Bio

Dr. Gabrielle Kubi (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies; and leads the Venerating Intersections of Blackness in Education & Schooling (VIBES) Lab. Her research focuses on Black girls’ and women’s intersectional awareness of misogynoir as it interlocks with other forms of oppression, such as adultism; their self-definition and/or meaning-making; and the reimagination of schooling to better cultivate young Black people’s sociopolitical and identity development, particularly through university-school partnerships. She is a proud auntie and a celebrated educator, mentor, and school partner. Her work has been funded by the American Educational Research Association; the American Psychological Foundation; and the Society for Community Research and Action.

Education

B.S., Human Development with Minors in Education and Inequality Studies, Cornell University
Ph.D., Education & Psychology, University of Michigan
Graduate Certificate, African American & Diasporic Studies, University of Michigan
Graduate Certificate, Graduate Teaching, University of Michigan

Specialization

Developmental science (Black girls' and women's identity and sociopolitical development); Black girlhood studies (Black girls' counternarratives about their educational, psychological, and developmental experiences; critical pedagogies and consciousness-raising curricula that center Black girls to the benefit of all students + the experiences of adult co-conspirators, namely Black woman educators, who facilitate these learning experiences); Community engagement (translational research; university-school and university-community partnerships; design, implementation, and evaluation of curricula and contexts of youth practice)  

Selected Honors & Awards

2026: Eastern Michigan University Faculty Development Center Thank-An-Eagle Nominee

2025: University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences Political Violence Against & Joy Among Black Girls Research Convening Invitee

Eastern Michigan Women’s Basketball Faculty Appreciation Honoree

2024: AERA Division C Shark Tank People’s Choice Award

2023: Action for Racial Justice and Equity Fund Recipient, Society for Community Research and Action Council on Cultural, Ethnic, and Racial Affairs

Michigan Housing Fall 2022 Honored Instructor

Curriculum Inquiry Writing Fellow

2022: Mamie Phipps Clark Diversity Research Grant Recipient, Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology

Queen-Nellie Evans Scholar, American Psychological Foundation

Honorable Mention, Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship

2021: Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation Graduate Research

Fellowship Program 

2020-26: University of Michigan Rackham Merit Fellow

2018-20: Cornell University Program for Research on Youth Development & Engagement (PRYDE) Scholar

Representative Publications

^ = includes student author/s
^Kubi, G., Johnson, M., Yang, H. M., Cherukavada, S., & Montgomery, H. (2024). “We… speak up… because we care:” Critical conversation spaces as consciousness-raising contexts for Black girls. Curriculum Inquiry, 54(4). Curriculum Inquiry Writing Fellow invited submission. 1-26. [link]

Onuoha, A. C., Kubi, G., Coghill, K., Golden, A., & Joseph-McCatty, A. (in preparation). Confronting political violence through intersectional awareness, critical consciousness, & collective joy for Black girls’ health.

Kubi, G., & Lewis, J. A. (under review). “[Standing] firmly… in my Black girlhood”: Gendered-racial identity development as Black feminist resistance. 

Kubi, G. (under review). Conversations in Color: Conceptualizing an intersectional awareness of misogynoir. Journal of Adolescent Research.

^Kubi, G. & Johnson, M.^[1], Yang, H. M., & Pelton-Flavin, K. (in press). “A different energy”: Black girls’ interpretation of vibe as a power metric. In C. Jacobs & K. Clonan-Roy (Eds.), Exploring the Educational and Developmental Experiences of Girls of Color: Girlhood Reimagined. Invited submission. Emerald Publishing. [^[1]Kubi & Johnson share first authorship of this chapter.]

Owusu, M., Almore, A., cooper, m., Johnson, M., Kubi, G., & Quince, C. L., (2024). It’s up and it’s stuck: Witnessing Black girl joy in digital spaces. Urban Education,^[2] 1-28. [link] [^[2]As Black feminists, this article honors collectivism and rigorous citation practice. This citation lists the creator of the study first and then the members of this collective in alphabetical order.]

Quiles-Kwock, T. B. & Pinetta, B. J.^[3], Kubi, G., Mathews, C. J., & Leath, S. (2025). “I love that ‘bout myself and us”: Black, Latina, and Afro-Latina girls’ self-definition and valuation processes as resistance to gendered racism. Psychology of Women Quarterly. [link] [^[3]Quiles-Kwock & Pinetta share first authorship of this article.]