Shardé M. Davis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shardé M. Davis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Education | University of California, Santa Barbara (BA Communication, MA Communication); University of Iowa (Ph.D. in Communication Studies and a doctoral certificate in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies) |
| Occupation | academic |
Shardé M. Davis is an Afro-American academic who created the hashtag #BlackintheIvory, which was popularised on Twitter in the wake of widespread protests following the murder of George Floyd.[1][2]
As an undergraduate, Davis attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she earned a B.A. in Communication and Feminist Studies and an M.A. in Communication.[3] At UCSB she was funded through the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, and awarded the Steven H. Chaffee Undergraduate Research Award from the Department of Communication.[3] She completed her Ph.D. in Communication with a doctoral certificate in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Iowa.[3]
Career
Davis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and a faculty affiliate of the Africana Studies Institute and the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) at the University of Connecticut.[3] She specializes in interpersonal communication, with a focus on "how Black women's complex identities - and the power laden social structures that shape them - influence the way they communicate with close others".[3] Additionally, her research investigates "communication behaviour of other marginalized groups, like the elderly, people of color, financially-strained families, and divorcing couples".[3] These ideas have been published in over 30 peer-refereed articles and invited book chapters,[4] and are best represented in her article, "The 'Strong Black Woman Collective': A Developing Theoretical Framework for Understanding Collective Communication Practices of Black Women".[5] Her research was formally recognized with the 2018 American Postdoctoral Fellowship from the American Association of University Women and the 2019 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.[6]
#BlackintheIvory
in June 2020, Davis established the hashtag #BlackintheIvory with her friend Joy Woods, a doctoral student at the University of Texas-Austin.[1][7] The hashtag, used on Twitter, was designed as a forum to amplify the voices of "Blackademics" to speak truth about racism in academia.[8][9] Woods first used the hashtag on Twitter, tweeting:
"Hey folks, so I want my Black scholars if they're comfortable to share their experience with higher ed institutions #BlackInTheIvory I've started sharing. On Instagram. Shout out to @DrShardeDavis for the idea."[10]
Subsequently, it went viral in the United States and across the world,[7][11][12] with Times Higher Education identifying it as a "tidal wave" of "black scholars" sharing their "lived experiences of discrimination and alienation" at higher educational institutions.[13] As of November 11, 2020, the account had 9,864 followers.[14] Since creating #BlackintheIvory, Davis has been featured in several media interviews and podcasts to share her views on the intersections of racial and academic identity.
Awards and honors
- 2018 - 100 Women of Color Gala, presented by June Archer and Eleven28 Entertainment.[15]
- 2020 - Golden Anniversary Monograph Award for "The Strong Black Woman Collective Theory: Determining the Prosocial Functions of Strength Regulation in Groups of Black Women Friends," published in Journal of Communication in 2019 (co-authored with Tamara D. Afifi).[16]
