S E N I O R   P R O J E C T S

Saran Adkinson, Senior Project 2005
Saran will combine her interests in Literature and African American Studies. Perhaps she will work on the history of a literary movement or critique a literary text by African American author.

Marie Brown, Senior Project 2005
Marie will combine her interests in International Relations, African Politics and the Pan-African movement.

Gus Feldman, Senior Project 2005
Gus is interested in spirituality, spirit possession, and "traditional" religions in Africa. He is taking intensive French in hopes of continuing his language studies in a Francophone African country in Summer 2002.

Amara G. Hark-Weber, Senior Project 2005
Amara is a Junior AADS/ History major who just returned from 5 months in Ghana where she studied chieftaincy and local government. She is currently on a leave of absence and is doing preliminary research into a project on Hausa Diaspora throughout Africa.Loretta Wallace is a junior Film/ AADS major. She is currently working on film entitled “The New Color Question” which addresses issues of race and mixed race identities in America.

Prudence Munkittrick, Senior Project 2005
Prudence is a Freshman with a self designed major in Human Rights/African studies.

Loretta Wallace, Senior Project 2005
Loretta is a junior Film/ AADS major. She is currently working on film entitled “The New Color Question” which addresses issues of race and mixed race identities in America.

Alison Hobbs, Senior Project 2004
Alison is a Sociology/ AADS major who is looking at the way in which social and physical space has been constructed and shaped in Cape Town, South Africa. She is interested in seeing the ways in which the physical landscape has been formed and used in the process of power. Looking at the urban, Cape Town in specific, she will examine the dispersal of peoples throught the city and townships. Alison spent last semester in South Africa, living in Cape Town predominantly, taking a sociological and historical look at the country.

Caroliine Muglia, Senior Project 2004
Caroline is a history/ AADS major whose senior project focuses on the black panther party's newspaper, the black panther (1967-1980). this project is intended to be a narrative history tracking the rank-and-file members responsible for the production, distribution, regulation and reception of the newspaper. this project will take into consideration the construction of the black public sphere and the role of the Party newspaper in shaping the black masses.

Marina Santiago, Senior Project 2004
Marina's project will focus on African and African American Gay Male Identity.

Helen-Maureen Cooper, Senior Project 2003
Maureen is a Junior interested in combining her interest of physical manifestations of spirituality in New York with photography. Notably, she is interested in Yoruba-derived/Catholic altars in New York City and Islam as by African immigrants in New York City.

Lora Majorau, Senior Project 2003
Lora is a junior AADS major with a concentration in art history. Her major interest lies in the African mask and its development from ethnographic object to "art." Recently she has been looking at the phenomenon of tourist art, especially masks, and the appropriation of different influences from all over Africa to create something that is quintessentially "African" to be sold to tourists. She am hoping to formulate a topic for my senior project from these issues.

Venetta Dent, Senior Project 2002
Venetta is a Senior AADS major with a concentration in History. She is interested in tracing identity formation of African Americans in Colonial New York and possible ethnic retentions from West Africa. She is examining a CD ROM Database that documents ships entering New York state in the 18th century. Because five out of the eight slave ships entering this century came from the Senegambia region, she spent January intercession in Dakar, Senegal working the Boubacar Barry, expert on the Senegambian involvement in the slave trade. Venetta hopes to connect forms of resistance Colonial New York with characteristics of ethnic identity.

Elizabeth Walker, Senior Project 2001
Liz combined her major in AADS with Anthropology. She wrote her Senior Project on the 19th century Quadroon Balls in Colonial New Orleans. The project examined sexuality, identity, and notions of motherhood amongst free women of mixed race; the work placed an emphasis on the life and memory of Marie Laveux. Liz spent the January of her Senior year examining archival sources in New Orleans and memoirs as well as popular representations of women through plays and other examples of material culture.