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Meet the Authors
Shaonta’ Allen is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati. She will join the Department of Sociology at Dartmouth College as a Mellon Faculty Fellow Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Summer 2021 and then as an Assistant Professor in 2023. She’s been named a UC Graduate Excellence Scholar, a P.E.O. International Scholar, an Albert C. Yates Fellow, a Southern Regional Education Board Fellow, and an African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Research Fellow. Her research interests broadly include race & ethnic relations, social movements, intersectionality, and religion. In particular, her work examines how Black Americans perceive and respond to racial inequality and how this resistance varies across institutional contexts. Her research has been published in Sociology Compass, Sociological Perspectives, and Humanity & Society. Believing in the radical potential of sociology, Shaonta’ teaches and produces research with the goal of facilitating social change.
Subini Annamma is an Associate Professor at Stanford University whose research positions multiply-marginalized youth as knowledge generators to inform how intersectional injustice impacts education. Dr. Annamma’s book, The Pedagogy of Pathologization focuses on the education trajectories of incarcerated disabled girls of color and has won the 2019 Association of Educational Services Agencies Critic’s Choice Book Award & 2018 National Women’s Studies Association Alison Piepmeier Book Prize.
Freeden Blume Oeur is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Education at Tufts University. His research interests include the sociology of gender and masculinity, Black feminism, and African American intellectual politics and intellectual history,. Blume Oeur is the author of Black Boys Apart: Racial Uplift and Respectability in All-Male Public Schools and co-editor (with Edward W. Morris) of Unmasking Masculinities: Men and Society.
Dr. Alicia D. Bonaparte is Associate Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College and trained as a medical sociologist with a specialization in reproductive health, health disparities, and female crime and deviance. Her publications and research interests examine the gendered social hierarchy within American medicine as well as the intersection of race and gender in healthcare practices and racial disparities. She is also coeditor of the anthology Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth and contributed to Routledge’s Motherhood Companion (2019) examining the collusion of race, class, and gender regarding choices about midwife-attended births.
Dr. Rose M. Brewer is an activist scholar and The Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor and past chairperson of the Department of African American & African Studies, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Publishing extensively on political economy, radical Black feminism and social movements, she is a University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Dean’s Medalist, a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers, a recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Teaching Award, and a Josie R. Johnson Social Justice Award recipient.
Kenly Brown is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She practices humanist social science situated at the nexus of race, gender, and institutional violence. Kenly currently runs the Black Girlhood Studies Lab, housed in the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Equity at Washington University in St. Louis. This research is supported by the Ford Foundation and American Educational Research Association Minority Fellowship.
Melissa C. Brown is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a Ph.D. in sociology in 2019. Her areas of expertise include intersectionality, digital sociology, social movements, and sexual politics. Brown’s current project centers on how Black women exotic dancers based in the urban South use social networking smartphone applications for advertising and networking. This dataset includes over 31,000 images, videos, and text generated from the smartphone application Instagram, which offers users a social networking platform that facilitates the exchange of various audiovisual content. Brown uses a mixed-methods analysis to examine how Black women exotic dancers perform erotic labor, how the landscape of the contemporary strip club industry maps on twentieth-century Jim Crow segregation, and how the self-definition and self-valuation of the erotic labor of Black women contrast with popular culture depictions.
Blu Buchanan is a PhD Candidate in sociology, with a designated emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research at the University of California, Davis. Their academic work falls along two parallel lines, the collection and archiving of Black trans oral histories and the study of gay right-wing organizations, interrogating the nature of political and intracommunity violence. Outside of the university, they organize around Black, trans, and labor justice movements.
Mali Collins PhD is an assistant professor of African American Literature at Howard University. She’s published academic articles in American Quarterly and Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, and popular writing on The Feminist Wire, TruthOut, AfroPunk, and The Root. She is a reproductive justice advocate working with black families and pregnant people in the DMV area.
Patricia Hill Collins is Distinguished University Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland, College Park, and at the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of ten books, including Black Feminist Thought (1990, 2000), Black Sexual Politics (2004), and Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory (2019). In 2008, she became the 100th President of the American Sociological Association.
