This page provides highlights of what I have been working on! For a full rundown of my projects and work, see my CV on the About page.
Publications
Second Year Paper Publications
My Second Year Paper was a mixed method content analysis of news articles on the #BlackLivesMatter movement in two news outlets: Slate and TheBlaze. Through this analysis, I discuss the way that politically polarized news outlets draw on similar themes in coverage but deploy contrasting controlling images of activists and police officers in an effort to influence the racial formation of U.S. society. This research resulted in two publications:
“#BlackLivesMatter News Coverage: Examining Racial Projects and Hegemonic Imagery.” An article in the special “All Black Lives Matter” issue of Understanding and Dismantling Privilege Journal, Volume 12, Issue 1.
“Black Lives Matter in Polarized News Media: Politics, Policing, Prejudice, and Protest.” Chapter 9 in Systemic Racism in America: Sociological Theory, Education Inequality, and Social Change (1st Edition), edited by Rashawn Ray and Hoda Mahmoudi. New York: Routledge.
Dissertation Publications
My ongoing dissertation research is a qualitative interview study on Black millennial meaning making surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement. The first published article from this work examines the perceived success and imagined future impact of the movement in U.S. society.
“Black Lives Matter and Imagined Futures of Racial Dynamics in the US.” Published online first in Social Movement Studies. To be officially published in a special issue on social movements’ role in negotiating the future.
“Trump Doesn’t Tweet Dog Whistles, He Barks with the Dogs: Crimmigration as a Racial Project through the Lens of Trump’s Twitter”
Book chapter co-authored with Dr. Rashawn Ray
In this study, we conducted a content analysis of Trump’s tweets about immigrants and immigration to uncover how they may support “crimmigration” — the convergence of criminal law and immigration procedures — as a racial project that shapes the racial formation of the United States.
We also published a blog piece on this research in the Border Criminologies blog hosted by the University of Oxford. Check it out here!
Ongoing Academic Work
1. Black Millennial Perspectives on #BlackLivesMatter — My dissertation project centers the perspectives of Black millennials in discussing the Black Lives Matter movement and its place in the history of race in the U.S. I use interviews with 36 Black millennials living in the US to explore various topics related to the movement and its place in society.
2. Black Death Imagery & Black Liberation — In this work, my co-authors Shaonta’ Allen and Korey Tillman and I examine the role of Black death imagery in eras of Black liberation activism. We theorize about the impact and utility of these images in the context of the long history of their production, deployment, and consumption.
3. Our White Mothers – A Dual Autoethnography — Angelica Loblack and I use autoethnographic essays and cross analysis to examine our experiences with racial socialization from our white mothers as Black biracial women. We examine how these experiences lead to a phenomenon she terms “reflective resistance,” a concept which she developed through other research on multiracial identity and experiences.
Scholar Activism
June 15, 2020 — Released an Introductory Guide to #BlackLivesMatter for people who want to better understand the movement and need a starting point! Head over to my Blog page of this website to see my post about the guide and access the link!
June 14, 2020 — Appearance on Episode 3 of the #AnotherHashtag IG TV/Live Series (@another_hashtag) hosted by Jourdan (@lemonsvibe) and Jessica (@jayyymariee). Visit the show’s IG page and engage with us in the comments!
SOCY Simone 