BRESI Community Members in Conversation

Members of the BRESI community discuss their projects and hopes for their impact on society.

GRISEL Y. ACOSTA | VAN C. TRAN | TIM AUBRY | MILENA CUELLAR & REEM JAAFAR | VIVIANA RIVERA BURGOS | LILI SHI | MILA BURNS

MAURICE VANN | ANDREA FRANCIS | JULIA GOLDSTEIN & KRISTY CLEMENTINA PEREZ | JADE ROBERTSON | JAYASHREE KAMBLE

ANNA D’SOUZA | PUNITA BHANSALI & ANURADHA SRIVASTAVA | LISETTE ACOSTA CORNIEL | CALVIN JOHN SMILEY

Grisel Y. Acosta, Professor, Department of English, Bronx Community College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a full-time professor at Bronx Community College, where I teach Latino literature and creative writing in the English Department. I am also a Creative Writing Editor for the Chicana/Latina Studies Journal, the author of the poetry book Things to Pack on the Way to Everywhere, and editor of the Routledge anthology Latina Outsiders Remaking Latina Identity. My mom is Cuban, and my father was Colombian; he passed away four years ago. They were both community leaders in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago and their work inspires much of what I do, as do the punk and house music movements, and my desire to dismantle white supremacy in educational spaces.

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I’m not sure where I was when I learned that my grant was approved, but I do remember thinking, “Now I actually have to pull this off!” I was excited to get started. I have a wide-ranging educational background: my BA is in journalism, with a minor in film; I have a master’s in education; and my Ph.D. in English focuses on race and environment in Latino literature. My feeling is that this project brings all these different aspects of my studies and my career together. I was excited to travel to Chicago, visit Logan Square, and talk with the people who made it one of the most diverse spaces of my youth. I was excited to use film as a medium again, as I hadn’t returned to that in years. Overall, I’m still as excited as I’m currently still working on this project. Read More

What roles did you play in the implementation phase of the BRES Initiative?

I’ve had many roles in BRESI. I was initially on the first planning commission, and within that commission, I was the Chair of the Student Experience Subcommittee. In that subcommittee, we argued for funds that would support students in a variety of ways, including supporting their own research and making sure they got paid for internships.

Subsequently, I also worked as one of the panelists who reviewed the Student Research proposals for BRES grants. This allowed me to see first-hand how faculty planned on curating learning experiences for students through various projects and how these faculty planned on ensuring that students would be paid for these learning experiences. The proposals that were accepted had students at the center of their goals.

Currently, I am on the Ph.D. Steering Committee and, as part of that, I have helped with the Collaboration Hub and with our panels at the C-IDEA Conference. The Collaboration Hub is a great project that allows folks working on curriculum, faculty working on their own research, and students working on their research to come together in the spirit of collaboration. This is work that will be highlighted throughout the upcoming academic year and it is exciting to think of the experiences these fellows will share. It has been great to read about their ideas and I’m eager to see what they all do in the next 12 months.

The panels at the diversity conference (C-IDEA) were a resounding success. The first panel had those of us working in the BRESI and some of us impacted by it sharing our stories. The most impactful stories came from students whose research was supported by grants. They asked for more opportunities like this and it is our responsibility to try and continue this kind of support.

The second featured Dr. Brenda Greene, Dr. Ana Zayas-Ramos, and Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad; I cannot say enough about this talk, which was moderated by Dr. Kandice Chuh. I’m so happy the video will be shared because the talk touches on the most important aspects of Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies today, and it really should be required viewing for anyone in the field. It has been an honor to be part of so many aspects of this work. To be in the room and not only contribute, but to also learn from the various contributions of so many incredible people, has been a highlight in my career.

Describe your top three accomplishments to date.

Being part of every aspect of BRESI has been an incredible honor and learning experience for me. I feel like there are way more than three accomplishments that I can point to, but I will try to limit them to three. The first is seeing the impact that my subcommittee had on students (via the Student Research grants). It filled me with great pride when I saw how grateful the students were that we ensured that they would be paid for their research. As someone who understands first-hand how difficult it is to survive in New York City—when I first moved to NYC, I started out as a contingent artist in the schools and adjunct professor at a community college in New Jersey—I knew that our students needed financial support for their research and their internships. Everyone on the subcommittee absolutely agreed and we made it a point to choose proposals that impacted students financially. It meant the world to hear back from the students and knowing that they were grateful for this aspect of the proposals definitely felt like an accomplishment.

The second has been my own work for the grant I was offered. I have traveled to Chicago twice to interview folks who either lived in or worked in Logan Square during the late 1960s to the late 1990s when Latinos were the majority of the population in the neighborhood. Since then, there has been swift gentrification that has displaced hundreds of families. Furthermore, local organizations have not recorded the history of Logan Square Latinxs, basically erasing their contribution to beautifying and maintaining the neighborhood. These interviews allow folks to see that Latinos, indeed, existed in Logan Square and they created a Pan Latino environment that was empowering to many, complete with Latino-run businesses, college extension programs, preschools, therapy centers, a neighborhood festival, a Logan Square Olympics, and more. I am currently in talks with the Chicago Historical Society, which has shown interest in housing the oral history recordings. That feels like a great accomplishment.

Finally, the third accomplishment that stands out to me is simply being part of BRESI from the beginning to the present. Not every person has had that opportunity—to help craft where the Mellon Foundation grant dollars would go, to help review proposals, to help curate panels, to help create the Ph.D. program and the Collaboration Hub, and to even be a grantee. I’ve had the opportunity to have enlightening conversations with our top scholars at CUNY and even make my own small contributions—and I am extremely grateful for this accomplishment.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

My hope is that the events that we’ve seen take place across CUNY inspire individual campuses to celebrate our scholars and students who work in these fields. My hope is that CUNY finds additional funding to secure the Ph.D. program, which is so necessary. There are students who end up going to the University of Texas or to the University of California for studies that we should be offering here at CUNY. I hope that this is just the beautiful seed of opportunity that continues to grow. This is absolutely necessary and critical at a time when folks in other spaces are banning these studies. Why are they banning studies that fall under the Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies umbrella? They are banning them because the results of these studies are clear: more Black people, more Latino people, and more Asian people have been empowered by these studies and have shared their findings and empowered others. They are banning these studies because they have made the world a better place for so many people of color. They are banning them because they are Humanities-driven studies and they create an ethical population that understands what is needed in our leadership, and a population that isn’t fooled by snake oil politicians. These studies are necessary for our survival and for the survival of our democracy, so I hope CUNY, the City, and the State will continue to support this necessary work.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in five years?