Dr. LeConté J. Dill is a community-accountable scholar, educator, and poet. She holds degrees from Spelman College, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. Currently, Dr. Dill is the Director of Public Health Practice and a Clinical Associate Professor at the New York University School of Global Public Health. Also since 2015, she has been a Research Associate at the African Centre for Migration & Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Guided by Black Feminist epistemologies and using qualitative and arts-based research methods, Dr. Dill has a commitment toward transdisciplinary scholarship. She listens to and shows up for urban Black girls and other youth of color and works to rigorously document their experiences of violence, safety, resilience, and wellness.
Mercedez D. Dunn is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at the University of Michigan. She received her B.A. degree in Sociology from Spelman College and a Master of Public Health in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan. Her research lies at the intersection of gender, race, class, and health inequity. Her work uses qualitative methods to elaborates how social inequities impact sexual health, particularly for young Black Americans. Her work has appeared in outlets such as Social Science & Medicine and DuBois Review, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation and Rackham Graduate School. As an instructor, Mercedez aims to empower students to pursue liberation in their personal, professional, and creative endeavors.
Brittany Friedman holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University and is an incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California, beginning summer 2021. Prior to joining the University of Southern California, Friedman began her academic career as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University—New Brunswick. Friedman is a 2021-2022 American Bar Foundation Access to Justice Faculty Scholar. A sociologist of punishment and social control, she researches race and prison order, inequality, mobilization against the carceral state, and the criminal legal system as an economic market. Her first book is under contract with The University of North Carolina Press and is tentatively titled Born in Blood: Death Work, White Power, and the Rise of the Black Guerilla Family. The book traces how control strategies were institutionalized and designed to eradicate Black political protest and the implications for contemporary prison order and racial inequality. In addition to her book, Friedman is Co-PI of a comparative study of pay-to-stay practices and PI of the Project on Covid-19 and New Jersey Prisons. She enjoys writing for academic and general audiences, with articles, chapters, essays, and interviews appearing in scholarly and public outlets.
Ashley Garner is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She studies race, religion, and eldercare. Out of office, Ashley enjoys baking, gardening, and reading and reviewing fiction.
Saida Grundy is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Boston University. She is a feminist scholar whose research focuses on campus sexual assault and gender and sexuality within the Black middle class. Grundy is the author of Manhood Within the Margins: Promise, Peril, and Paradox at the Historically Black College for Men (California, forthcoming).
Endia Louise Hayes is a doctoral student in sociology at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey. She studies the epistemological contribution of Black formerly enslaved women, specifically Afro-Texan women. Endia posits these Afro-Texan women as avenues through which Black women can assist the discipline in adequately revisiting the past, unpacking the present and better integrating slavery into contemporary sociological work.
Brooklynn Hitchens, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Associate and incoming Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland. She is a sociologist and critical criminologist who studies race, class and gender in crime and victimization, urban violence and trauma, and urban policing. Using participatory action research (PAR) methods, she partners with communities of color to reduce racial disparities associated with urban violent crime and socioeconomic opportunity.
Ashley E. Hollingshead is a doctoral student of sociology at Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick. Her work focuses on Black women’s experiences with policing and surveillance in gentrified communities. Ashley mentors young Black women and men on character development, honoring her past.
Ayotunde Ikuku is pursuing a double major in sociology and ethnic studies with a focus on LGBTQ+ perspectives at Los Rios Community Colleges in Sacramento, CA. Within academia, their main desire is disciplinary transformation—away from the distant, spectacle-like practice so common to sociology and toward a kind of sociology invested in developing tangible resources, change, and accountability for the perpetually marginalized. They also do intersectional organizing with both local and online community organizers/activists, with a focus on centering the needs and knowledge of the most marginalized people.
Jennifer James MSW, MSSP,PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health and Aging, the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Bioethics program at the University of California, San Francisco. Jen is a qualitative researcher and Black Feminist scholar whose research lies at the intersection of race, gender and health, with a specific focus on experiences of cancer and chronic illness. Her current work is focused on experiences of aging, health and illness for people who are or have been incarcerated.
