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Our Field—African Diaspora Studies
As a department our faculty and graduate students are doing research in the following geographic areas:
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The languages spoken in our department include:
Creole, English, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Wolof, and Zulu.
Graduate Advisor: Robert Allen, Adjunct Professor rlallen@berkeley.edu
Welcome Fall 2009 Entering Graduate CohortCurrent Graduate StudentsCharisse Burden-Stelly
cburdens@berkeley.edu
Charisse Burden-Stelly is a first year PhD student. She received her B.A. in political science and African and African American Studies from Arizona State University. Her research interests include Black Feminist Frameworks as they relate to probing the feminization of poverty; and Development in the African Diaspora, specifically addressing the ways in which Structural Adjustment Programs exacerbate neo-colonialism on the Continent and throughout the Diaspora. She is also a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.Megan Downey
megandowney@berkeley.eduKimberly McNair
klmcnair@berkeley.edu
Kimberly McNair is a North Carolina native and current PhD student in African American Studies at UC Berkeley. She is an '02 graduate of North Carolina State University where she received a bachelors in both Africana Studies (BS) and Chemistry (BA). She is also an '06 graduate of UCLA, there she received her Master's in Afro-American Studies.
Kimberly's research interest include race, gender and identity construction with an emphasis on cultural reappropriation; race and media; black popular culture; historical memory; and the politics of racial representation in film and television.Christopher Petrella
cpetrella@berkeley.edu
Christopher earned his B.A. in Religion from Bates College and his M.A. in Government and Religion from Harvard University. He most recently worked as a teacher (Mr. P!) at Umass-Boston's Upward Bound program in Dorchester, MA. His current research interests include 1) imagining applications for praxis-directed critical pedagogies in urban schools, 2) exploring the intersection of race and resistance in black "counterpublic" spaces, 3) interrogating the relationship among race, property, and wealth within the context of public education, and 4) racializing whiteness.
BASCOMB, LIA
lia13@berkeley.edu
Ph.D. Candidate
M.A., African American Studies
Lia earned her B.A. in African American Studies with a concentration in Diaspora Studies from Yale University. Her work focuses on the production and interpretation of the visual images of popular performers across the diaspora.BECK, LATOYA
lbeck01@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
LaToya received her B.A. (cum laude) in International Studies and a Certificate in International Journalism from Hamline University in 2003. Her work focuses on issues of performance, Diaspora, and representation in India and on the commodification and circulation of Afro-Indian performance and religious aesthetics in the global market of folk and tribal culture. Her current dissertation project titled, “Performing Racial Identity in Postcolonial India: Sidis, Blackness, and Diaspora,” is an ethnographic exploration of the constitution of subjectivity and African Diaspora in India. It considers the ways in which members of the Afro-Indian community known as Sidis use performance to make a place for themselves within the social fabric of Gujarat, India.CRUZ, ARIANE
arcruz@berkeley.edu
Ph.D. Candidate
M.A., African American Studies
Ariane received her B.A from Stanford University in the Practice of Art (painting and drawing) and African American Studies. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also received her M.A. She maintains a scholarly interest in black visuality and images of the black female body. Her dissertation, explores visual representations of the black female body in contemporary American pornography, also reflecting her research interest in black female sexuality. She is a member of the designated emphasis program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality at UC Berkeley.DEETZ, KELLEY
deetz@berkeley.edu
Kelley Deetz, Ph.D. Candidate
M.A., African American Studies
Kelley has a B.A. in Black Studies and History from the College of William and Mary, and a M.A. in African American Studies from U.C. Berkeley. She is both a historical archaeologist and historian who specializes in slavery in the American south. Her dissertation explores the lives of enslaved cooks in colonial and antebellum Virginia.
FERGUSON, CHRISTOPHER
cferguson@berkeley.edu
My name is Chris Ferguson and my interests include the production and reception of masculinity in hip-hop and the repertoire of black manhood contained therein. I am also drawn to notions of black "authenticity" and how they are communicated, interpreted, and (mis)appropriated.
