Giramata I.

Giramata is a PhD student in Gender and Women Studies from Kigali, Rwanda. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Development Economics and Policy as well as Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies from DePauw University. Her research interests are gender based violence and intimate partner violence, particularly in Black communities. She theorizes in a Black Feminist lens with womanist works and aims to understand the different factors that normalize violence against Black women. In doing that, her work looks into how these factors also hinder and discourage Black women from reporting violence perpetuated to them by other Black community members, whether it is reporting violence to the community or going to survivor shelters. She also aims to look at a cross cultural analysis of Black women’s experiences diasporically –from South Africa’s #TotalShutDown to Uganda’s #WomensMarchUG to America’s #MeToo; what is the global narrative that normalizes the violence against Black womyn? Inspired by the works of Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Angela Davis and Barbara Smith among many, Giramata’s work is about Black womyn’s voices and experiences being humanized, changing the narrative surrounding their images and reclaiming their power as knowers.

Areas of Research interest:

• Black Feminism
• African Feminism
• Intersectionality
• Intimate Partner/ Gender Based violence
• Cross-cultural studies