Waging Relevance, Black Studies and Community Engagement
2023-08
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Waging Relevance, Black Studies and Community Engagement
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2023-08
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The current trend among conservative politicians to erase Black history and ban books by Black authors from public schools and libraries in states like Florida and Texas is the latest in a long history of assaults on the civil rights and education of Black people. Laws like Florida’s Individual Freedom Act, (H.R. 7/S.B. 148, 2022), commonly known as the Stop WOKE Act, illuminate the persistent need for Black studies in P-16 schools and in community spaces. According to Senator Bobby Powell (District 24), “[the law] essentially prohibits instruction on race relations or diversity that imply a person’s status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, national origin, or sex” (Powell, 2023, p. 1). Under this law schools and workplaces are ban from, “subjecting any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individuals to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin” (Individual Freedom Act, H.R. 7/S.B. 148, 2022). As Black studies celebrates more than 55 years in the academy, the role that community engagement plays in the field’s sustainability and relevance to local Black communities is an important consideration. The impact of external and internal forces on the field’s formation and expansion are important to consider when examining its relevance and sustainability over time. Understanding the ways in which community engagement manifests in Black studies is vital to understanding the field’s role in Black education and in addressing real world problems. This dissertation research study examines the relevancy of Black studies at the local level by exploring community engagement in one Black studies department in the US. The following research question guides this study: What is the role of engaged praxis in sustaining the relevance of Black studies units to local Black communities as well as in their universities? For the past two decades, Black studies scholars have been challenging the field to transform into a new phase of globalization and collaboration, a phase that facilitates diasporic scholarship and engagement (Alkalimat, 2022; Manning, 2000). To capture the depth and breadth of this transformation, investigating formations of the field and conducting comparative studies are paramount (Bracey, 2011; Rogers, 2012; Vargas, 2008). A predominance of the literature on Black studies ignores the praxis of community engagement to focus more on theoretical exchanges about scholarship and activism. An interrogation of the role of Black studies in the broader context of education and how it generates meaningful engagement in local Black communities is in order. The purpose of this study is to broaden and deepen frameworks for community engagement in higher education at the unit level, explore the experiences of university and community-based partners who perform the work of engaged praxis, and consider Black studies units as relevant “counter centers” within higher education institutions that can engage Black communities in authentic ways to address problems that matter to local community members (Rojas, 2007). An examination of how Black studies units wage and negotiate their relevance with local Black communities is critical for understanding the field’s impact and sustainability. The study utilized a theoretical framework to center engaged praxis, the unique ways in which Black studies units perform community engagement and examines how a Black studies unit in the Midwest has negotiated its relevance in local Black communities. Qualitative methods were used to center the experiences and perspectives of Black studies professors, staff members, alumni and community-based partners that were involved in engaged praxis projects. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews (Rubin & Rubin, 2012), archival documents and newspapers. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis (Miles, et al., 2019). The study findings reveal that engaged praxis is vital for the Black Studies unit in this case to achieve and sustain relevancy within its local Black community and university in differing and sometimes conflicting ways. The findings reveal a greater complexity to the relationships that inform engaged praxis work between universities and Black communities. This study serves to broaden and deepen frameworks for reconsidering Black studies as relevant organizational “counter centers” (Rojas, 2007, p. 220) that engage authentically in Black communities in ways that matter to local community members and address real-world problems. The study has implications for future models and methods for community engagement and Black studies.
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University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. August 2023. Major: Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. Advisor: Tania Mitchell. 1 computer file (PDF); xii, 222 pages.
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Steele, Vanessa. (2023). Waging Relevance, Black Studies and Community Engagement. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/259660.
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