There is a lot hanging on how certain elections go, but I do see that folks are mobilized. I will adopt a hopeful view of the next five years, if not a utopic one, and I will limit it to CUNY. The funding required for the BRES Ph.D. program is absolutely reasonable and doable. Therefore, I envision a Ph.D. program in Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies starting successfully at CUNY. I envision the professors in these fields from every campus being involved in the success of the Ph.D. program and contributing in some way. I envision a program that overtly states that these studies are meant to counteract the deliberate erasure of Black folks, Latinx folks, and Asian folks from the textbooks in corresponding states. I envision a program where Black, Latino, and Asian folks come together and collaborate in a joyful and innovative manner. Overall, I envision all college presidents at every CUNY campus making sure that BRES is a vital part of their campus curriculum, and I envision faculty delighting in supporting those of us who have been trained in these disciplines, because for so many years, our work has been devalued. I see a shift regarding that, and I look forward to having that vision come to fruition.

Van C. Tran, Associate Professor of Sociology and International Migration Studies at CUNY Graduate Center

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am an Associate Professor of Sociology and International Migration Studies at CUNY Graduate Center.  I am a sociologist of race, ethnicity, and migration, with a focus on the integration of immigrants and their children into U.S. society. I am a CUNY alumnus of Hostos Community College and Hunter College, so I have had the privilege of being part of CUNY for over two decades.

Describe your BRESI project. How would you describe your feelings when you found out you won your BRESI grant?

My colleague Na Yin (Associate Professor of Economics, Baruch College) and I received a BRESI research grant to conduct a pen-and-paper survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health among low-income Chinese elders in Flushing, Queens. This is a uniquely vulnerable population due to the rise in anti-Asian violence during the pandemic. Yet their experiences are not captured by most surveys on health, including the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)—the official source of health data in the U.S. since 1957. Our project seeks to fill this gap.

I was delighted that BRESI has chosen to support this research, given its significance to the aging Asian American community in New York City. Read More

What roles did you play in the implementation phase of the BRES Initiative?

I was a member of the BRESI Planning Commission (2021-2022), and I am a member of the BRESI Council (2022-present). With Martin Ruck (Professor of Psychology, CUNY Graduate Center), I co-chair the 11-member BRES Ph.D. Faculty Steering Committee that oversees the planning, design, and implementation of a new multidisciplinary Ph.D. Program in BRES.

Describe your top accomplishments to date.

With generous support from BRESI, the CUNY Graduate Center launched the BRES Collaboration Hub in March 2023 as a mechanism for convening CUNY faculty and doctoral students interested in inter- and multidisciplinary education and research in BRES. The BRES Collaboration Hub will bring together 45 Faculty Fellows and 20 Doctoral Fellows for a year-long series of workshops and events in AY 2023-2024.

The proposed CUNY-wide Ph.D. Program in BRES will be the first of its kind in the New York metropolitan area. Its establishment will position CUNY as an academic leader in the multidisciplinary scholarship of race and ethnic studies in the region and the country.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

BRES is an integral part of U.S. history, culture, and politics. By elevating BRES as a serious area of academic inquiry, we hope to invest in the next generation of scholars whose research puts them at the frontiers of knowledge creation in BRES. The research skills and multidisciplinary insights doctoral students develop will allow them to pursue innovative research in BRES that improves our understanding of race and ethnicity and intergroup relations in the U.S. and worldwide. We will also be training the next generation of teachers and engaged practitioners who will play a critical role in shaping the minds of students and policymakers in the coming decade.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in five years?

BRESI will become the pride of CUNY and one enduring legacy of our Chancellor, Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. As a noted historian and scholar of Puerto Rican history and culture, our Chancellor is committed to multidisciplinary research and curriculum in BRES. If we invest in BRESI, we can position CUNY as an academic leader in this important space.

Tim Aubry, Professor of English and Department Chair at Baruch College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I have been an English Professor at Baruch since 2003, and I am now chair of the department. I teach classes in contemporary U.S. literature and criticism, great works of literature, and writing.

Tell us about your project.

With support from the BRESI grant, I created a new course, Essentials of Publishing aimed at addressing the lack of diversity in the publishing industry, and supporting efforts to increase representation, while creating career opportunities for undergraduates in the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences.

According to a 2020 New York Times article, 85% of people who acquire and edit books in the United States are white. This lack of diversity inevitably impacts what kinds of articles and books get published and by whom. Baruch College, one of the most diverse colleges in the nation, and located in downtown Manhattan—the heart of the U.S. publishing industry—is well-positioned to help confront the industry’s homogenous makeup. Read More

This sounds exciting! How were students selected?

The course had a competitive admission process which saw over 30 students apply and only 12 admitted. The students were selected based on their strong academic records, writing skills, and underrepresented backgrounds. The course had an innovative hybrid structure, with part of the time spent in a traditional classroom setting and the other part spent working in a range of internships at some of leading publishing houses in the country: New York Magazine, HarperCollins, and Archipelago Books, to name a few. Thanks to the grant support and some supplemental funding from the Harman Foundation, all students were able to secure internships and were awarded $2000 fellowships to assist them while they gained unique exposure to the industry.

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

My son and I were visiting my mother. We were just about to go for a swim in the local pond when I got the email. I was very excited, but my first thought was, well this means I have a lot of work to do in the coming months!

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

My top accomplishment was securing internships for all twelve students in a very competitive industry, all in highly regarded publishing houses and magazines.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

First of all, I hope all twelve students get fulfilling jobs after graduation, whether in publishing or a different sector. I think through this experience they’ve come to recognize that their perspectives matter, that they have something important to contribute to our culture. I know they all did a great job in their internships, and I hope this helps editors to recognize the importance of hiring individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. And as the publishing industry becomes more diverse, I hope it publishes more BIPOC authors so that what gets published truly reflects the diversity of our population and so that people from underrepresented backgrounds are able to make their stories heard and reach readers.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

Personally, I would love to continue to work with BRESI and to offer the same opportunity to many more undergraduates in the years to come. More generally, it would be wonderful if BRESI could maintain its support for all the other amazing projects that got launched this year and support new initiatives—since we all know that DEI work must be ongoing. We need to think not just in terms of 5 years, but 10 years and 20 years and 50 years into the future.

