Mako Ward

Dr. Mako Fitts Ward is a qualitative and mixed-methods researcher whose work examines how Black cultural production, culture industries, and urban creative placemaking shape belonging, participation, and institutional change. Her research sits at the intersection of arts and culture, community engagement, and social impact, with a focus on how cultural practices generate more equitable and inclusive communities.

She teaches in African and African American Studies and Women and Gender Studies in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University and is affiliate faculty in The Design School in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. As Director of the Social Transformation Lab, she leads community-engaged research and cross-sector collaborations with government, nonprofit, philanthropic, and industry partners. Her work supports organizations in designing and evaluating community-centered programs through equity-centered evaluation, stakeholder engagement, and qualitative research, producing actionable insights, strategic recommendations, and inclusive program design frameworks.

Her research portfolio includes projects on arts ecosystems, workplace equity, and community cultural development, with funded partnerships spanning the Wallace Foundation, The Recording Academy© and Berklee College of Music, and public-sector agencies. As Co-PI of the Women in the Mix Study and PI of the Black Women Thriving report, she has produced widely cited research on gender equity, labor conditions, and systemic barriers in the music and cultural industries, contributing to national conversations on inclusive equity.

She is co-editor of The Pandemic Reader: Exposing Social (In)justice in the Time of COVID-19 (DIO Press, 2021), featuring critical essays on the injustices intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resurgence of racialized state violence. Her monograph, Sounding Home: Hip Hop, Worldmaking and Solidarity in Seattle (under contract, University of Washington Press), offers an ethnographic and cultural analysis of hip hop scene-building and Black queer worldmaking through the creative and political artivism of queer women of color artist collectives.

Her writing has appeared in academic journals, edited volumes, and public-facing outlets, including The Conversation, Ms., and HuffPost, reflecting a commitment to public scholarship and translating research into accessible, real-world impact.