Vanessa Thompson
Assistant Professor Distinguished Professor in Black Studies and Social Justice
Black Studies; Gender Studies
Chair of Partnerships and Organizing
Research interests: I am an interdisciplinary social scientist and my research examines the relation between state violence, racism and capitalism, and how people struggle against interconnected forms of state violence and structural abandonment and build alternatives. Grounded in traditions of activist scholarship, anti-colonial theories, and black feminist methodologies, I explore abolitionist politics as a form of internationalism. I collaborate with black, anti-racist and abolitionist movements in Europe as well as globally, and focus on their potential of building different worlds.
Recent publications: I have published on the relation between state violence, racism and capitalism; black social movements in France and Europe more broadly; Fanonian thought; abolitionist struggles against policing and border violence; transnational abolition; reproductive justice and black feminism. I have been fortunate to collaborate with amazing scholars and activists throughout the past years and have co-edited several special issues and anthologies in the fields of black feminisms, reproductive justice and abolition. I am further a member of the editorial collective kitchen politics. You can find a full list of publications in my CV.
Student supervision: I am happy to receive inquiries about supervision within areas of my research interests and expertise. I am particularly interested in supporting and working with first-generation students as well as students from multi-marginalized groups.
Teaching interests: Black Studies, Abolition Studies, Critical Racism and Migration Studies, Black Feminism, Anti-colonial Theories and Methodologies, Activist Ethnographies
Courses taught: Black Studies and the Politics of Liberation. An Introduction; Abolition Feminism
Admirative Roles/Service Highlights: Chair of Partnerships and Organizing in the Black Studies Program, Chair of QUFA's Political Action and Communications Committee, Member of the Undergraduate Committee, Member of the Political Action and Outreach Committee