Associate Professor in the Department of History and Faculty Director of the Institute for Diversity, Equity, and Advancement at UC Davis
About
Rachel Jean-Baptiste is a historian of gender, sexuality, race, and the law in French-speaking Africa, as well as a practitioner who has helped non profit organizations and k-12 schools create more equitable educational outcomes. She has published a book and numerous articles of historical research.
Current Work:
Dr. Jean-Baptiste is investigating how Africans thought of and lived out ideas about race. We often think that "race" is a construct developed by the West. Additionally, when we think about "blackness," how African-Americans conceive of racial identity speaks for people of African descent around the world. In centering Africa and Africans in racial thought and practice, her research expands our understanding of the complex ways in which societies across time and space have built and dismantled racial hierarchies.
Research Area Keyword(s):
gender; sexuality; mixed race studies; family law; citizenship
