Jekara Govan

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Jekara is a third year English major interested in pursuing her PhD in English. More specifically, she hopes to focus her doctoral studies on post-modern U.S. and British literatures by authors of color. Her current research project centers on an investigation of 20th century American novels by women of color and their portrayals of internalized gendered racism among Black and Latina girls from and in the U.S. This work aims to reveal the ways in which literary portrayals of this phenomenon are informed by and inform our understandings of the real social experience of U.S girls of color. Beyond the classroom and engagement in research, Jekara is involved in UCLA’s Vice-Provost Initiative for Pre-College Scholars (VIPS) — a social justice-oriented college access program for high school students of color—as an academic year mentor and the Academic Advancement Program’s Humanities Peer Learning Lab as a Peer Learning Facilitator for the English 10 series (prerequisite classes for the major). She also serves on the executive board of UCLA’s Afrikan Women’s Collective and is a co-founder of Asterisk, a campus journal comprising of students’ creative and scholarly works centering on issues of social identity.

Jekara is a third year English major interested in pursuing her PhD in English. More specifically, she hopes to focus her doctoral studies on post-modern U.S. and British literatures by authors of color. Her current research project centers on an investigation of 20th century American novels by women of color and their portrayals of internalized gendered racism among Black and Latina girls from and in the U.S. This work aims to reveal the ways in which literary portrayals of this phenomenon are informed by and inform our understandings of the real social experience of U.S girls of color. Beyond the classroom and engagement in research, Jekara is involved in UCLA’s Vice-Provost Initiative for Pre-College Scholars (VIPS) — a social justice-oriented college access program for high school students of color—as an academic year mentor and the Academic Advancement Program’s Humanities Peer Learning Lab as a Peer Learning Facilitator for the English 10 series (prerequisite classes for the major). She also serves on the executive board of UCLA’s Afrikan Women’s Collective and is a co-founder of Asterisk, a campus journal comprising of students’ creative and scholarly works centering on issues of social identity.