Papers of Aaronette M. White, 1961-2014

African-American feminist and professor of social psychology, Aaronette Michelle White (1961-2012) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, one of five daughters of Earline and Aaron White. She attended the University of Missouri (AB 1983) and Washington University (MA 1984, PhD 1988) and was affiliated with a number of institutions (including Pennsylvania State University, the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, and the University of Amsterdam) before joining the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2008. She was also the recipient of numerous fellowships (Ford Foundation, Harvard University, Fulbright, Rockefeller Institute, Bunting Institute, and National Science Foundation). She studied the intersections of race, gender, and class in approaches to liberation and justice, and her first scholarly book looked at black male feminism and was titled Ain't I a Feminist? African American Men Speak Out on Fatherhood, Friendship, Forgiveness, and Freedom (2008). Her second edited collection, African Americans Doing Feminism: Putting Theory into Everyday Practice, appeared in 2010. A survivor of sexual assault and rape, White began speaking out as an anti-rape activist and feminist in the 1990s, and worked to mobilize anti-rape advocacy in Black communities. Aaronette M. White died on August 13, 2012.