Meet the Spelman Institute Class of 2009

Michele Berger

Institution: University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill

Degree(s):
PhD, University of Michigan, 1998, political science
Graduate Certificate, University of Michigan, 1995, women's studies

Research/activist Interests:
Michele Berger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her book Workable Sisterhood: The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS was published by Princeton University Press, 2004. During 2006-2007 she received an American Association of University Women (AAUW) 'American Fellow' award for her new work on African American mother and daughter communication on health and sexuality. Her teaching and research interests include multiracial feminisms, qualitative methods, and HIV/AIDS activism.
Her new co-edited book, The Intersectional Approach: Transforming the Academy through Race, Class and Gender is due out from the University of North Carolina Press at the end of the year.

Marcia Chatelain

Institution: University of Oklahoma-Norman Honors College

Degree(s):
Ph.D., American Civilization, Brown University
A.M., American Civilization, Brown University
B.J., Magazine Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia
B.A., Religious Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia

Research/activist Interests:
My manuscript project, entitled "Daughters of the Great Migration: Girls and Gender in a Changing Chicago," examines the lives of African-American girls during the mass movement of African-Americans from the South to the North. My work helps bridge the gap between current projects in girls' studies and the rich body of literature in African-American women's history. I am also working on an article on the film "Thirteen" and the ways in which teenage girls' bodies are used to discuss urbanization and race in Los Angeles. As an affiliated faculty member of the Women’s Studies and History Departments at the University of Oklahoma, my teaching interests and course subjects include girls' studies, popular culture, African-American women's history and ethnic studies.

As a student activist, I helped organize numerous campus campaigns involving non-discrimination policies, hate crimes reporting and gender equity. In the Oklahoma City community, I am active in the Girls Scouts of Western Oklahoma's outreach to girls of color and the historic, African-American branch of the YWCA (McFarland) in the heart of Oklahoma City's East Side. I am currently training for the 2009 San Antonio Rock n' Roll Half-Marathon to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Ebonie Cunningham Stringer

Institution: Wilkes University

Degree(s):
PhD Sociology, Purdue University
M.S. Sociology, Purdue University
B.A. Sociology, Black Studies and Political Science, University of Miisouri-Columbia

Research/activist Interests:
As a researcher, Dr. Cunningham Stringer takes a multi-method approach to the study of race, family, gender and corrections. In particular, her research investigates the ways in which incarcerated women negotiate motherhood and use familial support to maintain family linked role- identities and variations by race. She is also interested in understanding how family programs and prison policies can hamper or facilitate positive connections between incarcerated women, their children and families. Research findings are used to advocate gender-specific and culturally sensitive prison programming.
Dr. Cunningham Stringer is currently organizing a community project with the Luzerne County Diversity Task Force. The project empirically investigates the ways in which racial homogeneity in local police agencies affect views of the criminal justice system and police-resident conflict among diverse groups of local residents. Findings will be used to recommend policy and practices that promote and support diversity.

Simone C. Drake

Institution: The Ohio State University

Degree(s):
B.A. Denison University--Classical Civilization and English Literature
M.A. Ohio State University--African American and African Studies
M.A. Ohio State University--English Literature
Ph.D. University of Maryland--English Literature

Research/activist Interests:
My research focuses on critical race and gender studies in popular culture, literature, and on transnational studies, diaspora studies, and comparative U.S. ethnic studies. My scholarly work has appeared in "MaComère: Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars" and in "America and the Black Body: Identity Politics in Print and Visual Culture" (editor Carol E. Henderson), and I have an article on Craig Brewer's films and Kara Walker's antebellum silhouettes forthcoming (Fall 2009) in a special issue of "Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society" on gender and sexuality. Her manuscript "Transnational Negotiations: Critical Appropriations in Black Women’s Cultural Productions," examines the ways that black women artists in the U.S. attempt to negotiate their geopolitical position by appropriating diasporic and postcolonial theories of cultural identity in order to position their work and their subjects as transnational (under review). A book project on new approaches to black masculinity studies and another project on black women, citizenship and geography is well under way.

Aisha S. Durham

Institution: Texas A&M University

Degree(s):
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MA, University of Georgia
BS, Virginia Commonwealth University

Research/activist Interests:
Aisha Durham holds a joint appointment in Communication and Africana Studies. Her general research areas include performance ethnography and interpretive methods, Black feminist cultural criticism, and media and popular culture. Recent work about race, class and gender representations and lived experience extends Durham’s book project on hip hop feminism, and is featured in Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism and Qualitative Inquiry as well as her co-edited anthology, Home Girls, Make Some Noise!

