Destine Appointed Humanities Center Fellow
Assistant Professor Shaneda Destine has been selected for the Humanities Center Faculty Fellowship Program. Destine has a joint appointment in sociology and Africana Studies, and her courses also contribute to UT’s program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality.
Destine earned her PhD in 2017 from Howard University. Since coming to UT, she has been remarkably productive while navigating the challenges of maintaining faculty positions in two departments—challenges made more difficult by COVID-19 and attacks both in the state of Tennessee and nationally on Black lives and the teaching of critical race and ethnic studies. Destine does work that is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, focused on Black safety, Black joy, and Black care. Her work emphasizes the theoretical approaches rooted in intersectionality. Destine’s focus on “safe” environments for Black Americans for protection and equitable treatment is a thread that runs through all of her work, past and future.
As Destine moves forward with work on historical Black landownership, this fellowship at the Humanities Center will be invaluable, for she will have the opportunity to seriously devote her time to this project, which will move her beyond her dissertation work as she approaches tenure.