Staten Island Reporter

Student Work Is One of 126 Projects to Support Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Initiative at CUNY

Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez today toured the Flatbush African Burial Grounds, a burial site for enslaved Africans in the 1700s. He was guided by Brooklyn College students who are working with the Flatbush African Burial Ground Coalition (FABGC), a Black-led multiracial coalition working to protect the site, on a semester-long paid internship to align their studies in anthropology and sociology to the present-day struggle for racial justice in the heart of Brooklyn.

The internship program is among 126 projects that are part of CUNY’s Black, Race and Ethnic Studies Initiative (BRESI), launched last March to create a more inclusive curriculum, increase opportunities for students to engage in BRES-related research and internships and improve communication, understanding and empathy between the diverse groups that make up CUNY’s campus communities. More than 22 CUNY colleges have received awards to fund projects thanks to a $3 million grant from The Andrew Mellon Foundation.  

“The Flatbush African Burial Grounds internship program provides a powerful illustration of CUNY’s multidisciplinary expansion and reconceptualization of Black, race and ethnic studies as a living, breathing academic field that can provide many avenues for students to drive social change in their communities,” said Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “As CUNY students participate in experiential learning opportunities and expand the breadth and depth of their understanding of the evolving significance of race and ethnicity in our society, they can also acquire knowledge and skills that will help them to thrive in their chosen fields of study and careers.” 

“We are incredibly proud of the work being done by students and faculty in Brooklyn College’s 17 BRESI projects,” said Brooklyn College President Michelle J. Anderson. “These projects enlighten students about ethnic studies and inspire them to become experts and leaders in these fields.”

“On behalf of the Coalition leadership, one of the objectives of FABGC is to continue to inform and educate the youth within the community about the importance of this sacred site. This site is not only a site of Brooklyn history, but global history,” said FABGC President Samantha Bernardine. “We believe it is imperative that we empower the next generation to be civically engaged and responsible for protecting and preserving the legacy and contributions of Black people to this city and world.”

The student-interns work up to 10 hours a week with FABGC in conjunction with a course taught by anthropology professor Kelly Britt, who is co-project leader on the FABG program alongside Emily Tumpson Molina, associate professor of sociology and director of Brooklyn College’s Center for the Study of Brooklyn (CSB). This program is in its second semester. 

In addition to facilitating interdisciplinary research on the borough of Brooklyn by faculty and students, the CSB coordinates experiential and community-based education and community-based internships in the borough, including the FABG initiative. The Center for the Study of Brooklyn submitted the BRESI grant proposal and administers the FABG initiative.

In Fall 2022, program participants worked to attain 501(c)3 non-profit status for the FABGC; held community-based meetings and workshops; created walking tour content for community members; assembled informational toolkits for neighborhood churches and undertook community surveys regarding the grounds, among other activities. They will continue these activities this spring along with creating a Historical Trauma and Wellness Toolkit.   

CUNY last year invited faculty and staff to submit proposals for courses and research to be approved and funded through the University-wide BRES initiative and received over 500 applications. In September, 126 awards totaling $1.8 million were given to support the expansion of a more inclusive curriculum; increase opportunities for students to engage in Black, Race and Ethnic Studies-related research and internships; promote focused efforts to improve campus climate; strengthen our already robust centers and institutes; help faculty to advance their publications and research; and launch an array of new relevant initiatives.  

Other BRESI-funded projects include:

• Addressing Racial Health Inequity through Student Internship Experiences: Queensborough Community College (QCC) biological science and geology professor Punita Bhansali’s program will educate QCC students on the impact of racial and ethnic inequities on the health of historically underrepresented communities and provide student internship opportunities to promote racial health equity.
• Digitizing the Diaspora: Chinatown Mothers’ Pandemic Feminist Organizing through WeChat: Kingsborough Community College’s Lili Shi, professor of communications and performing arts, will conduct a digital ethnography to investigate how an online mothers group in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park Chinatown, used WeChat, a social media platform from China, to continuously create a diasporic and feminist space for each other during Covid-19.
• Slavery Records Indexing and Analysis Unit: Public management professor Judy-Lynne Peters of John Jay College of Criminal Justice will focus on discovering and analyzing birth records of enslaved mothers and their babies born following passage of New York’s 1799 Gradual Emancipation Law that mandated birth registrations, including the child’s date of birth along with names of the mother, child and enslaver. Her project will identify, organize and make these records available to researchers so they may further understand the extent and attributes of enslavement and trace the individual histories of the enslaved people further back than is currently possible. Localized names and dates will allow academics and non-academics to explore connections with later generations descended from emancipated Black people.
• Careers in Publishing for Students from Underrepresented Backgrounds: The goal of this program, led by English professor Timothy Aubry, would be to support efforts to diversify publishing by helping Baruch College students launch careers in the publishing industry. The central component of this initiative would be a publishing internship course offered to 10 motivated students in the Spring of 2023. The course would have a hybrid format, with half of the time spent in a weekly seminar at Baruch and the other half spent working in publishing on location at various magazines and book publishers. The program would impart skills needed for success in the industry, such as editing, proofreading, overseeing book and magazine production and other facets. It would take advantage of Baruch’s location in Manhattan by sending participants on rotations to publishing houses where they would do short-term internships. In the seminar, the students would meet to discuss their experiences and to think critically about the publishing industry.

The remainder of the Mellon Foundation funding has been allocated to develop CUNY’s first multidisciplinary Ph.D. in Black, race and ethnic studies. This program will launch in Spring 2024, expanding existing BRES academic programs at CUNY and building on their record of contributions to this interdisciplinary academic field. It will develop vital BRES research, teaching, and training capacity and initiatives that reflect the interests and needs of students, faculty, staff and the public constituencies of CUNY, and will position CUNY as an academic leader in the field.

The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and seven graduate or professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving over 243,000 undergraduate and graduate students and awarding 55,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “Genius” Grants. The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background.

Original source can be found here.