Dr. Ashanté M. Reese

Dr. Ashanté M. Reese is an Assistant Professor of African and African Diaspora Studies and Affiliate of the Department of Anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on Black geographies—the ways Black people produce and navigate spaces and places in the context of anti-Blackness. More broadly, her research interests include critical food studies, Black epistemologies, urban studies, carcerality and agriculture, Black feminisms, ethnographic research methods, and practice. Her first book, Black Food Geographies: Race, Food Access, and Self-Reliance in Washington, D.C., was published by UNC Press in April 2019 and considers the structural forces that influence eating while Black and determine food inequities in Black communities. Her second, Black Food Matters, is volume co-edited with Hanna Garth. Dr. Reese earned a bachelors in History with a minor in African American studies from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Anthropology and a PhD in Anthropology, specializing in race, gender, and social justice from American University.