Women's History Month Keynote Address

"BLACK WOMEN’S #HISTORICALWELLNESS: Traditions of Connecting Self-Care to Social Justice," Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans, Georgia State University.

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In this UGA Women’s History Month Virtual Keynote Lecture, Dr. Evans will discuss what she calls #HistoricalWellness—Black women’s traditions of simultaneously practicing inner peace and working to resist oppression. Moving beyond the unnecessary dichotomy of individual vs. communal care, Evans unpacks her ideas about “social locations of health,” a feminist-womanist narrative framework that connects self-care, communal care, structural care, and struggles for social justice. Centering memoir as Black women’s intellectual history, Evans reveals how her personal struggle for inner peace has taken place within a long continuum of narrative “truth-telling” by women like Anna Julia Cooper and Rosa Parks. She will discuss her recent book Black Women’s Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace (SUNY 2021) as well as co-edited volumes Black Women’s Mental Health (SUNY 2017) and Black Women and Public Health (SUNY 2022).

Evans is a Professor of Black Women's Studies, faculty in the Institute for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and affiliate faculty in the Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University. She served as department chair and director for twelve years at GSU, Clark Atlanta, University, and University of Florida. At GSU, she is also affiliate faculty in the Center for the Study of Africa and Its Diaspora (CSAD) as well as in the Center for the Study of Stress, Trauma and Resilience. Her research interest is Black women's intellectual history, specifically memoirs, mental health, and wellness.

Evans is author of three books: Black Women's Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace (SUNY, 2021); Black Passports: Travel Memoirs as a Tool for Youth Empowerment (SUNY, 2014) and Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History (UF, 2007) as well as lead co-editor of four books, Black Women and Public Health: Strategies to Name, Locate, and Change Systems of Power (SUNY 2022), Black Women and Social Justice Education (SUNY, 2019), Black Women's Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability (SUNY Press, 2017), African Americans and Community Engagement in Higher Education (SUNY, 2009).

Evans is also co-chair of “Chair at the Table: Black Women Department Chairs on Academic Service, Leadership, and Balance” (a 2021 special issue of Palimpsest journal). She is curator of the Black Women's Studies Booklist (bwstbooklist.net) and editor of the Black Women's Wellness book series at SUNY Press. Her full portfolio is available online at http://www.professorevans.net/.