Derrais (pronounced like Paris) Carter is an interdisciplinary scholar and artist. He teaches courses on Black Critical Theory, Black Popular Music, and Black Queer Studies.
Currently, he is completing two scholarly monographs. The first, provisionally titled Obscene Material: Erasing Black Girlhood in the Moens Scandal examines the erasure of Black girls' voices during a 1919 obscenity scandal in Washington, D.C. Building on approaches from Christina Sharpe and Saidiya Hartman, Obscene Material mounts an “anti-recovery” project to re-tell the story of the scandal while providing visual and ethical strategies for circumventing the narration of gratuitous anti-black violence. The second book, co-authored with Andres Guzman, is a study of race and patriarchy in contemporary popular culture titled Patriarchal Blackness.
Carter’s creative practice includes art books, experimental essays, and micro-essays. Guiding his creative process is a persistent desire to use archival texts and Black critical theory to narrate and engage Black life. He is currently completing black girls: an archive with Sharita Towne. This unbound art book is a 10in x 10in x 10in cube containing poems written from the imagined perspective of Black girls in the Moens Scandal.
Carter is also a member of the Queering Slavery Working Group, a scholarly collective that uses social media and “formal” scholarly venues to place the history of slavery in conversation with Black sexuality studies and queer of color critique.