She earned her Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of St Andrews in Scotland and her Bachelor of Arts from Emory University, where she studied English, History, and Anthropology. As a Mellon Mays Fellow, her research has been generously supported by the Mellon Foundation, Emory University’s Department of History, and the Robert T. Jones Scholarship at the University of St Andrews. She previously worked as a curatorial intern at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Center for the Study of Global Slavery, where she conducted research for the global exhibition “In Slavery’s Wake.”

Russell is also a creative writer currently at work on a novel exploring spectacle, reality TV, and unruly queer women, and writes the culture newsletter Girl Uninterrupted.

Additional Speakers:

Anaiis Cisco, Reighan Gillam, Sarah Lewis, Mary Pena, Malcolm Sen, Toby Sisson, C. Rose Smith