Dr. Jessica Marie Shotwell

Bio

Originally from Memphis, I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Sociology (with minors in African American Studies, Political and Civic Engagement, and Spanish) from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in 2017. At MTSU, I had a life-changing opportunity to conduct community participatory action research in Ishaka, Uganda, through the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research Training program. My time abroad solidified my desire to pursue an academic career in interdisciplinary, social scientific research on race, ethnicity, social inequality, and health. Coupling that desire with my passion for social justice, I developed skills and became highly involved in the Murfreesboro community as a scholar-activist. During my undergraduate senior year, I was elected as Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.'s Southern Regional Representative, in which I served over 3,000 undergraduate Black women students across Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Bahamas.

After completing my degree, I moved back home to continue working in race and health research. In 2018, I came to the D(M)V to begin my Ph.D at the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park. I quickly became involved as an abolitionist community organizer and member of the Black Youth Project 100 DC Chapter. In 2020, I served as the chapter's Policy Co-Chair and co-created the Defund MPD Coalition. In the same year, I was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Through my studies, I theorized the anti-capitalist consciousness-praxis. This framework derives from both theorizing as an academic and theorizing in praxis through Black Queer feminist political education as a community organizer.

I am currently a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Community Health Sciences and the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (2025-2027). My areas of expertise are race, class, gender, Black feminisms, intersectionality, theory, health, and education.