Dr. Allison S. Reed studies how health,disability, and mental difference shape activism and political life, especially among multiply-marginalized persons.
Dr. Reed’s current book project, Repertoires of Care: Activist Wellbeing and Surviving Social Movements, considers how US social justice agents practice survival, transformation, and accessibility, both collectively and personally. In this project, she develops what she calls the “repertoires of care” framework, which aids in understanding how—despite the stresses of activism, burnout, and sociopolitical upheaval—social change agents persist. More broadly, her research agenda aims to advance Black feminist disability studies, critical mental health studies, political sociology, and related fields.
Black, feminist, and queer ethics of care inform her primary concern: Better understanding how to center and protect the inherent dignity of each human person—particularly the dignity of Black, LGBTQ+, sick, non-neurotypical, and other marginalized, otherized persons.
Reed received her BA (Urban Studies) from Washington University in St. Louis, where she was a John B. Ervin Scholar. In 2023, she received her PhD (Sociology) from the University of Chicago. Her peer-reviewed work appears in Mobilization: An International Quarterly and Social Science & Medicine.