Maria S. Johnson, PhD is a scholar, philanthropist, and author who focuses on inequalities in race, gender, family, and policy. She leads the Black Women and Girls Fund (BWGF), which awards grants to projects that seek to improve the lives of and fight barriers faced by Black women and girls. Dr. Johnson is currently completing a book under contract with NYU Press titled Black Daughters, Black Fathers: Understanding Complex Family Relationships. Previously, Dr. Johnson worked as an assistant professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice where she taught courses related to racial inequality, gender, and the politics of poverty. Dr. Johnson earned a Ph.D. in public policy and sociology from the University of Michigan and a BA in history from Hampton University.
Jalia L. Joseph is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at Texas A&M University, additionally obtaining a graduate certificate in Africana Studies. Their work centers around race/ethnicity, social movements, feminisms, and critical race theory. Their research appears in a co-authored paper in Women’s Studies in Communication, and a solo-authored debate article in Ethnic and Racial Studies.
Jasmine Kelekay is an Afro-Finland-Swedish researcher and activist focusing on anti-Black racism and Black activism in the Nordics. She is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a visiting researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR) at Uppsala University.
Zakiya Luna, MSW, PhD is Associate Professor of Sociology and Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research, teaching and community work are in the areas of social movements, human rights and reproduction with an emphasis on the effects of intersecting inequalities within and across these sites. She recently published Reproductive Rights as Human Rights: Women of Color and the Fight for Reproductive Justice (New York University Press, 2020). Her research has been published in multiple journals including Mobilization, Gender and Society, Sociological Inquiry, Feminist Studies, and Societies without Borders: Social Science and Human Rights. She earned a joint PhD in Sociology and Women’s Studies from University of Michigan, where she also earned a Masters of Social Work. As a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley was hosted by the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice at Berkeley Law. She was also the Mellon Sawyer Seminar Human Rights Postdoc at University of Wisconsin and a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellow. She is a member of the inaugural cohort of SFP Changemakers in Family Planning Fellows.
Dr Mandisi Majavu is a senior lecturer in the department. His research investigates the political history of racial formation in South Africa. Majavu’s scholarship investigates the intricacies of racial formation across space and time, ranging from white racism and racial formation in South Africa to anti-black racism in Australia and New Zealand, from white missionaries and Christianity in 19th century South Africa to race and liberalism, from gender and race in sports to the black diaspora. He focuses on the way in which these narratives intersect. Dr Majavu is author of the book Uncommodified Blackness (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
Lori Latrice Martin is Associate Dean and Professor of African and African American Studies at Louisiana State University. Dr. Martin currently holds the Erich and Lea Sternberg Honors Professorship. Additionally, she is LSU’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR). Dr. Martin is also Interim Director of the Department of African and African American Studies. She has written or edited more than 20 books and many journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Martin’s most recent books include Introduction to Africana Demography and America in Denial. Dr. Martin’s areas of expertise are race and ethnicity, racial wealth inequality, and race and sports. She is also on the Executive Committee of ABIS (Advancement of Blacks in Sports).
Mignon R. Moore is Professor of Sociology at Barnard College and Columbia University, and the 2021 President of the Sociologists for Women in Society. Her first book, Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood among Black Women, is a study of family formation and lesbian identity in a Black racial context. She is completing a new book on the sociocultural histories of Black LGBTQ people, tentatively titled In the Shadow of Sexuality: Social Histories of African American Lesbian and Gay Elders, 1950-1979. The book charts the development of Black LGBT communities in the context of the Great Migration.
Jennifer C. Nash is the Jean Fox O’Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. She earned her PhD in African American Studies at Harvard University and her JD at Harvard Law School. She is the author of three books: The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography (awarded the Alan Bray Memorial Book Prize by the GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association), Black Feminism Reimagined (awarded the Gloria Anzaldúa Book Prize by the National Women’s Studies Association), and Birthing Black Mothers. She is also the editor of Gender: Love (Macmillan, 2016). Her research has been supported by the ACLS/Burkhardt Fellowship, Radcliffe Institute, and the Woodrow Wilson Junior Faculty Career Enhancement Fellowship.
