Royalti Richardson (She/Her)

I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the GWSS Department at the University of Washington.

My research on erotic sovereignty explores the feminist world-building potential of Black women street-based sex workers. I ask: What can Black women's sexuality look like outside of colonial legacies of violence and oppression? And more importantly, how can we get there?

I write for and about Black sex workers, whores, and new-age thots because, for some, liberation can begin in the institution, but it can not be allowed to end there. The pursuit of erotic sovereignty must include bringing the most disenfranchised people, their knowledge, and their standpoint from the margins to the center. My work takes up gossip as a fundamental part of women's oral culture as a vehicle for expressing dissonance and resistance. With smoggy Los Angeles as the backdrop, my research details entanglements of race, surveillance, labor, and anti-fascism.