Negotiating Past Black Media
My research explores how past black media texts function in the lives of black college students and contribute to their conceptions of blackness. Drawing on in-depth interviews, focus groups and textual analyses, my project examines how past media shape black cultural memories thus highlighting shifting constructions of blackness in popular culture. I am particularly interested in the ways students, who did not experience black media texts in their original temporal context, leverage past black media to substantiate their conceptions of generational difference. Additionally, I investigate how participants’ gendered positionalities inform their readings and memories of past black media texts.