Current Graduate Students
MA Class of 2012
Sarata Toriola
B.A. Wheaton College (English).
Sarata Toriola holds a BA in English from Wheaton College. Ms. Toriola has worked with students in Ghana and Turkey. Ms. Toriola won a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship to Korea where she introduced high school students to African and African –American culture. Ms. Toriola’s research interests are focused on the study of black female image and body in popular culture in concert with the impact of globalization and westernization on black female communities.
Naeemah Kitchens
B.A. University of Maryland Eastern Shore (English).
Naeemah Kitchens is a recent graduate of University of Maryland Eastern Shore where she received her BA in English. Ms. Kitchens worked with students of Kyamulinga Primary School in Uganda and was a Mellon Summer Humanities Fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Kitchens research interests focus on the continued vibrations of slavery, migration, and colonialism that ripple through African, Afro-Caribbean, and African-American culture and how they shape the Africana identity.”
MA Class of 2011
Dane Peters
B.A. Brooklyn College (Africana Studies, Political Science).
Dane Peters joins the African American Studies Program after receiving a B.A. in Africana Studies and Political Science, with honors, from Brooklyn College in 2009. At present, his interests lie in 20th century Black radical movements. He is interested in how Black intellectuals throughout the African Diaspora have shaped these movements and the individuals at the heart of these movements. Dane is also a poet, and leads several clothing and school supply drives to Besease, Ghana.
Dane is currently teaching at Brooklyn College.
MA Class of 2010
To see photographs of the African American Studies Program’s 2010 Convocation ceremony, click here.
Candace Cheatham
B.A. University of Massachusetts; M.A. Simmons College (Gender Cultural Studies).
Courtney Cook
B.A. Kennesaw State University (English, Secondary Education).
Courtney Cook holds a BA in English Education from Kennesaw State University and has joined the program after teaching English and Journalism at an urban high school in Atlanta, GA for two years. Her academic interests include: Literature, Southern Studies, identity, and cultural studies.
Major Paper (Fall 2009): “‘All of it is now, it is always now:’ Beloved and the Reintegration of American Slavery into Collective Memory”
Major Paper (Spring 2010): “The Preservation of Tradition: The Role of Southern Religious Institutions in the Perpetuation of White Supremacist Ideology”
Zawdie Sandvliet
Fulbright Scholar, 2009-2010; B.A. University of Amsterdam (Sociology).
Zawdie Sandvliet was born in Surinam but lived in the Netherlands for 20 years before entering the MA in African American Studies at Boston University. He holds a B.S. in Sociology from the University of Amsterdam and is interested in augmenting that degree through his graduate research in African American and African Studies. His research focuses particularly on education, health care, and minority groups.
Major Paper (Fall 2009): “Martin and Malcolm in the classroom: A study of the incorporation of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. in a high school textbook”
Major Paper (Spring 2010): “The Black Panther Party and Education”
Ayesha Siddiqa
Fulbright Scholar, 2009-2010; B.A. Jinnah College for Women, University of Peshwar; M.A. University of Peshwar (English Literature).
Ayesha Siddiqa holds a B.A. in English Literature and Psychology from Jinnah College for Women, University of Peshwar (2002) and an M.A. in English Language and Literature from University of Peshwar, Pakiston (2004). She has received a gold medal, silver medal, South Asian Star Girl Academic Award, and various academic scholarships in her educational career. This year, she received Fulbright Scholarships for a Masters degree in African American Studies at Boston University. She has been working on projects with the British Council and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) providing free education to females from remote areas as well as working against the convention of dowry in rural areas. Her research coincides with these social work activities. She plans to research the role of gender in shaping the history of slavery and its impact on the representation of women in African American literature.
Major Paper (Fall 2009): “Reconstructing Black Womanhood: Frances E. W. Harper’s ‘New Negro’ Woman”
Major Paper (Spring 2010): “An Unholy Alliance: Nation of Islam and the Vicious Circle of Racism”