Susan Gardner

It is with deep sadness that the English Department notes the death of our friend and colleague Susan Gardner, who was always kind-hearted, generous, and thoughtful. Susan died on Jan. 2, 2022 after an extensive illness. Before coming to UNC Charlotte in 1990, she earned her PhD from Rhodes University in South Africa and her MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She taught in the United States, South Africa, Denmark, and New Guinea.

Among the courses that Dr. Gardner regularly taught at UNC Charlotte were Postcolonial Literature, World Literature for Teachers, Contemporary American Indian Literature and Film, and American Indians.
During the 2006-07 academic year, she served as the resident advisor for UNC Charlotte students at Kingston University in London. Gardner published numerous scholarly articles, including several on the American Indian writer Ella Cara Deloria. Although Dr. Gardner retired in 2012, she continued to teach as an adjunct faculty member in the American Studies Program and the English Department until 2016.
During her career at UNC Charlotte, she helped diversify the English Department’s literature offerings and introduced several courses on American Indian literature and film. Gardner was an important voice for diversity and for Native American issues at UNC Charlotte, and we are grieved to mark her passing.

A memorial service is planned for later in the spring.