Milena Cuellar and Reem Jaafar, Professors of Mathematics at LaGuardia Community College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Milena: I’m originally from Colombia. I joined LaGuardia in 2012, and that’s when I met Reem, who is originally from Lebanon. We both grew up facing difficult social and political circumstances, which has instilled perseverance and grit in us.

Reem: I joined LaGuardia two years before Milena did, and we both started working together on the reforms of developmental math around 2015. During that time, Milena led the design of the Statway course at LaGuardia, and I was the co-director of the Supplemental Instruction program. We have been able to combine our expertise and create something that truly made a difference for our students.

Tell us about your project.

Our project focuses on utilizing innovative analytics to examine student success metrics and measure the racial equity achievement gaps in gateway courses in mathematics. These courses are frequently perceived as obstacles, especially for historically disadvantaged groups such as Black and Hispanic/Latinx students.

The main objective is to gain a comprehensive understanding of how different racial groups are represented in the success rates of these courses. Through this research, we aim to uncover the influence of traditional math teaching methods on the achievement of Hispanic/Latinx and Black students. We will then use these insights to guide initiatives that address and minimize equity gaps, fostering more equitable classroom experiences. Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

In 2022, Reem was finishing up her role as the co-leader of the Middle States Self-Study. Milena had just returned from sabbatical where she researched how to design innovative ways to look at student success analytics with an equity lens. We had been searching for large-scale funding to further scale equity in our assessment when we read the announcement by Chancellor Matos-Rodriguez. During our daily coffee chat at our college, we excitedly shouted to each other, “Here is our seed funding!” We were thrilled to have found this opportunity, as we were looking for multiple sources of funding to achieve our goals.

Describe your top 3 accomplishments to date.

We have examined equity gaps in the math sequence and identified areas where female students and other holistically underrepresented students are struggling. We are finalizing this area for research, and we will have a manuscript ready for peer-review.

We were able to organize and host two data democratization workshops for faculty and staff. The response was overwhelming, and we were excited by the energy and enthusiasm of our colleagues to use data to address equity gaps and improve outcomes for all of our students. It was fulfilling to witness a culture shift towards a collective desire to embrace data and use it to drive positive change. It was a day full of reflection and data-driven action to start thinking as a community how to design the process of enabling everybody in our institution, irrespective of their technical know-how, to work with data comfortably, to feel confident talking about it, and as a result, make data-informed decisions and build students, faculty, and staff experiences powered by data.

Finally, we attended and presented at the CUNY Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access Conference and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) conference in Baltimore. This gave us the opportunity to connect with colleagues from across the country and heard about the struggles faced in certain states where DEI efforts are under attack. We felt grateful to be working for an institution like CUNY that supports this kind of work. Reem joined the tri-state chapter, and our experiences working at CUNY and through the BRESI initiative gave us the foundation to continue this important work at the national level.

As a result of this path, we will become Inclusive Teaching Facilitators! We were invited to be part of a cohort facilitating learning communities in inclusive teaching at our institution.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

We are all agents of change, and the data workshops enabled us to continue collaborating and building a coalition with colleagues from Student Affairs, Adult and Continuing Education, as well as faculty and staff from Academic Affairs to be agents of change. We want everyone to recognize the role of various players in the students’ journey and how we can use our roles to improve equity in outcomes.

Additionally, our work with national organizations will continue. Reem is currently a member of NADOHE and AALHE where she actively leverages her experience and learns from others on how to continue to improve access and equity in outcomes. Milena continues to deeply connect with other stakeholders in Higher Education whose mission is to increase equity and access by being a National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal reviewer for Racial Equity and supporting the Carnegie Math Pathways initiative to increase access by adapting their curriculum materials to be Open Educational Resources. We believe it is essential to connect with colleagues across the country and learn from each other’s experiences to enhance our work and strive towards achieving equity in higher education.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

One of the lessons we learned in our data workshops is that our colleagues are eager for data to be more accessible. As the only team to receive BRESI funding for STEM at our college, we hope that BRESI can leverage this desire for greater data accessibility to encourage CUNY to make more data available and to encourage faculty and staff to use it for continuous improvement. We believe that BRESI has brought together many colleagues across CUNY campuses and we hope that this collaboration continues for the benefit of our students. In five years, we envision BRESI as a central hub for promoting equity and data-driven decision-making across the CUNY system, with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and a focus on addressing the needs of our most marginalized and underserved student populations.

Viviana Rivera Burgos, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Baruch College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Baruch College, where I teach Latino Politics and Race and Ethnicity in American Politics. Much of my research is inspired by the politics of Puerto Rico, where I grew up and went to college, and its unique relationship with the US.

Tell us about your project. 
This project is the starting point for a multi-year, multi-institution effort to create and sustain the first academic center for public opinion research in Puerto Rico. BRESI has afforded me the opportunity to include CUNY as a partner institution in this project, along with the University of Michigan and the University of Puerto Rico, the latter of which will house the newly established Puerto Rico Public Opinion Laboratory.

Describe one of your major milestones to date.

As of July 2023, we have finished designing and field-testing a survey of the social and political attitudes of Puerto Ricans living on the island, and hope to launch the full survey in the fall of 2023 on a nationally representative sample.

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant?

I don’t remember exactly where I was, but I do remember it was so nice to receive this great news in the aftermath of my father’s passing. We loved talking politics together, and I remember thinking “he would’ve loved to hear about this project.”

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?
I hope this project offers the public, scholars, and policymakers alike a rigorous understanding of the preferences and needs of the Puerto Rican public, at a time when the island is undergoing deep changes and overcoming compounding crises.

Lili Shi, Associate Professor, Director of Speech Communication, Dept of Communications and Performing Arts, Kingsborough Community College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am Lili Shi, a professor of communication studies (yay, I was just promoted to full in June) at the Department of Communications and Performing Arts of Kingsborough Community College. I am a former international student from China, a first-generation immigrant to New York City, a researcher of Brooklyn Chinatown women and their communities, and a mother of two young children living in Staten Island.

Tell us about your project.