Marcelle Haddix

Institution: Syracuse University

Degree(s):
PhD, Boston College
MEd, Cardinal Stritch University
BS, Drake University

Research/activist Interests:
At the center of my scholarly and teaching interests is a continual interrogation of the historical, political, and social constructions of race, gender, and identity in the context of K-12 and higher education. These research interests are informed by my desire to contribute to educational theory, research, and policy that looks at how to improve educational teaching and learning opportunities for an increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse student population. My dissertation research involved a sociolinguistic and ethnographic examination of the discursive practices of Black and Latina female preservice teachers, where the aim of the study was to examine how teacher education as a discursive space shapes the experiences of persons of color. A major implication of this work was the need to identify and implement ways to increase teacher diversity and to privilege multiple perspectives in teaching and teacher education. My most recent research projects include the exploration of the role of black mothers as change agents in the literacy education of their children and the study of teaching writing to African American adolescent males.

Tamara Cynthia Ho

Institution: University of California, Riverside

Degree(s):
M.A. and Ph.D., Comparative Literature, UCLA
B.A., Women's Studies and Psychology, Pomona College

Research/activist Interests:
Dr. Tamara C. Ho's research interests focus on intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, Anglophone postcolonial literature, transnational migration, and social change.

Her work on Burmese American writer Wendy Law-Yone has appeared in _A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature_ (eds. Sau-ling Wong and Stephen Sumida, 2001), _Word Matters: Conversations with Asian American Authors_ (ed. King-Kok Cheung, 2000) and _Amerasia Journal_. Dr. Ho’s ethnographic essay "Women of the Temple: Burmese Immigrants, Gender, and Buddhism in a U.S. Frame" was recently published in the new anthology Emerging Voices: The Experiences of Underrepresented Asian Americans (ed. Huping Ling, Rutgers University Press, 2008). Dr. Ho’s book project "Romancing Human Rights: Gender, Intimacy, and Power between Burma and the West" analyzes human rights and transnational ethical engagement from a Southeast Asian feminist perspective. By examining narratives of displacement and intimacy related to Burma (Myanmar), "Romancing Human Rights" weaves together transnational feminist studies, postcolonial studies, and US ethnic and race studies to theorize the heterogeneous possibilities and limits of (Burmese) identity production within the frames of nation, migration, diaspora, and globalization.

Additionally, Professor Ho is working on a few other research projects: a new endeavor analyzing the work of women of color in modern science fiction, and an ongoing comparative examination of translation, spirituality, gender and sexuality. Dr. Ho is investigating this latter area through two very different aspects: one essay compares U.S. women of color texts such as Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera and Theresa Cha's Dictee, and a relatively new project examines discourses of sexuality, issues of translation, and representation around Southeast Asian spirit mediums, particularly Burmese "spirit-wives" known as "nat-gadaws," who are often cross-dressing gay men.

Sherita Johnson

Institution: University of Southern Mississippi

Degree(s):
M.A. and Ph.D. in English (Literature)

Research/activist Interests:
Research/teaching interests: African American Literature (esp. 19th and early 20th century), Southern Literature, African American Women Writers (especially 19th century), Feminist Theory, and Cultural Studies

Dr. Sherita L. Johnson specializes in African American Literature of the 19th century (particularly women writers) and Jim Crow history and literature. She has served as guest editor of The Southern Quarterly special issue, "'My Southern Home': The Lives and Literature of 19th-Century Southern Black Writers" (Spring 2008). Other recent publications include several contributing articles in The Encyclopedia of Jim Crow (Greenwood Press, 2008) and The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature (Greenwood Press, 2005). Her book that examines the role of black women, historical and fictional, in the making of "New South" literature and culture of the late nineteenth / early twentieth centuries is forthcoming from Routledge.

Tomomi Kinukawa

Institution: University of the Pacific

Degree(s):
B.A., University of Tokyo
M.A. and Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research/activist Interests:
I specialize in the history of science, race, gender, and sexuality. I conduct my research in a rich interdisciplinary field where science and technology studies, postcolonial and feminist critique of science, and ethnic studies intersect. My current research focuses on health and citizenship among Korean Diaspora communities (“zainichi-Koreans”) in post-WWII Japan and explores how health became a negotiated realm of entitlement in transnational spaces between Japan, North and South Korea, and the U.S.A. It examines how zainichi-Koreans critiqued the inherent contradictions of citizenship through everyday actions and decisions concerning their bodies, in response to evolving medical technologies.

Sobeira Latorre

Institution: Southern Connecticut State University

Degree(s):
PhD, Stony Brook University (SUNY)
BA, Amherst College

Research/activist Interests:
Teaching and Research Interests: Contemporary Caribbean Literature, Latino/a Studies, Women’s Studies, Cultural Studies and Film.

