Join the WashU Black Alumni Council for Conversations With Classmates. This installment features two dynamic alumnae: Keona Katrice Ervin, MA ’05, PhD ’09, and Crystal M. Moten, AB ’04. Ervin and Moten will discuss their work at the intersection of race, class, and gender; recent and upcoming projects; and how their time at WashU prepared them for their current roles. Imani Cheers, BFA ’02, will moderate the Q&A.
Imani Cheers is an associate professor of digital storytelling at the George Washington University and a cultural curator. She is also the director of academic adventures for Planet Forward. Cheers earned her BFA from WashU. She earned a master’s in African Studies and a doctorate in mass communication and media studies from Howard University. Cheers is an award-winning digital storyteller, director, producer, and filmmaker. As a professor of practice, she uses a variety of mediums including video, photography, television, and film to document and discuss issues affecting and involving people of the African diaspora. Her scholarly focus is on the intersection of women/girls, technology, health, conflict, agriculture, and the effects of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa. Cheers is also an expert on diversity in Hollywood, specifically the representation of Black women in television and film. She is the author of The Evolution of Black Women in Television: Mammies, Matriarchs, and Mistresses.
Keona Katrice Ervin is an associate professor and director of gender, sexuality, and women's studies at Bowdoin College. She is the author of the award-winning book, Gateway to Equality: Black Women and the Struggle for Economic Justice in St. Louis. Ervin has published articles and reviews in International Labor and Working-Class History, Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, New Labor Forum, and Los Angeles Review of Books. She is currently writing a history of Black women's labor struggles that will be published by Verso Books and a history of the intersections of Black radical feminist politics and labor-leftist coalitions and solidarity movements in the US since the 1970s. Ervin is the senior editor of the Labor History section of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History.
Crystal M. Moten is a public historian, curator, and writer who focuses on the intersection of race, class, and gender to uncover the hidden histories of Black people in the Midwest. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, her research has appeared in books, journals, documentaries, and other media. Moten has taught at colleges and universities across the country. Prior to joining the Obama Foundation as the inaugural curator of collections of exhibitions, she worked as curator of African American history in the Division of Work and Industry at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Her most recent book is Continually Working: Black Women, Community Intellectualism and Economic Justice in Postwar Milwaukee (Vanderbilt University Press, 2023).
Cost: Complimentary, registration required
NOTE: You will receive a confirmation email after completing this registration form. If you do not receive confirmation, please email alumninetworks@wustl.edu.
