Hillary Collins

Hillary Collins (they/she) is a PhD student at the University of Maryland in the department of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. They just received their B.A. from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, with a double major in Sociology and Gender & Women’s Studies. She grew up in Lake Villa, Illinois, a small town in the greater Chicagoland.

Their research interests span across a broad range of topics, but are all grounded in & conceptualized through a lens of black feminism & queerness. They hope to further explore the radical potential that lies within Black gender expression & identity formations, with an emphasis on the theory of Black transliminality. Their undergraduate thesis was focused on the survivance of Black gender nonconformity in the face of colonial erasure, and she hopes to build on those findings and further expand them. She hopes to further bridge the gaps between the academy and those outside of the academy, specifically the marginalized folks intentionally kept out of the academy. They hope to do this by incorporating community-focused & community building methods into their research, with ethical approaches to qualitative research. Additionally, they are invested in creative research methods, including podcasts, zines, and collages.