Tess Chakkalakal

Affiliation: Africana Studies, English
Associate Professor of Africana Studies and English

Tess Chakkalakal [pronounced “Chah-KAHL-ickle”] has published widely on nineteenth-century African American and American literature. She is the author of Novel Bondage: Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America (Illinois, 2011) which earned the Robert K. Martin Prize for best book on American literature and "a must read" title by Choice. She is co-editor of Jim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs (Georgia, 2013). She is also co-editor of Imperium in Imperio by Sutton E. Griggs: A Critical Edition (West Virginia Press, 2022).

Professor Chakkalakal is currently completing a biography of Charles W. Chesnutt, forthcoming from St. Martin’s Press. She is also at work on a new podcast series called “Dead Writers: Great American Authors and Where They Lived,” scheduled to air on Maine Public Radio this summer. She serves on the Board of Directors of Chop Point School and The Maine Maritime Museum.

Inquiries for speaking requests should be directed to Africana Studies’ Department Coordinator Elizabeth Palmer (epalmer@bowdoin.edu).

Office Hours: Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to noon

Book Cover      Jim Crow Literature Chakkalakal Book Cover Image     Chakkalakal Novel Bondage Book Cover Image.

Left to right: Book covers for Imperium in Imperio by Sutton E. Griggs: A Critical EditionJim Crow, Literature, and the Legacy of Sutton E. Griggs, and Novel Bondage: Slavery, Marriage, and Freedom in Nineteenth-Century America.

Tess Chakkalakal Headshot

Education

  • PhD, York University
  • MA, York University
  • BA, University of Toronto