2022 Conference

May 6, 2022

MY CUP RUNNETH OVER: Applying Lessons of #HistoricalWellness found in Black Women’s Memoirs

The 2022 Kathryn Epps Faculty Wellness Conference featured keynote speaker Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans. The primary aims of this year's conference were to 1) To examine the history of five self-care and stress management strategies found in Black women’s life writing: meditation, music, prayer, yoga, and exercise. 2) To evaluate the possible positive use of tea traditions and self-care practice in six types of health: physical, mental, spiritual, social, economic, and political. 3) To posit personal practices of inner peace through silent meditation and journaling. 4) And to reinforce and apply historical lessons by identifying personal plans of action. 

Stephanie Y. Evans, Ph.D.

Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans is a Professor of Black Women's Studies in the Institute for Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University. She served as a department chair for twelve years at Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University, and University of Florida. Her research interest is Black women's #HistoricalWellness, intellectual history, memoirs, and mental health. She is author of three books: Black Women's Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace (SUNY, 2021); Black Passports: Travel Memoirs as a Tool for Youth Empowerment (SUNY, 2014), and Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History (UF, 2007) as well as lead co-editor of four books including, Black Women and Public Health: Strategies to Name, Locate, and Change Systems of Power (SUNY 2022) and Black Women's Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability (SUNY Press, 2017), At GSU, Professor Evans is affiliate faculty in the Department of African American Studies, the Center for the Study of Stress, Trauma, and Resilience, as well as in the Center for Studies of Africa and Its Diaspora. In her writing and teaching, she highlights life writing and Black women’s traditions of self-care, communal care, structural care, and social justice as a sustainable model for human rights.