Event Details

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Following presentations and discussion by the panelists, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions or share feedback.

Panelist bios (full versions):

Dr. Apriel Hodari

Dr. Apriel K. Hodari, PhD, is Founder and Principal of STEMScholar, and serves as Vice Chair on the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics’ (IUPAP) Working Group 5: Women in Physics
(WG5). She is an expert in STEM education research, equity and workforce diversity, and the cultures of STEM disciplines. Her research on the cultures of STEM disciplines, grounded in the lived experiences of successful women of color in STEM fields, focuses on understanding power and unfairness as features of STEM settings, pointing to how we can transform our disciplinary spaces into places where everyone can successfully work and learn.

Hodari leads transatlantic research collaborations focused on inclusive STEM departments, resulting in the Centering Women of Color in STEM Portal; co-led a study of white men physics faculty knowledge and beliefs about race and gender; and the ADVANCE Partnership: Faculty Online Learning Communities for Gender Equity: Targeting Department Level Change in STEM. She was lead author for a collection of white papers for the Community Engagement Frontier of Snowmass 2022. She was the 2016-17 Fulbright Scholar at Queen Mary, University of London, and the 2000-2001 Optical Society of America / International Society for Optics and Photonics Congressional Science Fellow. Her work has been featured in Science, and on Science Friday.

Dr. Cory Gooding

Dr. Cory Gooding is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations and the Director of Africana Studies at the University of San Diego. Professor Gooding teaches courses in American Politics and racial and ethnic politics. His research explores the impact of racial identity on political engagement. In his work, he explores the traditional forms of political activity (i.e., voting, protests, etc.), while also recognizing a range of behaviors and symbols that also define inclusion and exclusion from a group, polity or public sphere.

Professor Gooding is a contributing author to the edited volume, The Gendered Executive: A Comparative Analysis of Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Chief Executives, Temple University Press, 2016. He also contributed to A Companion to Sport, Wiley-Blackwell 2013, where he and Dr. Mark Sawyer examine anti-black racism in international football. Currently, Dr. Gooding is developing a book manuscript that examines group-based identity, socio-political attitudes and political engagement among Afro-Caribbeans in the United States during the Barack Obama administration.

Dr. Danielle Clealand

Dr. Danielle Pilar Clealand is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas Austin. Dr. Clealand received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Political Science. She also holds an M.A. degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from New York University and a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University. Her research examines Black politics, group consciousness, Black public opinion and racial inequality with a focus on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and the United States using a mixed method, interdisciplinary approach.

Dr. Clealand’s book, The Power of Race in Cuba: Racial Ideology and Black Consciousness during the Revolution, examines racial ideology and the institutional mechanisms that support racial inequality in Cuba. The book outlines structural racism on the island and the experiences of discrimination that create a foundation for Black solidarity. Through survey, ethnographic, and interview data, The Power of Race in Cuba draws from the many Black spaces on the island, both formal and informal, to highlight what constitutes Black consciousness in Cuba. The Power of Race in Cuba won both the Best Book Award from the Race, Ethnicity and Politics section of the American Political Science Association and the W.E.B. Du Bois Distinguished Book Award from the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

Dr. Clealand is currently working on projects focusing on Blackness within Latino communities and in the Caribbean. The first, Alternate Black Worlds (co-authored with Devyn Spence Benson), is an oral and political history of Black Cuban migration to the United States, with a focus on the 1960s and 1970s. The book project will be accompanied by a digital archive and website, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Award, for which Dr. Clealand is the Director. Through the use of oral history, the project analyzes housing discrimination, residential segregation, educational opportunities, intra-Latino racism, community building, and voting behavior, particularly in Miami filling important gaps in existing Cuban Studies literature. Dr. Clealand has also created a survey on Blackness, racism and policing in the Dominican Republic, which is funded by the National Science Foundation in collaboration with Yanilda González. Finally, Dr. Clealand is launching a project on racial identity among Latinos with a focus on political attitudes, experiences with racism and identity among Afro-Latinos in the United States using original survey data from the first Afro-Latino sample of the 2020 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post Election Survey, which she directs. Dr. Clealand’s work can be found in journals such as, the Annual Review of Political Science, Ethnic and Racial Studies, PS: Political Science and Politics, Politics, Groups and Identities, Journal of Latin American Studies, and SOULS. She serves on the editorial board for Politics, Groups, and Identities, PS: Political Science and Politics, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies and the National Review of Black Politics.

Dr. Nonhle Channon Mdziniso

Dr. Nonhle Channon Mdziniso is an Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the Rochester Institute of Technology with a passion in Statistics and Data Science, and a wide variety of applications. Dr. Mdziniso was born and raised in Swaziland, Southern Africa and received her BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Swaziland (2009) and a MA in Mathematics from Marshall University, WV (2012). She received her PhD in Mathematical Sciences with a Statistics concentration from Central Michigan University (2018). Her PhD thesis in Probability and Statistics was titled: “Generalization of the Odd Pareto and Odd Weibull Distributions”. Dr. Mdziniso has also worked as a professor at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on developing statistical models using probability distributions, data mining, and machine learning techniques, with applications in other areas of study.