“Girls on Fire” 2025
In March 2025, I presented at the National Council for Black Studies Conference. My presentation shared the preliminary findings of my work leading two youth teams with the Black Girlhood Collaborative research team housed in the UF College of Education, led by Dr. Taryrn Brown. For the youth teams, we used mixed research methods, including Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), arts-based methods, and interviews. The presentation was titled "Girls on Fire: Youth-Engaged Educational Research on Black Girls' Joy and Wellbeing in Education." An article about this work was published in the 2025 University of Florida Journal of Undergraduate Research.
BGC Youth Team
In 2024, I helped facilitate the outreach and launch of the Black Girlhood Collaborative Youth Team. The youth team met throughout the semester to engage in Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) focused on Black girls’ joy and wellbeing in educational contexts. I leaned on UC Berkeley’s YPAR Hub, the Black Girls S.O.A.R. Program and the SOLHOT program in developing a YPAR curriculum with support from Dahlia Fabregat. In 2025 and 2026, we were accepted for our five high school team members to present their research on “Black Girls’ Joy and Wellbeing” at the American Education Research Association (AERA) conference. We presented in April 2025 in Denver, Colorado as part of the READY (Research Engagement and Development with Youth) program.
Girl Talk! Program
The Black Girlhood Collaborative (BGC) team started the “Girl Talk!” Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) Program in the fall of 2022 at Pace Center for Girls of Alachua County. The program incorporates research methods including critical reading and discussion, written reflection, arts-based expression, interviews and performance ethnography. I developed a reading-based curriculum with support from Dr. Taryrn Brown in the UF College of Education and other team members, and co-led the “Girl Talk!” program from the 2024-2025 Academic Year in a critical reading of Girl on Fire.
Additional BGC Research
Afro-Latina College Student Testimonios
Place-Based Knowledge and Black Girls in Alternative Schools
Senior Honors Thesis in African American Studies titled “Girls on Fire: Freedom Dreams in Youth-Led Research on Black Girls’ Educational Experiences”
