Peace (after transformation). 

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I'm an educator, anthropologist, language scholar, community servant, Black Feminist, hip hop head, reggae lover, foodie, visual artist, and practitioner of several spiritual traditions. My work explores race, language, and youth cultures in urban and digital spaces and is set on freedom.

 

Currently, I'm an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Departments of Anthropology, Linguistics, and African American Studies. I teach courses on language and race, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and also on my people dem - the Gullah/Geechee - in the context of the Black South. 

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I do research in Liberia and the United States looking at the ways young people make meaning about - and are impacted by - race and racism. I focus on Blackness, Black life, and antiblackness.

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Before becoming a scholar, I worked for several years in different spheres of education, policy, and community development for/with mostly Black and brown communities.

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Teaching, mentoring, and learning from young people have been the best parts of my journey so far. 

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