Prior to joining Columbia, Channelle earned her Bachelor of Arts in English & History from Emory University and her Masters of Letters in Creative Writing (Prose) from Scotland’s University of St Andrews, where her work has been supported by the Mellon Foundation and the Robert T. Jones Trust. Specializing in Black diasporic literature and history with a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Channelle is currently at work on a dissertation project exploring visuality, diasporic memory and the limits of form, thinking with and through writers such as Paule Marshall, Hortense Spillers, and Sylvia Wynter. In April 2026, she presented early approaches towards this project in a special invited lecture for Dartmouth College’s Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life’s 2026 Speaker Series, Black Visual Culture / Black Life.

Currently assisting Columbia’s Rare Books & Manuscripts Library on an upcoming exhibition exploring Toni Morrison’s editorial career at Random House, Channelle previously served as a curatorial and research assistant for the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for the Study of Global Slavery global exhibition, “In Slavery’s Wake.” She has presented her work at the American Studies Association and Dartmouth College’s Future of American Studies Institute. As a teacher, Channelle has delivered special lectures to undergraduate and high school audiences on topics ranging from the metaphysics of narrative form in Octavia Butler’s Kindred or the effaced nature of memory in Morrison’s Beloved.

Also a creative writer, Channelle aims to produce a collection of creative nonfiction essays adjacent the theme of her dissertation. When not taking care of her distinguished little Mini Schnauzer puppy or curating her extensive TV watchlist, Channelle leads reading groups at Brooklyn’s Center for Fiction. Her work has appeared in Hyperallergic.