Julia Jordan-Zachery will join WFU faculty as chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department

May 11, 2021

The following is a guest post from the Office of the Dean of the College.

Professor Julia Jordan-Zachery will be joining the faculty as chair of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department in July. Jordan-Zachery is a leading voice on Black feminism and public policy, having published six books within the field including “Shadow Bodies: Black Women, Ideology, and Representation” (Rutgers University Press, 2017) and co-edited “Black Girl Magic Beyond the Hashtag: Twenty-First-Century Acts of Self-Definition” (Arizona University Press, 2019) and “Black Political Women: Demanding Citizenship, Challenging Power, and Seeking Justice” (SUNY University Press, 2018). Her first publication, “Black Women, Cultural Images and Social Policy” (Routledge, 2010) won the W. E. B. Dubois Best Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and the Anna Julia Cooper Outstanding Book Publication Award by the Association for the Study of Black Women in Politics.

“I am thrilled that Julia Jordan-Zachery is joining Wake Forest University’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. Julia is a noted scholar of Black feminism, an exceptional teacher-scholar, a practitioner of the engaged liberal arts through her important community justice work, and if all those amazing and welcome attributes were not enough, she will be serving as the next WGSS department chair. Students and faculty alike will all benefit from Julia’s powerful mind, deep dedication to substantive student learning, and impressive leadership skills. The WGSS Department could not have found a more exceptional and well-suited scholar for this critical role,” Dean of the College Michele Gillespie said.

Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities Corey D. B. Walker. Walker, inaugural director of the Program in African American Studies at Wake Forest, said, “I am excited to be reunited with a dear friend and committed intellectual. Black feminist studies is foundational to African American studies and to a liberal arts education. With Julia, we will continue to challenge ourselves as teachers and scholars to realize a broader and deeper understanding of Pro Humanitate.”

Read more about Jordan-Zachery, including a Q&A, on the College News website.