Dr. april l. graham-jackson is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Sociology and a Research Fellow with the Mansueto Institute For Urban Innovation, where she is also a Postdoctoral Research Affiliate with Chicago Studies, the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU), and the Urban Theory Lab. Dr. graham-jackson was recently named a Fellow with the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and a Long-Term Fellow with the Newberry Library. A proud third-generation Black Chicagolander and geographer, april’s research and public humanities work centers Black geographies, the politics of scale, sub\urbanization, migration, political economy, geomusicology, and geosonicology to understand how Black people shape the Chicago Metropolitan Area (known colloquially as Chicagoland) and how they are shaped by it.
Her first project examines Black suburban life in the post-Reconstruction era (1877-1915) through Black suburban placemaking and the spatial imaginaries of Black people who built suburban settlements across Chicago Southland—a suburban sub-region of Chicago. As a Postdoctoral Research Affiliate with Chicago Studies, Dr. graham-jackson manages a team of undergraduate researchers to preserve this rich history, specifically in Robbins, Harvey, Chicago Heights, and Phoenix, through the Archiving Black Southland Research Initiative. Click here to access the Black Southland Research Guide that supports this ongoing research. Her second project documents the geographic practices of the Black house music and cultural community in Chicago, exploring how they created house music, house culture, and what she terms “house geographies.” Dr. graham-jackson and her husband Roderick are the artists behind Black Chicagoland—a multi-sensory project that maps “Black Chicagoness” through photography, sound, music, personal narratives, and community cartography as a root, route, and placemaking practice that redefines Black life across Chicagoland.
Dr. graham-jackson has published her research in the Professional Geographer, Music and Science, and the Journal of Urban Affairs. She also founded the Black Geographies Graduate Student Conference and the Black Geosonicologies Research Group. She was instrumental in developing Berkeley Black Geographies as the first recipient of the Black Geographies Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, where she authored the first Black Geographies Library Guide.
Dr. graham-jackson holds a PhD in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Mount Holyoke College as the first person with a bachelor’s degree in Black Geographies. Dr. graham-jackson is also a proud community college graduate. She also holds an Associate’s Degree in General Studies with honors from Harold Washington College - City Colleges of Chicago.