Nellie Y. McKay, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who introduced African-American literature to college students around the world, has died, a university official announced Monday.

Nellie Y. McKay, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who introduced African-American literature to college students around the world, has died, a university official announced Monday.

“She helped shape the transition of black women’s studies from the margins of awareness to the center of intellectual life,” Craig Werner, who teaches in the university’s department of Afro-American studies, said in the release.