Whitney Watson is a graduating senior at the University of Arkansas majoring in Educational Studies with a minor in African and African American Studies. During their time in undergrad, they have been a mentor, coordinator, and volunteer for various college access initiative programs, they have been a cabinet member of hall senate, they have been a student ambassador, they have studied abroad in Ghana to observe the history, generational, and trans-continental effects of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and colonialism in Africa at large, they have interned with the Relay Graduate School of Education as an ELA Teaching Fellow in New Orleans two summers in a row, they currently work in recruitment at Arkansas Teacher Corps to assist in recruiting teachers to serve in underrepresented schools throughout the state of Arkansas, and most importantly, they have lived their entire life as a black girl, and now, as a black (young) woman who refuses to shut the fuck up. Their work focuses on centering black women and femmes in our quest for freedom and liberation. In addition to that, they seek to reconnect people of the diaspora to ancestral veneration, and by extension, Black and African Spirituality, as one of the many methods and modes for healing and dismantling systemic oppression such as: white supremacy, patriarchy, misogynoir, misogyny, sexism, classism, racism, fatphobia, homophobia, anti-blackness, elitism, respectability politics, educational inequity, purity culture, and all other forms of oppression and institutions that serve to inhibit our collective freedom and growth through the lens of Womanism, Black Feminism, Intersectionality, Spirit, Ebonics, and a Southern twang. By investing in their work, you allow them to continue to grow and expand their own knowledge and experience(s), which inevitably adds to this space, by them attending conferences, webinars, purchasing books, equipment, investing in courses and curriculum, creating higher quality content, writing more essays and blogs, building their brand, and overall trusting them to help guide you on this walk and in this work. Invest what you can, if you feel called to contribute. Either way, they so appreciate your love and support; it’s only up from here. -Whitney<3
Find Whitney Watson online:
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/thewomanistwitch
