Winston Napier (January 26, 1953 – May 18, 2008) was born in Jamaica, and earned his BA from William Patterson College in 1974 and his PhD from Howard University in 1991. While at Howard, he edited the Journal of Philosophy and founded the Howard Interdisciplinary Research Forum. He went on to teach at several colleges, including Purdue, Bates, and George Washington University, before joining the faculty at Clark University in 1995. Napier was Franklin Frazier Chair and Associate Professor of English at Clark at the time of his early death at age 55. He specialized in critical theory, twentieth-century African American literary culture, and African American philosophical thought. At Clark, he helped organize the African American Intellectual Culture lecture series, and is remembered as a challenging and inspiring teacher. He is the author of African American Literary Theory: A Reader (New York University Press, 2000).