My area of specialization involves the literary and cultural interrelations between the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and the Latino/Caribbean diaspora. My scholarly work reflects my commitment to understanding the ways in which marginalized groups in the US and the Hispanic Caribbean, particularly women and Afro-Caribbean people, represent themselves through writing, performance and film. My current research focuses specifically on the literary and cultural production of Dominican American women authors. At present, I am working on an essay that examines the ways in which nationality, gender, sexuality, class, and race intersect in Afro-Dominican women’s writing.

Consistent with my academic work, I am interested in social activism that empowers young women and that promotes understanding and dialogue among different ethnic and racial groups.

Annette Madlock

Institution: Howard University

Degree(s):
Ph.D. Intercultural Communication & Rhetoric

MA - Communication Studies, Bethel University
BA - Organizational Studies, Behtel University

Research/activist Interests:
Cultural Space: Physical and Intellectual Space Allocation in Communities of Color
Influence of Gender in the Rhetoric of Social Movements
Intractable Conflict and Policy Negotiation in Marginalized Communities
African American Communication and Identity Negotiation in Multicultural Environments
Racial Reconciliation Theology
Multiculturalism and Diversity in Organizations
Qualitative Methodologies and Triangulation

Dana Olwan

Institution: Queen's University

Degree(s):
PhD, English Literature, Queen's University
MA, English Literature, Georgetown University
BA, English Literature, La Roche College
BA, English Literature, Yarmouk University

Research/activist Interests:
I am a Lecturer in the Women's Studies Department and the Arab Studies Program at Queen's University. This summer, I am completing my dissertation in the Department of English at Queen's. My dissertation focuses on the publication, reception and marketing of Arab American women’s literature post 9/11. I am interested in questions and articulations of gender, nationalism, and Islam in postcolonial literature. I have taught at both the Women’s Studies and English departments of Queen’s University. My academic work is influenced by my activism and involvement with solidarity movements for Palestine.

Sujey Vega

Institution: Sam Houston State University

Degree(s):
B.A. Anthropology
M.A. Anthropology
Ph.D. Anthropology

Research/activist Interests:
As a cultural anthropologist, I conduct ethnographic research on community belonging, gendered social networks, and civic participation of transnational Mexican residents in the U.S. Primarily, I conduct ethnographic research on the experience of Latinas/os who are making home and negotiating transnational identities in nontraditionally receiving areas of the United States. In particular, I explore the efforts of Mexican residents to participate and belong as recognized members of local, regional, national, and transnational communities. In addition, I also take into account the non-Latino response and examine how community is made and protected in these ever changing regions. My work examines the discourse of citizenship and social justice in the lives of both immigrants and established non-Latino residents.

Ariana Elizabeth Vigil

Institution: The Ohio State University; Cornell University

Degree(s):
BA (OSU)
MA, PhD (Cornell)

Research/activist Interests:
My research looks at how U.S. Latina/o artists and activists respond to U.S. intervention in foreign countries. I'm currently working on a book project that examines creative and critical resistance to U.S. intervention in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Chiapas from the 1960s through today. I want to highlight not only this history of imperialism and solidarity, but also to understand how U.S. Latina/os have negotiated issues of nation, identity, and language to forge new, transnational identities and to understand the role of art and creative expression in combating military, economic, and political exploitation. The majority of the authors in my study are women and my analytical framework is, at its core, feminist; I am always cognizant of the role of race, class, gender, immigration status, and sexuality and seek to highlight how such factors affect the vision, goal, scope, and enactment of solidarity.
My activism takes a somewhat broader focus as I strive to be aware and involved in a host of progressive causes. In the past I have been active in worker's rights, feminist, queer, and Latina/o organizations. I'm still learning the political and cultural topography of my new home in Lincoln, NE but since moving to Nebraska last year I have joined the local chapter of the NAACP and I plan to begin volunteering with a local organization that serves survivors of domestic abuse. I am also passionate about environmental and food politics and attempt to live as sustainably as possibly with little reliance on gasoline, private cars, chain stores, and conventionally produced agriculture.

Chanequa Walker-Barnes

Institution: Shaw University Divinity School

Degree(s):
M.S., Clinical psychology, University of Miami, 1996; Ph.D., Clinical psychology, University of Miami, 2000; M.Div., Duke University, 2007

Research/activist Interests:
I identify myself as a pastoral theologian whose interests revolve around the psychospiritual impact of racial and gender oppression and the liberatory dimensions of pastoral theology. Currently, I am working on a project examining the influence of race and gender ideologies upon conceptions of identity and intimacy among African Americans, with specific focus upon the archetype of the Strong Black Woman. I also have strong interests in the Christian church's role in shaping and transforming identity politics, especially as it relates to race, gender, and sexuality.