MIT Black Students' Union

Greetings everyone! My name is Jovonne J. Bickerstaff
and I'm the new Graduate Assistant for the BSU. Hailing from Akron, Ohio, I’m
an MIT alumna class of 2002 (Courses 11 & 21W). I am currently a 2nd year
doctoral candidate in Sociology at Harvard, but you should have no doubt: I will
always be an MIT girl at heart, so I know there’s really only ONE university in
Cambridge! While I was at MIT I was deeply involved in the Black community,
serving as Co-chair of the BSU from 2000 to 2001 and a member of the BWA Collective
[Executive Board] from 1999 to 2001, as well as participating in Black Theater
Guild productions throughout, and after, completing my undergraduate studies. I’ve
maintained my connection to the community since graduating by serving as a writing
instructor for Project Interphase in 2003, coordinating the 35th Anniversary for Project Interphase in 2004, and helping the BWA Collective with its annual retreat
in 2005.

On a more formal note, I’m also an alumna of the University of Cambridge (2005 – M.Phil. Social Psychology), which I attended on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, as well as a 2003 Fulbright grantee to France and current NSF Graduate Research Fellow and Ford Foundation Fellow. Over the last few years my research has centered on the racialization of French identity and how racialized representations of French-ness impact perceptions of life chances, equality and opportunity among Black French. I’m currently working on a collection of creative non-fiction essays drawing on my experience as a Black American woman researching identity and race in France, probing issues like:

• Paris and the myth of a Black utopia,
• Gendered approaches to race struggles,
• The meaning of citizenship for Western blacks, and
• Transnational constructions of "blackness".

My latest research project examines gender relations in the Black American community, particularly as it relates to conversation, secrets and spaces of silence, models of successful relationships, and what we learn implicitly and explicitly about gender roles in our families.

On a final note, being selected as the BSU Graduate Assistant is both a joy and an honor. My involvement with the Black community while an undergraduate and after was largely a result of the fact that my path would have been radically different without its support. I look forward to meeting, working with and getting to know all of you better over the next year as we fortify OUR community!