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Bisa McDuffie-Thurmond
  • African American Studies and American Studies
  • Class of 2019
  • Brooklyn, NY

Bisa McDuffie-Thurmond Awarded Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship

2017 May 10

Bisa McDuffie-Thurmond was one of six students awarded a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship this spring. The fellowship is the centerpiece of the Andrew Mellon Foundation's initiatives to increase the presence of traditionally underrepresented groups in the faculty ranks of institutions of higher learning in the U.S.

Fellows participate in the program during the last two years of undergraduate study and receive a monthly stipend to offset work study requirements, modest research funds, and additional summer research funding as part of the fellowship. Upon successful completion of graduate study, Mellon Mays Fellows also receive up to $10,000 to assist in repayment of student loans.

McDuffie-Thurmond’s research is centered on extent to which the historical subjugation of black bodies is connected to the historical fluctuation in how sitting Presidents use their power. It is through that research that he hopes to uncover an answer to the question of the linkage between executive presidential power and civil right progress. In what ways and with what repercussions was the fluctuating use of executive power linked to this period of racial turmoil for Black Americans? “The first is the history of Black Americans in the U.S. The second is the lives of the U.S. presidents. Both the history of Black Americans and the individual impact of the various Presidents, are inextricably linked to the history and development of the U.S. My research will hope to uncover the extent to which the historical subjugation o black bodies is connected to the historical fluctuation in how sitting presidents use their power,” he said. McDuffie-Thurmond is majoring in African American studies and American studies.