About Jameka
Who Am I?
I earned my Doctorate in Interdisciplinary Studies from The University of Alabama. I specialize in Gender & Race. My work explores themes of Black motherhood and Black women's storytelling. I am my mother's daughter and my daughters' mother. I am a storyteller and a poet. I describe myself as a storyteller because "stories are the way humans makes sense of their worlds" (Ellis, 2004, p. 32) and I use them in my work to help people better understand the lived experience of Black womanhood.
The simultaneous identities of being a Black daughter and Black mother inform my work. I have taught undergraduate students in social science disciplines such as Women's Studies. I have also taught Social Work students at the Bachelors and Masters levels both face to face and online. In my courses, I emphasize and utilize problem-solving methods and experiential learning.
What brought me to this work?
In short, my mother.
In long, I did not see myself or anyone like my mother represented in the research literature when it came to single Black mothers and their children. I couldn't find a black girl quite like me...one who was raised by their mother on the Southern East Coast. I know and recognize that "Blackgirls are not a monolith although we share the twoness and oneness of a raced and gendered identity that carries with it the specific meanings and microaggressions blackgirls live with every day" (Boylorn, 2016, p.49). I wanted to see more black girl stories; more stories of women of color overall. So I'm writing them.
I earned my Doctorate in Interdisciplinary Studies from The University of Alabama. I specialize in Gender & Race. My work explores themes of Black motherhood and Black women's storytelling. I am my mother's daughter and my daughters' mother. I am a storyteller and a poet. I describe myself as a storyteller because "stories are the way humans makes sense of their worlds" (Ellis, 2004, p. 32) and I use them in my work to help people better understand the lived experience of Black womanhood.
The simultaneous identities of being a Black daughter and Black mother inform my work. I have taught undergraduate students in social science disciplines such as Women's Studies. I have also taught Social Work students at the Bachelors and Masters levels both face to face and online. In my courses, I emphasize and utilize problem-solving methods and experiential learning.
What brought me to this work?
In short, my mother.
In long, I did not see myself or anyone like my mother represented in the research literature when it came to single Black mothers and their children. I couldn't find a black girl quite like me...one who was raised by their mother on the Southern East Coast. I know and recognize that "Blackgirls are not a monolith although we share the twoness and oneness of a raced and gendered identity that carries with it the specific meanings and microaggressions blackgirls live with every day" (Boylorn, 2016, p.49). I wanted to see more black girl stories; more stories of women of color overall. So I'm writing them.
References:
Boylorn, R. M. (2016). On Being at Home with Myself: Blackgirl Autoethnography as Research Praxis. International Review of Qualitative Research 9(1): 44-58.
Ellis, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA : AltaMira Press
Boylorn, R. M. (2016). On Being at Home with Myself: Blackgirl Autoethnography as Research Praxis. International Review of Qualitative Research 9(1): 44-58.
Ellis, C. (2004). The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA : AltaMira Press
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