Brittney Frantece

Brittney Frantece is a 2024-2026 Thurgood Marshall Fellow in the African and African American Studies Department at Dartmouth College. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Washington (2024), an MA from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (2017), and a BA from Tennessee State University (2013). Her interdisciplinary research explores Black speculative arts and literature, focusing on philosophical questions of alternative epistemology, ontology, and world-building through analyses of horror, science fiction, and visual arts.

Her dissertation, Imagine Another World, examines works by Tananarive Due, Wangechi Mutu, and Jordan Peele to interrogate how Black cultural producers envision alternate realities. Key themes include anti-Blackness, collective imagination, and the politics of representation. She has curated exhibitions like Fantastic Ingenuity: Imagine Feeling Something (2024) and we sense, we remember, we rest, we dream: We Black, We Surreal (2023), which blend art and theory to reimagine Black futures.

Frantece’s teaching philosophy prioritizes neurodiversity, cultural inclusivity, and student autonomy. She has taught courses on Black horror, speculative literature, and composition at institutions like the University of Washington and Seattle Central College. Her pedagogy emphasizes multimodal learning and labor-based grading, fostering student agency through creative writing and collaborative projects.

Award-winning scholar and artist, Frantece’s work spans printmaking, painting, and digital collage, often experimenting with color and texture to visualize "otherworldly" concepts. Her art practice mirrors her academic research, exploring themes of Black liberation and speculative existence.