About
Jewell Ruth-Ella Humphrey is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a proud alumna of Africana studies at Howard University.
Her research interests include Black digital humanities, twentieth-century Black community organizing, African diaspora maritime heritage, and digital archival practices. Her research has spanned across the African diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the US.
Her dissertation titled “Black Star Archive: Digital Heritage Preservation & the Materiality of the UNIA” addresses the need for a centralized digital archive of the twentieth-century organization Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)- contending that virtual practices can be utilized to expand the definitions of archival research in archaeology.
Inspired by her namesakes and grandmothers, Jewel & Ruth Ella, her love for heritage preservation is the driving passion behind this work.
Contact:
jewellh16@g.ucla.edu