Jackson wins Tenth Decade grant to study Black Americans, group threat
Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science, has been
awarded $20,000 for their research project Race, Risks, and Responses:
Mapping Black Americans’ Response to Group Threat. The grant is part of a special call to Maxwell
faculty offering Tenth Decade Project funding to support research and
initiatives that confront systemic racial inequality.
Jackson’s
project builds on and expands their inquiry into how young Black Americans of
different social identities (across gender, class, sexual orientation,
embodiment, etc.) experience threats, especially policing, differently based on
variations in their social location and orientation to power. Jackson’s initial
research was based on interviews with 50 young Black Americans in Chicago. The
funding will support the development of a national survey to further generalize
their initial findings across racial groups.
“This project
is critical right now (and always) as it focuses on policing and young Black
Americans’ unique experiences at multiple margins of identity,” said Jackson. “There
is so much more we need to know about how threat shapes our modern political
system and what it means for those most vulnerable among us.”
Funded by the
Tenth Decade Project, the nationally representative survey will go into the
field in fall 2020. Data will be collected through early spring 2021. Jackson
intends to publish a book detailing the survey findings, along with interview
outcomes from young Black Americans from select U.S. cities, within the next
two years.
Maxwell’s Tenth
Decade Project, established in 2014 in connection with the School’s 90th
anniversary, serves as an incubator for multidisciplinary research on crucial
issues of citizenship, policy, and international affairs, including security, technology and autonomous systems, health,
governance, cities, inequality, development, and environment and
sustainability.
With lead funding from long-time Maxwell supporters Gerry and
Daphna Cramer, and additional gifts, the Tenth Decade Fund supports innovative
new projects and Maxwell faculty scholarship.
In summer 2020, the Maxwell School issued a
special call to invite proposals for research projects that bring attention to
systemic racial inequality and offer evidence-based solutions for how to
address persistent inequities. This special call has been extended for the
remainder of the academic year; proposals will be accepted and considered on a
rolling basis until April 30, 2021. Interested Maxwell faculty can email jsfergus@maxwell.syr.edu for eligibility and submission criteria.
09/21/20