reelaviolette botts-ward

reelaviolette botts-ward is a UC President's and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Medical Anthropology Program. She is also an affiliated UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow in American Studies at UC Davis. At UCSF, she brings radical Black feminist healing arts to healthcare and medical science spaces through the Reparations and Anti-Institutional Racism (REPAIR) Project.

Her educational background includes a B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College, an M.A. in African American Studies with Anthropology Concentration from UCLA, and a Ph.D. in African Diaspora Studies from UC Berkeley.

botts-ward's research centers on Black women's healing spaces as sites of radical self-making and world-making, with particular focus on the sacred geographies of everyday Black feminist healing arts. Her work bridges academic scholarship with community practice through art, ritual, and curation. She has developed a unique theoretical framework she calls Blackgirl Autotheory, which centers embodied truths of Black women and girls as legitimate scholarly interventions.

Her publications reveal consistent engagement with Black feminist geography, healing arts, and autoethnographic methodologies. She examines how Black women curate healing spaces within and beyond physical homes, exploring themes of interiority, ancestral rememory, and spiritual reclamation. Her work consistently connects personal experience with broader theoretical frameworks while maintaining accessibility for community audiences.

• UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 2024 Poet in Residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora
• Contributor in Residence for Columbia University's Synapsis

botts-ward founded blackwomxnhealing, an intergenerational wellness collective that uses art and ritual to support Black women's healing. She also established the UCSF REPAIR Communiversity Certificate Program, creating space for university and community members to learn together. Through these initiatives, she has taught courses including #BlackFeministHealingArts and Black Birthing & Matrilineal Healing. Her approach emphasizes accessibility, translating academic work for community audiences while maintaining scholarly rigor.

As founder of blackwomxnhealing, botts-ward curates exhibitions, courses, healing circles, and research that illuminate marginalized communities' decolonial visions for care. Her work creates bridges between academic spaces and community healing practices, fostering environments where Black women can explore their full humanity through artistic expression and ritual.