Women’S Studies Professor Lamonda Horton-Stallings Awarded 2016 Emily Toth Award

Horton-Stallings’ new book offers a revitalizing discussion of black sexuality, literature and art from the perspective of funk culture.

LaMonda Horton-Stallings, associate professor in the Department of Women’s Studies, has been awarded the 2016 Emily Toth Award for Best Single Work by One or More Authors for her new book “Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures.”

In her book, Horton-Stallings analyzes the culture and aesthetics of the 1960’s funk movement and how it provides alternative narratives for black sexuality. She examines influences from occult forms of spirituality, such as those of Paschal Beverly Randolph, a 19th-century African-American medical doctor, occultist and spiritualist who introduced the principles of “sex magic.” Horton-Stallings argues that these forms of spirituality, which influenced funk culture, promote sexuality as the “art of being human” and a form of personal transcendence. By investigating the knowledge produced by the culture of funk, Horton-Stallings strives to replace stereotypical ideas of black sexuality with attitudes of self-empowerment.

“I’m interested in how we can come up with viable solutions for how we think about black people’s sexuality without pathologizing it as something evil, bad or hypersexual,” she said. “For me, part of that has to do with how we imagine black people, but also how we imagine sexuality.”

In one of the chapters of her book, Horton-Stallings interviews black female writers, including Wanda Coleman, a poet and former editor of Players, an erotic magazine. Through her interviews, Horton-Stallings explores the unique experience of being an intellectual black woman working in the world of erotica.

The book was also recently announced as a finalist in the 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards in the LGBT Studies category. The Lambda Literary Awards celebrate achievement in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender writing.

The Emily Toth award is awarded every year by the Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) to recognize an outstanding scholarly book that engages issues in women’s studies and pop culture. Horton-Stallings will be presented with the award at the PCA/ACA annual conference in Seattle on Wednesday, March 23, 2016.