EXCITING NEWS!!!! My colleagues and I were selected to participate in the 2024-26: Responsible Artificial Intelligence (RAI) Cohort at the National Humanities Center (NHC).  We were awarded a $20,000 grant to co-construct and co-teach a new course at our Institutions (Johnson C . Smith University and North Carolina Central University) 

Read an article about our new co-constructed course “Artificial Intelligence and the African Diaspora” at NCCU & JCSU–Click on the title

“I want to be remembered as someone who was sincere. Even if I made mistakes, they were made in sincerity, If I was wrong, I was wrong in sincerity.”  -Malcolm X

MY DIGITAL HUMANITIES ACTIVISM, SCHOLARSHIP & TEACHING:

                                            My Ongoing Charlotte Digital Diasporas Project!                                                2015: Digital Diasporas of North Carolina: Exploring Africa and its Diasporas in Charlotte  Introduction to the Participants in my Charlotte Digital Diasporas Project Watch the introduction video of the seven life stories that I collected below:

 2015:  *FULL DIGITAL STORIES-I captured seven digital life stories of people of African descent living in Charlotte, North Carolina to explore and celebrate the diversity of global black cultures locally. I presented them at the 2016 National Council for Black Studies annual conference. Click on the link below to watch the seven participants’ short documentaries:    https://www.youtube.com/user/MsLeslie38

My 2022 CTI Seminar: Charlotte as Teaching Canvas: Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms & Equity-Mindsets by Engaging in Local Diasporic Spaces

2015: I was a faculty fellow participant in a 10-day digital tools seminar entitled “The City as Teaching Canvas,” sponsored by the New York University (NYU) Faculty Research Network at the American College of Greece in Athens, Greece

2014: “Re-Presenting the Global Classroom and Faces of Study Abroad through International Faculty Development and Digital Humanities.” NYU FRN National Symposium: The Global Imperative for Higher Education. San Juan, Puerto Rico

MY DIGITAL STORYTELLING COURSES/BLOG/WEBPAGES

Course Blog: https://activismodigitalblog.wordpress.com

2016: SPA 496-A: Voces y Activismo Global: Narrativas Digitales de Guerra, Trauma, y Migración/ENG 498-Global Voices and Activism: (Digital Stories of War, Trauma, &  Migration).  This was a hybrid interdisciplinary course that focused on faculty scholarship and community activism surrounding migration and trauma. Students explored how to use various digital platforms/tools to bare-witness (testimoniar), cope with trauma (la depresión / el temor / la seperación de familias/ la deportación/la violencia), and advocate (abogar) for local social justice..

2014: Co-Teacher, *SPA 496-B: Digital Storytelling: Transnational Identities and Movements. I co-created and co-taught this interdisciplinary (Spanish/English) hybrid productions course with Dr. Sharon D. Raynor. Student Digital Story from the SPA 496-B class was published, Kayla Wilmer, “From Rapping to Rappin,” The Freshness of Opt-Ed Videos, Public Media Scan. AIR, Inc