Dr. Aisha A. Upton Azzam(she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Susquehanna University. Aisha attained her Ph.D in Sociology from The University of Minnesota.
As a sociologist, Aisha’s research interests are race, gender, social movements, civic engagement, and Black feminism. A large part of her research agenda is examining the engagement of Black people, specifically Black women, within civil society. Currently, Aisha’s research has three focuses:
First, Aisha’s research involves Black women’s organizations and social movements. Her most recent project examines Black sororities’ interactions with radical Black movements of the 1970s. It is a comparative historical project in which she looks at two similar sororities, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta, an examines why their engagement with social movements diverged with the emergence of post-civil rights Black radical movements. In addition to this project, Aisha also studies other Black women’s organizations like the National Council of Negro Women and Black movement making.
Second, Aisha’s research includes studies on Black civic engagement. In this line of research, she examines various facets of Black civic engagement like volunteering and voluntary associations. She explores the complexity of, and thinks critically about, Black civic engagement.
Lastly, Aisha’s research includes work on Black feminism and Black women broadly. She focuses on topics like Black feminism’s relationship to speculative fiction and critical memory in relation to Black women like Harriet Tubman.
Aisha A. Upton 