E. Ashley Hairston

A native of North Carolina, Ashley Hairston received his Bachelor of Arts in English and Politics as a Reynolds Scholar at Wake Forest University. He received his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in English Language and Literature from the University of Virginia and his Juris Doctor from the UNC School of Law. He returned to Wake Forest in 2019, after serving as Associate Professor of English and of Law and Humanities and founding director of the Center for Law and Humanities at Elon University.

Dr. Hairston’s research areas include American Literature and Classical Literature, especially classical influences on African American and Southern writers, as well as the interdisciplinary study of law and humanities. He was a 2015 Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Residential Fellow. His book, The Ebony Column: Classics, Civilization, and the African American Reclamation of the West, was a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and the inaugural book of the Classicism in American Culture Series of the University of Tennessee Press.

In his free time, Dr. Hairston enjoys traveling with his wife Cherry and two children, as well as sporting clays, cooking, and fencing.

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