Brittany Pearl Battle, an assistant professor in the sociology department at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, won the Feminist Activism Award from the organization Sociologists for Women in Society. Established in 1995, the award is presented annually to an SWS member who has notably and consistently used sociology to improve conditions for women in society. The award honors outstanding feminist advocacy efforts that embody the goal of service to women and that have identifiably improved women’s lives.
Dr. Battle’s research interests include social and family policy, courts, social justice, carceral logics, and culture and cognition. She teaches courses on social justice in the social sciences, criminology, and courts & criminal procedure, and is currently designing a course on abolition and reimagining justice. She is currently completing work on a book manuscript entitled “They’re Stealing My Opportunity to Be a Father:” The Child Support System and State Intervention in the Family (New York University Press).
Dr. Battle is a graduate of the University of Delaware. She earned a master’s degree in African American studies at Temple University in Philadelphia and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
I am very curious in knowing how much time has Brittany spent on the “Black side of Winston-Salem”. I also wonder what’s the probability that Brittany have not even visited the campus of Winston Salem State University and let along teach a course at that HBCU. What’s wrong with that picture?
Hey! I have actually been on the campus of WSSU several times (in just over a semester since Covid has shut down all campuses for most of my just two years in Winston), including giving a guest lecture in my colleague’s class there. I’ve also invited WSSU faculty to guest lecture in my course, invited faculty and students to my department’s events, and work collaboratively with faculty and students on research. In addition, I’ve been in conversation about co-teaching a course with WSSU since I was interviewed for my position, and now that campuses are opening back up, I’ll be investigating how to make that happen. It’s not likely I’ll teach a solo course there, because that’s not typically how things work, but I do in fact spend time there, including going to the fish fry for lunch. And I do organizing work on behalf of Black and marginalized communities in Winston, and live on the South side. So, I guess that picture you assumed isn’t actually the reality? 🙂
Hey Brittany,
I appreciate your intellectually honest response. However, there’s no need for the emotive rant. Let’s deconstruct your reply. First, you visited WSSU a few times since the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s nothing to brag about by any measures. Second, you reached out to WSSU faculty and students to attend “your events at WFU” because of the scarcity of ‘native born Black faculty and students’ at WFU. Not to mention this was your tactic of showing the White people at WFU you have some “Black support”. Third, you stated that ” It’s not likely I’ll teach a solo course there, because that’s not typically how things work”. Actually Brittany, if you truly wanted to teach a course at WSSU as an adjunct, I am most confident the sociology department chair would gladly find some sort of way to bring you on-board. That said, given the racist history and mistreatment of Black faculty at WFU, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have you teaching 4 courses for the upcoming fall semester and still expect for you to conduct substantive high quality publishable research. Fourth, simply because you occasionally stop by for a ‘Black fish fry’ does not qualify as being in tuned with the Black community. Last, you clearly revealed your true politically correct self by saying “I do organizing work on the behalf of Black and marginalized communities” (I just bet it’s nowhere near Liberty Street and Patterson area). In other words Brittany, you’re pontificating intersectionality which does nothing more than weaken and reverse any collective Black gains because you’re too busy trying to be “all things for all people”. Unfortunately Brittany, those other ‘marginalized communities” do not reciprocate towards the Black community.
P.S. I would suggest you read: https://triad-city-beat.com/black-at-wake-and-carolina-and-duke/ and https://www.cityofws.org/DocumentCenter/View/4102/Winston-Salems-African-American-Neighborhoods-Study-PDF?bidId=
Preach! Conscious Activists DO THINGS! Space or place aren’t limiters when you have that spirit! Keep reaching out/across and we’ll eliminate artifical divides!! Congrats on your honors!
Well, well, well Joseph. No need for your neoliberal and emotive platitudes. Your misguided response is the product of years of miseducation. For the record Joseph, “artifical” is correctly spelled “artificial”. Also Joseph, you have a false sense of Black reality because divides do exist in this country under the guise of systemic, institutional, and structural White American racism. You are literally clueless.