Thank you for visiting my site. UF goes to NCBS and ASALH in 2011. Former UF students who use media in the production of their scholarship were a part of three panels at the 2011 Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) meeting in sponsored by Fire!!!: The Multimedia Journal of Black Studies. The presentations highlighted the ways in which technology enhances research and teaching. Exposing undergraduates to the wonders of the research experience is an exciting venture. During the 2010-2011 academic year budding young scholars in my African American Studies Integrative Research Seminar class conducted original research on the Black experience and presented their results at the 2011 National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) national conference. Most of the audience thought they were graduate students based on the breath and depth of the research and the professionalism of the presentations. Congratulations go to the students who worked hard for that priviledge!!! At last copies of the special issue of the International Journal of Africana Studies that I edited, which is a compilation of papers and discussions by key Black Studies scholars at a convening sponsored by the Ford Foundation, was distributed at the 2011 NCBS meeting.

The summer of 2010 proved to be a very exciting one. After many years of promises, I was finally able to bring Clara Gough to the states from Nova Scotia. Clara is the descendent of a long line of Black female basket makers who took the craft to Nova Scotia as Refugees from the War of 1812. She was here to help kick-off two days of events celebrating the U.S. screening of my documentary From These Roots: Taking Up the Basket and the opening of the multi-media exhibit From These Roots: Clara Gough's Split Maple Baskets. The exhibit opened for one month at Savannah State University's Social Science Gallery and was sponsored by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and hosted by the Project to Build Capacity of African American Museums. These projects are the result of my year away as the 2007-2008 Fulbright Research Chair for Gloablization and Cultural Studies. The award allowed me to continue to study issues of identity, citizenship and cultural studies in Nova Scotia with a base at Dalhousie University in Halifax.  Although I have spent my summers for the past 7 years researching the descendents of Black Loyalists, Jamaica Maroons, and refugees from the War of 1812 as a Fulbright Fellow, I obtained the concentrated time and resources needed to make significant progress in my study and add an understanding of how new immigrants of African descent further complicate issues of identity, citizenship, and struggles for a place of prominence in Nova Scotian and Canadian society. Keep watching for a distribution announcement for the 2-DVD series and more results from my research.

I am lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time. Fortunately for me, I am Co-founding Editor with Daryl Michael Scott of a brand new peer-reviewed journal, Fire!!!: The Multimedia Journal of Black Studies. The journal is published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and made accessible online by JSTOR as a part of its Current Scholarship initiative. Please visit the site for more details. www.fire-jbs.org

I have the proofs for the special issue of the International Journal for Africana Studies. The content of this edited volume is a compilation of papers and discussions that took place under the Ford Foundation grant I received to conduct the convening, Conversations for Sustaining Black Studies in the 21st Century. This issue should be distributed before the end of the year. Hallelujah!!! If you are interested in learning more about my research my ethnography, 'Stony the Road' to Change: Black Mississippians and the Culture of Social Relations published by Cambridge University Press (2005) and the edited volume, Homing Devices: The Poor As Targets of Public Housing Policy and Practice, released in spring 2006 by Lexington Books are available through these links. For lighter and free reading (smile), FLAVOUR magazine honored me with a featured article that capsulates a good deal of my thoughts and life influences. Browse through my site for more insight into my research and teaching.

I am still benefiting from the Grant-in-Aid received from the Office of the Provost that provided release time for one year (2005-2006), thanks Debra. Since the interviews have been completed for the Ford Foundation funded documentary, African American Studies in Context, that chronicles the history, development, and directions of Black Studies in the summer of 2010, I look for funding for post-production. Wish me luck. (SMILE)

Thanks, again, for stopping by.