Anthropologist. Educator. Writer. Speaker. Nerd. These are just a few of the identities of Nikki Lane, CCAS BA ‘09.
Lane, a professorial lecturer in American University’s Critical Race Gender and Cultural Studies Collaborative, loves sharing her knowledge of cultural and linguistic anthropology beyond the classroom.
“I bring my scholarship out of the ivory tower and into the community so people can discuss topical issues and develop critical thinking skills they can use on a day-to-day level,” she says. “I like to think of myself as your favorite professor who will help you do that critical thinking.”
An independent scholar whose research is done through the lens of anthropology, Lane focuses on issues of language use and popular culture within black LGBT America.
“I try to write and talk in a way that people can access anthropology and philosophy even if they’re not experts or theorists,” she says. “I try to make it real for people on the ground. My scholarship ends up being really impactful for the people I study because they can see themselves in my work.”
In 2018, Lane launched Summer School, a program perhaps best described by Lane on her website: “Summer School is what happens when a dope ass professor teaches critical social and cultural theory in a bar. If you’re intellectually curious, get excited by the prospect of deep thinking, and stimulating conversation, then join Dr. Nikki Lane for a series of lectures about Black popular culture and sexual politics in America.”
The four monthly sessions were such a success that Lane offered another series in summer 2019 and may take it on the road next year. “People want to talk about Marvel comic book movies and also learn about cultural and critical theory at the same time,” she says.
Summer School was inspired by Lane’s favorite experiences at GW, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies magna cum laude.
“I lived in the George Washington Williams House, which we affectionately referred to as the Black House,” she says. “After having classes with my friends, we would come back to the Black House and just chew it up. I wanted people to have that same experience of hearing something interesting and stimulating and then getting into a small group to talk about it.”
Lane says that GW prepared her for her career.
“GW was a place where I learned how to advocate for myself and others,” she says.
Lane was involved in the Multicultural Student Services Center and served in the Black Student Union throughout college, going on to become its co-president.
“As student activists on campus, we really shook things up,” she says. “We wanted the administration to recognize students of color in a way that they hadn’t been doing before. And that really worked for us, a cohort of really brilliant black folks at GW who built a great community and life within the university.”
GW was also formative in terms of Lane’s scholarship and research.
“I now teach women’s studies and I draw from classes I took during my undergrad,” she says. “In GW’s women’s studies department, I learned how to do good research. And I was supported in doing independent research while I studied abroad in South Africa.”
Lane says that independent research experience and great mentors and advisors at GW prepared her to go on to earn her master’s and doctorate degrees in anthropology from American University.
Her first book, “The Black Queer Work of Ratchet: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and the (Anti)Politics of Respectability,” based on a chapter in her doctoral dissertation, will be published in November.
“I wanted to think about how ‘ratchet’—a word often used to point out the boundaries of good and bad black behavior—was used among black women queer in DC,” she says.
She hopes the book will inspire readers to think about what the word “ratchet” does and why they use it. “I also wanted to have a conversation about black lesbians in public,” she says. “Instead of comparing black lesbians to white lesbians or comparing black lesbians to black heterosexual women, what would it look like to actually analyze class politics of black lesbians and compare black lesbians to one another?”
GW has been instrumental not only in Lane’s professional life but in her personal life as well. “I met my wife, Julie, at GW when I was an undergrad and she was in the MPH program,” says Lane. “We have a two-year-old son who was born at GW Hospital. We are a GW family through and through.”
– Michele Lynn
