Robert L. Reece

I am a PhD candidate in sociology at Duke University where I take an intersectional critical race approach to research on the American South, colorism, gender/sex/sexuality, and digital technology. My primary research thread examines the origins of racial inequality and how they shape contemporary America. I am founder of Magnolia Fresh, a blog that explores identiy, fastion, and race in the South. I am also a member of the editorial board for Scalawag magazine, a quarterly magazine that focuses on southern politics and culture.

My work has been published in journals such as Sociology of Race and Ethnicity and The Review of Black Political Economy and in public outlets such as the Southern Poverty Law Center's magazine Teaching Tolerance and the National Housing Institute's blog Shelterforce. Additionally, I've won numerous awards including a spot in the American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship Program, the Eastern Sociological Society's Charles V. Willie Minority Graduate Student Award, and the Mid-South Sociological Association's graduate student paper competition.

I’m from Leland, MS, a small town in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, and obtained BA and MA degrees in sociology from The University of Mississippi. I’ve organized or co-organized forums about masculinity and sexual assault, blackness in the 21st century, Mississippi’s Personhood Act, and the contemporary social movements with co-founder Bobby Seale. I collect black art, Black Panther Party memorabilia, black superhero comics Legos, and consider myself a connoisseur of southern rap