One of her most influential contributions to African Diaspora studies came with her first book, Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist.
When Hazel Carby received her Ph.D. in 1984 from Birmingham University, her thesis, which centered on slave narratives by women, later became the foundation for her book, Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist (ISBN 0-19-506071-7), published in 1987.