Krystal A Smalls
Generally, my research revolves around the semiotics (studying meaning-making through signs) of race in young people's lives. I conduct ethnographic research in different geographic and conceptual locations of the "Black diaspora" (mostly digital and urban) to study the intersection of vast structural processes like anti-Black racism/ antiblackness, settler colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy; intermediary discursive terrains like schools, hip hop, and social media; and intimate relations between people. I try to understand and bear witness to young Black people’s joyful and painful strategies of survival and to their futurecrafting.
I've worked with young urbanites in Liberia, Kenya, and the US (Philadelphia), and have recently begun work with my own cultural community, the Gullah Geechee of coastal and insular South Carolina.
Before becoming an academic, I worked for several years in Black community and youth development, education, and policy in New York City, DC, and the Richmond (VA) area.
My book ‘Telling Blackness: Young Liberians and Raciosemiotics of Contemporary Black Diaspora’ was published in September 2024 by Oxford University Press in their Language and Race Series.
I've worked with young urbanites in Liberia, Kenya, and the US (Philadelphia), and have recently begun work with my own cultural community, the Gullah Geechee of coastal and insular South Carolina.
Before becoming an academic, I worked for several years in Black community and youth development, education, and policy in New York City, DC, and the Richmond (VA) area.
My book ‘Telling Blackness: Young Liberians and Raciosemiotics of Contemporary Black Diaspora’ was published in September 2024 by Oxford University Press in their Language and Race Series.
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