Vershawn Ashanti Young

Director, Professor, and Chair

University of Waterloo, Black Studies, Department of Communication Arts, Department of English Language and Literature, Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee

Vershawn Ashanti Young, aka dr. vay, works primarily in three areas of Black Studies (masculinity studies, language/writing studies and performance studies). He is a multi-disciplinary artist, scholar, and teacher, integrating multiple academic areas (communication, law, literature, sociology, theatre, etc.) into his published work and instruction. He is perhaps best known for advancing his educational and sociolinguistic concept “code-meshing,” which means allowing minoritized language users, with a focus on Black men, to blend their cultural and heritage languages within academic, professional and public writing and speaking.  As a professor, he served on faculty at University of Iowa and University of Kentucky. He served as a high school drama/English/speech teacher, an elementary school principal, a supervisor of itinerant theater teachers in Los Angeles, and a school board administrator. He has a JD law degree and also serves as child protection mediator for the Ontario Ministry and a family mediator and child permanency mediator in Ontario, Canada and New York State, USA.