Chriss Sneed
Director of Applied Learning
Chriss leads the Athena Center’s Communities of Practice and accompanying programming. In addition to measuring and sharing the impact of these activities, Chriss uplifts students’ projects and self-guided activities, facilitates meetings and workshops, and hosts events to highlight the breadth and ingenuity of the Center’s community.
Prior to joining Athena, Chriss was the Managing Director of the Center for Urban and Racial Equity (CURE). As an academic, they've taught sociology and gender/feminist studies courses at Connecticut College, St. John’s University, University of Connecticut, and Wesleyan University. Generally, their scholarship focuses on social processes, power, and structural inequality through a Black feminist queer lens. Most recently, Chriss co-edited the special issue “racialization.spectacle.liberation.” for Wagadu: A Journal for Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies. Their other writings have been featured in multidisciplinary journals, edited volumes, and academic magazines.
Chriss is a former Fulbright Scholar, Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) Chow-Green Dissertation Scholarship recipient, and Five College Women’s Studies Research Center Research Associate-In-Residence. They earned a B.A. in Sociology from St. John's University, with dual minors in Women’s Studies and Psychology. Chriss attained an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Connecticut, while pursuing graduate certificates in Feminist Studies and Human Rights. Currently based in Brooklyn, Chriss is a Sociology Ph.D. Candidate at UConn and serves as Board Chair of the Audre Lorde Project, a community-organizing center for LGBTSTGNC people of color in New York City.