Meet The Creator
Dr. Shardé
M. Davis
@DrShardeDavis envisioned the idea for a hashtag, #BlackintheIvory, one night on June 6th to share her own stories of anti-Black racism. Learn more about the person behind the hashtag.
Public Scholarship, Service, and Advocacy
Justice-oriented public scholarship and community engagement are not new to Dr. Davis. Since her first year in college at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Dr. Davis has been heavily involved in various university and local communities, operating from a deep-seated passion to serve, advocate for, and circulate knowledge with historically underrepresented and oppressed communities, namely Black women and men.
In her undergraduate campus community, she worked with the Office of Admissions, Educational Opportunity Program, and student organizations to increase the admission, retention, and graduation rates of students of color and first-generation college students. She also educated the campus community at student-led marches, university “teach-ins,” and staff/faculty in-service seminars about the ways people can be more culturally aware and inclusive. She continued this work in graduate school by serving as a tutor and mentor for various organizations within her local community.
As a faculty person, Dr. Davis has worked with individuals who are transitioning from prison to larger society by co-facilitating weekly group therapy sessions focused on mental health and parenting practices. She has also facilitated community seminars that teach Black women about self care and another phenomenon that she coined called “sistah care,” which is a culturally-nuanced communication strategy that promotes Black women’s relational wellness. In addition to her work at the local, community level, Dr. Davis is heavily involved in her professional community; that work includes serving as Chair of the African American Communication and Culture Division of the National Communication Association. Dr. Davis also co-founded and co-organized Faculty and Staff of Color TownHalls, which has since been institutionalized by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
In Fall 2020, Dr. Davis and two of her colleagues were asked by the university administration to develop a university-wide course on US anti-Black racism that was requested by the Black undergraduate students in summer 2020 and was recently voted by the Faculty Senate to be a mandatory course for all first-year students. Dr. Davis believes that she shouldn’t just “talk the talk” but also “walk the walk,” and has been diligent about using her position in academia to enact change within her sphere of influence.
Recognitions
Over the years, various entities have recognized Dr. Davis for her work. These awards include (but aren’t limited to): the 2006 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Scholarship, Leadership, and Citizenship and 2006 Chancellor’s University Service Award (undergraduate; the first student in UCSB’s history to win two university-level awards); the 2013 Kennedy/Graves Award for Extraordinary Academic Engagement in Black Politics (graduate); and the 2019 Black Girls Rock! Trailblazer Award from UConn’s Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women, 2020 Feminist Teacher-Mentor Award from the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender, 2020 Community Engagement Award from the Activism and Social Justice Division of the National Communication Association, and the 2021 American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Service Excellence Award from UConn (faculty).
Research Scholarship
Dr. Davis’ calling in life is to do work that uplifts Black womanhood and the sistahood, and she has resolved that research has the political currency to heighten people’s consciousness about pertinent social issues and effect necessary change. Thus, she utilizes her agency as a knowledge producer to develop alternative meanings of Black women’s subjectivity using Black feminist thought as her guiding framework.
She started her journey as a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, and since then has created a robust program of research situated in the area of interpersonal communication, with emphases in racial and gender identity, intra/intergroup dynamics, and supportive communication, as well as resistance, counter-hegemony, and resilience.
Her specific empirical wheelhouse examines the way Black women leverage communication in the sistah circle to invoke collective identity, erect and fortify the boundaries around their homeplace, and backfill the necessary resources to return to white and/or male dominant spaces in American society. These ideas have been published in over 40 peer-refereed articles and invited book chapters and are best represented in her theory, The Strong Black Woman Collective.
Dr. Davis’ work has also been recognized with over 40 awards, honors, and fellowships. More information about her research can be found on her university page and all of her publications, service, honors, and more can be found on Dr. Davis’ CV.
Speaking Engagements
In addition to Dr. Davis’ work as a scholar-activist, she has also been invited to issue keynotes, sit on panels, participate in webinars, and host brown bag lunches with students at universities and other educational organizations around the world. In her talks, she has discussed her experiences as a Black woman faculty person and the anti-Black racism work that she has done (alongside her BIPOC faculty colleagues) at her home institution, the origin of her idea for the #BlackintheIvory Twitter hashtag, her research on resistance and resilience and its place in current discussions of anti-Black racism, and prescriptions about what people can do to enact change. Dr. Davis is humbled to know that her words have deeply resonated with those in attendance.
“You blew us out the water!!! It was epic!.... I never knew I could learn so much in such a short period of time… It was on another higher level of intellectual thought, style and passion. You forced everyone hearing you to think and also to feel. You’ve got us here all choked up!”
“I have never attended an event which so resonated with my day-to-day struggles and those of my BIPOC PhD colleagues.”
“After listening to your talk, I made a vow to myself to always try to speak confidently and to not over accommodate others in exchange for my dignity.”
“You spoke to me on so many levels today and I indeed got emotional when listening and reflecting on my own experiences.”
Speaker Request Form
If you would like to book Dr. Shardé M. Davis for a speaking engagement, then you can send her an email at blackintheivory@gmail.com with the event information. Or, if you’d prefer, you can complete the Speaker Request Form below.