My BRESI project is about the unique dynamics of identity formation and community organizing that happened virtually on WeChat, a China-based social medium, among Chinese immigrant mothers in Sunset Park Chinatown during the pandemic. I hope to delineate the ways that these moms created important diasporic online spaces of survival facing covid crises and Asian Hate. Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

When I found out that I won the BRESI grant, I was at the intermission of my daughter’s end-of-summer performance at her dance school. I was overwhelmed with happy tears (other parents must have thought I was over-passionate for kids’ dance which I was definitely not, haha) – it had been a very hard few years for me and my transnational family due to the pandemic, and last summer being the hardest. The BRESI award was the light and affirmation I needed that week. It reminded me of my tribe here at CUNY who celebrate works like mine despite our collective vulnerabilities and precarities doing BRESI and DEI work.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

One of the recent accomplishments was that I get to talk about my project and some initial findings at a conference in Edinburgh UK on immigrant and refugee mobilities. I was proud to tell the stories of New York City, its immigrants, and neighborhoods in an international setting, and being called “the CUNY lady”. I also got to meet many other international women of color scholars who are passionate about transcultural research and globalization studies.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

I hope my project will tell the story of the unthinkable multi-layered challenges that Chinatown mothers have encountered and endured during the pandemic, their incredible creativity as well as resourcefulness helping one another using social media, and their negotiation towards a solidifying diasporic Chinese mom identity in the digital space. I also want to shed light on the heterogeneity and multiple hegemonies at work within immigrants’ online communities.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in five years?

It’s hard to predict BRESI in five years in the current political climate. I deeply appreciate and love the intellectual tribe BRESI has built for us, and I want it to sustain and thrive. What I don’t want to see is that we are merely creating romanticized social and discursive bubbles for one another and barely make impact on communities of color. I hope to see that this initiative continues for the next decades to come, or can be institutionalized as a more permanent space for black and ethnic studies.

Mila Burns, Summer Chair/Assistant Professor – Department of Latin American and Latino Studies, Lehman College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am originally from Brazil and have lived in New York for the past 15 years. I teach at Lehman College and live in the Bronx. I love living in the city, enjoy biking to work, and feel lucky to have so many brilliant students. I am also de Associate Director at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at the Graduate Center.

Tell us about your project.

The Trilingual Certificate Program in Latino Studies is a fully online certificate open to the general public. There are no prerequisites and all classes are offered in three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese. That allows people from other countries in Latin America to apply, attend online classes and complete the credits necessary to the certificate from their home countries, even if they do not have English proficiency. For Lehman students in all fields, it offers the possibility of adding to their expertise the knowledge of a community that is, today, one of the most important intellectual, political, and economic forces in the United States. Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I was walking in the Bronx and checked my email when I saw the news. A few minutes later, the co-PI in the project, Joseph Torres-Gonzalez, texted me thrilled asking if I had already heard about it. We were both thrilled, started texting and sending audios with so many plans that would now be a reality. We felt immediately embraced by the BRESI community.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

The Certificate is now a reality! We have offered four different classes to students from many different countries, who took them in different languages. We will have two more classes in the Fall. For me the biggest surprise was to see how the language differences was not barriers, but bridges. Many of the students used online translation tools to communicate with each other. It has been a beautiful experience.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

I think it is important to talk about decolonizing the curriculum, but find it urgent that instead of putting this goal into an individual level we start to question and rethink the structure of the university itself. If we want to decolonize, we have to change and be more open to students from all walks of life, including those with visa and language barriers. We can go beyond talking about inclusion and really thinking of effective ways to change the college to act and deliver on this.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

BRESI is an incredible opportunity for CUNY to rethink itself and find ways to continue being an example of inclusion and openness for years to come. It offers and important support to so many dedicated faculty members who can’t always find this level of commitment and community sustenance.

Maurice Vann, Assistant Professor, Social Work Department, Academic Director of Campus Honors, Lehman College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am Dr. Maurice Vann, an Assistant Professor in the Social Work Department at Lehman College, specializing in forensic social work, social work policy, and social justice issues. My research focuses on leveraging computational social sciences and emerging technologies to address critical social challenges within urban communities. In 2018, I attended the Summer Institute for Computational Social Sciences (SICSS) which increased my interest in the nexus of  coding, emerging technologies, and social welfare. Currently, I serve as the Academic Director of the Lehman Campus Honors Programs and hold a dual appointment in the Social Welfare Department at the City University of New York, Graduate Center.

I am also the principal investigator of the Credible Messengers Justice Center (CMJC) grant, a program funded by the New York City Department of Probation, which centers on the use of Credible Messengers as crucial intermediaries for community-based peacebuilding initiatives.

Tell us about your project.

My research project aims to evaluate the impact of the Oculus Quest 2 and its simulations on homelessness and racism in enhancing critical skills like anti-racism, empathy, critical thinking, and social activism among current and former students at Lehman College’s Social Work Department. With the support of the BRESI grant funding, we will conduct a 4-week follow-up survey to gather a third data point, facilitating our study. We recruited 100 participants from the BSW and MSW programs, randomly assigning them to either the experimental group using the Oculus Quest 2 or the control group. Read More

Participants in the experimental group will engage in two Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) simulations, “We Live Here” and “Traveling While Black,” which focus on homelessness and racism, respectively. Meanwhile, the control group will complete a Blackboard asynchronous assignment, involving reading information from PowerPoint slides, watching relevant videos, and participating in discussion board assignments within small groups.

Our research question centers around whether the Oculus Quest 2 and its simulations on homelessness and racism offer greater efficacy compared to traditional pedagogical techniques employed in the social work department for developing critical thinking skills related to empathy, social activism, and anti-racism among social work students.

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I was excited when I was notified about winning the BRESI grant! It was a joy to share that moment with my wife. The grant’s recognition and support for my research gave me a deep sense of accomplishment and motivation to further advance the field. I am truly grateful for this opportunity and eager to contribute significantly to the research and the community.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

My top accomplishment thus far from receiving a BRESI grant is that the funding has allowed me to inspire and encourage social work students to embrace technology in their practice. Witnessing the transformation and excitement in students as they grapple with and utilize augmented and virtual reality technologies has brought me immense joy. Many students initially have misconceptions and apprehensions about AR/VR technologies, often feeling intimidated by them. However, my most significant achievement thus far, thanks to this research and funding, has been the ability to expand and redefine students’ perspectives of themselves and the social work profession. By introducing them to the possibilities and potential of these technologies, I have helped them overcome their reservations and embrace a new and innovative approach to their work.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

The primary aim of my research, supported by the BRESI grant, is to explore and promote the use of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) in the field of social work to enhance empathy, critical thinking, and social activism. I sincerely hope that this project will have a profound impact on society by fostering a paradigm shift in how technology is perceived and utilized in the field of social work. By encouraging social work students to embrace and integrate augmented and virtual reality technologies, we are preparing them to navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape and leverage these tools to address pressing social issues.

