Taylor Hagood
Professor Taylor Hagood teaches American literature, with specialization in the writing of William Faulkner, African American literature, disability studies, thing studies, and the literature and culture of the United States South. Increasingly, he is exploring comparative approaches that span disciplines, such as ecocriticism, animal studies, and the Anthropocene, in an effort to theorize rurality in literature, history, public policy, and other dimensions of culture.
Professor Hagood's books encompass a range of interests. His monographs include (2008); (2010); (2017); and (2014), winner of the for Best Book in Southern Literary Studies. Along with these single-authored books, he edited (2014) and coedited (2015) with Eric Gary Anderson and Daniel Cross Turner and (2020), with Kirstin L. Squint, Eric Gary Anderson, and Anthony Wilson. His newest book, , is a biography/true crime about Grand Ole Opry banjo player, singer, and comedian, David 鈥淪tringbean鈥 Akeman, whose brutal murder in 1973 rocked Nashville and the country music industry. Continuing in the biographical vein, Professor Hagood鈥檚 forthcoming book, , presents the life of the south Florida author of the classic novel, The Barefoot Mailman. 听
Currently, Professor Hagood is expanding and diversifying as a scholar, writer, and intellectual. He is researching work toward an interdisciplinary theory/philosophy/history of rurality across time and space. As a lecturer for general audiences, he is in demand across south Florida and the country on topics in literature, art, music, culture, and history.