Osbey named distinguished visiting professor

Brenda Marie Osbey, formerly distinguished visiting professor in Africana studies at Brown University, has joined Winston-Salem State University as distinguished visiting professor in the departments of English and World Languages and Cultures.

“We are excited to have her join our faculty,” said Dr. Corey D.B. Walker, dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, Business and Education. “This is a signature faculty appointment in the College and signals our deep commitment to the humanities.”

Osbey has held faculty appointments at University of California Los Angeles, Louisiana State University, Loyola University, Dillard University and Tulane University.

Most recently, Osbey served as visiting writer-in-residence at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and Brown Foundation Fellow of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Osbey is the author of poetry and nonfiction in English and French. Her poems have been published in numerous journals, anthologies and collections.

For more than 25 years, she has researched and recorded the history of the Faubourg Treme, a community of free Blacks in New Orleans.

She has received a number of prestigious honors, awards and fellowships, including being named poet laureate of the state of Louisiana.

Walker said as part of Osbey’s appointment, she will also conduct a faculty seminar on “The Future(s) of Undergraduate Studies in English.”