Dr. Patrice Douglass

Biography

Patrice D. Douglass is an Assistant Professor focused on Women's Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her book, 'Engendering Blackness: Slavery, Ontology, Sexual Violence' published by Stanford University Press in 2025, explores the relationship between sexual violence and modern racial slavery, highlighting the inseparable and fundamental structural predicaments facing Blackness today. Currently, she is working on a book project titled 'Race, Abortion, Ethics: Antiblackness, Opacity, Liberty,' which interrogates the (im)permissibility of abortion within legal and political frameworks. This project critically examines ethical dimensions that are intertwined with philosophical and juridical concepts of liberty and property, and it draws on social and legal histories, U.S. geographies, and rhetorical strategies surrounding abortion. Douglass's research interests prominently include Blackness, gender, afro-pessimism, reproductive justice, and Black philosophies, with her work slated for publication in journals such as Discourse, Political Theology, and the Yale Journal of Law & Feminism. Additionally, she has authored chapters in seminal texts like 'Conceptual Aphasia: Displacing Racial Formation Theory' and 'The Cambridge History of Queer American Literature.' Douglass holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Culture and Theory from the University of California, Irvine, as well as an M.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Riverside, and a B.A. in Feminist Studies and Legal Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Research Interests