Grace D. Gipson, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the department of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA). As a Black future feminist/pop culture scholar, Grace's area of research interest centers on black popular culture, digital humanities, representations of race and gender within comic books, Afrofuturism, and race and new media. Grace’s recent publications include “Creating and Imagining Black Futures through Afrofuturism” in the edited collection #identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sex, and Nation (University of Michigan Press, 2018); "What Can The Hunger Games Teach Us About Bitch Planet’s Megaton & as part of Hard Women, Hard Time: Bitch Planet Comics Studies Roundtable in The Middle Spaces; and “Afro-Futurism’s Musical Princess Janelle Monae: Psychadelic Soul Message Music Infused with a Sci-Fi Twist” in the edited collection Afrofuturism 2.0: The Rise of Astro-Blackness, Vol. I (Lexington Books-Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), as well as various other publications in such outlets as Huffington Post, NPR.org, and Black Perspectives. Currently she is working on a book project that seeks to explore Black female identity politics as personified in comics and fandom culture. Grace has taught courses on African American history; Introduction to Africana Studies; Theories & Foundations in Africana Studies; Black Popular Culture; Channeling Blackness in Social Media; Race, Gender and Class in Contemporary South Africa; African American Families; and Making Sense of Cultural Data. Outside the classroom, you can find Grace collecting comic books and stamps on her international travel discoveries (once the pandemic settles), exploring bike trails along the James River, participating as part of the #BlackComicsChat podcast crew and giving back to the community through a myriad of projects and organizations. You can also follow her on Twitter @GBreezy20.