Ruthie Block

Ruthie Block is a PhD student in English and African American Studies and a graduate fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM). Ruthie’s research applies fugitivity studies to Black print culture studies, with a particular focus on Black feminist practices of print preservation, stewardship, and alternative circulation. Ruthie is currently working on a project that considers the role played by Black women bibliographers, bibliophiles and/or ‘home’ archivists in the guardianship of fugitive text objects. They are interested in these women’s private collections as sites of refuge, reimagined literacy, and community formation.

Prior to starting graduate school, Ruthie worked in non-fiction book publishing for four years. Ruthie is a research assistant at Tufts University’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy along with the African American Trail Project. They received a B.A. from Tufts University in 2021.