Courtesy of Spelman College
As part of the reception, the program members celebrated 170 UNCF/Mellon Ph.D. graduates, who serve with distinction at various types of higher education institutions.
“Through their scholarship, leadership, and mentorship, [the recent UNCF/Mellon Ph.D. graduates] uphold the value of using education to document and interrogate the production of knowledge and to uplift and engage communities in this project we call democracy,” said Dr. Spence.
Following the welcome, Georgia State University Professor Dr. Stephanie Evans engaged Dr. Guy Sheftall in an insightful conversation celebrating her legacy and new book, “Black! Feminist! Free!” The two talked about Dr. Guy Sheftall’s scholarly journey.
“I was committed to making sure that other HBCUs had some kind of commitment to women’s and gender studies, and later sexuality studies. That’s been a challenge,” said Dr. Guy Sheftall, founding director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center at Spelman. She noted that to this day, Spelman is one of the only HBCU to have a major in women’s studies, with a few HBCUs having a minor in the subject. “You must have collaborators. You can’t do this work by yourself. You must have people looking out for you, and I always had that.”
The Opening Plenary culminated in a conference reception featuring performances from the Spelman College Jazz Ensemble.
