About Spelman College:
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. This historically Black college is dedicated to the intellectual, creative, ethical, and leadership development of its students. Spelman is the country’s leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 54 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for undergraduate teaching, No. 4 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 14th year among historically Black colleges and universities.
The Academic Minute from 03.01 – 03.05
Monday, March 1st
Angelino Viceisza – Spelman College
Using Media to Spur Entrepreneurship
Dr. Angelino Viceisza is an associate professor of economics at Spelman College, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and a board member of the National Economic Association. During the 2020-21 academic year, he will be visiting the Hoover Institution at Stanford University as a W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the John Stauffer National Fellow.
His research examines the microeconomics of poverty and wealth creation, particularly in developing countries. He has written papers on (1) the determinants and impacts of entrepreneurship and innovation; (2) norms and preferences as potential drivers of poverty; (3) determinants of financial remittances; and (4) the impact of insurance on risky investment. This work has taken place in Ethiopia, Peru, Senegal, the United States, and Vietnam among others.
Tuesday, March 2nd
Viveka Brown – Spelman College
Black Girls and Women in Mathematics
Viveka Borum Brown, Ph.D. has been teaching and tutoring mathematics since 2000. Her primary research focus looks at various equity issues in mathematics. In particular, she explores issues pertaining to Black females and mathematics. Dr. Borum Brown examines why there seems to be a dearth in the number of Black women who pursue the mathematical field.
Her goal is to create avenues and solutions in order to increase the number of Black women and thus the number of women entering mathematics.
Wednesday, March 3rd
Karen Brakke – Spelman College
Development of Coordinated Skill in Toddlers
Karen Brakke, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology. She has also served as chair of psychology (2008-2014) and as special assistant to the Provost (2014-2015).
A developmental psychologist by training, Dr. Brakke’s research focuses on the development of manual skill during infancy and toddlerhood. She is also active in the national teaching and learning community and has authored or co-authored several publications on the teaching of psychology.
Thursday, March 4th
Myra Greene – Spelman College
Representations of Race and Our Understanding of Color
Greene uses a diverse photographic practice and fabric manipulations to explore representations of race. Greene is currently working on a new body of work that uses African textiles as a material and pattern as well as color as medium to explore her own relationship to culture. Her work is in the permanent collection of Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, the Princeton University Art Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Friday, March 5th
Brandi Brimmer – Spelman College
Black Widows and the Battle for Survivors’ Benefits in Post-Civil War America
I am a historian of slavery and emancipation interested in how Black people assert themselves in legal systems and within government agencies. My first book, “Claiming Union Widowhood: Race, Respectability, and Poverty in the Post-Emancipation South” (forthcoming, Duke University Press), offers a new interpretive framework of emancipation and the freedom narrative. I chronicle the collective struggle of Black women seeking benefits from the U.S. government on the basis of their standing as the widows of men who served in the Union army during the Civil War. Their petitions and the first-person testimony of those who supported them paint a vivid picture of their lives and labors as free people in a society that continued to marginalize Black women on the basis of race and gender.
In my next book project, I will analyze the history, memory, and consequences of the Fort Pillow Massacre (1864) in African American life and history.
