She examined the intersection of race and power in America. In 2022, she initiated legal action, alleging that bias led to the undervaluation of her home during an appraisal.
Shani Mott, Scholar of Black Studies
Shani Mott, a distinguished scholar of Black studies at Johns Hopkins University, passed away in Baltimore at the age of 47 due to adrenal cancer on March 12, as confirmed by her husband, Nathan Connolly, also a history professor at Johns Hopkins.
Despite her tenure in esteemed academic circles, Dr. Mott firmly believed in making scholarship tangible rather than confined to ivory tower abstractions. She urged her students to critically examine their backgrounds and the realities of the world, particularly in a city like Baltimore with its complex racial history.
Her research delved into American literature, analyzing how books, both popular and literary, shaped conversations about race sanctioned by the publishing industry and cultural gatekeepers. She was deeply interested in how large institutions influence discussions and experiences of race in America.
Actively engaged with her university, Dr. Mott investigated Johns Hopkins’ interactions, or lack thereof, with its predominantly Black workforce and the city surrounding it. She spearheaded the Housing Our Story project to amplify the voices of Black staff members whose narratives were absent from campus archives.
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Dr. Mott’s approach emphasized the tangible realities of racism in American life, which she taught her students to recognize. Her own experience of racial bias hit home when a mortgage refinance appraisal on her historically white neighborhood home came in significantly lower than expected, prompting them to conduct a second appraisal without revealing their race, resulting in a much higher valuation.
In 2022, she and her husband sued the mortgage and appraisal companies for discrimination, a real-world example mirroring her academic research.
Born in Chicago on March 16, 1976, to a schoolteacher mother and a Vietnam War veteran father, Dr. Mott earned her master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan. Her dissertation explored midcentury American literature’s attempts to transcend racial boundaries.
Outside academia, Dr. Mott engaged in community work, encouraging students to volunteer at Orita’s Cross Freedom School in Baltimore, and providing education and recreation for Black youth. During the pandemic, she produced YouTube videos with her family, sharing children’s books celebrating Black history and culture.
Diagnosed with cancer in 2021, Dr. Mott continued teaching and remained active in projects until her passing. Days before her death, she participated in an eight-hour deposition for the appraisal suit, demonstrating her unwavering dedication to her work despite her illness.
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