Alexa Tignall has “things to say,” and it is no wonder she does. Tignall graduates Pitt with a bachelor’s degree in social science, Africana studies, and an anthropology minor in addition to a certificate in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. She’s a student, an ambassador for the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES), and a critical language fellowship recipient – but the sum of her accomplishments is only one small part of the powerhouse that she is.
Tignall talks about her life in terms of themes, analyzing herself the way she would a Langston Hughes work. Yet she’s nonchalant in her claim that she “fell into” her interest in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe back when she was living in Brighton Beach, where she learned to speak Russian to communicate with her roommate and neighbors.
At Pitt, Tignall continued this learning with the guidance of professors Gabby M.H. Yearwood of the Anthropology Department, Imani Owens of the Africana Studies Department, and Dawn Seckler and Sean Guillory of REEES. Tignall studied in Moscow in 2018 through REEES’s Summer Language Institute. As a REEES student ambassador, she has helped other students build networks, secure funding, and study abroad. To her, involvement in international studies means, “becoming a global citizen.”
If Tignall were to deliver to TED Talk, she would speak about the experience of Central Asian students in American high schools, and how notions of race, racism, and masculinity inform their identities. She believes that, “when we start speaking the truth, then we can solve problems.” It comes as no surprise that her favorite classes and involvements at Pitt were those that changed her worldview and encouraged her perspective as a black woman in otherwise white and male spaces.
During summer 2019, Tignall will conduct research in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, through the Critical Language Scholarship awarded by the United States Department of Education.