Research

Description of dissertation research

My dissertation “Beyond the Banlieue: French Postcolonial Migration & the Politics of a Sub-Saharan Identity” details and historicizes the interstitial area between French state acculturation policies and the lived experience of Black French residents. This dissertation uses oral histories from Sub-Saharan African communities in Paris to reveal a rich legacy of sociopolitical, economic and cultural efforts to navigate and negotiate this divide. These narratives offer an alternative perspective to prevailing scholarly and popular discourses emphasizing decline, resentment, intractability and rebellion as the defining features of French race relations in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. This dissertation examines the attempts and attitudes of activists, entrepreneurs, artists, authors, teachers, youth and politicians to reclaim a largely untold history of the way that three generations of African migrants have contested the “invisibility” of race and the shortcomings of state policy to forge communities and multilayered identities in the postcolonial era. Interweaving the processes of migration and acculturation, this project mines the experiences of black diasporic populations in Paris over the past forty years to reimagine the place and power of race in contemporary French history.

To learn more about my research, please refer to a recent interview for the Syracuse University History Department newsletter

Description of NGO and Applied Research

As a former Program Coordinator for the Transnational NGO Initiative at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, I assisted in curriculum development for the Senior Leadership Development Program in collaboration with Amnesty International, Green Peace, CIVICUS, ActionAid and Oxfam International. Moreover, I was largely responsible for developing the programming for our annual fellow most notably Oxfam International’s Regional Director for Asia, Lilian Mercado. I managed the selection of her undergraduate and graduate volunteer research team, supervised their research reports as well as lead my own research team on Diversity and Inclusion strategies.

To learn more about this research please see the following post: https://5oaksconsulting.org/category/team-leadership/