Sheri-Marie Harrison is committed to faculty success and expert instruction in the College of Arts and Science and champions the graduate student experience.  

Dr. Harrison is a 2021 William T. Kemper Fellow for teaching excellence and leads the college’s efforts at providing expert instruction through a combined approach to both student success and faculty success. She oversees the college’s onboarding of new faculty. She developed and implemented the Junior Faculty Success Program that supports faculty retention and success through mentoring, cohort creation, and targeted development programming. She is a key partner in addressing processes for promotion and tenure and is elevating the visibility of highly prestigious and internal awards that recognize excellence in research and teaching. 

As an advocate for graduate students, she addresses issues that arise from the graduate student community and facilitates communications between students, academic departments and the college. Her goal is to partner with the Graduate School to advance its priorities for graduate education and student success in A&S.  

Dr. Harrison is an instructor of both undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of English. She is widely published in the field of contemporary literature and maintains an active research agenda that includes two monograph projects: an author study of Marlon James and a study of genre in Contemporary Black fiction. She is also a co-editor of Jesmyn Ward: New Critical Essays and the forthcoming Routledge Companion to the Novel. 

Dr. Harrison earned a PhD from the University of Miami.