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Research highlights from UMD's African American Studies DepartmentTRANSCRIPT
BE EMPOWERED
Sangeetha Madhavan is challenging the assumption
that low-income black men in urban South Africa are
uninvolved fathers. She has been analyzing 20 years of
data on children born following apartheid’s collapse and
found that nearly 80 percent of fathers maintain contact
with their children and provide financial support, though
some live apart from them and most have unstable
relationships with the mothers and struggle to find jobs.
She and fellow researchers also found extended families
are critical for maintaining these relationships. The study
is helping South African policymakers strengthen the role
of fathers in low-income communities and is providing
insights that could be applied in the United States.
Melinda Chateauvert’s research critiques narrow
definitions of civil rights that emphasize respectability
and privilege marriage, children, military service and
traditional gender roles. As a result, sexual behavior serves
as the border between full citizenship and a marginalized
existence. She’s studied how, since the 1960s, sex workers
have been challenging that border, organizing a movement
to decriminalize sex and to end gender policing. They
demonstrate, she says, that in the global economy of the
21st century, human rights are for everyone.
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Health, Race and Social Policy » How do par-
ticular social policies impede or promote people’s
opportunities to succeed? Laws that crack down
on inner-city liquor stores, ban smoking or pro-
mote the expansion of mental health services
can have a dramatic effect on health. Our faculty
explores how policies affect the world of work,
family structures and “citizenship” as experienced
by marginalized groups.
“This program has encouraged me to look at politics from a different perspective. i’ve had great professors like Dr. odis Johnson, who had us go to D.c. to participate in panels and workshops of the congressional Black caucus and learn how it’s representing us and its views on issues such as the prison-industrial complex and education.”
—Michellay cole ’13, afrICan amerICan StUDIeS/joUrnalISm
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7.3times as
likely as CauCasians
AfricAn AmericAns Are
to live in high-poverty neighborhoods with limited to no Access to mentAl heAlth services.
aCCorDIng to “mental HealtH: CUltUre, raCe, anD etHnICIty,” a SUpplement to “mental HealtH: a report on tHe SUrgeon general”
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Sharon harley explores the relationship between
women of color and labor, particularly in the United
States and the Caribbean: How is the productive and
reproductive labor of women of color viewed differently
from other groups of working women? How do race, class
and ethnicity influence the impact of women’s work lives on
men in their families or communities? How do nationality
and class influence women of color’s labor narrative?
Her study advocates a more detailed and complex
understanding of how various communities interpret
gender roles.
GnieSha DinwiDDie investigates how residential
segregation affects access to and quality of care for
mental disorders. She has found that psychiatrists typically
don’t have private offices in African-American and Latino
neighborhoods, so patients travel farther to find them or
are treated by primary care physicians, who may not be
able to diagnose or treat them properly. Dinwiddie’s work
has policy implications for the federal Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act by informing Maryland lawmakers
where psychiatrists should set up practices in order to
provide needed care and to reduce health disparities.
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Odis JOhnsOn Jr. considers how masculinity shapes
the educational beliefs and behaviors of black and white
teens in Prince George’s County, Md., neighborhoods.
He’s discovered a paradox: Hypermasculine behaviors
and expressions of “cool” are linked to youths’ belief that
hard work in school pays off with good grades and future
success, yet those same masculine traits appear unrelated
to their grades. Contrary to stereotypes about black
males, Johnson’s work shows the masculine orientations
of black adolescents are not as strongly related to their
beliefs about schooling’s importance as they are for their
white counterparts.
How do so many African American men end up in the
emergency room as shooting victims, multiple times?
JOseph richardsOn Jr., using patient data from the
University of Maryland R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma
Center, has identified four risk factors: substance abuse
or intoxication, a history of criminal justice involvement,
previous exposure to violence, and whether “disrespect”
preceded the gunfire. He’s expanding his study to Prince
George’s Hospital Center to determine how black men
cope with these injuries and their barriers once they’re
discharged, in hopes of improving trauma care and
hospital-based violence interventions.
As part of his long-term research on historically black
communities in the American South, William W.
Falk is investigating the recent rise in residential gated
communities called “plantations.” The names typically
have no historic significance, but are used primarily to
convey a sense of gentility and elegance for the intended
buyers—relatively affluent white people. But for the
historically majority-black population, these names are
significant for their insensitivity. Falk’s work in coastal
South Carolina and Georgia sheds light on contemporary
racial tensions resulting from economic development.
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Urban and Community Studies » For anyone,
where you live influences the world as you
experience it and your role in it. For African Ameri-
cans—particularly young, black, urban men—that
relationship is amplified. We examine how neighbor-
hoods, schools, workplaces, transportation and more
play a role in the challenges and achievements of
blacks in urban life.
of BlaCk, male freSHmen graDUate from HIgH SCHool In 4 yearS, CompareD to 78 perCent of WHIteS, aCCorDIng to tHe “UrgenCy of noW” report, SCHott foUnDatIon for pUBlIC eDUCatIon, 2012.
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afrICan amerICan StUDIeS Be eMpowered
antHropology Be cultural
CrImInology & CrImInal jUStICe Be just
eConomICS Be efficient
geograpHICal SCIenCeS Be gloBal
goVernment & polItICS Be civil
HearIng & SpeeCH SCIenCeS Be heard
joInt program In SUrVey metHoDology Be counted
pSyCHology Be understood
SoCIology Be social
www.aasd.umd.edu p 301.405.1158 » f 301.314.9932
www.bsos.umd.edu
The Department of African American Studies
is one of the College of Behavioral & Social
Sciences’ 10 diverse, interdisciplinary
departments and programs, all committed
to investigating and improving the
human condition.
College of
Behavioral & Social ScienceSthe Solution
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