Leah Barlow is an Elon, North Carolina, native and proud Hampton University alumna who joined the NCSSM faculty in August 2022. She holds a master’s degree in English from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Leah credits her investment in the study of the African diaspora, black geographies, and the contemporary aestheticism of black artists to her time at Hampton. There, she cultivated a love for cultural criticism alongside a recognition of the necessity of intersections between mentorship and intellectual prowess — all rooted in southern sensibility. While in graduate school, Leah was the graduate assistant for Georgetown’s Women’s Center, a founding member of the Black Cultural Studies Collective, and participated in a host of conferences.   Leah’s scholarly interests are in the sociopolitical construction of urban centers, Afro-futurism as means for political power, and black aesthetic production. Outside of the classroom, she enjoys cooking unnecessarily extravagant meals and frequent trips to the beach.