Advanced PhD Dissertation Fellowship

Iman Lathan is a former Division I women’s basketball player and a Southern California native. Currently, she is a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Culture, Policy, and Society within the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her research revolves around exploring the commodification of Black women’s bodies, neoliberalism, NCAA, sports, and the Diaspora.

Description of dissertation project: This research delves into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)'s internal mechanisms that shape the Division-I educational pathway and its role as a secondary diasporic conduit for Black female basketball student-athletes, at a time when NCAA Division I women’s basketball reaches an all-time high in popularity. In so doing, I aim to unravel how the neoliberal intercollegiate sports model engages, exploits, and disposes individuals descended from the African Diaspora to sustain its operations. The research delves into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a neoliberal structure, akin to a secondary diasporic vessel, directing Black female student-athletes—descendants of the Black Atlantic Diaspora—to predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Employing Black feminist thought (BFT) and a queer diasporic lens, this study seeks to examine how Black female ball players, coaches, and parents perceive their roles, positions, and experiences within the confines of the NCAA's neoliberal structures. 

My proposed research seeks to not only to bridge the gap in NCAA, race, women, and sport research but also to offer an innovative perspective on understanding the dynamics of people's movement and the influence wielded by modern institutions of higher education. The objective of my study will be carried out using semi-structured interviews, archival analysis, and a content analysis of the NCAA Instagram account. Furthermore, by drawing upon Black feminism and a queer diasporic lens, my aim is to provide a fresh perspective on comprehending the complexities of human mobility and the impact of contemporary higher education institutions.

Nikita Das is a PhD Candidate from the Department of Anthropology. In the past, she has engaged in policy advocacy and worked on governance-related issues in the Indian electricity sector, with a special focus on renewables. For her dissertation research she conducted extensive fieldwork in rural Eastern India. Her research explores the informal livelihoods afforded by a modest three-wheeler electric vehicle [EV] and the crucial role that forces of reproduction, most notably women’s labor, play in making this livelihood strategy, as well as the energy transition that it supports, a reality. Her dissertation sheds light on the complexities, inequities and contradictions that pervade the process of energy transition and keep the labor of women invisible in the Global South and the world.