Her diverse research interests have led to scholarly presentations across the Diaspora, from Senegal and Ghana in West Africa, to the University of the Virgin Islands, and, most recently, the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Under contract, she is currently writing two books: Conversations with Yusef Komunyakaa (University Press of Mississippi) and Re-membering and Surviving: Representation of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in African American Fiction (Michigan State University Press). She earned the B.A. from Tougaloo College, the M.A. from Temple University, and the Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi, all in English with a minor in French. The Hanshaws are parents of two children: Dr. Nneka T. Hanshaw Breaux (Chemist, Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, IN) and Dr. Okera S. Hanshaw (Medical Resident, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI), both born April 8, 1975 and 1978, respectively.