Chinyere Odim is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Brown University. A cultural and Du Boisian sociologist, her research agenda centers on ontologies of marginalization and privilege–particularly how race and class-based identities are constructed in response to racialized subjectivity and capitalism. Chinyere utilizes qualitative methods to provide empirical knowledge about the genealogy of Black elites in the US, addressing societal questions of Black agency, cultural values, and histories of access to opportunity. Her work has received recognition and support from various organizations– including the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, Eastern Sociological Society, and the Annenberg Institute and Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. Prior to graduate study, Chinyere taught English, coached Soccer and Track & Field, and served as Dorm Resident at Deerfield Academy, an elite boarding school in Western Massachusetts. Acting in loco parentis for adolescents from across the globe, Chinyere supported the plethora of ways her students made meaning from and developed identities in response to their highly concerted and well-resourced academic environment. Chinyere remains committed to cultivating learning spaces that are attuned to, but do not reproduce, the enduring inequalities of our social world. Chinyere holds a BA in Sociology & Anthropology and Education from Swarthmore College, an MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MA in Education from the University of California, Berkeley.
