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Black Love Expert
Latoya Council
Empowering communities of color to heal intergenerational trauma and reach for healthy relationships.
Author, Activist, and Public Intellectual
I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Lehigh University. My areas of research include social inequality, work and family, and wellness. As a Black feminist scholar-activist, I work to understand how race and gender inequality shape work, family, and individual wellness practices, as well as strategies individuals incorporate to self-actualize despite and within oppressive social structures. My research has appeared in Sociology Compass and Sociological Perspectives. I have also written many public articles and provided insight about gender inequality in public forums including Medium, Ms. Magazine, The New York Times, and Women’s Review of Books.
Other research projects I am involved with, explores intergenerational family trauma at the intersection of racial identity, gender, class, and sexuality and the impact these intersections have on individuals’ perceptions and understandings of romantic partnering and love politics. I also examine Black women's self-care spaces and the meaning of self-care for Black women at the national and global levels.
My research, public service, and approach to helping couples realize healthy relationships is informed by Black feminist knowledge production. Black feminist knowledge production is the examination of social problems like romantic partnering, family dynamics, and personal care from personal and political perspectives. Any recommendations I have for social policy, social institutions, and personal fulfillment will incorporate self-definition and actualization, an important dimension of Black feminist knowledge production.
When not researching and teaching, you can find me at a cool coffee-shop learning about coffee, baking something sweet, diving into a good book, or hanging with my cat, Mimi.
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