Through this project, I aim to empower social service workers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to harness the potential of technology in their practice. By bridging the gap between technology and social work, we can enhance the quality and effectiveness of services provided to individuals, families, and communities.

Ultimately, I envision that the impact of this project will extend beyond the classroom and academic setting, reaching practitioners, agencies, and communities at large. By redefining how social work integrates technology, we can contribute to a more technologically proficient and socially conscious society, where technology is utilized as a force for positive transformation and equitable outcomes.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

In five years, I foresee BRESI as a nationally recognized program with a strong network of researchers, grant recipients, and research assistants. It will continue to support groundbreaking projects, influence policies, and amplify voices that might otherwise go unheard. The legacy of BRESI will be felt through the transformative literature, art, and scientific contributions that shape our collective understanding and create a more inclusive and equitable society.

Andrea Francis, Professor of Accounting, LaGuardia Community College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m originally from Cape Town, South Africa, where I grew up under the Apartheid regime and eventually witnessed the transition to a fledgling democracy. I moved to New York 17 years ago and worked at Deloitte in public accounting before transitioning to academia. I’ve been teaching at LaGuardia Community College for 14 years and have led numerous college-wide and departmental initiatives during that time.

Tell us about your project.

The Accounting Program DEI Accelerator at LaGuardia is a three-phase model where a faculty member identifies accounting majors from historically excluded racial and ethnic groups and provides guidance and coaching for scholarships, internships, and professional development opportunities. The Accelerator’s sustainable framework identifies participants, catalogs opportunities on and off-campus, and offers information sessions, workshops, and supports for participants to access opportunities. The Accelerator ultimately aims to change the common narrative about who is and isn’t supposed to be an accountant.   Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I was in the Netherlands visiting family when I found out that I won my BRESI grant. There is a 6-hour time difference, so I stayed up late to wait for the email. The BRESI grant is the first grant I’ve applied to for the Accounting Program, so I was very excited about being awarded the grant. 

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

We had the first LaGuardia Community College site visit to Deloitte, a public accounting firm, in April 2023. Approximately 20 students from historically underrepresented groups were able to participate in a day-long training, networking, and presentation event. Students were able to gain valuable knowledge about the company’s service lines, internships, and paths to hiring and promotion. Community College students have historically not had access to these types of initiatives, so I am very proud that our students were able to attend. 

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

There is currently a widely documented shortage of accountants in the United States. Further, a critical pipeline problem exists for accountants of color, with the 2021 American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Trend Report showing that 77% of CPAs are White, 5% are Hispanic or Latino, and 2% are Black. Accounting is an academic field that is well defined in terms of its body of knowledge, and students entering the workforce having completed a course of study are understood to have a sound comprehension of its principles and methods. This common acknowledgment of academic credentials makes it a highly marketable degree conducive to employment.

The median salary for graduates with an associate degree in accounting is approximately $46,000 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). LaGuardia students are primarily first-generation college attendees from historically excluded backgrounds with annual household incomes of $25,000 or less. Studying Accounting and completing a degree can significantly change their professional and financial futures. I hope that supporting more students from underrepresented groups to obtain an associate degree in accounting and either transfer to complete a bachelor’s degree, or enter the workforce, can help alleviate the pipeline problem in the profession and enhance students’ economic mobility. 

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

On a personal level, as the only recipient of a BRESI grant for the Accounting discipline, I’d like to see the Accelerator that was seeded by this grant continue in the foreseeable future. As a community of awardees, my hope is that we will sustain our connections with the support of BRESI leadership and continue to champion the work of our colleagues. It would be incredible to have a symposium or similar event to showcase what has been accomplished over the past year and then to stay in touch. For BRESI, more broadly, I look forward to the launch of the multidisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Black, Race and Ethnic Studies at CUNY. I believe this program will strengthen the research, teaching, and advocacy related to BRES issues at this critical time in our nation’s history. 

Dr. Julia Goldstein and Dr. Kristy Clementina Perez, Co-creators of Talking About Race faculty workshop series

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Dr. Julia Goldstein: I am the Associate Director of Baruch’s Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, where I work to support active, inclusive, communication-intensive teaching and learning at Baruch College. I am passionate about helping faculty develop their craft as educators to facilitate deep and empowering learning experiences for our students. In addition to pedagogy and curriculum development, my background is in Theatre and Performance Studies, and I continue to teach in that area as well.

Dr. Kristy Clementina Perez:

I serve as the Director of the Percy E. Sutton SEEK Program at Baruch College where I have the privilege of working with students from the start of their college journey and beyond. Prior to joining Baruch College, I served as high school English teacher at my alma mater at Perth Amboy High School in New Jersey. I am a proud first-generation college graduate and a CUNY alum from Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. I am a social justice educator and life-long learner who loves working with students. Read More

Tell us about your project.

With support from our BRESI grant, my colleagues Dr. Kristy Perez, Prof. Sonia Jarvis, Dr. Meechal Hoffman and I developed and ran the Talking About Race Faculty Workshop Series, a new program creating space and structure for faculty to explore antiracist approaches to classroom discussion about race and racism. We wanted the workshops to speak both to faculty who teach courses directly about race and to those working on engaging their students in interrogating how race ideology, institutionalized racism, and white supremacy intersect with their course content.

Incorporating readings or other content about minoritized people, or about race and racism, is important, but it’s not enough on its own. How can we as teachers facilitate purposeful class discussion on these topics that will engage students in transformative learning? We believe that these discussions, at their best, can elevate and affirm experiences and contributions of BIPOC people, navigate disagreement while also providing a safer environment for those who are the most vulnerable in our classrooms, and call in those who are just building the skills necessary for talking about these structures. While these discussions will always be messy and never fully “safe,” our project is about supporting faculty concretely, and in community, as they work through challenges and develop their personal pedagogy.

