{"id":217712,"date":"2024-08-27T14:21:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T18:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=217712"},"modified":"2024-08-28T08:03:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T12:03:50","slug":"africana-studies-summer-institute-advances-research-on-women-and-girls-of-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/08\/africana-studies-summer-institute-advances-research-on-women-and-girls-of-color\/","title":{"rendered":"Africana Studies Summer Institute Advances Research on Women and Girls of Color"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evelyn M. Simien, director of the Africana Studies Institute<\/a> and professor of political science<\/a>, has studied Black women in politics for the past 20 years<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But throughout her career, as she transitioned from one position or job to the next, she found employers asking: \u201cTell me again: why is it important that we study Black women in American politics?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFast forward to today — no one, I think, would dare ask that question,\u201d Simien says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Women from UConn and 15 other universities who study psychology, nursing, social work, engineering, nutritional sciences, human development and family sciences, and education gathered at <\/span>UConn the week of Aug. 5 for workshops, conversation, and collaboration<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the Democratic Party\u2019s nomination of Kamala Harris, a Black woman, for U.S. president, has elevated the significance of Simien\u2019s research, Simien says there is still not enough focus in other research areas about women and girls of color, such as health disparities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI’m just one example,\u201d Simien says. \u201cI hope to inspire others and equip them with the tools to be successful in this profession. I also want to show them that you can study women and girls and get promoted, get tenure, and thrive in academia. This institute showcases how women of color who study women and girls have been successful.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Simien and colleagues at the <\/span>Africana Studies Institute<\/span><\/a> organized the program to inspire researchers and provide practical skills, like how to procure grant funding, to younger faculty members who research women and girls of color.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Participants of the 2024 UConn Africana Studies Institute’s Summer Institute to Advance Equity through Research on Women and Girls of Color laugh with each other as Deirdre Cooper Owens, associate professor of history at UConn, gave the keynote address in Oak Hall on Aug. 5, 2024. (Sydney Herdle\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The program was organized with the help of funds from the Provost\u2019s Office in 2015, following an initiative to promote scholarship and research on women and girls of color from the White House Council on Women and Girls.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The weeklong program featured keynote speakers, writing workshops, group coaching <\/span>sessions, and lectures.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Each day of the program revolved around a different theme, with Monday\u2019s activities focused on \u201ctelling herstories.\u201d Tuesday\u2019s sessions delved into mixed methods and data collection, where participants heard from <\/span>University of California Los Angeles Professor of Political Science and African American Studies Lorrie Frasure<\/span><\/a> who explained how to launch and fund a large-N survey. They also learned about varying qualitative research methods from <\/span>Fiona Vernal, UConn associate professor of history and Africana studies,<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Nadia Brown, Georgetown University professor of government.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the group explored topics about self-care, career development, and digital wellness. On Thursday, the group focused on lessons about funding sources and community engagement and learned strategies on how to make their own grant proposals stand out from <\/span>Shawnda Chapman, the Director of Innovative Grantmaking and Research at Ms. Foundation.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Keynote speaker <\/span>Deirdre Cooper Owens<\/span><\/a>, associate professor of history at UConn, kicked off the program on Monday by highlighting her career progressions, alongside the difficulties she had to navigate not only in her career but life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cooper Owens\u2019 speech<\/span>,<\/span> titled “How to Reclaim Peace and Balance When Academia Becomes Too Much to Handle,\u201d addressed several lessons Cooper Owens has learned over the course of her distinguished career in academia, including lessons she learned and had to unlearn to succeed both professionally and personally.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Deidre
Deirdre Cooper Owens, associate professor of history at UConn, gives the keynote address at the UConn Africana Studies Institute’s Summer Institute to Advance Equity through Research on Women and Girls of Color in Oak Hall on Aug. 5, 2024. (Sydney Herdle\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The keynote speaker shared how when she started her career an advisor told her not to trust other academics, and how she bought into \u201chustle culture;\u201d however, as she progressed in her career, she realized that building relationships and figuring out how to balance her career and personal life were more beneficial for her.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Participants related to Cooper Owens’ experiences and shared their struggles. They asked each other for advice on what they should focus on early in their careers, or how to navigate, being the only one in their department advocating for a specific issue they are passionate about.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Simien says the participation of women from across different disciplines at UConn helps to create a robust network of researchers who can help each other even long after the weeklong program is over.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted people to walk away confident and self-assured knowing that what they are doing is of tremendous value to the American public,\u201d Simien says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women faculty of color from multiple disciplines gathered to help each other advance their careers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":217714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2275,2226,2460,2235,2306,2227],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2618],"class_list":["post-217712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-affairs","category-clas","category-faculty","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-voices","category-uconn-edu-homepage"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 07:55:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217712"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217809,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217712\/revisions\/217809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/217714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217712"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=217712"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=217712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}