Joining the faculty in 2005, Professor Anthony S. Foy specializes in black literary and cultural history. With ongoing research interests in African American autobiography from Emancipation to the present, his publications have examined the autobiographical construction of black masculinity, the role of Jim Crow-era self-presentation in the production of racial uplift ideologies, and the status of visual paratexts in black autobiography; his current research focuses on race, consumption, and the emergence of black celebrity autobiography in the twentieth century. Besides teaching courses centered on both classic and contemporary African American autobiography, Professor Foy teaches courses in African American fiction, post-Civil Rights black culture, and black cultural studies, as well as the English department’s capstone course for majors.

Professor Foy earned his PhD in American Studies and his MA in African American Studies at Yale; he earned his BA in English at UCLA. He has also received fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

After serving for many years as a faculty mentor in Swarthmore’s Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program (MMUF), Professor Foy has been the Coordinator of MMUF since 2012.