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

We were thrilled to read that our project had been selected for a BRESI grant. My colleagues and I were committed to doing a version of the project with or without BRESI’s support, but we knew that the grant would help us compensate important collaborators and do deeper work, including holding student focus groups. It felt exciting to connect our work with projects across the whole CUNY system.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

Our biggest accomplishment this year was running a first iteration of the Talking About Race workshop, with a group of 11 faculty members from Baruch’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Over three two-hour sessions we discussed goals and approaches to antiracist teaching in a broad sense, engaged with Baruch student testimonials about their classroom experiences, and shared personal reflections on how our own intersectional identities interplay with and inform classroom dynamics. We also explored and generated specific teaching strategies in several categories, including for building a trusting classroom culture, structuring discussions that help students engage deeply, addressing or responding to defensiveness, and navigating challenging classroom moments such as racial microaggressions.

The discussions were not always easy, and we left many thorny questions unresolved. As facilitators we learned an enormous amount and have a lot of ideas for deepening the experience and extending it longitudinally so that participants can more meaningfully support each other’s ongoing commitment to facilitating antiracist class discussion.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

We believe that regardless of one’s major, an undergraduate education should involve rigorous engagement with structures of race and racism as they inform our world, with frequency and across a diverse set of courses. Many instructors want to facilitate this kind of learning, but it really isn’t easy. The field of antiracist pedagogy is growing to include more concrete, action and praxis-oriented resources. We engage with the best of what’s out there and want to move that conversation forward. Ultimately, we hope the outcome will be CUNY graduates equipped with deep understanding of how structures of race and racism condition life in the twenty-first century, and the skill and drive needed to participate in equity-oriented democratic society-building.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in five years?

We hope to see the incredible initiatives being supported by BRESI across CUNY growing into sustainable, institutionally-supported programs.

Jade Robertson, Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communications, Creative and Performing Arts and Speech

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am an Assistant Professor of Dance and Media Technology at Medgar Evers College. I’m also a dancer, choreographer, film director and entrepreneur.

Tell us about your project.

 Gold Sphere [is] a mixed-media-virtual reality video research project and interactive exhibit that uses motion capture technology to create a universe where Black girls can connect with ancestry, spirituality, and dance. After the death of Breonna Taylor in 2020, and while being stuck in quarantine in my mother’s home, I began searching for ways that I could use my imagination as a tool of liberation against oppression and white supremacy. Being a Black woman, artist, and educator, constantly means looking for innovative ways to create, make and teach things that are culturally relevant and empowering to myself and students. When the reality became too much to handle, I researched escapism and yearned to create narratives I had the power to control in life and in death. Born out of this frustration, in 2020, I produced the superhero dance film. Read More

This sounds amazing. Creativity and innovation are usually birthed from challenges we face. How has the project evolved?

The film has been shown globally in national and international festivals and across college campuses. As part of this ongoing empowerment project, I have authored a book, Gold: Made just for you, to help children of color recognize their strength, beauty, and culture. As an Assistant Professor of Dance and Technology at Medgar Evers College, I created a motion capture visual project for the new interdisciplinary B.F.A.

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I found out that I won the BRESI grant right before school started and I was overwhelmed with joy. Not only was this a great opportunity for my students but I had support to further my research on my journey to tenure!

Describe your top accomplishments to date. 

 Thus far we have:

  • Completed a technology residency at NYU.
  • Premiered the film and art exhibit at Medgar Evers College. The two film screenings were sold out. This event featured artwork from local artists, featured a talkback with Mecca Madyun, Manager of Dance Education at Brooklyn Academy of Music and highlighted Black women student entrepreneurs at Medgar Evers College.
  • Won Best Futurist Filmmaker Award at the Cannes World Film Festival! Also nominated for Best Social Justice Film, Best Virtual Reality Film, and Best Short Film Director!

 How do you hope your project will have an impact on society?

Gold has always been an integral part of Black culture in America, and especially in Hip Hop Culture. Gold is a thread tying Blackness together globally. If you walk down the street in any inner-city community, or you look on City University of New York college campuses, you may see Black and Brown people wearing gold hoop earrings, gold chains, gold teeth, gold make up, and gold rings. Often times, society will deem these things as “ghetto” or “unprofessional” as opposed to recognizing the intergenerational richness that has been passed through time. What if studying the origins of the element of gold and the spiritual, earthly, and metaphysical powers it possesses, in the Africa and in the African Diaspora could re-spark pride and belonging to Black people?

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

 I see a new generation of Black student artists and alumni emerging from Medgar Evers College and the CUNY system. Artists who are finding interesting ways to create narratives that merge Blackness, arts, and technology to reclaim our liberation through imagination and storytelling. I see students finding interesting ways to record and archive our Black oral and artistic histories through writing and multimedia art projects.

Jayashree Kamble, Professor, Department of English, LaGuardia Community College

Tell us a little bit about yourself

I’m a Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College, where I teach composition as well as literature courses. My research area is romance narratives in popular fiction and other media and I currently serve as the President of the International Association for the Study of Popular Romance (iaspr.org). I am the author of Creating Identity: The Popular Romance Heroine’s Journey to Selfhood and Self-Presentation (Indiana University Press, 2023) and one of the co-editors of the Routledge Research Companion to Popular Romance (2021). My first monograph was Making Meaning in Popular Romance Fiction: An Epistemology (2014).

Tell us about your project

My BRESI-supported project, “BIPOC Writers, Editors, and Novels: The Missing Chapters in the Story of Mass-Market Romance,” continues my work on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) contributions to the mass-market romance novel industry, which I began in 2021 with an ACLS/Mellon grant. In addition to helping fill a lacuna in pop culture studies when it comes to the history of BIPOC editors and writers in romance publishing, BRESI has given me space to conceive of units in literature courses. Thanks to BRESI-funded time, I can update courses with novels and other data to show the diverse student body at LaGuardia their own communities within this sub-genre of popular fiction. Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I was at home in Queens and when I saw the email, I think I whooped aloud! The research I’m doing covers a vast area and while the previous ACLS/Mellon grant let me begin excavating and identifying data on BIPOC editors and authors and their romance novels, I needed support to continue analyzing it. The BRESI award was deeply gratifying because it confirmed my belief that this history is important and must be written and disseminated.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date

The course release that BRESI funded gave me time to present preliminary findings at the CUNY Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) conference in May. After sharing how I plan to infuse literature courses with my research, I also developed an article comparing how BIPOC academics were represented in the 1980s versus in recent romance novels for the peer-reviewed journal Esferas Literarias. This issue is being edited by a colleague who is also directing an international research project on diversity in mass-market romance fiction at the University of the Balearic Islands (Spain): https://blocs.uib.cat/romanceforchange/team/

