Tammy C. Owens
Program Director Gender Studies
Assistant Professor, Department of American Studies
Office: Tisch Learning Center 329
Telephone: 518-580-5020
Email: towens1@skidmore.edu
Dr. Tammy C. Owens is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Director of the Gender Studies Program at 小蓝视频. An interdisciplinary scholar, her work lies at the intersections of Black girlhood studies, Black feminist theory, and American cultural memory. She studies how children and youth have been remembered and represented in U.S. history, paying particular attention to the ways their stories challenge dominant ideas of justice, power, and belonging.
She is co-author of the foundational essay 鈥淭owards an Interdisciplinary Field of Black Girlhood Studies鈥� and has published in journals such as Girlhood Studies, Women, Gender, and Families of Color, and Departures in Critical Qualitative Research. Her current book project examines the archival and emotional lives of Black girls, tracing how their experiences are documented, mourned, and at times erased in American culture鈥攁nd what this reveals about national memory and loss.
In the classroom, Dr. Owens is known for fostering environments that are intellectually rigorous, relationally attentive, and grounded in urgent real-world questions. At Skidmore, she teaches courses such as Black Feminist Thoughts, Black Girlhood Studies, and Growing Up in America, and she actively mentors students pursuing independent research on race, gender, media, and youth culture.
As Director of the Gender Studies Program, she leads with a vision rooted in intersectionality, inclusion, and student-centered learning. She also contributes to college-wide initiatives on racial justice and innovative pedagogy through Mellon-supported teaching communities. Her scholarship and teaching have been supported by fellowships from the Carter G. Woodson Institute, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Five College Consortium.
Both in and beyond the academy, Dr. Owens is guided by commitments to justice, care, and community. As a mother and scholar, she models how intellectual life and personal values not only coexist but thrive together.
Curriculum Vitae
Education:
- Ph.D. American Studies, University of Minnesota
- M.A. Women鈥檚 Studies, University of Alabama
- B.S.W. Social Work, University of Southern Mississippi
Courses:
- AM 101W Introduction to American Studies: Growing up in America
- AM 264 African American Experience
PUBLICATIONS
- "Teaching to Survive: Keeping Black Girls and Black Girlhood Studies on Campus", Girlhood Studies 15, 3 (2022): 84-98, .
- 鈥淏lack Sites of Speculation: A Case for Theorizing Black Childhood as a Subject in Black Adult Narratives.鈥� Children and Youth as Subjects, Objects, Agents: Innovative Approaches to Research Across Space and Time, edited by D. Levison, M.J. Maynes, and F. Vavrus, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021, pp. 141-153.
- 鈥淔ugitive Literati: Black Girls鈥� Writing as a Tool of Kinship and Power at the Howard School.鈥� Women, Gender, and Families of Color, vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 2019, pp. 56-79.
- 鈥淢iss Celie鈥檚 Magic is Real.鈥� #BlackGirlMagic Offline: Black Girls and Women鈥檚 Quests for Self-definition in the 21st Century, edited by Julia S. Jordan-Zachery and Duchess Harris, University of Arizona Press, 2019, pp. 184-86.
- Tammy C. Owens, Durell Callier, Porshe Garner, and Jessica Robinson. 鈥淭owards an Interdisciplinary Field of Black Girlhood Studies.鈥� Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, vol. 6 no. 3, Fall 2017, pp. 116-132.
- Corinne T. Field, Tammy C. Owens, Marcia Chatelain, LaKisha Simmons, Abosede George, and Rhian Keyse. 鈥淭he History of Black Girlhood: Recent Innovations and Future Directions.鈥� Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, vol. 9, no. 3, Fall 2016, pp. 383-401.
Public Scholarship