Charles Toombs, Ph.D.

Office: AL-367 
Phone: (619) 594-6532
Email: [email protected]

Charles Toombs is Professor and Immediate Past Chair of Africana Studies, San Diego State University (SDSU). His areas of specialization and publications are Africana literature and Black Queer Studies. His degrees are BA (English), MA (English), MS (Industrial Relations), Ph.D. (English), all from Purdue University. He is President of the California Faculty Association (CFA) and a Vice President of SEIU California. He was one of six U.S. union leaders invited by the Shanghai Education Union for meetings in China, March 2018. He was selected as the San Diego State University Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unsung Hero for 2018, 2014 SDSU Faculty Diversity Award recipient, and African American Educator of San Diego County for 2011 by Phi Delta Kappa, Inc. He is committed to antiracism and social and cultural justice and is a national and local leader in these areas. He has presented on numerous panels and meetings addressing strategies for labor unions to prioritize anti-racism and social justice in their organizing, structures, and other work. He has published several works on African American literature and culture, including, “Harlem Renaissance in San Diego: New Negroes and Community” in The Harlem Renaissance in the American West, Routledge, and “African American Uprising” in California Literature, Cambridge UP and works on James Baldwin, Nella Larsen, Gloria Naylor, Joyce Carol Thomas, Ntozake Shange, Josiah Henson, and others. He has presented papers, chaired panels, and served on panels at professional meetings and conferences, including lectures and workshops on African American Literature and Africana Studies at Gorlovka State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, Gorlovka, Ukraine.