Charise Cheney

Charise Cheney serves as a Professor and Program Director of IRES in Black Studies within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oregon. Based in 201 Alder Building, she can be contacted via ccheney@uoregon.edu or 541-346-0870, contributing to the university's academic mission through interdisciplinary scholarship and program leadership.

Her academic foundation includes:

• BS in Journalism, Northwestern University, 1993
• Ph.D. in History, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, 1999

Cheney's research critically examines African American popular and political cultures through the dual lenses of Black nationalist ideologies/practices and gender/sexuality frameworks. Her work reveals how these intersecting dimensions shape resistance movements, identity formation, and community dynamics across historical and contemporary contexts, with particular attention to intracommunal debates within Black liberation struggles.

Her publication "Blacks Against Brown" exemplifies this approach by analyzing internal divisions within Topeka's Black community regarding school desegregation strategies post-Brown v. Board, demonstrating how tactical disagreements reflected broader philosophical tensions about educational equity and community autonomy during the Civil Rights Movement.