Lauren Michele Jackson (born 1991) is an American culture critic and assistant professor of English and African American studies at Northwestern University. Her first book, White Negroes (2019), is a nonfiction collection of essays that explores cultural appropriation.^[1][2]

Career

Jackson attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for her bachelor's degree. She received her doctoral degree in English Language and Literature from University of Chicago. Her dissertation is titled "Black Vertigo: Nausea, Aphasia, and Bodily Noise, 1970s to the present."^[3] In 2019, Jackson was hired at Northwestern University as an assistant professor in the departments of English and African American studies.^[2]

Jackson began freelance writing when she was a doctoral student.^[4] She has written for Vulture, The Paris Review, and The New Yorker, among others.^[5][6]

Jackson's debut book, White Negroes: Cornrows Were in Vogue... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation^[7] "explores how appropriation manifests in music, art, memes, and more."^[8] It was published by Beacon Press in November 2019.^[9] The title was inspired by the 1957 Norman Mailer essay "The White Negro".^[1] Reviewing the book for Vox, Alanna Okun wrote, "Using case studies ranging from the Kardashians to Miley Cyrus to Paula Deen to Big Dick Energy, she explores and pinpoints the term with nuance, curiosity, and wryness."^[10]

She was named a contributing writer for The New Yorker in September 2020.^[11]