Veronica Newton

Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia, 2018

Race, Gender, Qualitative Methods, Ethnography, Black Feminisms, Intersectionality

Dr. Veronica Newton joined the Sociology Department in 2018 after completing her Ph.D. at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she also earned a Ph.D. minor in Black Studies. Her dissertation research explored how Black undergraduate women experienced gendered racism at a historically, predominately white university. Dr. Newton received grants and fellowships for her dissertation work, including the SREB Dissertation Award and the MU Dr. Donald M. Suggs Dissertation Fellowship.

Dr. Newton is an ethnographic qualitative researcher who utilizes a critical race feminist perspective to examine how systems of oppression impact African American women’s lived experiences from an intersectional standpoint. Dr. Newton’s research has focused on Black student’s educational experiences throughout the system of education. While working on her doctorate, she completed a research internship at the Office of State Courts Administrator- Research Section, in Jefferson City, MO, researching the disproportionate minority contact within the juvenile justice system and exploring the school to prison pipeline. Her current research examines Black undergraduate women’s experiences of gendered racial microaggressions in different spaces on college campuses, how Black women create counter spaces on campus for sisterhood support, and resistance as social capital. Dr. Newton’s current research focuses on Black women’s lived experiences at majority Black universities and women’s colleges and how Black undergraduate women navigate microaggressions in gendered and racially marked spaces.

Research Interests

Dr. Newton’s teaching interests include critical race theory, social problems, feminist methodologies and African American studies.

My research works at the intersection of race and gender from black feminist and women’s standpoints. I examine gendered racial microaggressions and discrimination from an intersectional perspective. In 2020, I joined a RADXUP NIH grant as a Co-PI with several faculty from the School of Public Health at Georgia State University, which focused on the barriers in COVID—19 testing among Black Americans in Atlanta. As the race and qualitative scholar on the grant with intersectional research experience, we were able to explore and analyze multiple factors that contribute to the barriers and motivations for taking a COVID test among Black folks across genders, class and ages.

My current research project uses intersectionality and black feminism as a pedagogy to explore school connectedness among Black undergraduate women.