While Black History Month officially ended on Friday, the topic is one that is always top of mind for many professors and experts here at the University of Delaware. Below are a small list of these experts and the areas they explore throughout the year. Click on their profiles or email mediarelations@udel.edu to connect.
Roderick Carey, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, can discuss the importance of gender and race diversity in teaching.
Ann Aviles and Ohiro Oni-Eseleh, both professors in the College of Education and Human Development, can share resources for displaced families and guidance for parents, educators and other community members who want to support them.
Yasser Payne, professor of sociology, examines notions of resilience, structural violence and gun violence with Black Americans.
·
2 min
Voter behavior and emotion, civil discourse, the spread of misinformation, the role of gender and race in politics and conspiracy theories are among the many topics University of Delaware experts can comment on during this final stretch of the 2024 campaign.
David Redlawsk Professor of Political Science and International Relations Expertise: Political psychologist who studies voter behavior and emotion, focuses on how voters process political information to make their decisions. He has written several books on politics, worked behind the scenes on campaigns and ran for local office. Dannagal Young Professor of Communication Director of the Center for Political Communication Expertise: The spread of misinformation in politics and the intersection of entertainment and information, with an emphasis on political satire, political media effects, public opinion and the psychology of political humor. Kassra Oskooii Professor of Political Science and International Relations Expertise: Focuses on the interplay between the contextual and psychological determinants of political opinions and behaviors of high and low status group members. Erin Cassese Professor of Political Science and International Relations Expertise: Explores the behavior of women as voters and candidates for political office, and studies political psychology, gender stereotypes, public opinion, elections and the intersection of religion and politics. Yasser Payne Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies Expertise: Research program also focuses on Black racial identity; street identity; economic and educational opportunity or the impact of structural violence. Tim Shaffer SNF Ithaca Director Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Chair of Civil Discourse Expertise: Civil discourse in politics; can talk about partisanship, polarization and their impact on media outlets. advancement of democratic practices by focusing on the role of civic professionals in institutional settings. Alice Ba Professor and acting chair, Political Science and International Relations. Expertise: Her work on the international relations of East and Southeast Asia examines the structures, processes, and systemic effects of regionalism and cooperative regime building, as well as relations between smaller and major powers. Joanne Miller Professor of American Politics, Research Methods and Political Psychology Expertise: Studies political psychology, with an emphasis on political propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories. Muqtedar Khan Professor of Comparative Politics, International Relations and Political Theory Expertise: Issues surrounding U.S. foreign policy in the Muslim World as well as national security and counter-terrorism. To speak with any of these experts, simply visit their profle and click on the "contact" button, which will send a message directly to them (while also copying UD's media relations team).
Media
Social
Biography
Yasser Arafat Payne is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. Dr. Payne’s street ethnographic research program examines policing and reentry; economic well-being and educational inequality; and gun violence with street-identified Black Americans by utilizing Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR)—the process of doing research and activism with street-identified populations. Dr. Payne’s work has appeared in Sociological Forum, Journal of Social Issues, Sociology Compass, and Race & Justice. Furthermore, Dr. Payne and his colleagues have also authored the book project titled "Murder Town USA: Homicide, Structural Violence and Activism in Wilmington" (Rutgers University Press).
Industry Expertise
Corrections
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise
Gun Violence
Street Ethnography
School Violence and School-To-Prison Pipeline
Experiences With Police
Ethnographic Field Research
Prison Reentry
Gangster Rap Music and Culture
Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR)
Media Appearances
What a rise in Wilmington shootings of women says about city violence
Local NAACP leaders' news briefings with police prompt criticism
NBC News online
2021-07-01
“Those press conferences represent more of the interest of the police, or city or state officials, than it does the people most aggrieved by police abuse,” said Yasser Payne, associate professor of sociology and Africana studies at the University of Delaware. “What we’ve seen is more assimilated, a compromise, that has lost any real integrity.”
