Ayshea Banes (she/her) is a first-year graduate student in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. student in Curriculum and Instruction. She received her bachelor’s in physics with minors in mathematics and chemistry from Wichita State University. She became interested in physics and astronomy when she saw Jupiter for the first time with her first telescope at 7 years old. As time continued, she became more interested in physics education and how we can transform it. Her research now focuses on ways to center Blackness within the physics classroom and how physics can aid in Black liberation. Outside of academics, she really enjoys doing puzzles, Pilates, reading, and petting her cats.
Zhangyang Xie (he/him) is a first-year graduate student in the Department of African American Studies. He received his undergraduate degree in Africana Studies and Science, Technology, and Society from the University of Pennsylvania. He is particularly interested in the intersection of race, science, and sexuality. In addition to race-based health inequity, he is also interested in the social construction of racial and sexual identities. For his M.A. thesis, he tentatively plans to examine the historical criminalization of queer bodies, prison as a site of gender-affirmation and homosexual tension, and how race and sexuality influence the development of the prison-industrial complex. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music, cooking, and exploring local wineries and distilleries.
Jada Young (she/her) is a first-year M.A. student in African American Studies and Ph.D. student in Educational Policy Studies. She holds a M.A. in Educational Studies with a concentration in Educational Equity, Justice, and Social Transformation from the University of Michigan, where she was awarded the Rackham Merit Fellowship. Additionally, Jada is a proud PEOPLE Scholar alumna of UW-Madison and has a B.S. in Education Studies with a certificate in African American Studies. Her research interests are interdisciplinary across education, African American studies, gender and women’s studies, and carceral studies. Jada’s research explores the criminalization of Black girls in behavior-alternative schools. Outside of academia, Jada enjoys traveling, trying new food, and spending time with her family and puppy!
Griffin Granberry (they/them) is a second-year Graduate Fellow in the Department of African American Studies. They attended the University of Wisconsin for their undergraduate studies as well, graduating in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies and German Language. As a Master’s Student, their research situates the archive as a site of violence in order to critically investigate our dominant historiographical practices and expose their inherent anti-Black and anti-Queer tendencies. In their free time, Griffin enjoys reading whatever they can get their hands on – prioritizing stories with dragons, of course – and visiting their many feathered friends at the nearby International Crane Foundation. Find Griffin snuggled up with their three cats or studying with a chilly coffee in the Graduate Student Office!
Oluwatosin Philip Adeyemi is a Graduate School Fellow at the Department of African American Studies. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and International Studies from Adekunle Ajasin University, Ondo State, Nigeria. His research interest is focused on the history of America’s lynching legacies and how contemporary African American artists’ artwork has helped remediate and reconfigure lynch images. He is particularly interested in contemporary African American arts and how some of these artworks acknowledge historical trauma while creating space for black joy, resistance, and futurity. Oluwatosin loves traveling and visiting the arts, galleries, museums, and archives during his leisure hours and holidays.
Ziyen Curtis (she/they) is the current lab manager of The SoulFolk Collective. She is a doctoral student of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Global and International Studies, with a specification in Culture and Identity, and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Pennsylvania State University. Ziyen’s research interests include History Education and Black history curricula. Through their research, she aims to analyze the consequences of racially exclusive history curricula in the U.S. and the ethics of value in the context of Black history curricula.
Sebastian Asahel Melmoth (he/him or they/them) is a Master’s student in the African American Studies and Library and Information Studies programs. He recently graduated from Alverno College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and History and concentrations in postcolonial literature and the History of Western Imperialism, Colonialism, and Atlantic Slavery. His research interests engage methodologies from the fields of African American Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Gender Studies, Library Studies, Comparative Literature Studies, and Film and Visual Studies to build a nexus of inquiry that complicates our impressions of the past and its scholarship. Lately, his academic interests are motivated by archival tensions with its objects, ideologies, and researchers. The advocacy and forming of accessible archive and special collections spaces for Black, Brown, and LGBTQ+ communities is his guiding objective.