Education
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PhD, American Studies, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
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B.A., Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Williams College
Research Interests
Biography
Dr. Jallicia Jolly is a writer, poet, and reproductive justice (RJ) organizer who is an Assistant Professor in American Studies and Black Studies at Amherst College. She merges community-based research on Black women's health, grassroots activism, and political leadership with RJ organizing and practice in the United States and the Caribbean. Dr. Jolly is the founder and director of the Black Feminist Reproductive Justice, Equity, and HIV/AIDS Activism (BREHA) Collective — a new interdisciplinary, medical humanities lab that bridges research, advocacy, student collaborations, and high-impact learning experiences on the health and movement-building of Afro-diasporic girls, women, and gender diverse people. A 2022-2023 Ford Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Jolly’s first book manuscript, Ill Erotics: Black Caribbean Women and Self-Making in the Time of HIV/AIDS, is an ethnography of the reproductive justice organizing of young Black Jamaican women living and loving with HIV that chronicles their everyday confrontations with illness, reproductive violence, and inequality in neocolonial Jamaica. A public scholar invested in research-informed political action, she leads with justice and joy as her core intention while centering new legacies of equity and community care beyond inequality and violence.
Dr. Jolly is currently Co-Chair of Birth Equity and Justice Massachusetts (BEJMA) - an interdisciplinary body that brings together clinicians, researchers, community organizations, advocates, legislators, and stakeholders to implement evidence-based interventions to improve birth outcomes while addressing structural racism and medical violence in the provision of reproductive health care and services. She has written for and her work has been featured in various media outlets such as USA Today, The Washington Post/The Lily, The Boston Globe, Michigan Public Radio, Huffington Post, Rewire News, Ms. Magazine, Nursing Clio, and Black Youth Project. Her work has also been supported by grants and fellowships such as The Fulbright Scholar Program, Ford Foundation, The Mellon Mays Foundation, National Women's Studies Association, University of Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities, Yale University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) and LGBT Studies, Brown University’s Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, Boston Women’s Fund, and the Wagner Foundation.
Graduating from the University from Michigan in summer 2020, Dr. Jolly holds a doctorate and master's in American Culture, and certificates in Women’s & Gender Studies, Afroamerican and African Studies, and Science, Technology & Society as well as in Center for Research on Learning and Teaching and Diversity & Equity.
Homepages
Contact Information
718-801-2521