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

As in many fields, romance fiction as an industry has been embroiled in debates about its structural lack of inclusion and diversity practices. My research aims to move the needle in the correct direction by reinstating a lost history of its BIPOC contributors. As Esferas Literarias is an open-access journal, it will allow my findings to be disseminated to a broad audience. Both readers of mass-market romance as well as scholars of this genre (and of popular culture as well as Women and Gender Studies) can learn about this history and make the forgotten contributions of BIPOC editors and writers in the 1980s and 1990s more widely known. I plan to incorporate my research into my classes at LaGuardia, especially ones like ENG 245: Images of Women in Literature and ENG 102: Writing Through Literature. I am sure that my diverse student body will enjoy reading some of the novels and learn about the history of popular romance publishing.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

BRESI is planting the seeds for a CUNY that will model what institutional support (rather than lip service) for a diverse curriculum and research looks like. In 5 years, not only will we see more culturally-competent syllabi that address the needs of contemporary society but also witness how BIPOC researchers at CUNY are exploring complex and provocative topics undergirded by a philosophy of diversity, equity, and inclusion. BRESI can put CUNY at the vanguard of the kind of knowledge creation that draws on and supports a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and cross-class student body.

Anna D’Souza, Associate Professor and Provost Innovation Fellow for Inclusive Teaching, Baruch College

Tell us a little bit about yourself

I am an Associate Professor at the Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College (CUNY) where I teach economic analysis and international development courses to our creative and hard-working undergraduate and masters’ students. I’m a development economist who examines food security, shocks, conflict, governance, and trade. I was born in India and raised in Long Island, NY. And I was inspired to study poverty and inequities during my childhood visits to India. I am deeply committed to the mission of CUNY and am grateful to have been part of this community for 9 years now.

Tell us about your project

DEI Fridays engage faculty, staff, and students in a collaborative effort to deepen our shared understanding and to build community around our shared humanity. The program aims to improve the campus climate around issues of equity, inclusion, and justice and to equip participants with knowledge and tools to engage in social transformation in their communities beyond Baruch. It was started by the Marxe School DEI committee in November 2022. The topics have been curated to cover individual biases and prejudices; individual sense of belonging at Baruch and CUNY; and structural and institutional discriminatory policies, procedures and practices. Importantly, we have intentionally centered issues of importance to historically marginalized, underrepresented, and Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Asian communities and have chosen speakers that represent these groups. Most sessions begin with a welcoming, the reading of community agreements, and a brief breathing or guided meditation exercise to help participants enter the session with intention. Then, there is a presentation of a topic (typically in an interactive interview format), followed by break-out sessions, share-outs, and informal discussion. Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I was away on a family vacation when I found out about receiving the grant. It was a great way to finish off the summer and start the school year! I had been busy planning the 2022-23 year of DEI Fridays and was so excited to find out that BRESI would fund the marketing, video editing, and honoraria for the series. I felt and feel grateful to be part of this historic round of funding for the university in this critical area.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date

A top accomplishment is that DEI Fridays will now be sponsored by the Baruch College Office of the Provost, elevating the program to the college-level for the 2023-2024 academic year. The program has aimed to fill a need on campus for an open, welcoming space to learn about and discuss critical and topical issues that are sometimes solely discussed during one-off trainings, in specific academic departments, or at diversity offices/committees. And now, in its third year and with support from the Provost, I hope the program will continue to grow and fulfill this need.

DEI Fridays had over 800 participants (170 unique) over 32 sessions during its two years (an average of 25 participants per session). We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants who found that the sessions were helpful in providing better understanding and awareness of the specific topic and that the speakers were knowledgeable and engaging. As one participant noted, “The workshops not only featured stellar speakers and cutting-edge content, but there was always such a warm and friendly, approachable atmosphere. I think that’s absolutely critical for this work to be successful.”

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

To me, lasting and substantive change requires learning, regular personal reflection and, ideally, a supportive community where folks come together to learn from each other in respectful and constructive ways. My hope is that both the regular DEI Fridays participants, as well as those who attended one or two sessions, gained some useful information and strategies that have and will inform and transform their professional and personal development and decisions, infusing our college community with principles of curiosity, compassion, and justice.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

In the coming years, I hope to see continued collaboration in BRESI areas across our campuses with our communities recognizing the importance of Black, race, and ethnic studies in CUNY’s past, present, and future. I hope that the current funding will help secure future funding and support inside and outside CUNY so that many of the BRESI projects can be integrated into the regular work of our colleges.

Punita Bhansali and Anuradha Srivastava, professors of Biological Sciences and Geology at Queensborough Community College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Punita Bhansali: I’m an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences & Geology and the Director of the Medical Assistant A.A.S. Degree Program at Queensborough Community College (QCC). I am a neurobiologist by training, but in my time at CUNY, I’ve developed a huge interest in healthcare and creating opportunities for students that promote academic success and professional development.

Anuradha Srivastava: I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Geology and the Director of the A.S in Public Health Program at Queensborough Community College. I am a public health professional whose interest extends to my teaching as well as research. I am very interested in promoting Health Equity and thus improving health outcomes for marginalized populations. For this, I want to train the future healthcare workforce and become the change they want to see in this sector.

Tell us about your project.

Across the United States, racial and ethnic minority groups are at higher risk for poor health outcomes compared to their white counterparts. The goal of this project has been to create student internship opportunities aimed at improving racial health equity. We have developed partnerships with various organizations in New York City where students have participated in activities such as community outreach and education, patient navigation, and promoting preventative care. An additional mission of this project has been to spread awareness about racial health inequity within the CUNY community through a seminar series titled The Impact Of Racial Disparities On Health Outcomes. Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

We felt incredibly proud when we received this news; not just to be awarded with the grant, but to be part of the transformative work taking place at CUNY through BRESI. Moreover, it was a reminder of what an honor it is to be part of an institution that encourages faculty in all fields to incorporate social and racial justice in their programs.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

Through BRESI funding, we have developed long-term partnerships with organizations and people who are doing incredible work towards advancing racial and ethnic health equity. We were able to invite Dr. Dave Chokshi (former Health Commissioner of NYC) and Dr. Julian Watkins (Health Equity Advisor, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene) to speak to the CUNY community. We have been able to connect QCC students with very impressive organizations, including Northwell’s Community Health division, Strong Children Wellness, Grameen Promotoras, Make the Road NY, New Life Community Health Center, etc, where they have been able to do extremely impactful work in their own communities while gaining experience that will help them advance in their careers.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

The major goal of this project has been to create a mutually beneficial setup between CUNY students and community health partners, where students assist the partners on their missions to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities, and students gain the skills and confidence to pursue careers in healthcare and public health. Most of all, we hope to empower our students to continue to be drivers of change in their communities.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

We see a future where every student’s experience at CUNY is shaped by the work supported by BRESI, either inside the classroom or outside the classroom.

