Jallicia Jolly

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  • Assistant Professor of Black Studies and American Studies, Amherst College

I am an internationally recognized writer, reproductive justice educator, and assistant professor of Black Studies and American Studies at Amherst College. A 2025 National Academy of Sciences U.S. Kavli Fellow, my research focuses on the theory and practice of reproductive justice, health equity, the embodiment of marginalization, and how state policy and political violence shapes health outcomes. I am the author of Ill Erotics: Black Jamaican Women and Self-Making in the Time of HIV/AIDS (University of California Press, November 2026) and founding director of Black Feminist Reproductive Justice, Equity, and HIV/AIDS Activism (BREHA) Collective, an interdisciplinary medical humanities research lab. I am a contributor to ForbesWomen and Ms. Magazine, and have written for media outlets such as The Washington Post, Ms. USA Today, The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, and Rewire News. I bring peer-reviewed research, lived experiences, current data and historical context to timely topics that resonate across national news and social movements.

Experience

  • 2023–present
    Assistant Professor, Director of BREHA Collective , Amherst College

Education

  • 2022 
    Yale University, Research Education Institute for Diverse Scholars (REIDS)
  • 2020 
    University of Michigan, Ph.D., American Studies

Publications

  • 2026
    Forty-Five Years Of HIV/AIDS And We’re Still Ignoring Black Women’s Leadership, Says New Book, Ill Erotics, ForbesWomen
  • 2026
    Ill Erotics: Black Jamaican Women and Self-Making in Times of HIV/AIDS, University of California Press
  • 2026
    What Philanthropy Can Learn From Women Of Color Grassroots Leaders, ForbesWomen
  • 2026
    Objectification and adultification of black girls in the USA, Culture, Health & Sexuality
  • 2025
    Black Anti‐Bodies Versus Resistive Antibody in a Feminist Infrastructure of Care, American Anthropologist
  • 2025
    Beyond Glass Ceilings And Glass Cliffs, Black Women Professors In Higher Education Offer Leadership Lessons, Forbes Magazine
  • 2025
    Who Gets to Procreate and Parent? A Black Feminist Critique of the Pronatalist Agenda (Co-authored), Ms. Magazine
  • 2024
    Divine Intimacies: Tracing Gender, Sexuality, and Queerness in HIV-Positive Jamaican Women's Religious Experience, GLQ
  • 2023
    Racism as a source of pain, Journal of general internal medicine
  • 2022
    Theorizing agency: New directions in research on HIV/AIDS activism, American Quarterly
  • 2021
    At the crossroads: Caribbean women and (black) feminist ethnography in the time of HIV/AIDS, Feminist Anthropology
  • 2021
    A reproductive justice response to HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, Lancet

Grants and Contracts

  • 2026
    Black Women’s Stories of HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Justice: A Community-Engaged Research Course
    Role:
    Faculty Instructor
    Funding Source:
    Amherst College (Serving the Greater Good Initiative)
  • 2026
    Reproductive Justice Futurisms: Black Feminism & Social Change
    Role:
    Co-P.I.
    Funding Source:
    Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Exploring Equitable Futures Grant)
  • 2024
    Reproductive Justice Futurism: Black Feminism and Social Change Think Tank Convening
    Role:
    Co-P.I.
    Funding Source:
    Smith College (Project on Women and Social Change)
  • 2023
    Reproductive Justice Futurism: Feminist Concerns for Social Change
    Role:
    Co-P.I.
    Funding Source:
    Smith College (Project on Women and Social Change)
  • 2022
    Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship
    Role:
    Postdoctoral Fellow
    Funding Source:
    Ford Foundation
  • 2021
    AAUW American Fellowship
    Role:
    Fellow
    Funding Source:
    American Association of University Women (Research Publication Grant)

Professional Memberships

  • American Studies Association (ASA)
  • National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)
  • Caribbean Studies Association (CSA)
  • American Public Health Association (APHA)
  • American Anthropology Association (AAA)
  • The Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD)

Contact Jallicia for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision