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| Current Fellows |
| Ravi Kumar Perry, Pre-doctoral |
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A native of Toledo, OH, Ravi Kumar Perry is a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University in Providence, RI. He has a B.A. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in political science and an M.A., also in political science, from Brown University. Mr. Perry's research interests include urban politics, African American politics, American politics, and political theory. His dissertation, entitled "21st Century Black Mayors, and the Representation of Black Interests," engages the elections and administrations of Black mayors in non-majority Black cities. The key question examined is whether or not Black mayors in such cities actively pursue and promote policies that work to improve the quality of life of Black residents. While at Brown, Ravi has served as President of the Samuel Nabrit Black Graduate Student Association and recently served as Chair and chief organizer of the first annual Graduate Students of Color Conference, an interdisciplinary academic conference for Brown's minority graduate student community and allies whose research engages communities of color. A recent recipient of the APSA Urban Politics Section’s Byron Jackson Dissertation In Ethnic and Racial Politics Research Support Award, Ravi's concurrent research endeavors include an analysis of the applied work of selected 20th century Black political and sociological scholar-activists and a theoretical and methodological exegesis suggesting how to frame the study of Black mayors in non-majority Black cities in the 21st century. |
| Former Fellows |
| Julia Rabig, Post-doctoral |
| Julia Rabig graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Ph.D. in History in 2007. In 2007-08, she held a postdoctoral fellowship the Center for the Study of African American Politics at the University of Rochester. During the fellowship year she revised her dissertation, "The Fixers: Devolution, Development, and Civil Society in Newark, New Jersey, 1960-1996," for publication and presented twice at the Frederick Douglass Institute's works-in-progress seminar. Her research explores the influence of local civil rights and black power organizations on federal urban policy in the late 20th century. This fall, she published an article on the relationship between Newark's established community development corporations and its new mayor, Cory Booker, in Shelterforce, the Journal of the National Housing Institute. In 2009, a chapter of her dissertation will appear in a collection called Black Power at Work, edited by David Goldberg and Trevor Griffey and slated for publication by Cornell University Press. She is currently a teaching fellow at the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies at the University of Rochester. |
| Katrina Gamble, Pre-doctoral |
| 2004-2005 |
| Ms. Gamble is completing her doctoral dissertation, "The Face of Congress: The Impact of Race on Representation and Deliberation," at the Center. The work explores the impact of deliberation, an important aspect of representation that is often neglected in empirical studies, to analyze minority congressional representation on committee level action and informal meetings. The dissertation asks two central research questions. First, do Black representatives participate at higher rates with committees and behind-the-scene meetings than do non-Black representatives on explicitly racial issues or legislation that disproportionately affects Blacks? Secondly, do black representatives enhance deliberation on such legislation by providing different arguments, viewpoints, and solutions? This dissertation will address some important gaps in the literature on minority representation by examining committee activity and by bringing together deliberative theory and empirical research on representation. |
| Brian D. McKenzie, Post-doctoral |
| 2002-2003 |
| His research interests are in American Politics, with a focus on political participation, public opinion, voting behavior, religion and politics, African-American Politics, and political psychology. His work examines the political implications of citizens' purposeful decisions to locate themselves into various religious social networks. He is the author of "Self-Selection, Church Attendance, and Local Civic Participation," which was published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and the co-author (with Fredrick Harris and Valeria Sinclair-Chapman) of "The Macro Dynamics of Black Political Participation," which is forthcoming in the Journal of Politics. While at the Center he collaborated on a book project exploring black civic participation in the post-civil rights era. The manuscript is under contract with Cambridge University Press. Professor McKenzie is currently an assistant professor of political science at Texas A&M University. |
| Steven Ward, Pre-doctoral |
| 2001-2002 |
| Professor Ward was a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Texas, Austin while at residence at the center. His dissertation, "Ours Too Was a Struggle for a Better World: Activist Intellectuals and the Radical Promise of the Black Power Movement," was completed during his tenure at the center. The dissertation aims to redefine historical understandings of the movement through an account and analysis of Black Power-era activist-intellectuals. Currently, Professor Ward is assistant professor of community studies and African-American Studies at the University of Michigan and author of "Scholarship in the Context of Struggle: Activists Intellectuals, the Institute of the Black World (IBW), and the Contours of Black Radicalism," which appeared in The Black Scholar. |
| Niambi Carter, Pre-doctoral |
