The areas of my academic research are literatures of Africa and its diaspora, and more broadly, Trans-Atlantic studies. My research explores cross-cultural exchange, hybridity, and links in aesthetics of twentieth and twenty-first century literatures across boundaries of geography, ethnicity, gender, and nationality.

My doctoral research focused on African writers Amos Tutuola, Dambudzo Marechera, Yvonne Vera, Ayi Kwei Armah, and others known for “innovative” writing, exploring contributions of African aesthetics based in performance and oral arts to modern and post-modern literatures; in addition, my research included writers of the African diaspora.

My current research has expanded to further explore contributions of African cultures to twentieth and twenty-first century literatures in the Americas and Europe. This includes for example the novels of William Faulkner, a modernist who lived in the U.S. South and in New Orleans. The city is often credited with the rise of jazz – a hybrid form of music that arose out of a mix of cultures, including most predominantly African cultures.

I have published articles in peer-reviewed journals and chapters in edited collections ( as ‘Carolyn Hart, PhD’), including The Journal of African Cultural Studies; Moving Spirit: The Legacy of Dambudzo Marechera in the 21st Century, and Diasporic Women’s Writing of the Black Atlantic: (En)gendering Literature and Performance. I have regularly contributed conference papers in the UK, the U.S., and Africa, some with support from grants in the U.S. and from the British Academy.

It is in essence the links in aesthetics across boundaries, with an overview of hybridity and Trans-Atlantic studies and histories, that informs all the areas of my research.

The Blood Notebook is a historical trilogy set on a plantation in the U.S. South. Inspiration came in part from my travels in Ghana, where I visited the Elmina Castle and the “Door of No Return.” Inspiration has also come from my research in literature and African Studies, including Trans-Atlantic migrations and diasporas. The trilogy re-constructs history as it tells the story of several generations of a mixed-race family, from the antebellum period to the early twentieth century, through the voices of multiple narrators. I am completing the third volume while continuing to review and refine the entire work. I craft my novels and short stories with time and care, focusing on getting the language and story right.