Lissette Acosta Corniel, Assistant Professor of Ethnic and Race Studies, Borough of Manhattan Community Colleges

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am an Assistant Professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in the Department of Ethnic and Race Studies. My research area is slavery, gender, and resistance in early colonial Hispaniola, what is today is the Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Tell us about your project.

Black Studies Across the Americas (BSAA) is a faculty-student research mentorship program that pairs faculty from disciplines that traditionally do not teach Ethnic and Race Studies, such as Business, Math, and Science with faculty from our department to collaborate and develop Open Educational Resources related to Afro-descending communities and are also created based on the interest and skills of the student mentees. Faculty and student researchers also collaborate with leaders from the Afro-descending communities that they are conducting research about. BSAA was first funded by the President’s Fund for Excellence and Innovation (PFEI) supported by the MacKenzie Scott Foundation. Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I was home and I yelled, “We got moneyyyy!” It was particularly exciting because the grant was to continue with something believe in and that we have been working hard for.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

One of our top accomplishments is the interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty and students because our student participants are also from different majors who are interested in learning more about Ethnic and Race Studies.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

I hope that educators and community members interested in learning about blackness in the Americas can use it as a teaching and learning tool. Here is the link to the Black Studies Across the Americas (BSAA) here!

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

I think that BRESI will expand to include more faculty who will be motivated after this first successful year. There are countless projects that faculty have ideas for but not enough financial resources and time.

Calvin John Smiley, Associate Professor of Sociology, Hunter College

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am an associate professor of sociology at Hunter College. My research broadly focuses on issues of social justice, inequality, and race. More specifically, a large part of my research has involved interrogating the U.S. criminal legal system and its impact on low-income urban residents. My recent book, Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry, Race, and Abolition is a qualitative study of understanding how individuals exiting carceral spaces navigate and negotiate this process while having diminished legal rights and amplified social stigmas. In the end, I argue that individuals must do reentry as an active ritual and ceremony and that if we want to create safer communities, we need to focus on an abolitionist praxis that eradicates systems of subjugation and violence and replace with systems of care. Beyond this, my second monograph, coming out in May 2024 explores the #defund movement as a particular moment within a longer legacy of struggle for racial, gender, and class liberation. Further, I’m currently working on a book project with a colleague that explores how individuals utilize social media in their reentry process as we live in an ever-increasing technological world. Finally, what I am most passionate about is the work I do with system-impacted youth in New York City as I facilitate restorative justice programming and instruct Introduction to Sociology as college credited course within the facilities.

Tell us about your project.

My project entitled “From Prison to College” is based on the work I do within NYC’s youth detention centers. Here, I instruct introduction to sociology for earned college credits through CUNY’s College Now program that allows NYC high school students to take CUNY courses. Research in the areas of incarceration and education, highlight that education is a vital component to decrease recidivism and further criminal legal contact. Therefore, bringing this opportunity NYC’s most vulnerable youth is an important public policy issue. I utilized my BRESI grant to create custom introduction to sociology textbooks as standard textbooks are typically costly and/or out-of-touch with the population of students learning. Here, I wanted to create a book that brought sociological theory in a way that is both engaging and relatable as well as focus on topics and scholars that have been historically ignored or downplayed in the discipline to “decolonize” the course. Additionally, I created a custom 52 card deck of playing cards. Here, cards have both restorative justice and sociological terms as well as several Black/Latinx/Indigenous scholars and activists. The purpose of the cards is to create a sort of osmosis as many youths play cards frequently so these cards can be both a form of recreation and learning, simultaneously. Finally, the remainder of these funds helped purchase school supplies such as pens and notebooks that are following secure facilities in New York as the youth do not have access to technology and other learning tools that many 21st century college students use. I was also able to host three different panels about the need for education in carceral settings. Read More

Where were you when you found out you won your BRESI grant? How would you describe your feelings upon hearing the announcement?

I was finishing up a basketball clinic with several system-impacted youth in Lower Manhattan when I saw the email stating that I had been selected as someone to receive the BRESI award. It was a great feeling as several teenagers in which I work with were very excited and eager to learn more about the “grant” and “what a grant is”. Remembering the smiles on their faces and them being proud of me in that moment was something I’ll always remember.

Describe one of your top accomplishments to date.

To date, I have had 39 NYC system-impacted youth earn college credits between the Spring 2023/Fall 2023 semesters. This is why I do this work. One individual who was released from the facility in May 2023, graduated from high school in June 2023, and is now currently enrolled at a CUNY community college and just completed their first semester in Fall 2023. They have informed me that their plan is to enroll at Lehman College and would like to pursue a double major in Nursing and Sociology. When I asked them why nursing their response was, “Because I want to help people.” So, for me, we have proof of concept that these youth have the same abilities, capabilities, and if given the opportunity can go anywhere. As I tell anyone that will listen, the children we incarcerate in New York City has more to do with the zip code they were born into than the act they are alleged to have committed. I remind my students; Hunter College is in one of the wealthiest zip codes in New York City and you can get on the 6 train and ride to one of the youth facilities and be in one of the poorest zip codes. A single subway fair separates some of the richest and poorest New Yorkers. And we know how that impacts the life-course of children born in each zip code, respectively.

How do you hope this project will have an overall impact on society?

I hope to continue to expand and have more courses offered in NYC’s youth detention centers. Ideally, I would love to bring in more instructors and have a diversity of course offerings that students could choose from and leave the facility with multiple courses completed and working towards an associate degree. The real plan is to turn New York City jails into colleges from the inside out.

Where do you see the future of BRESI in 5 years?

I hope to see BRESI continue to see the vision of social justice-oriented projects. I remember when I received the grant folks from the RFCUNY asked where my IRB is, and I responded that this grant was not about publishing or making my career off this work but about the work and the youth and showing proof of concept. I appreciate BRESI seeing that vision and I am sure that BRESI will continue to see that vision over the next five years and beyond for scholars who are invested not only in scholarship but community change.