Cassandra Shepard joins Xavier University as an Assistant Professor in the African American Diaspora Studies Department. She previously taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Bates College. She holds a B.S. from Xavier, an M.A. in social sciences from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in African American studies from Northwestern University where she wrote her dissertation, “The Colonial Continuum: A Critique of Disaster in Post-Katrina New Orleans.” Through archival and oral history research, Cassandra analyzes and theorizes on the intersecting relationships among race, ethnicity, gender, class, and place as they pertain to the histories, lives, and futures of African-descended people in the U.S. and beyond. In particular, her research examines the impact of colonialism on the rebuilding process of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Her approach is grounded in the Lower Ninth Ward and Isle de Jean Charles, and it is motivated by a desire for social justice and change. Her study has culminated in her forthcoming book, Settler Colonialism is a Disaster: an Analysis of Post-Katrina and Post-Covid-19 New Orleans.
