CPD Perspectives - Black Women Elected Officials: Advancing Equity Through Public Diplomacy

In the latest issue of CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy, Shearon Roberts, Associate Professor of Mass Communication and faculty member in African American and Diaspora Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, explores how Black women elected officials are reframing our understanding of public diplomacy from a racialized and gendered approach.

Black Women Elected Officials: Advancing Equity Through City and Nation-State Public Diplomacy recaps how the last decade’s racial justice social movements laid the groundwork for Black women’s rise in elected positions of power. She then distinguishes how elected power provides legitimacy for political actors, particularly in the diplomatic realm, compared to diplomatic appointments. Finally, Roberts explores the ways in which Black women elected officials have mainstreamed the language and actions of racial justice social movements of the last decade in their first few years of elected power, both in the United States and across the African Diaspora. She highlights the language, actions, and initiatives championed by Black women elected officials as case study and as an exploration of how racial equity can be advanced among peoples. 

Download the full text here.