Ayanna De’Vante Spencer

2023 -2024 UCHI/CLAS Undergraduate Research Fellows

Congratulations to the 2023 – 2024 UCHI/CLAS Undergraduate Research Fellows who have been supervised by our wonderful junior faculty members!

Breanna Bonner (Project advisor: Ayanna De’Vante Spencer)
“‘The Space Between Black and Liberation’: Analyzing Black Women’s Experiences of Intersectional Invisibility Within Liberation Movements”

Annabelle Bergstrom (Project advisor: Julian J. Schlöder)
“Minds Among Minds: A Pragmatist View of the Social and Spiritual Self in a Hyperconnected World”

Nathan Howard (Project advisor: Tracy Llanera)
“Homofascism: The Queering of Hate”

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer: me.too International Social and Political Framework

Assistant Professor Ayanna De’Vante Spencer and her collaborators launched the me.too International’s Social and Political Framework. As the original author of the first two versions and now a co-author, Dr. Spencer is very proud of this public philosophy for and with survivors, and the extraordinary team at me too International. Interested parties can view the framework here digitally before physical copies are available.

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer: Believing Black Girl Survivors?

Check out Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ayanna De'Vante Spencer, in The Review's recent articled titled "Believing Black Girl Survivors?" Spencer addresses unjust treatment of Black female survivors, incorporating the justice system and criminalizing survivors over supporting them. 

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer: Inclusive Knowledge Theory & Activism

Check out UVU Philosophy Department’s new series, Inclusive Knowledge: Theory & Activism, where Assistant Professor Ayanna De’Vante Spencer will be giving a keynote lecture titled “Beyond Believing Survivors: Epistemic Oppression and the Criminalization of Black Girl Survivors in the US” on Tuesday, March 29th at 2:30 PM.

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Check out the “Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy” written by Ann Gary, where Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ayanna De’Vante Spencer, is recognized for her piece of work entitled “Say Her Name: Maladjusted Epistemic Salience in the Fight against Anti-Black Police Brutality.” Ayanna De’Vante Spencer is among those writing about the missing narratives of Black women and girls who have been victims of police brutality

 

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer: New Faculty Bring Antiracism and the Environment to the Forefront

Check out UConn Today’s recent article “New Faculty Bring Antiracism and the Environment to the Forefront,” where they introduce the new CLAS faculty, including our newest member to the department Ayanna Spencer who will work across disciplines to advance Antiracism and Human Interactions with the Environment. 

***Excerpt from article***

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer is an incoming assistant professor in philosophy jointly appointed with Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. As a survivor-scholar and Black feminist epistemologist, Spencer’s research weaves Black feminist theory, epistemology, sexual violence literature, settler colonial studies, and feminist anti-carceral studies.    

Through her work with Girls for Gender Equity, the Firecracker Foundation, and the ‘MeToo’ Movement, Spencer saw first-hand a problematic intersection between criminalization, how Black girl sexual violence survivors are expected to respond to violence, and how the state determines what they know about their own experience(s) of violence. Her research examines structures of knowledge verification that contribute to what is called the “sexual abuse to prison pipeline.” Spencer has long focused on gendered anti-Black racism and state violence, including her noteworthy ‘Say Her Name’ chapter published in The Bloomsbury Companion to Analytic Feminism (2018).  

As a first-generation college graduate and former UNCF/Mellon Mays fellow, Spencer is committed to equity and inclusion in her classes and is a strong proponent of undergraduate research.