Susana Morris

About

Dr. Susana M. Morris is a professor, author, and scholar known for her work as a Black-Feminist Afrofuturist. Her research and writing focus on cultural biography, feminism, hip-hop culture, and the African diaspora. She has authored works such as 'Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler,' which situates the influential writer within key social and historical contexts, and 'Feminist AF: A Guide to Crushing Girlhood,' co-authored with Brittney Cooper and Chanel Craft Tanner, which combines hip-hop and feminist perspectives to empower women. Morris is also a co-editor of 'The Crunk Feminist Collection,' a compilation of essays that critically explore themes like sexuality, power, patriarchy, and misogyny within Black culture and communities. Her scholarship critically examines how African American and Caribbean women writers challenge respectability politics and envision transgressive kinship systems rooted in community care, accountability, and cultural practices of the African diaspora. Described as a queer Afrofuturist feminist visionary, her work emphasizes the possibility of creating new worlds, inspiring others to work toward social transformation with a narrative fierceness.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Social Science
• Art
• Criminology
• Gender studies
• Law
• Medicine
• Nursing

Selected publications

• Black Girls Are from the Future: Afrofuturist Feminism in Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling

  Women's studies quarterly · 2012-01-01 · 65 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Black Girls Are from the Future:Afrofuturist Feminism in Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling Susana M. Morris (bio) Vampires are a ubiquitous presence in contemporary American culture. The recent popularity of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Twilight Saga, Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, the Underworld films, and HBO's True Blood, among other works, not only reflects how saturated popular culture is with vampires but also the enduring importance of these figures. Today's vampires, whether they are blood…

  PublisherDOI

• Close Kin and Distant Relatives: The Paradox of Respectability in Black Women's Literature

  2014-02-04 · 59 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The in the United States and the Caribbean often holds contradictory and competing meanings in public discourse: on the one hand, it is a site of love, strength, and support; on the other hand, it is a site of pathology, brokenness, and dysfunction that has frequently called forth an emphasis on conventional respectability if stability and social approval are to be achieved. Looking at the ways in which contemporary African American and black Caribbean women writers conceptualize the black famil…

  PublisherOA PDF

• Healing Justice: A Framework for Collective Healing and Well-Being from Systemic Traumas

  Designing Interactive Systems Conference · 2022 · 26 citations

  The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States demanded police reform and legislative action. Data-driven policing is just one technological intervention designed with the hope to tackle police brutality. However, these design interventions are often rooted in the continued racial profiling of poor and socially marginalized communities. Designers and researchers need a Healing Justice framework to circumvent this harm. Healing Justice addresses generational trauma and violence in marg…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An OutKast Reader: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Postmodern South

  University of Georgia Press eBooks · 2021 · 26 citations

  PublisherDOI

• "Sisters separated for much too long": Women's Friendship and Power in Toni Morrison's "Recitatif"

  Tulsa Studies in Women s Literature · 2013-03-01 · 5 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This essay considers the paradigms and power structures of women's friendships in Toni Morrison's only short story to date, "Recitatif" (1983), an approach missing from current scholarship about the text. The essay argues that imposing a divide between the story as a racial allegory and a meditation on women's connections is a specious separation. By including a rigorous assessment of power dynamics in women's friendship, this article enriches our understanding of the text and underscores the in…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Brittney Cooper

  San Francisco State University

  4 shared

• Stacey A. Robinson

  Environment and Climate Change Canada

  1 shared

• Kaila Adia Story

  1 shared

• Wendy M. Laybourn

  University of Memphis

  1 shared

• Aisha Durham

  University of South Florida

  1 shared

• Clinton R. Fluker

  1 shared

• Howard Rambsy

  1 shared

• James E. Ford III

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Faculty Excellence in Research Award, Georgia Institute of T…
• Principal Investigator, The Earthseed Project (Mellon Founda…
• GT DILAC-A Grant Award for "Earthseed: Afrofuturism and Blac…
• GVU/IPaT/GTRI Seed Grant Award for Healing Justice: Co-Desig…
• “Thanks For Being a Great Teacher!” Award, Center for Teachi…

Similar researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology

• Allegra Smithh-32
• Philip Auslanderh-28
• Richmond Wongh-20