WGSS Dissertation Defense: Black Women, Animal Liberation, & Afrofuturism
WGSS Dissertation Defense: Black Women, Animal Liberation, & Afrofuturism
The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
, Online
The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is excited to invite you to the Dissertation Defense of Melissa Cheyenne Stevens's. Cheyenne will defend her thesis entitled Black Women, Animal Liberation, and Feminist Afrofuturism.
Black Women, Animal Liberation, and Feminist Afrofuturism
Dissertation Committee: Michelle V. Rowley, Mary Corbin Sies, Alexis Lothian, Iván A Ramos, and Elsa Barkley Brown
Abstract:
There is a growing sense of urgency in the world regarding how humans can approach issues of animal ethics, human rights, climate change, and environmental justice. Veganism as an ideological concept purports to address these issues in a society whose values are shifting toward a consciousness regarding them. Much of the scholarship that pertains to this subject matter does not analyze race and gender, or analyzes these issues poorly. This research seeks to address this by including the standpoints of vegan black women. How do black women’s constructions of animal ethics shape the future of liberatory gender, racial, economic, and environmental justice? This work explores the complexities of how power is wielded for gendered and racialized communities and their visions of reconciliation and worldbuilding for the future.