By: Victoria Crosdale, Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications
6:00 PM ET, Fri. September 12, 2020
The University of South Florida has granted funding to 23 projects that address the many issues associated with racial inequality.
In July, the university announced that a task force for “Understanding and Addressing Blackness and Anti-Black Racism in our Local, National and International Communities” had been created. Its mission is to decide which research proposals to fund. A list of recipients was released on September 9th, 2020, that named the Primary Investigators and gave a brief synopsis of their projects.
According to USF President Steven Currall “Our researchers are well-positioned to help USF serve as a force for positive change and to lead transformation in our communities.”
Athletics
Doctor Travis Bell decided to focus his research on football recruiting. Bell plans to analyze the way race influences the recruitment process for high school football players, specifically quarterbacks.
“The recruiting process focuses 100% on the athlete identity … and has zero emphasis on who they are as actual students,” he said.
Labels associated with appearance are often used to condense the personalities of student athletes into stereotypes, Bell added. When recruiters focus more on superficial labels than athletic ability it can damage students and their possible opportunities.
Bell hopes that his team’s research will have a positive effect on the process of recruiting for students of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Education
Minority students experience suspensions and detentions at a rate exponentially greater than that of their white peers. Understanding the dynamics of this problem is the key to lowering that rate.
Dr. Brenda Walker said her team is researching the disproportionate number of suspensions allotted to students of color in high school. Through the use of online surveys and focus groups, students will be questioned about their experiences in school. A website is even being made to house the survey data and information about the project. Walker believes that by preparing teachers and principles, we can reduce the suspension rate for minority students.
Art
Director Denise Davis-Cotton from the Sarasota-Manatee campus plans on using various mediums of art to improve the curriculum for Booker Middle school students. She wants to dismantle any racially-historitized “pedagogy” (methods of teaching) that have become present in schools. Davis-Cotton’s aim for the aptly titled, Dismantling Drivers of Racial Disparities (DDoRD), is “to ameliorate the inequities in education by using an innovative Circus Arts curriculum designed to address racism and problematic erasures of Black and multicultural experiences.”
Deputy Director of the Contemporary Art Museum Noel Smith, is creating an exhibit of photography by Griffith J. Davis.
Griffith J. Davis (1923-1993), was a “pioneering Black photographer, journalist and US Senior Foreign Service Officer,” said Davis, “I want to familiarize our students and USF community and beyond with the legacy of this pioneering and underrecognized figure.”
The photos will be accompanied by corresponding educational material and “community outreach activities.”
Family and Child Assistance
Doctors Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman and Anna Davidson Abella are researching the “challenges to engagement with parent education and early childhood programming [projects].
Abella said with this project they can “gain insight into why Black families from Sulphur Springs do not participate in large numbers in Layla’s House programs, how the programs are perceived by the community, and how these insights can build on previous or existing efforts by Layla’s House to improve participation.”
While both Hordge-Freeman and Abella have several ideas for the information they will collect, there is a main goal in mind.
Abella elaborated, stating that “we hope that this study can serve as a catalyst for ultimately improving early childhood outcomes among Black families in Sulphur Springs.”
