Africana Studies / Rites and Reason Theatre

Sophia Evangeline Gumbs (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Department of Africana Studies and a master's student in the Department of History at Brown University. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with summa cum laude honors from the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. Sophia is a Black feminist scholar working at the intersections of Black studies, women's and gender studies, and the history of medicine with historical and contemporary research interests including traditional midwifery, early Black feminist thought, the history of gynecological medicine, care economies, and reproductive and birth justice. Sophia is also a certified perinatal doula, childbirth educator, member of SISTA Fire RI, and co-coordinator for the Doulas of Color Network, a peer-to-peer support and mentorship space for birth workers and aspiring birth workers of color in Rhode Island. Sophia is of Trinidadian, Cape Verdean, African American, and St. Martinian descent and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with roots in Southern New England and Brooklyn, New York. She has lived, worked, and studied in Providence, Rhode Island since 2022.