Africana Studies Program

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An analytical approach to human rights violations in Egypt from the start of the revolution to present day
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Bickel, Susana S.; Gelic, Matea; Curtis, Edward E., IV
There are so many current issues that are in violation of Human Rights around the world and the purpose of my research is to address the ones being violated specifically in Egypt from the beginning of the protests to what is currently taking place. Not only will we attempt to find out the numerous human violations in Egypt, but also try to explain why action was not taken and what should have been done instead. Egypt is one of the countries in the Middle-East that has had the most progression through the Arab Spring, but whether the outcome is good or not is still too early to tell. We hope to begin our research with the examination and better understanding of the country’s internal politics and its treatment of human rights throughout history. We plan to utilize a multitude of sources such as international law documents, domestic and foreign articles from the time period of the revolution, interviews with participants of the revolution and experts on Egypt, and multimedia sources including Facebook and Twitter. With this research, our goal is to achieve a better understanding of the human rights situation during the Egyptian revolution and its impact on the country’s progress.
Art, Race, Space
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Kryder-Reid, Elizabeth; Labode, Modupe; Holzman, Laura M.; Mullins, Paul R.
Art, Race, Space is a collaborative research project that takes as its starting point E Pluribus Unum, a public art installation proposed for the Indianapolis Culture Trail by renowned artist Fred Wilson that was cancelled in 2011 due to controversy surrounding Wilson’s appropriation of a freed slave figure from the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. Art, Race, Space” goes beyond examining the visual legacies of racial bondage to explore how the public responses to sculptures, memorials, and archaeology reveal our society’s faultlines of race and inequality. Building on the ideas about race, class, visual culture, and democratic debate that emerge from the Indianapolis project, the faculty have designed a multifaceted program to advance scholarship and promote civic dialogue about these significant issues. The faculty members organized an interdisciplinary symposium in January, 2013. Supported by an IAHI grant, the symposium explored the complicated relationships between art, race, and civic space with presentations by Wilson, community representatives who supported and opposed the sculpture, and scholars from a variety of disciplines who examined historical and cultural contexts of the controversy that had revealed Indianapolis’ longstanding racial and class tensions. The dialogue was expanded with the presentation of historical and contemporary examples from other parts of the United States. In order to encourage public dialogue, the symposium provided opportunities for audience members and presenters to engage in conversations, and it deployed social media (Twitter and Facebook) to encourage broader participation. The project's goal is to further scholarship and encourage public conversation on race and materiality. To this end the faculty have created a website, a Facebook page, Twitter account, and are working on an open-access curriculum to support dialogue in schools and informal learning settings about the complex issues of art, race, and representation. The faculty are also collaborating on academic publications, including selected proceedings and an article on the symposium's "hybrid discourse" that combined university and community resources, expertise, and communication practices and brought together diverse voices in constructive conversation about the challenging issues surrounding E Pluribus Unum.
Cape Verdean diasporic identity formation
(2008) Gibau, Gina Sanchez
Considering Student Voices: Examining the Experiences of Underrepresented Students in Intervention Programs
(CBE, 2015) Gibau, Gina Sanchez; Department of Anthropology, School of Liberal Arts
Qualitative studies that examine the experiences of underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are comparatively few. This study explores the self-reported experiences of underrepresented graduate students in the biomedical sciences of a large, midwestern, urban university. Document analysis of interview transcripts from program evaluations capture firsthand accounts of student experiences and reveal the need for a critical examination of current intervention programs designed to reverse the trend of underrepresentation in the biomedical sciences. Findings point to themes aligned around the benefits and challenges of program components, issues of social adjustment, the utility of supportive relationships, and environmental impacts.
Constructing Radical Black Female Subjectivities: Survival Pimping in Austin Clarke’s The Polished Hoe
(Project Muse, 2015) Springer, Jennifer Thorington; Department of English, School of Liberal Arts
This essay seeks to add to progressive scholarship that probes the ways in which black women create safe spaces to unapologetically accept their sexuality and the sexual agency that evolves as a result while simultaneously acknowledging the fluidity of feminine identities. In what follows, the author begin by describing the implications of what bell hooks calls "radical black subjectivity" for the sexual agency that may be secured by women who participate in sex work. Second, she examines how Clarke's protagonists, Ma and Mary, evolve and emerge as sexual agents rather than mere victims in their quest for personhood. Their reinvention of self surpasses personal subjectivity and serves as a testament to the struggles of women like themselves who resist from the margins, validating such experiences as worthy of scholarly critique. The third part of the essay challenges the simplistic and troubling idea that women who participate in sex work are merely objects -- objectified by men or self-objectified.
