Chamara Kwakye
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies- Education
PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2011
- Specializations
Womanism, Black Girlhood, Gender and Sexuality in the Black Diaspora, Performance Studies, Qualitative Methodologies, Epistemologies and Pedagogies.
- Biography
Chamara Jewel Kwakye is a womanist scholar-educator with interdisciplinary interests at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnography, performance and pedagogy. She is especially interested in the stories Black women and girls tell that examine their power and agency in oppressive spaces. She co-edited, Wish to Live: The Hip-hop Feminism Pedagogy Reader and has also co-written, starred, and produced several ethnographic performances based on the lives of Black women and girls. She has also published works on qualitative methods, hip-hop feminist pedagogy and is currently working on a monograph that examines Black women and girls’ pedagogy and praxis of love and labor.
Her course offering span four disciplines: Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Education, African American Studies and History and range from introductory courses to specialized seminars.
Her commitment to pedagogy also extends beyond the university. She serves as Co-Organizer for Saving Our Lives, Hear Our Truths, (SOLHOT) a space dedicated to black girlhood celebration, particularly as it relates to the arts and culture. She has also served as Community Advocacy Director, Lead Guest Artist and Guest Artist for The Girl Project of Kentucky an arts meets activism program designed to inspire, educate, and empower girls of all ages to challenge the mis-representation of girls and women in American media culture through performing arts education. Lastly, she serves as a board member and program director for The Initiative for the Creative Arts (TIFCA), an organization that uses hip-hop, beat making and music production to engage youth in social justice and social-emotional development and learning.
- Publications
Wish to Live: The Hip-Hop Feminism Pedagogy Reader, Ruth Nicole Brown & Chamara Jewel Kwakye (eds.), Peter Lang Publishing.
Selected Peer Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters:
Saving Our Lives, Hear Our Truths: Exploring the Theory, Praxis, and Creativity of Black Girlhood Studies in Departures in Critical Qualitative Research (Special Issue) Vol. 6 n. 3. Chamara Jewel Kwakye, Dominique C. Hill and Durell M. Callier (Guest Editors)
“No More Honey in These Words” in The Pierian Literary Journal (Spring) p.34-35.
10 Years of Black Girlhood Celebration: A Pedagogy of Doing in Departures in Critical Qualitative Research (Special Issue). Vol. 6 n. 3 p. 1-10.
“From Vivi With Love” in The Fluid Boundaries of Suffrage and Jim Crow: Staking Claims in the American Heartland by DaMaris B. Hill (Editor), Lexington Books p. 109-122.
“Dr. Theresa Bayarea: Dancing to Make Freedom” in The Hip Hop and Critical Pedagogy Reader, Ruth Nicole Brown & Chamara Jewel Kwakye (eds.), Peter Lang Publishing p.87-108.
“Loud Silence: Performing the Research Interview” in Qualitative Research Journal, Vol.11(2) 2011, p. 1-7.
Links to other work:
