PhD Candidate, African American Studies Graduate Certificate Student Chera Jo Watts is a mother, writer, gardener, yoga practitioner, and scholar-artist interested in teaching and learning strategies which move us toward beloved community. As a doctoral candidate in the Department of Religion, her research explores African American religion and literature, and she's interested in supporting students as they leverage their life experiences and insights to imagine creative solutions for current societal challenges. Her graduate work builds upon a career at UGA as a professional Academic Advisor, including five years as the Academic Advisor in Residence to the Franklin Residential College (FRC), where she mentored hundreds of students. Also, Watts served for five years as the GTA in the Institute for African American Studies, where she completed the Graduate Certificate. Along with considerable professional academic advising experience in the Franklin Residential College and Division of Biological Sciences, her teaching experience at UGA includes RELI/AFAM 2005, “Introduction to African American Religious Thought,” (Spring 2023). For the 2025-26 academic year, she serves as the Graduate Assistant in the Office of Sustainability. Her dissertation is the first book-length project which engages author and activist Alice Walker’s life and literature in the context of her Buddhist religious practices. Practicing to Transgress: Alice Walker's Revolutionary Artistry through a Black Buddhist Lens deploys a unique methodological framework combining archival research, historical context, critical autoethnography, and literary analysis, shedding light on the ways that Buddhism extends beyond personal practice to serve as a basis for social critique, resilience-building, and healing. This research has been supported by the Jane Mulkey and Rufus Green Graduate Fellowship, a Franklin College Summer Research Award, and the Lee Roy B. Giles Award, along with a Willson Center Graduate Research Grant, J. William Fanning Graduate Fellowship, and the Graduate School Dean’s Award, among others. As a first-generation scholar from a rural, poverty-class background, Watts draws upon personal experiences while rejecting conventional academic detachment in favor of transformative scholarship which does not merely analyze inequalities but actively works toward healing. She seeks a future career reflecting this alignment, including post-doctoral opportunities, teaching or student services positions at universities, grant writing, digital humanities, and non-profit work. Education Education: MA in Religion, Graduate Certificate in African American Studies (2022), University of Georgia, Athens, GA. BS in Psychology, Cum Laude (2010), University of Georgia, Athens, GA. Research Research Interests: Ongoing: African American Womanist Thought & Practice (focusing on Alice Walker); Black Buddhists & Practice in America; Black Feminism; Womanism; Love as Active Teaching Practice (in the spirit of bell hooks); African American Female Blended Spirituality; Comparative & Blended Religions; Decolonizing Teaching Strategies, Learning Practices, & Modes of Being in the World In Progress (see peer-reviewed book chapters on CV): "Refusing Summation, Inviting Contemplation: A Collaborative Approach to Understanding the Lives, Literature, and Lessons of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin," co-authored with Chanara Andrews, concerning archival research citing letters written between Baldwin and Morrison during the 1970s alongside their fictional writing, public appearances, and other public historical documents. Grants: University of Georgia, J. William Fanning Fellowship, $5000, 2025-2026. Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Graduate Research Grant, $750, Spring 2025. Franklin College of Arts & Sciences, Jane Mulkey and Rufus Green Graduate Fellowship, $2500, 2024-2025. Franklin College Summer Research Assistantship, June 2024. University of Georgia, Graduate School Summer Research Grant, $1500, May 2024. Institute for African American Studies Lee Roy B. Giles Award, $1000, May 2024. University of Georgia, Graduate Student Domestic Travel Grant, $550, June 2023. University of Georgia, Graduate School Dean's Award, $3000, Spring 2023. Franklin College Curriculum Diversity Enhancement Grant, $100, Acknowledgement Award, University of Georgia Franklin College Dean’s Office, January 2023. Student Responses to But Some of US are BRAVE, $250, Grant Recipient, University of Georgia Institute for Women’s Studies, Spring 2023. University of Georgia "First" Award, Honoring contributions of First-generation students, Fall 2021. University of Georgia Office of Sustainability Grant Sponsor, Franklin Residential College Community Garden Pilot Program, $3000, Spring 2021. Selected Publications Selected Publications: Watts, Chera Jo, “An Ongoing Womanist Buddhist Project: Reading Between the Times,” Literature, Special Edition: “Spirituality, Identity, and Resistance in African American Literature,” edited by Carolyn Jones Medine, 2022. Link. Medine, Carolyn J. and Watts, Chera Jo, “Alice Walker,” Oxford Bibliographies in “African American Studies,” New York: Oxford University Press, 2024. DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780190280024-0137. Watts, Chera Jo, Elliptical Practice: Womanist Buddhist Thought in Selected Works by Alice Walker, University of Georgia, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2022. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/elliptical-practice-analyzing-womanist-buddhist/docview/2681444848/se-2.
