About the Project
Black Students Sharing Stories for an Equitable UF
Following a tense summer of racially motivated violence and worldwide protests, UF Research and the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer teamed up to find a way of developing programs and research that reflects UF President Kent Fuchs’ call for a wide-ranging examination of race relations at the University. To support that goal, UF designated the 2020-2021 academic year an opportunity to focus research on Black experiences, racism, and inequity. UF leadership also committed $1 million toward a Racial Justice Research Fund.
In response to that effort, our team designed and proposed a project that investigates Black student experiences through storytelling. Our project draws on education, journalism, oral history, and anthropology. We sought to collect first-person narratives from a diverse group of Black student identities to provide a broad-based knowledge of core experiences at UF, both negative and positive, related to race, campus representation, inclusion, and accountability.
We asked Black UF students to tell us stories about any anti-black racist encounters they may have had, how they feel represented, if they are socially supported, and what solutions they envision for a more improved learning environment. This page is designed to hold space for some of those experiences and connect anyone interested in learning more to the complete collection.
Grant Team
- Yewande O. Addie, Doctoral Student, College of Journalism and Communications
- Kishmar Best, former Director of the Office of Graduate Diversity Initiatives
- David Canton, Director of African American Studies
- Dr. Brenda Chalfin, Director of Center for African Students
- Dr. Dalila D’Ingeo, Assistant Research Scientist, College of Medicine
- Deborah Hendrix, Digital Humanities Coordinator, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program
- Dr. Paul Ortiz, Director, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program
- Dr. Rose Pringle, Associate Professor, College of Education
- Dr. Shani Sharifa Kerr, Associate Professor, College of Education
- Ryan Vasquez, Multimedia News Manager, Innovation News Center
- Kalisha Whitman, Senior TV News Manager, Innovation News Center
Project Support
- Alani Ilori, CAS Administrator
- Elisabeth Rios, CAS Administrator II
- Lynsey Saunders, CJC Doctoral Student
- Undergraduate Peer Research Team: Daniel Adewunmi, Alazne Cameron, Amya Ellison, Ashonti Farrior, Alan Halaly, Tram Lai, Taylor Lockett, Cyrus Santiago, Hannah Williams