Ruth Brown

Activities & Honors

• Member, American Political Science Association, - present
• Member, Midwest Political Science Association, - present
• Member, National Conference of Black Political Scientists Association, - present
• Member, National Women's Studies Association, - present
• Member, AERA, 2007- present
• Women of Color Leadership Project Participant, National Women's Studies Association, 2007-
• Award for Excellence in Arts-Based Research, Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshop on Narrative Theory and Methods, University of Michigan, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, 2005-
• Visiting Researcher, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, Columbia University, 2003-2005

Research Statement

Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown is a dynamic writer, researcher, performer, mentor and instructor. She is an assistant professor in the Gender and Women’s Studies and Educational Policy Studies Departments at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Her research documents, analyzes, and interrogates Black girls’ lived experiences as it intersects with cultural constructions of Black girlhood. More specifically, Dr. Brown’s scholarship interests include cultural politics, girls’ studies, educational practice, theatre and drama, and qualitative methodology. She is developing her second book project, The Black Girl Community Handbook: Creating Accountable Truths, an ethnographic account of the creative processes Black girls rely on to make intelligible the ways power, spirituality, memory, and performativity structure meanings of belonging. As an agent of change, she values the leadership development of her students and as a professor, she is committed to making the “classroom” a transformative public space that relates to and resonates with students' experiences by incorporating their intellect, interests and talents into the course content.

In addition to her commitments as an academic scholar, Dr. Brown also works with university students and community residents to co-organize, Saving Our Lives, Hear Our Truths (Solhot). Solhot is a “space” dedicated to the celebration of Black girlhood in all of its complexity. As a critical method of civic engagement, Solhot is a creative cutting-edge application of Dr. Brown’s studied and research interventions in Black Girls’ Studies and Hip Hop Feminism.

Through her extensive training in art-based methodologies, Dr. Brown’s research is interdisciplinary. As a writer, she produces plays, performance texts, photo-performance exhibits, books, and journal articles to document the lived experiences of Black girls in the United States and abroad, to resist the wave of conservative trends inherent in current educational policies and to humanize the experiences of disenfranchised people.

Grants

• Principal Investigator, Hardie Collaborative Stipend: Black Girlhood Celebration: Lessons from SOLHOT (Saving Our Lives, Hear Our Truths)!, Bureau of Educational Research, 2007-2008

Publications

• Brown, Ruth Nicole. (2008). Black Girlhood Celebration: A Hip Hop Feminist Pedagogy. Peter Lang.
• Brown, R. N., & Desipio, L. (2007). Dianne Pinderhughes: A career dedicated to understanding the racial dynamics of American politics and to serving as an agent of change. PS: Political Science & Politics, 203-238.
• Brown, R. N. (2007). Remembering Maleesa: Theorizing black girl politics and the politicizing of socialization. National Political Science Review, 11, 121-136.
• Brown, R. N. (2007). Persephone's triumph: Reflections of a young black woman becoming a real political scientist. Qualitative Inquiry, 13(5), 650-659.
• Brown, R. N. (2006). Mentoring on the borderlands: Creating empowering connections between adolescent girls and young women volunteers. Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge, IV, 105-122.

In The News

Women’s Resources Center names Ruth Nicole Brown Faculty Woman of the Year May 2, 2013 Ruth Nicole Brown, assistant professor of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership (EPOL), was named the Faculty Woman of the Year by the Women’s Resources Center at an awards ceremony on March 29. Read more...