Dr. Carolette Norwood is Associate Professor and Assistant Department Head in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati (UC). Dr. Norwood’s research and teaching interests include US and Comparative Black Feminism(s); and how Violence informs Reproductive and Sexual Health (In)Justice at the intersection of gender, race, sexuality, place and space. Dr. Norwood’s work is published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, Journal of Black Psychology, The American Journal of Public Health, The American Journal of Health Studies, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Journal of International Women’s Studies, Development in Practice, Sociology Compass, etc. Dr. Norwood is currently writing a first book tentatively entitled: Jim Crow Geographies: Mapping the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Urbane Space.
Julia Chinyere Oparah is a transformational leader, social justice educator, and activist scholar. She currently serves as Provost and Dean of the Faculty, and Professor Ethnic Studies at Mills College, and was appointed as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of San Francisco starting summer 2021. Previously, she pursued a career in nonprofit administration, taught within the University of California system, and served as Canada Research Chair in Social Justice at the University of Toronto. Oparah has published extensively on black maternal health, decarceral politics, research justice and transnational black feminisms. She is co-founder of Black Women Birthing Justice, and co-author of Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth, a seminal text that puts black women at the center of debates about the crisis in maternal health care. She is lead author of Battling Over Birth, a human rights report that challenges existing research paradigms used to investigate black women’s perinatal health, using a research justice framework. Her most recent project using a sheltered-in-place research justice methodology, has resulted in an open-access article on Black birthworkers and the COVID-19 pandemic. She lives in Oakland with her partner, daughter and labradoodle.
Dr. Mona Taylor Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Spelman College, where she also coordinates the Ida B. Wells-Barnett/Social Justice Distinguished Lecture and Performance Series. Dr. Phillips received her B.A. degree from Spelman College and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on pedagogy and on the social contexts of Black women’s health.
Whitney N. Laster Pirtle, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and McArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights at the University of California, Merced, where she directs the Sociology of Health and Equity (SHE) Lab. She is a critical race, Black feminist scholar currently studying disparities in Covid-19, racial formation in South Africa, and racism on college campuses. She was a 2018 Ford Foundation Postdoc Awardee and was awarded the 2020 A. Wade Smith Award for Teaching, Mentoring, and Service from the Association of Black Sociologists.
Jomaira Salas Pujols is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University where she studies Black girlhood and identity formation in educational spaces. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a youth worker. Jomaira loves swimming and warm sunny days.
Assata Richards is the founding director of the Sankofa Research Institute, as well as founding Board President of the Houston Community Land Trust, the Third Ward Cooperative Community Builders, the Community Care Cooperative, and the Emancipation Economic Development Council. She is committed to repaying the debt paid by her ancestors and doing all she can to end white supremacy and patriarchy.
Dorothy Roberts is the 14th Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology, and the Raymond Pace & Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights at University of Pennsylvania. An internationally acclaimed scholar, activist, and social critic, she has written and lectured extensively on the interplay of gender, race, and class in legal issues concerning reproduction, bioethics, and child welfare.
She has authored multiple books and published more than 100 articles and essays in books and scholarly journals, including Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, and Signs.
Nzali Scales received her B.A. degree in Sociology from Spelman College. As a UNCF-Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and Social Justice Fellow at Spelman, her research and activism focused on the intersection of race, class, and gender in the lives of Black girls. She is currently a PhD student in Sociology at Northwestern University.
Dr. Cynthia Neal Spence is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Director of the UNCF/Mellon Programs, and Director of the Social Justice Fellows Program at Spelman College. She received her B.A. degree from Spelman College and her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University. Issues of service-learning, gender role socialization, and violence against women frame her research, writing, and public service.
Aisha A. Upton is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at The University of Minnesota. Her research agenda is centered broadly around race, gender, social movements, and Black civic engagement. Aisha’s work has, specifically, focused on Black women’s voluntary organizations and their interactions with Black radical movements.
Tashelle Wright is a McNair Scholar alumni and a member of the Graduate Dean’s Advisory Council on Diversity at UC Merced. Tashelle has worked for a health department in the Office of Health Disparities and as a Certified Nursing Assistant. As a PhD student, she is interested in aging and cognition, older adults, chronic disease and addressing preventable health disparities, specifically within African, African American and Hispanic/Latino populations.