Professor Ernest L. Gibson III's book on James Baldwin awarded with national recognition

Ernest L. Gibson III, associate professor of English and co-director of Africana Studies, was recently garnered national recognition through the American Library Association. His book, 'Salvific Manhood: James Baldwin's Novelization of Male Intimacy,' was awarded a 2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title in December 2020.

'Salvific Manhood' was released on the Expanding Frontiers: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality series at the University of Nebraska Press. The work foregrounds the radical power of male intimacy and vulnerability in surveying each of James Baldwin’s six novels. Asserting that manhood and masculinity hold the potential for both tragedy and salvation, Gibson highlights the complex and difficult emotional choices Baldwin’s men must make within their varied lives, relationships and experiences. In Salvific Manhood, Gibson offers a new and compelling way to understand the hidden connections between Baldwin’s novels. Thematically daring and theoretically provocative, he presents a queering of salvation, a nuanced approach that views redemption through the lenses of gender and sexuality.

Gibson specializes in 20th/21st century African American literature and culture, and he is currently at work on another academic book, tentatively entitled, 'Between Ritual and Rebellion: Black Male Joy and Vulnerable Subjectivities.'