Courtney Joseph, Student Fellow

“I’m most excited to be surrounded by people who can further ignite my passion and allow me to make the change I’ve been wanting…We should be elaborating on the intersections of marginalization, exploring how we can normalize diversity rather than emphasizing it.”

Courtney Joseph '25 is a prospective pre-law triple major in American Studies, Education Studies, and Theater from Monroe Township, New Jersey. As part of the Gender Equity Matters Club at The Hun School of Princeton, she helped to organize their first Women in the World Summit in May 2021, which promoted intersectional conversations on the roles that women play in the world.

Many of the classes that she has taken or plans to take at Wesleyan focus on policy, how education can play into the idea of casting oppressed groups as “the other,” and what philosophies contribute to ignorant mindsets. She has been involved with dance as well as Ujamaa, Wesleyan's Black Student Union which is committed to the exploration and celebration of Blackness. Joseph has written about colorism, the preference for a light skin color within a race, and "misogynoir," a specific type of misogyny rooted in racism and directed towards Black women; and participated in workshops around how the University teaches about sexual misconduct and interpersonal violence.

During her time in the Embodying Antiracism Think Tank, she plans to focus on Kevin Kumashiro’s theory of anti-oppressive education, which looks at how teachers might use multiple methods to address the complexities of various forms of oppression and their effects on learning, as well as the intersectionality of marginalization. Possible projects may include a documentary featuring Black women and their relationship to sexual assault, or how dance and theater could be used in schools of all levels to promote inclusivity.

Image by Sandy Aldieri of Perceptions Photography.