Chriss V. Sneed

EDUCATION:

M.A, 2016, Sociology, University of Connecticut
B.A., 2014, Sociology, St. John’s University

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Race & Ethnicity | Sexualities | Sex & Gender | Inequality: Intersectionalities | Black Diaspora Studies | Social Theory | Qualitative Methods

Submit an Abstract: Special issue entitled Racialization.Spectacle.Liberation due Nov. 30th, 2019.

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT:

Chriss Sneed is a ​Ph.D. Candidate at University of Connecticut and recipient of both a J. William Fulbright Research/Open Study Award and SWS’ Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Mareyjoyce Green Dissertation Scholarship. In their dissertation, “Queer Passages and the Assemblages of Blackness,” Chriss examines how Black identity is constructed, negotiated, and utilized by Black/Afro-descendant activists in the United States and Brazil. Here, they focus on activists who are also gender and sexual minorities – those identifying as women or LGBTQ folks, along with their allies – involved in racial justice organizing. This research has also been supported by a Tinker grant (El Instituto), a Wood Raith Fellowship for Gender studies (UConn/Wood Living Trust), and the Human Rights Institute (UConn).

Chriss spent the 2018-2019 academic year working on their dissertation and other manuscripts-in-progress as a visiting Research Associate at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center. In the past, Chriss served as Student Representative of Sociologists for Women in Society, Visiting Instructor of African American Studies at Wesleyan University, Visiting Scholar & Adjunct at St. John’s University, and as an intern for the Trans Justice Funding Project.Outside of these activities, Chriss is the founder and co-organizer of the interdisciplinary conference “Borderlands: A Critical Graduate Symposium” held each year at University of Connecticut.