In a conference usually reserved for graduate students, St. Mary’s College students Justyce Bennett ’19 (anthropology and art history), Lindsay Wooleyhand ’19 (anthropology and English), and Emma Hugonnet ’19 (anthropology and educational studies) presented their St. Mary’s Project research in a session they created and directed, "Cross-Disciplinary Research: Cultivating Awareness and Activism Through Collaborative Research." The AnthroPlus graduate student conference took place at the University of Maryland College Park on Saturday, March 9, 2019.
The panel sought to look at how traditionally underrepresented groups can be seen and prosper through the use of interdisciplinary action.
Bennett based her St. Mary’s Project (SMP) on the ceramic pieces found on the College’s campus during excavation for the Jamie L. Roberts Stadium. With “Symbols of Resistance: The Star Motif in African American Visual Culture,” Bennett examines how the star motif in African American material culture is used to symbolize resistance and equality through the combination of art history and anthropology.
Wooleyhand’s SMP, “SlackWater Volume VIII: Im/migrant Experiences in Southern Maryland,” uses cultural journalism to reveal issues, challenges, and lifeways for immigrants in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. She examines existing oral histories in the SlackWater archives and produces a SlackWater journal issue, which is centered around immigration. SlackWater is a cultural journal published by St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Hugonnet’s “Education and Resistance: Academic Achievement Among Black Women in America,” is grounded in data released by the National Center for Educational Statistics stating that Black women are the highest degree-earning group on the basis of race and gender. Hugonnet’s SMP examines the phenomenon of black female academic success among alumni of Great Mills High School located in Great Mills, Maryland.
