Mahaliah A. Little
Assistant Professor, Gender and Sexuality Studies
School of Humanities
School of Humanities
B.A., Spelman College, 2013, English
M.A., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, 2016, Women's and Gender Studies
Ph.D., The Ohio State University, 2021, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
M.A., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, 2016, Women's and Gender Studies
Ph.D., The Ohio State University, 2021, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine
3000 Humanities Gateway
Mail Code: 2655
Irvine, CA 92697
The University of California, Irvine
3000 Humanities Gateway
Mail Code: 2655
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Black Feminist Theory, Literary and Cultural Criticism, Sexual Violence Narratives, Black Women's Literature (Fiction and Memoir), Trauma Narratives, Sexuality Studies
Awards and Honors
2024-2025 UC Underrepresented Scholars Fellow
2021-2022 Carter G. Woodson Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Virginia
2020-21 American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship
2021-2022 Carter G. Woodson Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Virginia
2020-21 American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship
Short Biography
Mahaliah Little’s research, publications, presentations, and teaching are connected by themes of Black feminism, Black sexuality studies, pop culture, literary studies, and interrogations of sexual violence. She is passionate about feminist pedagogy, media literacy, and the teaching of writing.
Dr. Little is a 2024-2025 UC Underrepresented Scholars Fellow, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, and an affiliate faculty member in the Culture and Theory Program at the University of California, Irvine. She joined the faculty at UCI in 2021, and is a proud alumna of The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship, The Ohio State University, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Spelman College, and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Program.
Check out some of Dr. Little’s work without a paywall: See “Being Toward Trauma: Theorizing Post-Violence Sexuality,” published in Rejoinder: An Online Journal Published by the Institute for Research on Women. Her chapter, "Trauma and Arousal in the Archive: Black Women's Sexuality, Gloria Naylor, and Bailey's Cafe," is part of the forthcoming Critical Essays on Gloria Naylor anthology (University of Mississippi Press).
Learn more about Dr. Little’s work at www.mlittle.fyi.
Dr. Little is a 2024-2025 UC Underrepresented Scholars Fellow, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies, and an affiliate faculty member in the Culture and Theory Program at the University of California, Irvine. She joined the faculty at UCI in 2021, and is a proud alumna of The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship, The Ohio State University, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Spelman College, and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Program.
Check out some of Dr. Little’s work without a paywall: See “Being Toward Trauma: Theorizing Post-Violence Sexuality,” published in Rejoinder: An Online Journal Published by the Institute for Research on Women. Her chapter, "Trauma and Arousal in the Archive: Black Women's Sexuality, Gloria Naylor, and Bailey's Cafe," is part of the forthcoming Critical Essays on Gloria Naylor anthology (University of Mississippi Press).
Learn more about Dr. Little’s work at www.mlittle.fyi.
Publications
Little, Mahaliah A. “Being Toward Trauma: Theorizing Post-Violence Sexuality.” Rejoinder: Special Issue – Trauma – An Online Journal Published by the Institute for Research on Women, vol. 7, no. 1, 2022.
Fair, Freda L. and Mahaliah A. Little. “Erotic Illegibility and Desire in Representations of Black Sexuality – Erotic Representation in Underground.” American Quarterly, vol. 71 no. 1, 2019, p. 151-159.
Little, Mahaliah A. “Why Don’t We Love These Hoes?: Black Women, Popular Culture, and the Contemporary Hoe Archetype.” Black Female Sexualities. Ed. Trimiko Melancon and Joanne M. Braxton. New Brunswick: Rutgers New Brunswick, 2015. 89-99.
Little, Mahaliah A. “Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being: Review.” Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, pp. 137–140.
Grants
2024 UCI Building Intellectual Communities Grant
2021-2022 Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies (BBQ+) Book Development Summer Institute
2021 SSRC Mellon Mays Graduate Studies Enhancement Grant
2019 SSRC Mellon Mays Predoctoral Research Grant
Professional Societies
National Women's Studies Association
American Studies Association
Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6981
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6981
Last updated
07/30/2024
07/30/2024