Renate "Rennie" Marie Simson (March 13, 1934 – February 19, 2017) was an American author and professor of African-American literature and writing. Her work has been influential in African American literature and identity studies. She wrote an essay on Black women's sexuality and identity, The Afro-American Female: The Historical Context of the Construction of Sexual Identity.Hames-Garcia, Michael “Can Queer Theory be critical?”, New Critical theory: essays on liberation; accessed February 27, 2017.
Her work posited that victimized black women often avoided intimacy altogether which affected their sexual identity causing them to become self-reliant.
She worked as the English department at SUNY Morrisville for several years. She published more than 30 articles and chapters and presented at over 50 conferences throughout in the United States and Austria. She pioneered a study abroad program focusing on the Austrian African Diaspora in Austria with the University of Graz.Simson Renate and Holly, "The African diaspora and Austria", The Department of African American Studies Newsletter 2007–2008, p. 20. She was department chair of the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University.
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