Upcoming: Towards Liberation: Centering Our Communities in Research
A graduate student conference hosted with Geidy Mendez and Reiya Bhat at UCI on May 9th, 2025.
In recent years, we have seen a continued backlash to the study of race and ethnicity in higher education, which has resulted in the targeting of critical race theory and Black Studies across universities. While this research has long been excluded and marginalized in higher education systems and the colonial, anti-black project of American society, we have seen more targeted attacks in the years since the racial reckoning of 2020.
This conference Towards Liberation: Centering our Communities in Research, focuses on social science research on communities of color, especially encouraging but not limited to research that engages with community partners. This day-long conference will take place in person at UC Irvine.
We invite graduate students across the Social Sciences to submit proposals for papers that broadly fit into the four following themes: Race and Critical Theory; Social Movements; Race, Politics, and Public Policy; and Migration. For any questions, please reach out to us at towardsliberation2025@gmail.com.
The UCI Podcast
For the UCI Podcast, I speak about the role and impact of women in the Black Lives Matter mass movement.
The Baltimore Butterfly Sessions: Anatomy of an Uprising
I speak about the origins and causes of political uprisings at Baltimore Center Stage, September 2021. Speech begins at 24:16.
APSA 2020: Black Lives, Black Deaths, and Black Protest: Political Scientists Respond (Anew) to a Persistent Challenge: Political Science and the Movement for Black Lives: A Roundtable Discussion
I co-chair a discussion on the Black Lives Matter Movement with leading scholars on Black Politics and Black Political thought at the 2020 APSA meeting.
Race and Capitalism Defined: A Graduate Student Symposium
I organized the Race & Capitalism Symposium which comprised a day of discussion and debate among graduate students across the country regarding how we might address issues of racial capitalism and better utilize these concepts in our work. Though the symposium was broadly constituted, it aimed to consider the depth of racial capitalism as a theory, a history, and a device to explicate systems of exploitation, neoliberalism and world-making.
Exploring the Black Impossible: Princeton African American Studies Grad Conference
I discuss with Keahnan Washington the influence of Black politics and activist movements like Black Lives Matter.
University of Chicago Race & Place: Polarization Conference
I discuss with New School Associate Professor Deva Woodly her book The Politics of Common Sense: How Social Movements Use Public Discourse to Change Politics and Win Acceptance.