Devon Betts is the Anthony B. Pinn Postdoctoral Associate in the Center for African and African American Studies at Rice University. His research examines how “paranoia” shapes the health decisions Black Americans make, focusing on Black women’s mistrust of prescription birth control and Black queer men’s mistrust of PrEP. He theorizes Black paranoia as a historically produced interpretive orientation shaped by racialized, gendered, and heteronormative vulnerability, rather than simply as a clinical diagnosis or form of irrationality. Betts’ broader interests include queer of color critique, Black feminisms, and popular culture. Together, these interests inform his work on health, sexuality, race, and culture. His recent chapter, “Uncle Johnny: Queer Worldmaking and the Black Family,” examines how Beyoncé’s reflections on her Uncle Johnny center queer kinship and challenge representations of queerness as a threat to children and the family. Rather than a source of shame or pathologization, Uncle Johnny’s queerness and HIV status become central to Beyoncé’s origin story and her remembrance of him.

Prior to joining Rice, Betts was a Ford Foundation Predoctoral and Dissertation Fellow.