Samantha Pinto

Professor & Author

After attending Rutgers (undergraduate) and UCLA (graduate), I began my career at Georgetown University, where I helped to build curriculum, programming, and connections around feminist, African American, and African Studies, and in 2016 helped to establish the Black Studies department. In 2019, I joined the faculty in the English Department of The University of Texas at Austin, where I also teach and mentor in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and African & African Diaspora Studies. From 2022-2025, I served as Director of UT’s Humanities Institute, leading its transformation into a research institute to support faculty as well as graduate & undergraduate students.

Collaboration and creating pathways for others to shine are the hallmarks of my professional life, including the Black Feminism on the Edge Book Series. I run a student-based research lab on mobile reproductive health and host a podcast that explores why we go to college and what we want for higher education’s future. I’m currently working on book-length projects on travel, leisure, & wellness cultures; faith & the university; feminist ambivalence; and divorce.

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