Looking For Solutions Amid The Pandemic Homicide Spike
WUGA online
2021-06-10
But Yasser Payne says more policing is the last thing we need.
Payne is an associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Delaware. After thousands of conversations with mostly young Black men, he calls himself a street ethnographer. He says it’s really easy to look at violence as culturally deviant.
“And what we're saying is that, no, crime makes sense,” Payne said.
Enlighten Me: UD professor's gun violence research expands
Delaware Public Media online
2019-08-02
In this week’s Enlighten Me, Delaware Public Media’s Sophia Schmidt talks with one of the researchers leading that study, University of Delaware professor Dr. YasserPayne.
“Why I Can't Stand Out in Front of My House?”: Street‐Identified Black Youth and Young Adult's Negative Encounters With Police
Sociological Forum
2017
This street participatory action research (Street PAR) study organized 15 residents to document street-identified Black youth and adult's negative experiences with police in Wilmington, Delaware. Data were collected on mostly street-identified Black men and women aged 18–35 in the forms of (1) 520 surveys, (2) 24 individual interviews, (3) four dual interviews, (4) three group interviews, and (5) extensive field observations. Forty-two percent of survey participants reported being stopped by police in the last year. However, with the exception of being “stopped,” participants overall reported little negative contact with police at least within the past year. Chi-square and ANOVA analyses suggest an interactional relationship exists between race, gender, and age on experiences with police.
Street Participatory Action Research in Prison: A Methodology to Challenge Privilege and Power in Correctional Facilities
The Prisoner Journal
2018
This article presents a prison research model grounded in street participatory action research (Street PAR) methodology but programmatically facilitated in an Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program class. Street PAR’s nine tenets were adapted to a prison setting, and we demonstrate its promise with a brief case study of research projects at one prison location. This article also explores the challenges scholars and incarcerated persons as researchers may face in correctional facilities. Street PAR and Inside-Out can improve prison environments and successful transition to local communities as a function of equipping incarcerated persons with reading, writing, and analytic skill sets.
Predicting trust in police: the impact of instrumental and expressive concerns in street-identified Black-American men and women
Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management
2020
Purpose While the past few decades have witnessed a substantial number of studies on public attitudes toward the police, a relatively thin line of inquiry has focused exclusively on low income urban Black-Americans, and especially street-identified Black populations. The purpose of this paper, however, is to examine trust in police amongst street-identified Black men and women. Design/methodology/approach Relying on a street participatory action research methodological approach, the authors collected survey data ( N = 520) from two low-income unban Black neighborhoods, to examine the effects of an instrumental model versus an expressive model on procedural- and outcome-based trust in police.
“I Don’t let These Felonies Hold me Back!”: How Street-Identified Black Men and Women Use Resilience to Radically Reframe Reentry
Race and Justice
2021
This street participatory action research project trained 15 local residents to document a community sample of street-identified Black men and women’s (ages 18–35 years) experiences with reentry in two low-income Black neighborhoods. The following multi-method data were collected: (a) 520 surveys; (b) 24 individual interviews; (c) four dual interviews; and (d) three group interviews. Descriptive and univariate analysis of variance analysis revealed most participants as a function of gender and age-groups held positive attitudes toward reentry, overall; positive attitudes toward returning citizens; negative attitudes toward reentry programs; and negative attitudes toward the reentry process.
“Teachers think the kids around here, don't really want to learn”: Street‐identified black men and women's attitudes toward teachers and schooling
Sociology Compass
2022
This street participatory action research project explored the reflective schooling experiences of street identified Black men and women (ages 18–35) in two small low‐income neighborhoods. Secondary analysis of survey (N = 520) and interview (N = 46) data examined: (1) How are attitudes toward schooling and teachers affected by race, gender and age?; and (2) How do students utilize a street‐identity as a site of resilience inside schools? Overall, street‐identified study participants held positive attitudes toward schooling, but generally performed poorly in schools and had negative experiences with educators. No significance was found as a function of gender and age regarding attitudes toward schooling and attitudes toward teachers.
