View Dr. Deborah Whaley's Profile

Dr. Deborah Whaley is a professor of American Studies and an Administrative Fellow in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office of the Dean at the University of Iowa. She is an artist, curator, writer, and poet. She served as Senior Scholar for Digital Arts and Humanity for DSPS from 2017-2020, where she was an ambassador and liaison for the digital humanities, as well as director of the Public Digital Humanities graduate certificate. Dr. Whaley was nominated for a Rhysling Poetry Award for the long-verse poem, "Whispers and Lies" in the 2018 Bram Stoker Award Finalist book Sycorax's Daughters. Formerly, she served as Resident Visiting Scholar at the Center for CUltural Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and was a recipient of a grant from the Monroe Trotter Institute for Black Culture for her research on responses to 9/11 in Black expressive art and in the public sphere.

Dr. Whaley served as co-curator of the University of Iowa Museum of Art exhibition, "Two Turntables and a Microphone: Hiphop Contexts Featuring Harry Allen's Part of the Permanent Record; Photos From the Previous Century," with Kembrew Mcleod. She also served as a consultant and feature writer for exhibitions on Black popular music and Black sequential art. She is currently the editor of the journal Addressing the Crisis, alongside Mark Anderson, and is on the editorial board of the journal American Studies. Dr. Whaley served as the 2013-2014 chair of the Women's Committee for the American Studies Association and now is serving as co-chair for the ASA's committee on departments, programs, and centers.