Current Projects

The Black Youth Identity, Media, and Political Action (IMPAct) project examine the racial and cultural experiences that shape Black youth’s sociopolitical development, which involves an awareness of cultural, economic, and political factors that shape inequality and participation in behaviors to promote social justice. Major goals of Black Youth IMPAct include 1) examining how Black youth make meaning of racial inequity, 2) identifying the strategies they engage in to promote racial justice, and 3) unpacking the implications of their sociopolitical beliefs and behaviors on their psychological and academic outcome

Our Voices was an afterschool youth participatory research program that engaged high school students in the evaluation images of Black people in television. Youth in the program conducted a content analysis of television programs to assess how Black characters were portrayed.  Using their findings, they conducted workshops at their high school and at a university about the implications of media stereotypes.

We are currently examining the structure and implications of the program