Pasama Cole-Kweli

Pasama Cole-Kweli

My Biography

Pasama Cole-Kweli is a doctoral candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Kentucky. Her research explores race, place, cultural memory, and changing ecological relationships in rural Black communities. Grounded in Black feminist and futurist traditions, her dissertation examines how Gullah Geechee descendants in South Carolina protect ancestral connections to land and waterways amid increasing gentrification and climate threats. Inspired by her upbringing in a historic Black farming community in Illinois, Pasama investigates how Black communities inscribe meaning onto landscapes and resist land dispossession to sustain cultural heritage and environmental sustainability. Through her work, she bridges Anthropology, Environmental Studies, and Black Studies to contribute to the vitality of Black rural futures.