The Office of Grants and Contracts congratulates Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Latin American Studies, and Chair of Africana Studies, Devyn Spence Benson on a Presidential Authority grant from the Russell Sage Foundation.

The $50,000 Race, Ethnicity and Immigration program grant funds the project “Black Migration in a White City: Power, Privilege, and Exclusion in Cuban America.” Professor Benson, with collaborator Danielle Clealand of the University of Texas at Austin, will analyze oral histories, census, and archival data from Afro-Cubans to examine their socioeconomic status, educational trajectories, political attitudes, and voting behaviors.

Noting that “much of the literature in the social sciences and humanities treats Latinos as not only racially homogenous, but victims of exclusion and social and economic inequality.  Our book urges scholars to recognize that white privilege is relevant for Latino communities and that race matters for socioeconomic outcomes.” 

This prestigious award follows Professor Benson’s 2019 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, book-length study of Afro-Cuban intellectual life during the 1970’s, “Black Consciousness in Cuba:  The Untold Revolution, 1968 – 1978.” We congratulate Professor Benson on these prestigious awards for her research.

The Office of Grants and Contracts congratulates Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, Takiyah Harper-Shipman, on a Centennial Center Research Grant from the American Political Science Association (APSA).

The $4,500 collaborative grant will fund the project entitled “Overcoming Barriers: Transnational Black Womxn Scholars of African Politics Network.” Collaborating with Professor Harper-Shipman are Professors Kira Tait, University of Massachusetts; Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, University of California at Irvine; and Robin Turner of Butler University. The US-based scholars aim to build a transnational network co-led by Africa-based womxn scholars to identify and challenge shared and distinct barriers that Black womxn scholars face in writing on African politics.

With Centennial Center funding, the collaborators will establish and host four pre-conference events at the 2021 National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS), to facilitate networking and mentoring for Black womxn African politics scholars at various points in their careers.  At the conclusion of the pre-conference, participants will be invited to join the Transnational Black Womxn Scholars of African Politics network and to participate in subsequent virtual gatherings and pre-conferences in the US and Africa that build strong ties among Black womxn scholars, support scholarship, and identify and challenge the barriers faced.

Professor Harper-Shipman’s additional grants include the collaborative “Sapelo Island Summer Fellowship” and “Farming as Resistance: Reading and Service Collective” projects, engaging student research and community experience, both funded by the Justice, Equality and Community – Davidson College initiative.