Publications

  • This article is based on oral history interviews with Debbie Britt, the co-founder and director of the National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture of the Greater Boston region of Massachusetts. The Museum’s physical location of eight years closed last June in response the COVID-19 pandemic. In the article, composed of three compositions, I stage three returns to the Museum’s recreated slave ship hold to account for the exigencies and pedagogical outcomes of Britt’s labor.

  • In this article I used queer of color performance theory and Black feminist theory to read photographs by Black queer photographer Lyle Ashton Harris and a short film by white trans artist Cassils. I demonstrate that each pieces stages queer repertoires of joy and survival that exceed the frame of individual photographs.

  • I co-edited this volume of critical essays, memoir, op-eds, and creative non-fiction. The book is the foundation of the UMass Amherst Writing Program curriculum and is used by over 3000 students each year.

 Selected Conference Presentations

“On the Move: Black Women’s Labor and the National Black Doll Museum” Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Maryland, MD. 2022. [script, slides, and Black feminist bibliography]

“Archiving the Cemetery Lady: Feminized Labor, Feminist History, and Floral Tributes” National Women’s Studies Association Conference, San Francisco, CA. 2019.

“Public Pedagogies and Queer Stuff: Enacting Community in a Hoard of Clam Shells, Corset Clips, and Broken Inkwells” Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, Syracuse, NY. 2019.

Panelist: “Researchers, Activists, and Archivists: A Roundtable Discussion on Queer Archives” Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Minneapolis, MN. 2018.

Panelist: “Queer Trans Culture and Invention Beyond Visibility: Experiencing Cassils” Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Minneapolis, MN. 2018.

“Building Beautiful Walls: History, Labor, and Accountability in the National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture" Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, University of Dayton. 2017.

“#trigger Rhetorics: From Digital Feminist Practice to Institutional Appropriation” Thomas R. Watson Conference, University of Louisville. 2016.

“(Re)articulating ‘Woman’: Archival Performances and Gender Activisms in Women's Colleges” Rhetoric Society of America Conference, Atlanta, Georgia. 2016.

“’Dear Lou’: Archival Orientations, Queer Performances, and the Sexual Minorities Archives” Conference on College Composition & Communication, Houston, Texas. 2016.

“(Re)writing the Student Body: Archiving Gender Activisms at Smith College” Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, Arizona State University. 2016.

“UMass, tumbling: Enacting Audience in the Composition Classroom” Engaging Practices Conference on Composition, UMass Boston. 2014.