Senior Honors Student Profiles
2021-2022 Senior Honors Students
Jo Fobbs (they/them), Black Studies
Senior Honors Thesis Topic:
My research is focused on how Black queer and trans rap can be a site of counter-production to queer/transphobic discourses in the hip-hop space, paving new lanes in the genre through embodying non-normative expressions of gender and sexuality vis-a-vis the Black phallus. I conducted a visual-content analysis of the music videos of two Black queer hip-hop artists, Ts Madison and Delli Boe, searching for how their performances negotiate the tension between the phallocentric nature of hip-hop masculinity and so-called "deviant" uses of their phalluses. I argue that these performances not only result in a disruption of the sexual norms that persist within Black sociocultural institutions, but can help to bring expressions of Black sexuality traditionally marked as illicit or taboo into a position where they're embraced and celebrated in our community.
Future Plans:
I plan to study abroad in Florence and Paris while expanding my artist/curator practice, and I will then apply to Black Studies Masters/PhD programs for the 2023-24 school year.
James Kitson (he/they), Black Studies
Senior Honors Thesis Topic:
My thesis aims to map a Black queer feminist tradition in the music of the "Mother of the blues:" Gertrude "Ma" Rainey. More specifically, I interrogate how Rainey's music negotiated radical alternative forms of identity and being outside heteronormative constructions of Blackness, sexuality, feminity, and queerness well before the emergence of mainstream feminist and queer social movements. Through utilizing a thematic narrative analysis of Rainey's lyrics, I identify how her music (re)claims power and agency for Black queer women while also developing "queer potentialities" thatreconfigures the possibilities for, and existence of, marginalized Black queer folks in the early twentieth century.
Future Plans:
After graduating in June, I'm taking a gap year, and then I intend to apply to Black Studies graduate programs with the intention of later pursuing my PhD (in some field of Black Studies) and becoming a professor.
2020-2021 Senior Honors Students
Alyssa Frick-Jenkins (she/her), Black Studies and Linguistics, French Emphasis
Senior Honors Thesis Topic:
Black fem(me)inine people, who embody the Sacred Black fem(me)inine (Razak, 2016; Hoskin & Taylor, 2019), extend that sacredness of the body outwards to navigate and create an external spatial reality with what I theorize as Sacred Geographies. Sacred Geographies are the material, spoken and semiotic spaces created from, for and by Black fem(me)inine people through spiritual, theoretical and discursive practices. This research in particular will engage the “soundscapes”, or spoken aspect of Black fem(me)inine Sacred Geographies, which is accomplished through a Black feminist discourse analysis of my Black fem(me)inine spiritual peers from whom I’ve collected interview data.
Future Plans:
Applying to Black Studies graduate programs, hopefully to obtain a PhD and become a professor in Black Studies and develop a program dedicated to Black healing through spiritual and artistic practice.
Deion Perkins, Black Studies and Communications
Senior Honors Thesis Topic:
The thesis topic is on the CDCR’s management and response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with specific attention being paid to how the COVID crisis affected the lives and well-being of inmates.
Future Plans:
I plan to apply to grad school and I hope to get a masters degree in social work and a PH.D in some area of Black Studies.