The African American Cultural Center will kick off the spring semester with a continued emphasis on intellectual creativity and presentations by members of its faculty fellows program.

The African American Faculty Fellows program is a semester-long fellowship that supports NC State faculty members’ research into African and African American diasporic subjects.

The program, spearheaded by Sachelle Ford, former interim director of the African American Cultural Center, seeks to support and cultivate intellectual and critical examination of African and African American diasporic cultures. The program represents the African American Cultural Center’s continued emphasis on research and scholarly production.

The center provides faculty fellows with the resources they need to effectively showcase the projects and research contribution to the students and faculty on campus. The fellowship provides each fellow with a research fund of $1,000, research support from the AACC Library and access to a shared office and collaborative workspace in the center.

In addition to resources, the program aims to give faculty an opportunity to present their research and support other fellows as they showcase their projects. The expectation of the program is to promote faculty research engagement in the center to enrich campus-wide knowledge on the African and African American diasporic cultures.

The program will spotlight four fellows during the spring semester:

Terrance Ruth, lecturer of social work

“Impact of Virtual Communities and Culture on the Perception of Race: Western Contextual Examination of the Evolution of Racial Prejudice”

Ruth’s research looks at the influence of time-space distanciation on racial prejudice.

Jason Coupet, assistant professor of public administration

“Communicating and learning from HBCU successes with benchmarking science”

Coupet’s research illustrates that the existing heterogeneity among HBCUs could serve as a way to communicate success and improve performance.

Gloria T. Anderson, assistant professor of social work

“Let’s Talk About ACP: An African-American Spiritual and Ethical Approach to Healthcare Decision-making and Advance Care Planning Program”

Anderson seeks to equip African American faith leaders to educate congregants in healthcare decision-making related to advance care planning and end-of-life care options.

Francine Ott, dance lecturer of arts

“Fragile”

Ott seeks to create a film, choreography and a live performance centered around healing generational trauma, specifically among women of color.

Photo, top: African American Cultural Center Faculty Fellow Delisia Matthews speaks about Sneakerhead culture on Sep. 19, 2019.

Aminat Bashroun is a graduate research assistant in the African American Cultural Center who is pursuing a master’s in international relations.