10 Within 10 Recognition

Alesondra (Alex) Christmas is an ABD doctoral candidate in the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University, whose dissertation research focuses on Racial Battle Fatigue in Black women dance educators at predominantly White institutions. Her work centers on Black women and seeks to uplift their thought, labor, and creative practices within the academy and beyond. Her research validates and celebrates Black women as they strive to overcome systems created to marginalize and silence them. Additionally, Christmas is a Graduate Administrative Assistant for the forthcoming Race, Equity, and Social Justice in the Arts Certificate Program and a Graduate Teaching Associate for the Department of Dance. Christmas deploys her scholarship, leadership, and pedagogy within higher education as activism, to be used against injustice.

Christmas has presented at several conferences including the International Association of Blacks in Dance, Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, The Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities, Ohio Dance Festival, and Dance Studies Association. She has also published in the Journal of Dance Education and Dance Research Journal in addition to several forthcoming chapters. She has also designed and piloted several university courses focusing on infusing racial justice in the arts.

Alesondra graduated with honors from Central Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science in Theater, minors in Dance and Advertising, and a certificate in Cultural Competency. To give back to her CMU beginning, Christmas has met with CMU McNair scholars and CMU dance students interested in dance-based scholarships and higher education. She graciously shared her contact information with undergraduate students, allowing them to keep in touch.