Barbara Christian

Barbara Christian (December 12, 1943 in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands – June 25, 2000 in Berkeley, California) was an author and professor of African-American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Among several books, and over 100 published articles, Christian was most well known for the 1980 study Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition.

• Taught at the City College of the City University of New York (1965–1972)
• Christian helped establish the African-American Studies Department at UC Berkeley
• She was the first African-American woman to be granted tenure at UC Berkeley (1978)
• Awarded the University of California, Berkeley's highest honor, the Berkeley Citation

• 07.12.00 - Barbara Christian, professor and pioneer of contemporary American literary feminism, dies at age 56

• Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition, 1892-1976, Greenwood Press (1980)
• Teaching Guide to Accompany Black Foremothers (1980)
• Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers, Teachers College Press (1985)
• From the Inside Out: Afro-American Women's Literary Tradition and the State (1987)
• Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Other Works: A Critical Commentary, Simon & Schuster (1987)