New exhibit at UAlbany honors Toni Morrison’s legacy
- NYS Writers Institute
- 25 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Amy Geduldig, University at Albany
February 11, 2026
Janell Hobson works each day in her office at the University at Albany — an office once occupied by Toni Morrison, where she researched, drafted and shaped her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved. Now, just steps away, a new exhibition will make that history tangible.
The New York State Writers Institute has installed an exhibit at the Science Library featuring Morrison's desk and chair — underscoring her indelible impact on future generations of writers. The installation demonstrates that the University was not simply a backdrop to greatness, but a place where greatness was unleashed.
"What is so inspiring about Toni Morrison is she kept on doing her work, crafting her art, because she did not need to prove to anyone her genius,” said Hobson, a professor in UAlbany’s Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. “She did what she did, and the world caught up in recognition of that brilliance. She wrote — both in dangerous times and in times of tranquility. It’s a profound lesson that I have learned from her still. I take inspiration not only that she once taught at the University at Albany but that she wrote — in my estimation — her most powerful novel in Beloved while she was teaching here, and I now occupy the office she once used, which is a daily reminder of my own abilities and my own belonging among the realm of intellectuals, artists and writers.”
The exhibit will be unveiled Friday at 10 a.m. in the Science Library, featuring remarks from UAlbany President Havidán Rodríguez, Opalka Endowed Director of the New York State Writers Institute Paul Grondahl and Hobson. After the unveiling, the campus community is invited to a day of free programming commemorating Black history, including:
“Curating Black History” — hosted by UAlbany’s English Department, this roundtable discussion will be held at 11 a.m. in the Campus Center West Multi‑Purpose Room. Princeton University Professor Autumn Womack, curator of the Princeton exhibit, “Toni Morrison: Sites of Memory,” and author of The Matter of Black Living: The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial Data, 1880-1930 (2022), will be joined by Dorothy Berry, archivist and author of The House Archives Built & Other Thoughts on Black Archival Possibilities.
Frederick Douglass Day Transcribe-a-Thon — Beginning at noon in the Campus Center West Multi‑Purpose Room, this community transcription event honors Douglass’s birthday and supports the preservation of Black history.
“We are pleased to be part of the team effort to create this permanent exhibit honoring Toni Morrison’s literary greatness and her productive years as a powerful creative force at UAlbany,” Grondahl said. “Toni Morrison was a generous collaborator in the early years of the Writers Institute, and we have kept the flame alive of her legacy as a singular talent in the history of American letters and, indeed, world literature.”
Toni Morrison’s Years at UAlbany
Toni Morrison arrived at the University at Albany in 1984 as the Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities. By then, she was already a major voice of contemporary literature, recognized for her groundbreaking novel The Bluest Eye.
At UAlbany, Morrison’s role extended beyond a ceremonial title. As the Albert Schweitzer Professor, she taught literature and creative writing, delivered public lectures, mentored students and contributed to the intellectual life of campus through her work with the New York State Writers Institute.
While teaching at UAlbany, Morrison began work on what would become one of her most acclaimed novels, Beloved. Her office served as the setting where she researched and wrote — a space where memory, history, trauma and imagination converged on the page.
In 1986, Morrison produced her first play, Dreaming Emmett, about the 1955 murder by white men of Black teenager Emmett Till. The play was commissioned by the New York State Writers Institute. It was produced in 1986 by Capital Repertory Theatre and directed by Gilbert Moses.
Both works reflected the hallmark of Morrison’s writing: an unflinching exploration of how history shapes identity, memory and community.
Beloved would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988, cementing Morrison’s place in American literature. In 1993, she became the first Black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Morrison remained with UAlbany until the spring of 1989, but her legacy continues with each generation that discovers her work — readers, writers, students and artists who look beyond their own experience, confront difficult questions and elevate the voices of others.