Jeffrey B. Leak, professor of English and Africana studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, passed away on June 29. He was 57 years old.
Raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, Dr. Leak received his bachelor’s degree in English from Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. After earning his master’s degree in English from Delaware State University and his doctorate in English from Emory University in Atlanta, Dr. Leak completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vermont.
Dr. Leak joined the UNC Charlotte faculty in 1998. Throughout his long tenure, he served in several leadership capacities, including interim associate dean of the Honors College, director of the American studies program, president of the Faculty Council, director of the Center for the Study of the New South, director of the McNair Scholars Program, and faculty athletics representative to the NCAA. As an American Council on Education Fellow during the 2019–2020 academic year, Dr. Leak worked closely with the president of historically Black Johnson C. Smith University, assisting with strategic planning and program evaluation.
As a scholar, Dr. Leak was known for his research on African American literature, autobiographies, and gender and cultural studies. He wrote numerous publications, including Visible Man: The Life of Henry Dumas (University of Georgia Press, 2014), Racial Myths and Masculinity in African American Literature (University of Tennessee Press, 2005), and Rac(e)ing to the Right: Selected Essays on George S. Schuyler (University of Tennessee Press, 2001).