FINLEY, JESSYKA "J"
jfinley@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
J graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst,MA with a BA in Social Justice and Legal Studies. J's research interests are social movements, historical narratives of race and reparations. J is also interested in the connection between Southern slave plantations and modern day Black ghettos.GOMER, JUSTIN
jgomer@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
Justin received his B.A. in African American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 2007. He wrote an undergraduate honors thesis about whiteness in cultural forms, namely the films Glory and Dangerous Minds and the monument to Robert Gould Shaw in Boston. His research interests include race and film, race and memory, and whiteness.HOY, VIELKA CECILIA
vielkahoy@berkeley.edu
Vielka researches the African Diaspora in Latin America, specifically Central America, with respect to ethnic and racial identification and revolutionary governments. Vielka is a graduate of New York University (B.S. in Social Studies Education) and UCLA (M.A. in Afro-American Studies).JACKSON, ZAKIYYAH
zakiyyah@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
Zakiyyah graduated from The Ohio State University in Women’s Studies and Political Science with a focus on Black and U.S. Third World Feminisms. Her current research explores representations of Blackness and monstrosity in Literature and Visual Culture. She maintains a scholarly interest in Psychoanalysis, Philosophies of Race, Phenomenology, Ethics, Feminism, Queer Theory and Histories of the Human.JOHNSON, JASMINE
jasminej@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
Jasmine received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in African American Studies in 2006 and was the class valedictorian. Her senior thesis focused on one of the world’s oldest black bookstores, Marcus Books, and analyzed its role as a community institution. Her primary research interest is black performance, specifically black dance.KAUR, JASMINDER
jasminder@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
Jasminder is originally from Singapore and received her undergraduate degree in Sociology at the University of Manchester in England. Her current research interests are in the areas of queer theory, transexuality and performance. She hopes to explore notions of blackness through comparative studies of race and sexuality.LEEDS, ASIA
asialeeds@hotmail.com
Ph.D. Candidate
M.A., African American Studies
Asia, originally from Baltimore, Maryland, received her B.A. (cum laude) with a double major in History and International Studies from Fordham University in 2003. She spent the 2003-04 academic year as a Fulbright Scholar researching Jamaican migration to Costa Rica. Asia's research interests include early twentieth century British West Indian migration to Central America. She is most interested in Garveyism and sociopolitical organization among West Indian migrants, along with notions of blackness in the “mestizo” nations they migrated to.LOGGINS, AMEER
ameerishere@yahoo.com
M.A., African American Studies
My name is Ameer Hasan Loggins. I am from Richmond California. I received my bachelors degree in African American Studies at the University of California Berkeley and as you can see- I haven't left. My focus is on "hood politics" with an emphasis on using hip-hop as a tool to educate the youth in the lower class communities in the United States as well as their connection with the African Diaspora in regards to being treated as new millennium slaves in the modern era. What ever you do- do it like your grandmother asked you to do it. Peace...I'm out.MASON, BRYAN
bry_mason@yahoo.com
M.A. Graduate Theological Union, Systematic Philosophical Theology; B.A., Drexel University, Information Systems
MAZUR, NICK
nmazur28@hotmail.com
M.A., African American Studies
Nick Mazur is from Oakland, CA, and graduated from U.C. Berkeley, with a B.A. double major in African American Studies and Political Science. He worked with community outreach in the Bay Area before returning to graduate school. His research interests include cultural production, identity formation, social movements, critical pedagogy and education reform. He plans to focus his research on the identity formation and cultural production of high school students in urban settings.McGEE, MICHAEL
mmcgee@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
Michael received his B.A. in Political Science from Brooklyn College as a City University of New York Honors College University Scholar. His tentative research interest is to examine the ways in which the institutions within U.S. society (re)produce inequalities along the axes of race, gender, sexuality, and class, and the impact that this has on the development of the identity consciousness of African Diasporic peoples located in the U.S.MITCHELL, CARMEN
carmen.mitchell@berkeley.edu
Carmen received her B.A. in African American Studies from Oberlin College and an M.A. in Afro-American Studies with a concentration in Ethnomusicology from UCLA. Her graduate thesis examined the globalization and gay iconicity of black female performance in disco and house music. Future research will incorporate geographical sites of affinity between particular urban areas and conceptualized technologies of blackness and otherness in the production and dissemination of electronic dance music.NISBETT, MARIO
mnisbett@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
Mario received his B.A. in Social Sciences (with an emphasis in History) at the University of the Virgin Islands and M.A. in History at Morgan State University. His current research focuses on culture formation among peoples of African descent in the Americas. Additional research interest includes social movements impact on state and societal development in Africa and the African Diaspora.OSSEI-OWUSU, SHAUN
sowusu@berkeley.edu
Shaun received his B.S. in Communication Studies with a minor in African American Studies from Northwestern University in 2007. Afterwards, he pursued and received his M.L.A. in Africana Studies with an emphasis in Urban Studies while teaching at a charter school in North Philadelphia. His interests revolve around urbanity and include urban ethnography as well as race and popular culture (particularly sports and hip-hop). He is also interested in analyzing how the legal and criminal justice systemsimpact racialized communities in urban cities. For fun he likes to travel, explore cities, read, write, and listen to music.
