Bio:
Dr. Sasha Sanders (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in Performance Studies in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Texas. She is a proud (San Francisco) Bay Area native and former first-generation college student. She earned her PhD in Communication from the University of South Florida. Previously, she earned her master's and bachelor's degrees in Communication Studies from California State University, Long Beach.
Dr. Sanders draws on autoethnography, performance, and Black feminist aesthetics to question and reimagine identity, power, and place. She extends Black feminist aesthetics by using DIY art, such as stop-motion animation and comics, as forms of democratized knowledge production. Her embodied, reflexive approach to exploring media and culture intersects with Performance Studies, Critical Cultural Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and Comic Studies. Dr. Sanders examines what she defines as "arresting moments" of racialized gender, moments that disorient one's sense of self and place forcing them to question belonging, betweenness, and the possibilities of becoming. Her interdisciplinary scholarship can be found in Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Journal of Autoethnography, and Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies.
Research:
Huber, A. A., McRae, C.., Sanders, S., Rousset, S., Oglesby, B., Magalona, C., Mattson, L., & Stanley, B. L. "Embodied fragments: Failure, resistance and pedagogical 'possibility." Text and Performance Quarterly. Forthcoming.
Sasha Sanders (2021) Gutter futures, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 18:3, 315-316, DOI: 10.1080/14791420.2021.1954215
Aisha S. Durham, Wesley Johnson, and Sasha Sanders (2021) Guest Editor's Introduction, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 10:2, 1-6, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2021.10.2.1
Sasha J Sanders and Anjuliet G. Woodruffe (2021) Home-Schooling in David Makes Man, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 10:2, 59-67, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2021.10.2.59
Aisha Durham, Marquese McFerguson, Sasha Sanders, Anjuliet Woodruffe (2020) The Future of Autoethnography is Black, Journal of Autoethnography, 1:3, 289-296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/joae.2020.1.3.289
Sasha Sanders (2020) (Be)coming out in comics: Navigating liminality and queer identity formation, Synoptique: An Online Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies, 9:1, 39-62.
Exhibits & Showcases:
Artist. (2022, August 1-October 15). "Ain't No Wifey." Greater Denton Arts Council Patterson-Appleton Arts Center, Denton. Comic Art Exhibit by the Denton Comic Art Exposition. Juried Exhibit. Jurors: Bryan Kelly, Christine Sanders, Alexis Walther, Heather Smith, Ashley Villers, and the Greater Denton Arts Council. Link: https://dentonarts.com/exhibitions
Comic Artist. (2021, November). "Indecisive Libra." UNT Libraries, Denton. Pixels & Panels: A Virtual Comics Exhibition. Link: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ae6d317ff69c45edbb10e0fcb674d80e
Co-Curator and Performer. (2018, May). "Wunderkammer (Cabinet of Curiosities): A Performance Showcase." University of South Florida, Tampa. The Department of Communication. Performance Showcase. Performance Showcase discussed in Text and Performance Quarterly by Aubrey Huber and Chris McRae: https://doi.org/10.1080/10462937.2019.1643905
Courses:
Undergraduate
Performance of Literature, COMM 2060
Performance and Activism, COMM 4869
Performance and Culture, COMM 4260
Performance Theory, COMM 4060
Per[FORM]ing Autoethnography, COMM 4869
Fandom and Performance, COMM 4869 (Coming Soon/Fall 2023)
Graduate
Per[FORM]ing Autoethnography, COMM 5860
Black Matters and the Body, COMM 5860
Fandom and Performance, COMM 5860 (Coming Soon/Fall 2023)