Bennett College for Women September 6, 2013 Bennett Professor Participates in Mellon Seminar in Brazil Bennett College's Dr. Karla McLucas, assistant professor of sociology, recently participated in the UNCF/Mellon International Faculty Seminar in Brazil where the theme was Afro-Aesthetics in Brazil...and Beyond: Exploring Transnational Blackness and Beauty. During this immersion seminar, there were 11 faculty participants from United Negro College Fund (UNCF) institutions and partnering universities in Brazil. It was a packed ten days of sightseeing and networking activities. Engaging lectures were delivered from scholarly activists and students from both Brazil and the United States. The experience was so fascinating, in fact, Dr. McLucas plans to develop a Bennett College special topics course on the subject. "My participation in the program enhanced my knowledge about the sociological theories inter-sectionality of race, class, gender and identity, and it broadened by research interests to include the social, cultural, educational and economic challenges facing many Afro-Brazilians," she said. During the seminar, McLucas developed her research project called Hair, Body, Being: Identity and the Challenges of the Aesthetics of Blackness among African-Descendent College Women in the Diaspora. Dr. McLucas believes her examination of the subject could help faculty and parents better understand why some students continue to focus on "superficial outward appearances." "In my opinion, it is especially important to help students to understand how to negotiate and reduce gendered and racialized aesthetic hierarchies in United States culture," said Dr. McLucas. "I want more students to learn to or enhance their appreciation as to how the transnational ideas of African/Black beauty can be utilized to value, instead of devalue, their identity as women of color and to promote equality and inclusiveness of various aspects of beauty in the multi-cultural global society." The professor also says she hopes to develop more dialogues among Afro-Brazilian and African American women from the campus community so they may discuss potential strategies that will resolve race, class, gender and identity issues in the African Diaspora. After three years, 2013 marks the end of the UNCF/Mellon International Faculty Seminars in Brazil. A domestic seminar is being planned for the summer of 2014. Presently, there are discussions to hold future seminars in France. For more information about UNCF/Mellon programs, visit http://www.uncfmellon.org/faculty. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.