Pembroke Center

Melaine Ferdinand-King

2021-23 Graduate Curatorial Proctor, Black Feminist Theory Project

Biography

Ferdinand-King is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Africana Studies. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from Spelman College, where she concentrated in Women's Studies and African Diaspora & the World. Through the Cogut Institute, she earned a doctoral certificate in Collaborative Humanities and works to develop alternative practices for interpersonal engagement in public, private, and professional spaces. Her research interests include Black Aesthetics and Culture, Black Feminism, and the Black Radical Tradition. She is currently exploring the relationship between 20th century Afro-diasporic cultural production and Black political and spiritual philosophies to expand the contours of how we conceive of and analyze Black aesthetic expression and political action in the 21st century.