GSAS PhD Students Presented Research at the Diversity Research Collective Symposium

The 2019 annual research symposium of The GSAS Diversity Research Collective was held on May 8, with six GSAS doctoral students presenting their individual research projects.

Each academic year, a new group of students form the Collective and meet regularly to deepen the potential impact of their research in their respective disciplines as well as on the communities on which their studies focus. An exercise in interdisciplinary thinking, public scholarship, and activating social change, it provides a space for students to build a supportive yet critical scholarly community outside of their home departments and their disciplines. The Collective enhances students’ graduate experience by creating a shared sense of community among its members.

At the 2019 symposium, Brittany Fox-Williams, in Sociology, presented on “Trust Matters: Race and Student–Teacher Relationships in NYC Public Schools.” Tiffany Huang, also in Sociology, discussed “Revisiting the Relationship Between Discrimination and Intergroup Commonality.” Brendane Tynes, in Anthropology, talked about “‘I Can't Die. I Won’t’: The Radical Reimagination of the (After)Lives of Black Women and Girls.” 

In Psychology, Dara Huggins shared her work on “Towards a Theory of Diversity and Conflict for Predicting Diversity and Inclusion Outcomes,” and in History, Bailey Yellen presented on “‘The Great Negro State’: The WPA and Postwar Black Migration to Arkansas.” Finally, Nandini Banerjee-Datta in Ethnomusciology discussed“Technology and Talk: Rabindrasangeet and the Cultivation of Bengali-American Identities.” Yun Emily Wang, a Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Music, delivered the keynote address on the value of belonging—or not. 

“The Diversity Research Collective was originally conceived three years ago by two graduate student Fellows in Academic Administration,” notes Celina Chatman Nelson, Associate Dean for Academic Diversity and Inclusion. “We are proud to continue this initiative as a hallmark OADI program because it centers the intellectual perspectives of emerging scholars from underrepresented backgrounds and engages broader publics in their work.”