Doctoral Dissertation Research: Defining Racial Identity and Addressing Hunger Through Black Religious Food Programs

黑人讨论黑人社区关心的问题的空间和机构包括黑人宗教空间、理发店和美容院等。研究这些空间的学者将它们统称为“黑人反公众”--一个每天都在谈论的空间，黑人身份被定义、谈判和经常受到争议的空间。这一博士论文研究项目将聚焦于黑人宗教空间和种族认同的形成、联系和竞争，这些空间发生在两个看似不同的黑人宗教组织的两个食品计划的空间内。伊斯兰国家在南乔治亚州农村小镇布朗伍德拥有穆罕默德农场；其宣称的目的是养活美国所有的黑人。麦街浸信会经营着一项传统的紧急食品计划，主要服务于亚特兰大奥本大道附近的无家可归者和低收入居民。该项目将通过(1)调查黑人宗教空间中发生的种族认同的形成；(2)认识到黑人的宗教空间不仅由黑人新教徒组成，还包括黑人民族主义宗教；(3)探索不同的黑人宗教团体如何利用社区食品推广计划在可识别的空间定义黑人身份；以及(4)探索差异和共同点如何有助于定义种族主义群体。博士生将使用多种方法对这两组人的食物计划进行比较调查，进行访谈、参与者观察和档案研究，以检查这些计划是如何发展的，是在什么背景下发展的，以及志愿者如何看待他们与食物有关的日常行动和总体目标。与其他志愿者一起的第一手经验将有助于了解这两个食品计划的空间配置，以及对这两个群体发展种族认同和社区一致性的影响。收集的数据将使用批评性话语分析进行编码和文本分析。这项研究的结果将增加对种族身份的基本理解，种族和宗教问题如何指导食品节目的工作，以及种族和身份的意义如何在不同的地理空间演变和竞争。黑人社区的学者和领导人经常将存在于许多黑人教堂的社会激进主义描述为一种在很大程度上没有被白人社会注意到的“未知现象”。该项目预计将为种族、地点和社区的概念带来新的曙光，但也会使概念复杂化。认识和调查黑人在这些宗教空间中进行的重要讨论和日常谈话，预计将揭示它们是未来地理调查的重要地点。除了提供关于种族、宗教和食物的新的学术见解外，该项目还应该广泛影响流行文化和媒体讨论黑人宗教组织的方式，特别是经常被赋予这些空间中发生的行动的误解和简单化。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

The spaces and institutions where blacks discuss matters of concern to the black community include black religious spaces, barbershops, and beauty salons among others. Scholars who study these spaces refer to them collectively as "the black counterpublic" -- a space where everyday talk occurs and black identity is defined, negotiated, and often contested. This doctoral dissertation research project will focus on black religious spaces and the racial identity formation, linkages, and contestations that occur within the spaces of two food programs in two seemingly distinct black religious organizations. The Nation of Islam owns Muhammad Farms in the rural South Georgia town of Bronwood; its stated purpose is to feed all black people in the United States. Wheat Street Baptist Church operates a traditional emergency food program that primarily serves homeless people and low-income residents in the Atlanta neighborhood of Auburn Avenue. This project will expand scholarship on race and racialized public spaces by (1) investigating the racial identity formation that occurs in black religious spaces; (2) recognizing that religious spaces among blacks are not just comprised of black Protestants but also include black nationalist religions; (3) exploring how different black religious groups use community food outreach programs to define black identity in identifiable spaces; and (4) exploring how both differences and commonalities contribute to defining a racialized group of people. The doctoral candidate will use a multi-method comparative investigation of the two groups' food programs, conducting interviews, participant observation, and archival research to examine how and in what context the programs have developed as well as the manner in which volunteers view the day-to-day actions and overall goals of their work with food. First-hand experiences alongside other volunteers will help generate understanding of the spatial configuration of the two food programs, and the implications for the groups' development of racial identity and community coherence. The data collected will be coded and textually analyzed using critical discourse analysis.The results of this study will add to basic understanding about racial identity, how questions of race and religion guide the work of food programs, and how meanings of race and identity evolve and compete across different geographic spaces. Scholars and leaders in the black community often have described the social activism that exists in many black churches as an "unknown phenomenon" that goes largely unnoticed by white society. The project is expected to shed new light on but also complicate notions of race, place, and community. Recognizing and investigating the important discussions and everyday talk that occurs among blacks in these religious spaces is expected to reveal them to be important sites for future geographic inquiry. In addition to providing new scholarly insights about race, religion and food, the project should broadly impact how black religious organizations are discussed in popular culture and the media, particularly the misconceptions and simplification often assigned to actions occurring in these spaces. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.