Sam Davis is a trans critical theorist, educator, literary scholar, filmmaker, and musician. His doctoral research aims to forge an alternative trans literary history through the Black Arts Movement. This work closely studies the early writing of Gwendolyn Brooks and Toni Morrison to theorize trans literary aesthetics, paying close attention to subject-object relation within the literature. Sam currently teaches First Year Writing and in the WGSS and American studies departments at Barnard. His areas of expertise include Queer and Trans studies, Black Feminist thought, Disability Studies, Critical Social Theory, and Contemporary American Literature.
Sam’s auto-ethnographic documentary, In Our Own Words: On Being Trans at Smith (2017) has received various awards, including the Valeria Dean Burgess Stevens Prize at Smith College, as well as being the Feature Film at GLAAD’s Spring Film Festival in 2018. Sam is currently a doctoral candidate at UMass Amherst in the English department, and previously taught in their College Writing and English departments.
- Ph.D. candidate in English at UMass Amherst
- M.A. in English from Columbia University
- B.A. in Gender studies and Economics from Smith College