Farah Jasmine Griffin
William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies and Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies

My Contact Info

508B Philosophy, Mail Code: 4927, United States

Office Hours

By appointment; please email [email protected]



+1 212 854 6411
[email protected]

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Research Interests

African American Literature
Literature and Music/ Jazz Studies
History and Politics
20th and 21st Century
American and the Americas
African American and African Diaspora
Ethnicity, Race, and Indigenous Studies

Biography

Farah Jasmine Griffin is the?William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative?Literature and African American Studies at Columbia University, where she also served as the inaugural Chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies. Professor Griffin?received her B.A. in History & Literature from Harvard?and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale. She is the author or editor of eight books including?Who Set You?Flowin?: The African American Migration Narrative?(Oxford, 1995),?If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday?(Free Press, 2001), and?Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II?(Basic Books,?2013).
Griffin collaborated with composer, pianist, Geri Allen and director, actor S.?Epatha Merkerson on two theatrical projects, for which she wrote the book: The?first, “Geri Allen and Friends Celebrate the Great Jazz Women of the Apollo,”?with Lizz Wright, Dianne Reeves, Teri Lyne Carrington and others, premiered on?the main stage of the Apollo Theater in May of 2013. The second, “A? Conversation with Mary Lou” featuring vocalist Carmen Lundy, premiered at?Harlem Stage in March 2014 and was performed at The John F. Kennedy Center?in May of 2016.?Her?most recent book,?Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature?was?published by W.W. Norton in September 2021. Griffin is a 2021-22 Guggenheim Fellow and Mellon Foundation Fellow in Residence.?

Selected Publications

Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Who Set You Flowin?: The African American Migration Narrative

Google Scholar

Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: Letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal Oak, Maryland, and Addie Brown of Hartford Connecticut, 1854-1868

Farah Jasmine Griffin

If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday

Farah Jasmine Griffin