Fellows

Dennis Childs

Associate Professor, Department of Literature

BSP Faculty Fellow Dennis Childs is a scholar whose work deals with the connections between slavery and Black imprisonment from the late nineteenth century through today's era of mass incarceration. As a scholar-activist, he has worked with various social justice organizations including the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, All of Us or None, the Chicano Mexicano Prison Project, Critical Resistance, and the Palestinian Youth Movement. His BSP project, "Liberation Time," considers the ways in which racial capitalist imprisonment represents a form of anti-Black genocide while also treating of the forms of abolitionist resistance that prisoners have deployed against that genocidal system.

Gabriel Bámgbóṣé

Assistant Professor, Department of Literature

Gabriel Bámgbóṣé is an Assistant Professor of African and Comparative Literature in the Department of Literature, currently thinking and writing about how twentieth-century African women poets reimagine Black modernist poetics. Bámgbóṣé is not only a literary critic specializing in African poetry, feminism, and decoloniality but also a poet.

Zhané Gaillard

Department of Anthropology, PhD Student

BSP Graduate Student Researcher Zhané Gaillard is a third year PhD student in the Anthropology Department. Her work focuses on language, race, and gender.

Eden Wiggins

Latin American Studies, MA Student

Meet Eden Wiggins (she/her), a first-year MA Latin American Studies student with a passion for global diversity. Hailing from Joppa, Maryland, Eden's upbringing was enriched by a rich tapestry of cultural influences from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Eden proudly graduated from the illustrious Claflin University, where she obtained her Bachelor's degree in Biology, complemented by minors in Chemistry and Spanish. Her journey has always been guided by an innate love for people and an unwavering appreciation for global cultures—a value instilled in her since childhood. Eden's interests span multiple disciplines, all fueled by her insatiable appetite for knowledge and her commitment to advocacy. Beyond academics, she is a talented performer, finding joy in acting and singing, which serves as another avenue for her to connect with diverse audiences. Eden’s interests are characterized by her love of learning and desire to promote cross-cultural understanding.

Juliana Góes

Sociology, Political Science, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Juliana Góes is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Black Studies Project at the University of California San Diego, and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology (the University of Massachusetts at Amherst), a master's degree in Political Science (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and a B.A. in Political Science (University of Brasília). Currently, she is developing two research projects. The first, a book that emerged from her dissertation Decolonizing Cities: Black Movements and Territories of Life in Brazil, investigates the connection between Black resistance in Latin America, decolonial praxis, and urban politics. Additionally, she is working on a book manuscript called Du Bois on Latin America and the Caribbean: Trans-American Pan-Africanism and Global Sociology (co-author with Agustin Lao-Montes and Jorge Vasquez). Her articles have appeared in the Du Bois Review, Sociology Compass, LASA Forum, Revista Política e Sociedade, Revista Estudos Feministas, and Caderno Espaço Feminino. Juliana Góes also has collaborated with Black urban settlements, sex workers organizations, and anti-prison movements across the Americas.

Tye Rush

Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles

I am a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow (PPFP) in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. My research addresses questions in race and ethnic politics, voting rights, elections, and state politics. My current work focuses on the politics of voting laws.

My book project, The Majority Rules: The Politics of Voter Identification Laws, examines the origins of restrictive voter identification laws and what influences political elites to advance voter identification legislation. In this project, I use a unique dataset of state legislator behavior, including roll call votes and bill sponsorship, to challenge prevailing theories on why elites support restrictive voting laws. Evidence indicates that demographic threat plays a more important role in legislators’ strategic calculus than previously stated. (To learn more about Tye's work, please visit tyerush.com)

Rochelle McFee

Ethnic Studies Department, PhD Candidate

My work theorizes Tallawah as both a method and re-imagined framework for thinking and writing about Black girlhood in the English-speaking Caribbean. Tallawah is framed around the central idea that Black girls’ freedom is and has always been one of the most dangerous propositions for the status quo.

Maya Machado

Department of Sociology, PhD Student

BSP Predoctoral Fellow Maya Machado (she/her) is a 3rd year PhD student in the department of Sociology. Her project explores the social outcomes of race, gender, and nationality in the lives of Afro-Panamanian women working in the fishing industry.

Hande Sever

Department of Visual Arts, PhD Candidate

BSP Predoctoral Fellow Hande Sever (She/They) is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the Department of Visual Arts. With the support of the BSP Fellowship, Sever will be completing her dissertation chapter on the public artworks of Kuzgun Acar (1928-1976). Additionally, they will be translating segments from Mustafa Olpak’s book Kenya-Crete-Istanbul: Human Biographies from the Slave Coast(2005).