Consuming Lines of Difference: The Politics of Wealth and Poverty along the Color Line
(2011) Mullins, Paul R.; Labode, Modupe; Jones, Lewis C.; Essex, Michael E.; Kruse, Alex M.; Muncy, G. Brandon
Commentators on African American life have often focused on poverty, evaded African American wealth, and ignored the ways genteel affluence and impoverishment were constructed along turn-of-the-century color lines. Documentary research and archaeology at the Madam CJ Walker home in Indianapolis, Indiana illuminates how the continuum of wealth and poverty was defined and negotiated by one of African America’s wealthiest early 20th century entrepreneurs. The project provides an opportunity to compare the ways in which wealth was defined and experienced along the color line in the early 20th century and how such notions of Black affluence shaped racialized definitions of poverty and materiality
Diversifying biomedical training: A synergistic intervention
(2010) Gibau, Gina Sanchez; Foertsch, Julie; Blum, Janice; Brutkiewicz, Randy; Queener, Sherry; Roman, Ann; Rhodes, Simon; Sturek, Michael; Wilkes, David; Broxmeyer, Hal
For over three decades, the scientific community has expressed concern over the paucity of African American, Latino and Native American researchers in the biomedical training pipeline. Concern has been expressed regarding what is forecasted as a shortage of these underrepresented minority (URM) scientists given the demographic shifts occurring worldwide and particularly in the United States. Increased access to graduate education has made a positive contribution in addressing this disparity. This article describes the multiple pathway approaches that have been employed by a school of medicine at an urban Midwest research institution to increase the number of URM students enrolled in, and graduating from, doctoral programs within basic science departments, through the combination of R25 grants and other grant programs funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This article outlines the process of implementing a strong synergistic approach to the training of URM students through linkages between the NIH-funded "Bridges to the Doctorate (BRIDGES)" and "Initiative for Maximizing Graduate Student Diversity (IMGSD)" programs. The article documents the specific gains witnessed by this particular institution and identifies key components of the interventions that may prove useful for institutions seeking to increment the biomedical pipeline with scientists from diverse backgrounds.
Economic Impacts of Mass Incarceration on African American Families
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2016-04-08) Egunyomi, Ayobami; Tucker Edmonds, Joseph
Mass incarceration refers to the high and growing rate of imprisonment amongst a particular population of people. The problem of mass incarceration is common among African Americans and has greatly affected their economic position and wealth accumulation over time. In light of this, the main objective of this study is to identify the economic impacts of mass incarceration on the families of the incarcerated. This research explores these impacts from two major perspectives: the direct impact on the family and children of the incarcerated and the impact on the incarcerated vis-à-vis the labor and education market. The primary method of research was through analyzing federal and state statistical information while referring to scholarly articles and literature. This study aims at fully assessing the economic impact of mass incarceration and identifying the best practices to lessen the negative impact. The goal of this research is to influence subsequent decisions and policies of the key players in the American Criminal Justice System on issues concerning incarceration of African Americans.
Faculty perceptions of multicultural teaching in a large urban university
(2012-06) Bigatti, Silvia M.; Gibau, Gina Sanchez; Boys, Stephanie; Grove, Kathy; Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie; Khaja, Khadija; Springer, Jennifer Thorington
As college graduates face an increasingly globalized world, it is imperative to consider issues of multicultural instruction in higher education. This study presents qualitative and quantitative findings from a survey of faculty at a large, urban, midwestern university regarding perceptions of multicultural teaching. Faculty were asked how they define multicultural teaching, how they engage in multicultural teaching, what they perceive to be the benefits of multicultural teaching, and what barriers to implementing multicultural teaching they experience. Results indicate faculty members most frequently define multicultural teaching as using diverse teaching pedagogies and materials. In line with their definitions, faculty also report engaging in multicultural teaching through use of inclusive course materials. Faculty identified positive learning outcomes for all students as a primary benefit to engaging in multicultural teaching. The primary barrier reported by faculty is an anticipated resistance from students. Variations in responses based on academic discipline and rank of faculty member are discussed.
The Guantánamo Public Memory Project: Exploring the Pedagogy of the Curatorial Process
(Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Labode, Modupe; Kryder-Reid, Elizabeth
In fall semester 2012, two graduate classes in IUPUI’s Museum Studies Program participated in the Guantánamo Public Memory Project (GPMP). Each produced digital products and a panel for the GPMP’s traveling exhibition about the history of the United States’ relationship with the Guantánamo Naval Base in Cuba. This exhibition is the product of a collaboration among 11 universities. The class “Introduction to Museum Studies” is required for all incoming graduate students in the Museum Studies program, produced an exhibition panel on “The Arts of Detention” as a semester-long project within the introduction to museum history, theory, and ethics.. The “Guantánamo Project” class focused wholly on the GPMP and was comprised of students in the Museum Studies and Public History programs. In this poster, the class instructors will compare and contrast how students in the classes learned and applied the basic curatorial processes of creating an exhibition—research, interpretation, writing, image selection. The classroom products that will be considered include the exhibition panel, blog entries, digital projects, and student presentations at the December 2012 “Why Guantánamo” conference. The School of Liberal Arts student evaluations and the Museum Studies programs’ evaluations will be used to assess student perceptions and learning outcomes. Although many have advocated using exhibitions as a form of classroom practice, there is relatively little scholarship in this area. This poster will contribute to that scholarship.

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