OWEN, IANNA HAWKINS
io@berkeley.edu
Ianna graduated (valedictorian) with a B.A. from CUNY Hunter College in Africana Studies. Her research interests include the cultivation of subjectivity in Black folklore and storytelling as a form of witness. In the past she has worked in a transformative capacity with All City (a NYC-based radical education collective) and the Safe OUTside the System Collective of the Audre Lorde Project (a Brooklyn-based group committed to ending police and hate violence against queer and transgender people of color).
RANSOM, ERINN
eransom@berkeley.edu
Erinn earned her B.A. in Afro-American Studies in 2002 from UCLA, and her M.P.S. at the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University in 2004. Her thesis entitled, "Third Eyes Wide Shut: The Spectrum of Consciousness in Rap Lyrics," integrates her interests in theorizing consciousness and consciousness-raising, American popular culture and its links to ideology and consciousness development among Black youth and young adults; issues of power and representation in the entertainment industry; and the African American music tradition from the Spirituals to Hip Hop.RIVERA, PETRA
petra_rivera@berkeley.edu
Ph.D. Candidate
M.A., African American Studies
Petra earned her B.A. in African American Studies and a Certificate in Latin American Studies from Harvard University in 2003. Originally from Lorain, Ohio, Petra has also lived in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York. Before arriving at Berkeley, she worked at a non-profit in New York City as a member of the planning committee for ACCION Academy, a small middle school in Bronx, New York. Petra's research interests include theorizing diaspora, gender, race relations and Caribbean popular music.ROLLINS, LISA MARIE
lrollins@berkeley.edu
M.A., African American Studies
Lisa received a BA in English Literature with a minor in Women's Studies from California State University at San Bernardino, and an MA from The Claremont Graduate University (CA). She is now in her 4 th year in UC Berkeley's Diaspora Program. Lisa Marie is the coordinator for the Erskine A. Peters Reading Room, the specialized library located in the African American Studies Department. She is currently examining the diasporic relationship between African American and Caribbean women's speculative fiction. She is interested in how the notion of hybrid diaspora functions as a framework for considering how women like Octavia Butler, Toni Cade Bambara, Maryse Conde or Nalo Hopkinson imagine new worlds, new subjectivities for the diasporic black body. Her additional research interests include new media technologies and digital filmmaking.ROYSTON, REGINALD
r.a.royston@gmail.com
M.A., African American Studies
Reginold is a 1998 graduate of Howard University where he majored in anthropology and philosophy. He's worked for many years as a journalist. His research interests include Black aesthetics, media and information technology. His current focus is on 'new media' and transnational racial identity.WILLIAMS, GABRIELLE
ubiquity76@yahoo.com
M.A., African American Studies
Gabrielle received her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts from The New School in NYC in May of 2006. Her research interests include: the interplay between between race, diet, and class; the potential for and impact of internalized systems of domination; and, the influence of racial categorization/marginalization in the construction of identity.WILLIAMS II, RONALD C.
ronaldcwilliams@gmail.com
Ph.D. CandidateM.A. Political Science, Howard University
M.A. African American Studies, University of California, Berkeley
B.A. Political Science, San Diego State University
Ronald’s research focuses on African Americans in international affairs. His teaching interests include all areas of African American politics, racism and education, and African American political and social thought.
