WELCOME

I am K.L. Long

Scholar Activist. Public Sociologist. Theorist. Researcher.

Doctoral Candidate

Department of Sociology

University of Georgia

Athens, Georgia

Email: Krysten.Long@uga.edu

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About

About Me

K.L. Long, MLS MA is a scholar activist, doctoral candidate, and instructor of record in the Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia. She places an emphasis on liberatory research and emancipatory education. Her primary aims, in all that she does, are community healing and the decolonization of minds.

Her research boldly opposes unidirectionality in academic examinations of skin tone discrimination and utilizes rigorous methodologies to capture narratives that have often been negated from conversations on colorism.

Her most recent research theoretically informs analyses of colorism by presenting and testing a novel theoretical framework that is rooted in both the sociohistorical and social psychological traditions.

She asserts that without a more holistic understanding of the complex interplay between the sociohistorical legacies of colorism and the social psychological mechanisms that contribute to its continued perpetuation there will continue to be a loss of valuable knowledge and insight regarding the continued prevalence and impact of colorist trauma on the gamut of Black Americans.

Education & Experience

Research

EMPOWERING MINDS

Published

Long, Krysten L. (2024). "'She thinks she’s all that’: Intra-group Colorism, Stereotypes and the Experiences of Light-Skinned Women who Identify as Black.” Journal of Colorism Studies, 5(1).

Under Review

Long, Krysten L. “Consequencing Color: Light-Skinned Black Women’s Rejoinders to and Social Negotiations with Externalized Colorism.”

In Progress

Long, Krysten L. “But am I a Fetish Though?: Light-Skinned Black Women, Colorism, and Dating Black Men.”

Long, Krysten L. “Privileged in Part: Light-Skinned Black Women and Their Perceptions of Light-Skin Privilege.”

Long, Krysten L. and Vanessa Gonlin. "The Fear of Fetishization: How Skin Tone Impacts Black Women in Intimate Relationships with White Men." [working title]

Long, Krysten L., Pham, Benjamin, and Vanessa Gonlin. “Interracial Imagery: How Media Shapes Black Women’s Interracial Relationships with White Men” [working title]

Peebles, Ciara, Belser, Brittany, Long, Krysten L., and Vanessa Gonlin. “Between Gender Norms and Safety: Black Women’s Perceptions of Gender Roles and Safety with White Men.”[working title]

Teaching

DECOLONIZING MINDS

Pedagogical Philosophy

“There’s no such thing as neutral education. Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or freedom.”

–Paulo Freire

K.L.'s pedagogical philosophy is rooted in her teaching from Africana Studies, that in all that she does, liberation is the goal. Decolonizing minds is the aim.

She has been trained in the tradition of Paulo Freire and she does not believe that students are empty receptables to be filled with professorial knowledge. And so, she works to ensure that any classroom she enters is not only a safe space, but that it is also a space where she and her students can grow together.

It is important to her, that they come to conclusions together and that they learn from each other. ALL of her students' lived experiences are valued within the walls of her classes. She asks that they bring their WHOLE selves into the classroom and she commits to do the same.