Research
My work sits at the intersection of oral history, cultural theory, and migration studies. I approach research as an embedded practitioner — not studying Black women's global mobility from a distance, but producing scholarship from inside the experience, nine years into my own voluntary migration from the United States to Valencia, Spain.
My methods are rooted in life-history interviewing, feminist participatory research, narrative ethnography, and digital oral history. The 150-episode archive of Flourish in the Foreign functions as both a public-facing media project and a primary research corpus — one of the largest qualitative oral history collections on Black women's voluntary migration in existence.
Current Research
The Silent Brain Drain
The United States does not collect emigration data by race, educational attainment, or gender. As a result, the voluntary departure of highly educated Black American women from the country is entirely unmeasured — invisible in policy, undertheorized in migration scholarship, and unaddressed in philanthropy. I call this the Silent Brain Drain.
This is not a lifestyle phenomenon. It is structurally compelled movement: Black women leaving in response to racial weathering, maternal mortality disparities, accumulating political precarity, and the calculated assessment that the conditions required for a full life are not reliably available in the United States. The population is highly educated, professionally accomplished, and mobile — and the frameworks designed to explain migration do not capture them.
My research develops the Silent Brain Drain as both a scholarly concept and a policy argument, building the empirical and theoretical case for why this population deserves a dedicated research agenda.
Read my essay: The Silent Brain Drain: On the Unmeasured Departure of Black American Women
Migration as Liberation vs. Migration as Wellness
The dominant cultural narrative around Black women's global mobility — "soft life," "Blaxit," the migration-as-self-care discourse — frames leaving as an act of individual healing. My research challenges this.
I distinguish between migration as wellness, which offers individual relief from structural conditions without challenging or transforming those conditions, and migration as liberation, which is accountable to the collective, structurally interrogative, and politically legible as resistance. These are not the same thing, and collapsing them has consequences — for how we fund migration-related work, for how we evaluate the "success" of a move, and for how Black women in diaspora understand their own choices and obligations.
This distinction is the theoretical spine of my book manuscript Elsewhere, currently in development, and the conceptual frame of my submitted paper "To Bloom in Alien Soil: Black American Women's Voluntary Migration as Liberation Praxis," prepared for the Oxford Migration Studies Society 2026 Conference.
Active Projects
Elsewhere — Book manuscript in progress. Literary nonfiction and cultural criticism examining whether leaving equals liberation when mobility is market-sorted and the conditions fled risk being replicated abroad. Targeting major literary publishers. Represented in early development.
To Bloom in Alien Soil — Academic paper submitted to the Oxford Migration Studies Society 2026 Conference, with parallel submission to Routed magazine. Argues that existing migration frameworks — the forced/voluntary binary, lifestyle migration, brain drain — systematically fail to capture Black American women's voluntary departure, which is simultaneously chosen and structurally compelled.
The Myth of Elsewhere — Narrative audio series in development. Five episodes set in Lisbon examining the gap between the social-media mythology of Portugal and the structural realities of Black life there. Centers intra-Black difference across Afro-Portuguese, PALOP-heritage, Black Brazilian, and Black American women. Currently seeking production partners and commissioners.
Flourish in the Foreign Archive — 150+-episode oral history collection documenting Black women's voluntary migration experiences across the globe. Functions as a living primary research corpus.
Fieldwork
Casa Mísia Artist Residency, Lisbon — December 2025–January 2026. Conducted preliminary fieldwork interviews with Black Lusophone women in Lisbon. Established preliminary institutional relationships with the Museu de Lisboa. Research focus: structural realities of Black life in Portugal across intra-diasporic lines, with particular attention to housing, belonging, and the gap between Portugal's "safe haven" narrative and lived experience.
On Black Womanhood and Migration in Lisbon: A field note on what Black women inherit, navigate, and build beyond social media fantasy.
On Linguistic Privilege, Migration, and Who Gets Heard
Spain — Embedded Research, 2017–present — Nine years of embedded participant observation within expat and voluntary migrant communities in Spain, forming the experiential and observational foundation for all migration-related research.
Awards & Recognition
Best International Podcast — Black Podcast Awards, 2021 Flourish in the Foreign won Best International Podcast at the 2021 Black Podcast Awards — a significant distinction for a solo, independent production.
Shortlist Honoree — International Women's Podcast Awards, 2021 Shortlisted at the inaugural International Women's Podcast Awards, in recognition of the show's contribution to women's voices across borders.
Top 1.5% Globally — podcast ranking across platforms
Press & Media Features
Boston Globe Magazine · February 2026 "Taking the Leap: Why More Black Women Are Making the Move to Live Abroad"
Black Enterprise "I'm Out!: Why More Black American Women Are Leaving the US for Good"
Vogue Arabia Featured podcast recognition — Flourish in the Foreign
Business Insider · 2025 "Quit job, moved to Spain: building a business helping Black women"
BuzzFeed · 2021 "16 Black Women Inspiring International Moves You Should Be Following"
Apple Podcasts · February 2023 Included in the "In Everything" Black History Month curated collection
Travel Noire · 2022 Top Travel Podcast
The Thought Card · 2024 38 Must-Follow Travel Podcasts
Xataka (Spain) · 2020 "Somos los que ya vinimos a teletrabajar desde España para empresas extranjeras"
Gorgeous Globe "#WanderWomen: Lifting Up Black Voices in the Expat Community"
FRQNCY Media · 2020 "Indie Black Podcasters Who Expand Our Minds"
Speaking & Presentations
Oxford Migration Studies Society 2026 Conference Paper submitted: "To Bloom in Alien Soil: Black American Women's Voluntary Migration as Liberation Praxis" — under consideration for panelist presentation and publication in Routed magazine
PowerToFly Summit — April 9, 2026 "Beyond the Fantasy: What Mobility Reveals About Power, Belonging, and 'Fit'"
Wanderful Community — March 2025 "Beyond Inspo: The Radical Power of Truth-Telling in Travel Storytelling"
Power To Fly — Beyond Boundaries: UK & Europe Diversity Summit (November 2023) "Embracing Soft Life Principles for Career Sustainability Abroad"
International Women's Podcast Awards (September 2023) "Women's Voices Across Borders"
The Expat Woman Summit (November 2023) "Living Abroad as a Pathway to Wellness"
Afros & Audio Podcast Festival (October 2022) "The Wellness of Black Women in Podcasting"
Black Expat Side Hustle Summit (July 2024) "Global Expertise, Global Impact: Building a Remote Consulting Business"
The Expat Woman (September 2024) "Building a Consulting Business Abroad"
Podbean's Podcasting Smarter (December 2022) "BIPOC Wellness Podcasts: Cultivating Tools & Resources for a Great New Year"
The Sharvette Mitchell Radio Show (January 2023) "Building a Business on Soft Life Principles"
The Black Expat (June 2023) "Building a Successful Business Framework"
Collaboration & Inquiries
I am available for research consultancies, advisory engagements, and institutional partnerships in qualitative migration research, oral history methodology, cultural and audience insights, and narrative strategy. I hold a J.D. and bring legal fluency to research partnerships involving intellectual property, contract design, and institutional agreements.
For research inquiries: Contact Me