Mako Fitts Ward, Ph.D. is an educator, writer, facilitator and social justice advocate with over 15 years of experience teaching core principles of justice and social change to college students and advocating for racial and gender equity in communities around the country. Her teaching and research focus on intersectional, feminist analyses of popular culture, specifically urban youth cultures and their impact on contemporary social movements. Ward is the co-founder of Women Who Rock, a digital archive project at the University of Washington and collective of musicians, media-makers, performers, artists, scholars and activists committed to documenting the role of women in popular music and the formation of cultural scenes and social justice movements. She has published in Huffington Post, The Conversation and Ms. and has published popular and scholarly essays on body ethics and aesthetics among women of color, media and gender images in popular culture, gentrification and cultural displacement and women’s political organizing. She teaches courses on intersectionality, gender and hip-hop, ethnic studies, the African diaspora, justice and women’s social movements.
popular culture, community action research, hip hop culture and activism, Black feminist theory and activism
Selected Academic Publications (full texts available here)
Ward, M. F. (2017). Queen Bey and the new Niggerati: Ethics of individualism in the appropriation of black radicalism. Black Camera, 9(1): 146-163.
Ward, M. F. (2017). Race, Gender and Sexuality in Hip Hop. Toronto: Top Hat.
Fitts, M. (2011). Theorizing transformative revolutionary action: The contribution of bell hooks to emancipatory knowledge production. The C.L.R. James Journal: A Review of Caribbean Ideas, 17(1): 112-132.
Fitts, M. (2008). ‘Drop it like it’s hot’: Culture industry laborers and their perspectives on rap music video production. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 8(1): 211-235.
Fitts, M. (2009). Institutionalizing intersectionality: Reflections on the structure of women’s studies departments and programs. In Michele T. Berger and Kathleen Guidroz (Eds.) The Intersectional Approach: Transforming the Academy through Race, Class and Gender, 249-257. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Rubin, L. R., Fitts, M. L., & Becker, A. E. (2003). ‘Whatever feels good in my soul’: Body ethics and aesthetics among African American and Latina women. Culture, medicine, and psychiatry, 27: 49-75.
Editorials & Non-Academic Publications
"The Power of the Intersectional Protest Image," JSTOR Daily, October 3, 2020.
"The Good News: Madea’s Not a Colored Girl,” Ms., November 6, 2010
“Can Tyler Perry Pull Off a Black Feminist Masterpiece?,” Ms., October 14, 2010
“Where Do We Go From bell,” Ms., September 10, 2010
Fall 2020 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 200 | Intro to Africana Studies |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
WST 690 | Reading and Conference |
JUS 790 | Reading and Conference |
Summer 2020 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
WST 460 | Women and the Body |
WST 792 | Research |
Spring 2020 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 200 | Intro to Africana Studies |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
WST 493 | Honors Thesis |
JUS 493 | Honors Thesis |
WST 498 | Pro-Seminar |
WST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
WST 603 | Engendering Methodology |
Fall 2019 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 200 | Intro to Africana Studies |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
WST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
JUS 492 | Honors Directed Study |
WST 493 | Honors Thesis |
WST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
WST 595 | Continuing Registration |
WST 602 | Mapping Intersections Gender |
Summer 2019 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
WST 335 | Gender, Race, & Sex in Sci Fi |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
JUS 477 | Youth and Justice |
Spring 2019 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
WST 375 | Women & Social Change |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
WST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
WST 493 | Honors Thesis |
WST 498 | Pro-Seminar |
WST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
Fall 2018 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 200 | Intro to Africana Studies |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
WST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
WST 493 | Honors Thesis |
WST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
WST 602 | Mapping Intersections Gender |
Summer 2018 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
WST 460 | Women and the Body |
Spring 2018 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 200 | Intro to Africana Studies |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
WST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
WST 493 | Honors Thesis |
WST 498 | Pro-Seminar |
WST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
Fall 2017 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 200 | Intro to Africana Studies |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
WST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
WST 493 | Honors Thesis |
WST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
WST 501 | Foundational Feminist Thought |
Summer 2017 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
JUS 329 | Domestic Violence |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
Spring 2017 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 200 | Intro to Africana Studies |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
WST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
WST 493 | Honors Thesis |
WST 498 | Pro-Seminar |
WST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
Fall 2016 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
JUS 105 | Intro to Justice Studies |
AFR 200 | Intro to Africana Studies |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |
WST 394 | Special Topics |
JUS 394 | Special Topics |
AFR 394 | Special Topics |
WST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
WST 493 | Honors Thesis |
WST 499 | Individualized Instruction |
Summer 2016 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
AFR 375 | Race, Gender and Sport |