Africana Studies / Rites and Reason Theatre

monaye johnson (she/they) is a curator, abortion doula, and doctoral student in Africana Studies at Brown University whose work examines the affective, psychic, and grammatical structures that shape Black gendered life. Drawing on Black feminist theory, psycho-affective analytics, and the intellectual legacy of thinkers such as Hortense Spillers and June Jordan, her/their research explores how desire, touch, and patriarchy operate within and beyond the afterlife of slavery. She has delivered invited talks and lectures at Harvard, Yale, The New School, and international convenings on Black feminist thought, care ethics, and reproductive justice. At Brown, she is a Mae Williamson Simmons Fellow, and her broader work spans public scholarship, political education, and organizing. monaye holds a B.A in Gender Studies & Psychology and a M.A in Gender Studies as well. 

Research Interests: Black Arts Movement, Performance Theory, Black Feminist Theory, Critical Theory, Psychoanalysis, Art History, Visual Culture, African American visual and spatial histories, Sexual Violence, Reproduction Health, Anti- Imperialist Thought, Subjectivity.