Grace Gipson
UC Berkeley Doctoral Student
ÜT: 33.706868,-84.473167
Ms. Grace Gipson by day is a current nerdy, second year doctoral student in African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a graduate of Clark Atlanta University (B.A., Psychology) and Georgia State University (M.A., African American Studies). [By night Grace is a mutant-android international scholar at the Berkeley Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters]. As a student of the human and mutant world, Grace’s area of research interests include (mis)representations of race and gender within black popular culture specifically in comic books and film, gender and sexuality, and performances of blackness. Her love and appreciation for comic books can be attributed to her fascination of the well-known Marvel Comics series "X-Men" (particularly Storm).
With research interests in popular culture, her love and passion for comic books and film culture has afforded her the opportunity to present nationally and internationally, as well as being featured on NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin and in the Huffington Post. Throughout her academic career so far, Grace has been published in the FCH Annals: Journal of the Florida Conference of Historians (2011); and has a forthcoming chapter on Janelle Monae’s blend of black feminism and afrofuturism in an edited anthology Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of AstroBlackness (Lexington Books).
During her time in the Bay Area, Grace has also had the opportunity to serve as a guest speaker, regarding her research in comic books and popular culture, at various functions including: KQED Women's History Month: Women in Comic Books and Graphic Novels and AstroBlackness-Remaking and [Re]Mixing Black Identity Before, Now and Beyond, “Parting Shots: The Future of Afrofuturism, among other events. Grace’s current research project includes exploring graphic novels, comic books, and their connection/linkage to the African Diasporic Imaginary.
In her spare time, Grace is also the creator and editor of the film blog Black Savant Cinema, a regular contributor for the website Black Girl Nerds, as well as the Entertainment blogger for The Berkeley Graduate. Outside of professional and academic interests, Grace loves to travels, trying new restaurants, going to festivals and concerts, a movie junkie, and community service worker.