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Changing narratives around Racism, Trauma, Mental Illness, and Suicide one conversation at time.
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Dr. Kamesha Spates is the William S. Dietrich II Endowed Chair of Africana Studies in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She is also the director of the Racial Justice and Health Equity Research and Education Collaborative. She examines health disparities, the impact of racism on mental health, and cultural factors around mental health and suicide in the African American community. Currently, she is working on a number of projects 1) that examines the role of the black church in suicide prevention/postvention and mental health awareness; 2) Northeast Ohio’s Black Community’s Readiness to address rising suicide rates; 3) Mental Health and Suicide Awareness in the Kenyan Context; and 4) A children's book on suicide for young children. She also trains organizations, clinicians, and laypersons to raise awareness around the topic of suicide using a racially conscious framework. Dr. Spates also enjoys working with organizations and healthcare providers to create an inclusive environment and allies looking to support members from marginalized backgrounds.
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PRODUCTS
Dr. Kamesha's books have informed the masses. Pick up your copy today!
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BOOK DESCRIPTION
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A close look at black women’s physical, mental, and social circumstances reveals harmful social disparities. Yet, for decades, black women’s suicide rates have remained virtually nonexistent compared to the rest of the American population, baffling social scientists. In this book, black women speak for themselves about their life struggles and their notions of suicide. Within a framework that explores racial and gender inequalities, Spates uses interviews to uncover reasons for the racial suicide paradox. Her analysis offers a deeper understanding of the positive life strategies, including family and faith, that underlie black women’s resilience.
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Those in the field of suicide prevention and intervention need to know some of the findings in Dr. Spates's thought-provoking study. The many stories she shares from the women she interviewed are captivating, as we learn how their convictions give them a sense of self-worth. The book needs to be distributed widely in our communities. What a great read!"--Dr. Donna Holland Barnes, Howard University
BOOK DESCRIPTION
This book provides critical insights into the many, often overlooked, challenges and societal issues that face contemporary black men, focusing in particular on the ways in which governing societal expectations result in internal and external constraints on black male identity formation, sexuality and black ’masculine’ expression. Presenting new interview and auto-ethnographic data, and drawing on an array of theoretical approaches methodologies, Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine? explores the formation of gendered and sexual identity in the lives of black men, shedding light on the manner in which these are affected by class and social structure. It examines the intersecting oppressions of race, gender and class, while acknowledging and discussing the extent to which black men’s social lives differ as a result of their varying degrees of cumulative disadvantage. A wide-ranging and empirically grounded exploration of the intersecting roles of race, masculinity, and sexuality on the lives of black men, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, social stratification and intersectionality.
The editors of this collection have impressively gathered a variety of voices-men, women, gay, straight, from graduate students to full professors, as well as those from outside of the academy-to investigate the variety of intersections of race, gender, and sexuality through the experiences of black men. Potent in it's breadth and impactful in is import, this collection brilliantly empowers and does not pathologize understandings of black male identity."--Dr. Juan Battle, Graduate Center, CUNY