Shamara Alhassan

Shamara Alhassan is Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Religious Studies at UCLA. Her research examines Black women's radical epistemologies across Africa and the Caribbean, particularly Rastafari women's healing communities combating gendered racism.

Current book project Re-Membering the Maternal Goddess (NWSA First Book Prize winner) analyzes Rastafari women's intellectual activism. Research interests include:

• Pan-African healing traditions
• Decolonial feminist methodologies
• Ethics of community care
• Spiritual resistance practices

Awards include the NWSA First Book Prize and Marie J. Langlois Dissertation Prize. Serves as Secretary for Rastafari Thought at the Caribbean Philosophical Association and board member for the AAR's Religion, Medicines, and Healing Unit.

Leads the Collaborative for Research on Black Women and Girls, supporting community-engaged scholarship.