Our Most Prolific Scholarly Reader -- ep. by Howard Rambsy II

A brief take on the quiet but vital editorial labor of Aileen Keenan, whose two decades of behind-the-scenes work at African American Review have shaped the study, circulation, and preservation of African American literary scholarship.

Script by Howard Rambsy II

Read by Kassandra Timm 

Transcript

Scholarly articles published in academic journals about American and African American literature are notoriously under-cited and under-read. Few people read journals cover to cover, and even individual essays often reach only a small circle of specialists.

But during the 21st century, one person, by necessity and commitment, became one of our most prolific readers of scholarly work in African American literary studies.

You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions — a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American artistic productions and more.

Since 2003, Aileen Keenan has served as managing editor of African American Review, the leading journal in the field of African American literary studies. In that role, Keenan has assisted several lead editors of the periodical, and she has read, edited, or at least reviewed every article and book review published in the journal for more than two decades.

By a conservative estimate, that means she has examined more than 1,500 scholarly publications since the early 2000s. In doing so, Keenan has quietly become one of the field’s most devoted and wide-ranging readers.

 She has engaged with scholarship on Paul Laurence Dunbar, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, and many more. She’s covered articles on novels, poetry, drama, and film and on subjects spanning Black masculinity, the Blues, gender and sexuality, slavery, disability, Afrofuturism, print culture, and much more.

 Keenan represents what we might call the invisible workforce that makes African American literary studies possible. We often measure the field through the achievements of well-known scholars who publish books and articles. But behind the scenes are figures like Keenan, who serve as editors, reviewers, publishers. Their labor ensures the intellectual and professional life of the field continues to thrive.

 Although she has served as managing editor for the most prominent journal in African American literary studies for more than twenty years, Keenan’s name remains largely unfamiliar outside the circle of contributors. Her invisibility, however, does not correspond to her influence. If you’ve ever read an article in African American Review over the past two decades, then you and Aileen Keenan share a connection; it’s a reading practice that links your engagement to hers.

 Through her extended editorial work and careful attention to the words of others, Aileen Keenan has assisted in shaping how African American literature is studied, discussed, and preserved. Her contributions, though rarely highlighted, have been quietly quite remarkable. 

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This episode was written by Howard Rambsy, edited by Elizabeth Cali, and read by me, Kassandra Timm.

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