Arielle Michelle Raymos

Arielle Raymos is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Literary Studies. She was born in St. Augustine, Florida and spent most of her life in Manchester, Tennessee. Arielle received her bachelor’s in English Literature from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee in 2018, and her master’s in English Literature & Theory from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas in 2020. She studies African American literature, with a particular interest in the intersection between race, gender, and sexuality. Arielle’s master’s thesis, “Lorraine Hansberry’s Radical Activism Beyond Broadway” (2020), explores Hansberry’s depiction of gay and lesbian identity in the posthumously published play “Les Blancs” (1970) and the unpublished, lesbian-themed play, “Flowers for the General” (1955). Her dissertation continues this work by looking at Hansberry’s lesbian-themed writing, analyzing the pieces’ literary qualities as well as their participation in what Stephanie Foote calls the “lesbian print culture” of the 1950s-60s.