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Riché Richardson spent the first 10 years of her career teaching in the department of English at the University of California, Davis and in 2008, joined the faculty at Cornell University’s Africana Studies and Research Center. She is primarily a scholar of literary studies and offers courses in areas such as African American literature, gender studies, black feminism, Southern studies, critical theory, popular culture, and Africana studies. The syllabi for her undergraduate courses often feature sections on reading and study skills for the subject at hand. The graduate syllabi that she has developed in her career also have a distinctive form and style and are valued by students on their own terms as research and learning tools. These resources are her springboard for a dynamic teaching approach in the classroom.
Riché Richardson pictured with English Creative Writing faculty at A.D. White House awaiting limo to the reception for the Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison at Cornell President David Skorton's house during her October, 2009 visit to her alma mater.
Riché Richardson pictured with Gerard Aching, department director, and very excited to help welcome Toni Morrison to a luncheon in her honor at the Africana Studies and Research Center during her visit to campus in March, 2013
Parties for The Global South (2008) and African American Literature (2003) Graduate Seminars at University of California, Davis
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Highlights from graduation as Dr. Richardson served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Africana Center at Cornell, along with some other students and advisees
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Erinn Cawton and Prof. Richardson
Katherine Finerty and Prof. RR
Keenan Borde and Prof. RR
Professor RR addressing audience
RR conferring Africana certificate
Invited keynote speaker Riché Richardson. “Best Practices for Designing a New Course.” University-wide Get Set Teaching Conference. The Center for Teaching Excellence. Cornell University. Ithaca, New York. March 4, 2017.
Toni Morrison pictured with exhibition of Richardson's art quilts put together to help welcome her to the Africana Center in March of 2013, including the art quilt "Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison" made in her honor in 2011 in honor of her 80th birthday.
Cornell Celebrates Toni Morrison. Arts Unplugged. Arts and Sciences, 2020-21
Kathy A. Hovis. “Authors, poets, scholars celebrate Morrison in ‘Bluest Eye’ reading.” Arts and Sciences Communications. August 26, 2020
Riché Richardson, “Teaching Toni Morrison.” The Cornell Daily Sun. August 28, 2019
Reflections on Dr. Richardson from Students:
“I just wanted to thank you for how much you’ve poured into this class during this semester. Being mainly virtual, this semester has been challenging in all sorts of ways, however I always found your class to be something I could look forward to each week. From the amazing reading list to the interesting insights of classmates and your informative input, I enjoyed every moment of ASRC 4403. This class stands out among everything I’ve taken at Cornell for all of these reasons. Thank you!” 2021
“I have also enjoyed the entire semester in your class. Thank you for fostering such a nurturing and enriching learning environment. This semester, I looked forward to every Thursday afternoon!” 2021
“I thoroughly enjoyed reading these works over the past few months, and I loved coming to class each week to hear people's thoughts. It was my only class with any real semblance of community, so for that I am grateful. As an undergraduate, I found the experience of being in class with graduate students to be very constructive. I learned a lot just through listening alone, and while there were times when I wish I had spoken up more, I also just gained a lot through staying engaged and hearing others' perspectives. It was a great experience.” 2021
"I thoroughly enjoyed your class, and it was a great change of pace from all my other classes this semester. You inspired me to improve my writing and to get back into reading more fiction and short stories from Black people, and that has thoroughly changed my media consumption over this year. Again, thank you for your guidance and instruction this semester and hopefully I'll be able to meet you in person within the next few semesters at Cornell." 2020
". . . The Toni Morrison's novels course . . . was one of the very best English classes (and English classes are my favorite classes) I took at Cornell! I keep on telling other students to enroll for it whenever it's offered because it's incredible to read an author's entire body of work, and there are few classes on black literature offered by the English department, 2019
“Dear Professor Richardson, I just want you to know that I really love your class; as a result, Wednesdays have become my favorite day of the week! My love for Morrison just continues to grow as I read and re-read her amazing novels, and I am so glad to now be learning so much more of the background and themes that I had not noticed or learned of before,” 2016
"Since I am in a position of power, as a teacher, I try my best not to put forth my own opinions because I do not want to influence my students to be like me, or think like me. Rather, I want to show students issues and arguments and let them draw their own conclusions, propose their own questions. I learned that from my dearest professor and mentor Riché Richardson," 2016
"My paper on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is attached. I want to add that this was an extremely worthwhile and enriching assignment, and I recommend that you include this book and assignment in future classes. In my journey through Africana studies to this point, I have not read enough female authors and have not been required to grapple with the intense themes depicted in this assignment or to think about the "peculiar" position of a female slave. Your lectures on the book in class were illuminating, but being required to put forth original analytic thought took my understanding to a new level. It was a difficult assignment for me, not because the prompt or material was confusing in some way, but because I had to take emotional breaks throughout the construction of the paper. Whether or not I've adequately displayed it with my paper, I feel that this assignment contributed to my intellectual and emotional growth more than almost any other singular paper I've written so far at Cornell,"2014
"I want to thank you for the wonderful semester and let you know that you have been one of my favorite Professors at Cornell. I really have never had a Professor be as knowledgable and passionate about the subject material as you are. I was so excited to go to class every Tuesday, and you really inspired me to work hard and try for my best. I learned so much throughout the semester and could not stop talking about this class to my friends and family," 2011
"His enthusiasm was unbounded when he began to talk about you and your class. He told me he can't wait to go to your class, that you are the kindest, most inspiring professor he's ever known. He loves what he is learning , the critical analysis you are teaching him. You are quite a model for him. He feels alive with new thoughts and possibilities in looking at life," 2008
Riché Richardson delivering Zoom lesson on Booker T. Washington on April 2, 2020 as visiting professor at Colgate University. Technical difficulties interrupted the regular online class session that day, so she recorded this video for students to make up and complete the lecture in African American Literature
Riché Richardson interviewed and included in short film "People of Color: The Movement" by Cornell student Eme Iban"
Riché Richardson Virtual Guest Lecture in Cathy Caruth and Philip Lorenz's Literary Theory on the Edge, March 23, 2021
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MacArthur "Genius" Grant Recipient Catherine Coleman Flowers' Virtual Interview in New Black Southern Women Writers of the 21st Century at Cornell, April 8, 2021
Award-winning, New York Times best-selling author and Cornell A.D. White Professor-at-Large author Tayari Jones' Virtual Interview in New Black Southern Women Writers of the 21st Century, April 22, 2021
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Riché Richardson at the Amit Bhatia Libe Cafe at Cornell's Olin Library
Riché Richardson's Office at Cornell
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