Matthew M. DeForrest

Dr. Matthew M. DeForrest is Interim Director of the Edward E. Crutchfield Center for Integrated Studies and Professor of English at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). His recent published works have appeared in The Yeats Journal of Korea, The Yeats Annual, W. B. Yeats’s A Vision: Explications and Contexts, and Tolkien Studies. His recent presentations include papers at 2022 and 2019 International Yeats Society Conference in Seoul, South Korea (virtually) and Paris, France, the 2018 International Conference on W. B. Yeats in Seoul, South Korea, and the 2018 Magnolia Moot Conference on literature and the fantastic in Charlotte, NC. 

DeForrest is the Director of the Establishing Cultural Studies grant (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) and Director of the recent JCSU Mellon Problem Solving in the Interdisciplinary Humanities and New Faculty Development. He has overseen a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to design a program in Digital Innovation. In addition, he was the Primary Investigator for JCSU’s Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad: An Advanced and Intensive Training Program in Modern Chinese Language and Culture grant (funded by the US Department of Education) and American Director of the American Cultural Center Grant that established the Guangdong Baiyun University Center on American Culture and Race (funded by the US Embassy in Beijing, China). The grants he has applied for and have managed total over $3 million.

DeForrest has worked as an educational consultant and game designer and has served on a number of boards and commissions, including the Union County Community Action Board, where he serves as Treasurer; the Monroe Historic Commission Board; the Center Theatre Development, Inc. Board; the Boards of Trustees of Johnson C. Smith University, Livingstone College, and Signum University (He serves as the Board Chair for Signum).

He currently lives in Monroe, NC, USA with his wife, Dr. Taura S. Napier (Professor of English at Wingate University) and his daughter Edain.