Summer Short-term Fellowship

Fellowship Application Information:

We will accept applications for the summer 2025 cohort in the fall of 2024. Learn more about eligibility and expectations by reviewing the OVERVIEW & HOW to APPLY webpage to become familiar with the application requirements and specific program details.

NICOLE COOKE, Ph.D.
Professor and Augusta Baker Endowed Chair, The School of Information Science, The College of Information and Communication, The University of South Carolina
PROJECT TITLE:
“Charlemae Hill Rollins, An Early Advocate for Diverse Books"
SUMMARY: My goal for this project is to research the life, career, and advocacy work of Charlemae Hill Rollins. Mrs. Rollins is among the incredible and often unsung forerunners in Black librarianship. " Read more...

KAM COPELAND, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference, Emory University
PROJECT TITLE:
“Muhammad Gazes: Islam, Blackness and Resistance Cinema in the United States"
SUMMARY: This project is a representational history of U.S. Black American Muslims in cinema from 1959 to the present. It also explores how Black Muslims developed alternative gazes and liberatory cinematic practices by using accessible forms of film technology--such as public access television, public affairs television, home video, and independent film--to resist dominant representations of Black Muslimness in the mainstream U.S. media. Read more...

KAREN COX, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita, Department of History, University of North Carolina Charlotte
PROJECT TITLE:
"The World of Walter Barnes: Jazz, Journalism, and the Cultural Geography of Bronzeville"
SUMMARY: My research recovers the story of one of Chicago’s leading jazz journeymen, Walter Barnes. His story stands as a symbol of migration and success, of life in Bronzeville, of hard work and hustle. His impact on the South Side and Bronzeville was significant. Read more...

OLABANKE GORIOLA
Ph.D Candidate, Performance Studies, Northwestern University
PROJECT TITLE:
"Danc(ing) the Archive: Colorism and Dark-skinned Female Dancers Representation in the Chicago Archives"
SUMMARY: Alice Walker coined and first used the concept of Colorism in her 1982 book In Search of Our Mother's Gardens to describe the unconscious hostility that exists between light-skinned and dark-skinned black women within the African-American community. I seek to excavate the perpetuation of colorism and the experiences and representation of dark-skinned female dancers in the U.S. Read more...

LAVERNE GRAY, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University
PROJECT TITLE:
"Bright Young Things: Chicago’s New Negro Intercollegiate Club and the Wonder Books"
SUMMARY: In October of 1927, a collective of Black college students attending various institutions of higher education in the city of Chicago published a significant text on the Black presence. The group, incorporated as the Washington Intercollegiate Club under the auspices of the Wabash Avenue YMCA, set out to capture the magnificence of Black life and history in the city of Chicago. This ambitious project culminated in the creation of the comprehensive work aptly titled "1927 Intercollegian Wonder Book or The Negro in Chicago, 1779-1927. Read more...

DEBRA HARDY, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
PROJECT TITLE:
"Illuminating the Expanse of Bronzeville’s Black Artist-Educator Networks, 1930’s-1960’s"
SUMMARY: This project focuses on exploring and solidifying the ways that Black artists in Bronzeville used both formal networks, such as education, and informal friendship and mentor networks to gain support and grow the Black artist community. Read more...

MASAYOSHI "MASA" YAMADA, Ph.D Candidate, Department of History, University of California Los Angeles,
PROJECT TITLE:
"The Cry of Jazz (1959) as a Historical Record of Post-World War II Chicago"
SUMMARY: First released in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is a thirty-four-minute independent film that depicts a meeting of a fictional, interracial jazz appreciation club. Drawing an analogy between jazz's music structure and African Americans' life in American society, the film provocatively anticipates the death of jazz. Read more...