The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (in addition to the Tow Summer Research Fellowship) supported the research that I conducted for my undergraduate thesis, which explored the Yoruba concept of àse and its role in unsettling the hierarchies imposed by Christian colonialism. Understanding àse as an example of a decolonial concept allowed me to imagine new possibilities in considering the relationships between Christian colonialism, alterity, plasticity, and animacy. My work was published in Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal. Check it out here!

This project went through several iterations in its two-year development process. In the early stages of my research, I was privileged with the opportunity to travel to Bahia, Brazil with Michaela Harrison to witness her project, Whale Whispering, which offered immense wisdom and clarity around my questions of animacy, spirituality, and liberation.

In the Spring of 2023, I was awarded the Bessie Ehrlich Prize for the culmination of my project, which included my analysis of five ethnographic interviews that I conducted with practitioners of Afro-diasporic religions and spiritual traditions.

Learn more about the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program.

As an inaugural Mobile Homecoming Research Fellow, I created a digital oracle series, “The Five Oracles,” which uses Twine, an open-source software and digital humanities tool, to facilitate an interactive portal using the words of Black feminist writers, creators, artists, scholars, and alchemists.

Play “The Five Oracles” here!

Learn more about Mobile Homecoming

As a Post-Bacc fellow at the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center, I am conducting research exploring themes of AI anxiety and machine consciousness as they relate to the animacy of nonhuman animals and beings.

Learn more about the Barnard College Digital Humanities Center