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Koritha Mitchell is a literary historian and cultural critic. Her research centers on African American literature, racial violence in U.S. literature and contemporary culture, and Black drama & performance. She examines how texts, both written and performed, have helped terrorized families and communities survive and thrive. Her study Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890 -1930(University of Illinois Press, 2011) won book awards from the American Theatre and Drama Society and from the Society for the Study of American Women Writers. Currently an associate professor of English at Ohio State University, Mitchell grew up near Houston, Texas; earned her BA from Ohio Wesleyan University; and earned her MA and PhD at the University of Maryland-College Park. She has published several scholarly articles and is particularly proud of “James Baldwin, Performance Theorist, Sings the Blues for Mister Charlie,” which appears in American Quarterly, and “Love in Action,” which draws parallels between racial violence at the last turn of the century and anti-LGBT violence today (published by Callaloo). In March 2014, Koritha spoke at the Library of Congress, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee presented her with a Certificate of Congressional Recognition. The lecture aired on C-Span’s BookTV and is part of their online video library.