storytelling. oral history.
black folx. across generations.
intimate stories. story circles. generativity (the
passing down of wisdom).
my research
As a full-time doctoral student, my research is centered on generatively (the passing down of wisdom) the stories we hear and tell (and those we wish we heard or told) around intimate topics and how they impact our identities, relationships, and our health/well-being (Koenig-Kellas, 2016). For my dissertation, I am specifically focusing on the shared/silenced stories of intergenerational populations in the Black community around love (i.e. self-love, familial love, romantic love, agape love).
Longer term, through the use of time, space, and place, I wish to create sustainable community and human-centered projects, that creates physical spaces for others to share and listen to each other's stories, and then, to collaboratively discover ways that these stories can bring about individual, relational, and social change.
How Does My Research Translate to Non-Academic Spaces?
I believe that any team, institution or organization is made stronger when we prioritize policies, strategies and initiatives that focuses on the “human” part of these spaces. Each of us has a story behind our titles; these stories impact how we show up as leaders, employees, students, parents, and patrons. By failing to hold space that centralizes voices and lived experiences, entities suffer. My work allows me to help teams, institutions, and organizations with this. Furthermore, obtaining a PhD has strengthened my resiliency and motivation and equips me with even more transferable skills, such as making decisions based on evidence, applying various analytical tools to gather and interpret data, sharing data in a compelling, narrative-based way, and communicating complex concepts clearly.
Where Am I In the Process?
As of February 2022, I am officially a PhD candidate. Woot! Next up is collecting my data via interviews, analyzing my findings and finishing up my final chapters to my dissertation. I am ambitiously striving to defend my dissertation in August 2022.. Keep me in your prayers, y'all!
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Denson, S. (2021). It doesn’t have to protest: A review of Black or right: Anti/racist campus rhetorics. Writers: Craft and Context (2) 2, 36-41.
scholarly projects
Speaker
Dresher Center for the Humanities
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Baltimore, Maryland (Fall 2021):
"Retrospective Storytelling, Meaning-Making and Generativity (The Passing Down of Wisdom): Black Intergenerational Stories About Love"
Graduate Student Representative + Fellow
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Baltimore Field School |
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Baltimore, Maryland (Spring/Summer 2021)
Organizer + Author
The Shriver Center |
University of Maryland Baltimore County
Baltimore, Maryland (Spring 2020): Organized a collaborative, multilayered dialogic process with Center staff and community stakeholders to author its anti-racism statement housed on the website's homepage. Presented statement to University President, Dr. Freeman Hrabowsk,i and it was used to facilitate community and campus conversations.
Organizer + Presenter
National Communication Association 105th Annual Convention |
Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland (Fall 2019): Interpersonal Communication Division, Panel: "Happily Even After: Surviving Relational Dissolution"
Planner and Graphic Designer
Language, Literacy, and Culture Doctoral Program Cedric Herring Symposium | University of Maryland Baltimore County
Baltimore, Maryland (Spring 2021): "Critical Conversations: An Intersectional Perspective to Ignite Social Change"
Selected Presenter
Black Communities Conference |
UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, Durham, North Carolina (Fall 2019): {Short Talk} "Creating Spaces for Empowering Black Narratives"
Hostess + Co- Public Relations Chair
2019 National Communication Association 105th Annual Convention |
Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland
(Fall 2019) : Black Caucus/African American Communication & Culture Division, Panel: "Voices and Resources: Placing Communication at the Forefront Through Financial Literacy, Self-Health Management, Social Change and Survival".
Co-Planner and Graphic Designer
Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Doctoral Program Symposium |
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina (Spring 2019): "Dialog 2.0: Social Movements, Online Communication + Transformation"
consulting projects
In my spare time, I am a communication consultant. I have worked with a variety of influencers, community organizations and businesses, leading special projects, such as website and logo design, digital storytelling, and content curation, as well as facilitating communication-based workshops. Below are just a few of those collaborations:
Storytelling and Marketing Clients
Mindful Performance Center
Mission Fit
Top Tier Columbia
Purpose Personal Training
Faciliatated Public Speaking Workshops
Mayor's Office of Homeless Services
City of Baltimore
Website Design
