Kourtney PaynePh.D. Student (2025 Cohort)

Kourtney Payne (she/her) considers herself a student of Black, southern lineage. Her research examines Black feminist ecologies from the lens of Black women’s inner-narratives, using literary analysis of poetry, memoirs, and oral histories from Black queer women produced in a post-Hurricane Katrina context. Kourtney asserts these narratives as creative survival methods in the wake of environmental disasters, which produce Black feminist knowledge critiquing systemic structures adversely impacting the survival of Black communities. Keeping this notion in mind, Kourtney’s research is an ode to the significant contributions made by Black womanist and queer theorists, such as June Jordan and Audre Lorde, to Black liberation. 

Before attending Emory, Kourtney earned her B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology with a concentration in Public Health from Spelman College. At Spelman, she received multiple academic awards, including being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Kappa Delta, and departmental honors from the Spelman College Sociology and Anthropology Department. Alongside her academic endeavors, Kourtney loves to journal, garden, and read