Huddles or Hurdles

One of my favorite research projects was working on my Women Studies in Communication (2020) article “Huddles or Hurdles? Spatial Barriers to Collective Gathering in the Aftermath of the Women’s March.” This article was a product of my multi-year involvement as an African American History, Culture, and Digital Humanities (AADHum) Scholar. This competitive fellowship united diverse ranks and fields across the University of Maryland in a true interdisciplinary collaborative, and I was awarded the “Feminist Scholar of the Year” by the Organization for Feminist Research on Gender and Communication for this work.

I started this project after my involvement in the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. As I sought to pursue further feminist action in early 2017, I came across the Women’s March Huddle Initiative.

At the same time, I had been attending AADHum programming, which primed me to question the use of digital tools, especially in regards to social organizing. What started as a personal quest for action turned into a collaborative research project which would lead me to question the racial logics of space, the methodology of digital mapping, and the possibility for anti-racist organizing.

Thanks to the mentorship and support provided by AADHum, my graduate advisors Kristy Maddux, Shawn Parry-Giles, and Carly S. Woods, and the editors/reviewers at WSIC, I am so thankful to share this work with the academic community.

Read some of my reflections about working with the AADHum Initiative HERE