Amy K. Levin is Director of Women's Studies and Professor of English. Levin has taught classes in women's literature, Women's Studies, nineteenth-century British literature, and African-American literature. Levin is also active as a member of the Provost's Task Force on Multicultural Education Curriculum Transformation and of the President's Commission on the Status of Women.

Levin's primary research interest is in literature by women. In 1992, Bucknell University Press published The Suppressed Sister, a book on the relationships among biological sisters in nineteenth and twentieth-century novels by British women. More recently, Levin has studied the influences of West African women's traditions in works by contemporary African-American women. Levin has also published poetry and translations extensively in small magazines. She has written several articles on writing instruction, one for English Journal and one for an NCTE book, The High School Writing Center. Additionally, Levin is writing a collection of articles on museums, narrative, and culture, to be entitled The Museum of Museums and Other Essays.

Levin came to Northern Illinois University in 1995 from Central Missouri State University. Prior to teaching college, Dr. Levin taught at Scarsdale (NY) High School for eight years. She received her Ph.D. in English from the City University of New York Graduate Center in 1989, her M.A. in English from the University of Colorado in 1982, and her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard in 1978. 

Levin's book: Africanism and Authenticity in African-American Women's Novels was released in the spring of 2004. Click on the title for information about her book and to see pictures from her book release party.