Doctoral Candidate, English Language and Literature
she, her, hers
About
GSI during Fall 2026 semester
LaTara McLemore is a doctoral candidate in the English Language and Literature program. Broadly, LaTara's research takes up questions about characterization and narratology in 20th century African American fiction - mostly novels, some short stories. She specializes in Black speculative fictions, Black Women's Writing, Afro-pessimism (as debated as the term is), and Afrofuturism, and she has some side interests in horror, urban legends, and modern folklore.
In her dissertation project, tentatively called Narrative Wild Cards: "Weird" Characters and the Reimagination of Selfhood after the Civil Rights Movement, LaTara proposes a character trope of the "Wild Card" character, as she identifies them in novels published by Black Women writers during the political and social movements of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Her project examines how Black Women writers of the late twentieth century used these characters as narrative tools for destabilizing and reimagining community and relationality, both for other characters in the novel and for readers.
Outside of academia, you can find LaTara attending dance classes, going on long walks, listening to horror fiction podcasts, and hanging out with her well-loved and poorly-behaved cat, Nathaniel.
