Africana Studies / Rites and Reason Theatre

Melaine Ferdinand-King earned her B.A. in Sociology from Spelman College, with concentrations in comparative women's studies and African Diaspora & the World. Her research interests include Black aesthetics and culture, Black internationalism, and Afrodiasporic consciousness movements. Her current work is a cultural history and exploration of Afro-Surrealism throughout the Black Radical Tradition, emphasizing 20th-century U.S. and Francophone Caribbean art and activism. She holds graduate fellowships and affiliations with the Pembroke Center for Research and Teaching on Women, the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, the Cogut Institute for the Humanities, and the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. In addition to her graduate work, Melaine is a poet and curator committed to bridging gaps between academia and the Providence community. She enjoys jazz and soul music, language learning, and comedy. Melaine is a recipient of the Brown University Mae Belle Williamson Simmons Diversity Fellowship.