 In 2005, she became Full Professor in the English Department at the University of Kentucky.In 2006, she was appointed Interim Director of the African American Studies and Research Program at the University of Kentucky.After the publication of "The World is Round", Finney was invited to Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she served for two years as the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence, from 2007 to 2009.