Degrees

M.A. in English, Vanderbilt University (2007)
M.A. in English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2006)
B.A. in English and History with Highest Honors, Fisk University (2004)

Research Area

Nineteenth and Twentieth Century African American Literature

Current Research

“White Slaves: The Poor White Southerner in Slave Narratives of the Past and Present.”
“Reading Against the Grain: Toward a Womanist Approach to Jeffery Renard Allen’s Rails Under My Back”
“Rewriting Survival Strategies”: Hip Hop, Sampling, and Reenactment

Current Positions

Second Year Representative to the Academic Committee
Research Assistant for Ifeoma C. K. Nwankwo, Associate Professor of English
Consultant, The Writing Studio

Previous Positions

Co-recruitment Coordinator, Vanderbilt University English Department, 2006-2007
Teaching Assistant, Department of English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, June 2005-August 2006
Graduate Student Organization Representative for the English Department [UL], 2005-2006
Student representative for the Graduate Committee [UL English Dept.], 2005-2006
Graduate Student Funding Liaison for the Fifth Annual Graduate Conference on Language and Literature [UL], 2006
Staff Member of In the Beginning [A Journal of Freshman Literature at UL], Spring 2005

Professional Societies

The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature in the United States [MELUS]
College English Association [CEA]
Modern Language Association [MLA]

Professional Honors

Academy of American Poets Prize [VU], 2008
Conference of Southern Graduate Schools/ProQuest UMI Distinguished Thesis Award in the Humanities and Fine Arts, 2007 [for thesis completed at UL]
Richard G. Neiheisel Phi Beta Kappa Endowed Award for the Outstanding M.A. Graduate of Spring 2006 [UL]
The Phi Beta Kappa Society, Fisk University, 2004

Biography

Destiny O'shay Birdsong was born on New Year's Eve sometime during the 1980s to a mother and godmother who were not Irish (as people often assume), but simply thought that the name O'shay sounded nice when squeezed between two other equally interesting names. Destiny grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and, at the suggestion of a best friend who thought it would be cool to go to college together, applied to and was accepted at Fisk University, where she received a BA in English and History in 2004 (though, unfortunately, lost the friend). After graduation, she decided to spend some time back in her native state, where she earned an MA in literary and cultural studies from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette in May of 2006. Destiny describes UL as "a wonderful experience that prepared me for my work now as a PhD student at Vandy". Destiny is the proud daughter of both an awesome mother who embodies radical feminism, and an older, semi-bossy sister who is, nevertheless, a great mentor and one of her best friends. She also has an adorable brother who is seven, and a "niece": a two year-old shih tzu named Bella. Destiny is currently interested in African American literature, especially slave narratives and hip hop music. She feels that both are rich sources for studying the ways in which the black narrative tradition has evolved throughout the course of American history, and how class consciousness and the public representation of the African American self have changed over time.