D.O.P.E. Black Girl Research Collective is a community-engaged research partnership of Black women scholars at the University of Kentucky College of Education, Berea College, and the Lexington Housing Authority. D.O.P.E. is an acronym outlining the principles we apply to community-engaged research and scholarship with Black women, girls, and communities across the central Kentucky region. D.O.P.E.: Determined, anti-Oppressive, Purpose-driven, Engaged.
Black Girl Joy Fest
A Presentation of a Photovoice Research Project with Black Girls
Event Information
Saturday, October 21, 2023
Lexington Living Arts and Science Center
362 North Martin Luther King Boulevard
Lexington, Kentucky 40508
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
10:00 - 11:00 AM - Red Carpet Family Photos
11:00 AM -12:00 PM - Photovoice Research Presentation
12:00 - 4:00 PM - Food, music, dancing, field day activities, Black women authors spotlight, S.T.E.M. stations, and fun for all those who love Black girls
After being awarded a $50,000 Community-Engaged Research grant by UNITE RPA at the University of Kentucky, the D.O.P.E. Black Girl Research Collective embarked on an 18-month study with Black Girls and the Lexington Housing Authority. Our research goal was to explore Black girlhood post-2020, that is, after the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the seemingly regressive anti-Black policies in public education. The study revealed a number of topics Black girls are grappling with. However, Black Girl Joy is the overwhelming intervention to the social, political, economic, and cultural ills that Black girls did not create but impact their quotidian lives. To that end, we invite teachers, social workers, parents, policymakers, law enforcement, and any persons with connections to or interest in positively contributing to the lives of Black girls and women.
Register for Black Girl Joy Fest
By registering for this event, you hereby grant permission to the University of Kentucky and its affiliates and subsidiaries, including but not limited to the UK Alumni Association, UK Athletics Association and UK Research Foundation, to interview, photograph and/or videotape me, or my minor child, and/or to supervise any others who may do the interview, photography and/or videotaping and/or to use and/or permit others to use information from the aforementioned interview and/or the aforementioned images in educational and promotional activities for the following without compensation:
- University Educational Publications/Videos
- University Electronics Publishing (e.g. World Wide Web)
- Any University Social Media Initiatives
- University Promotion/Advertising
- Local/regional/national news media (w/permission of the University of Kentucky).
Hashtags: #BlackGirlJoy #BlackGirlJoyFest #DOPEBlackGirlResearchCollective
Meet the Research Team
Dr. Thais Council
Principal Investigator
Dr. Thais Council is an award-winning Assistant Professor of Literacy and the Assistant Director of Community Engagement for the Education and Civil Rights Institute (ECRI) in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. She is also a Faculty Affiliate of African American and Africana Studies. Her scholarship wrestles with socioeconomics, subtractive schooling narratives, deficit-inducing literacy practices, and Black womanhood to interrogate displacement, dispossession, and disposability in historically Black communities and schools. Through carefully enacted community-engaged research methods, primarily participatory and ethnography, Dr. Council weaves policy, and practice with the lived experiences of the marginalized – Black women and girls, climate- and housing policy-displaced, widely-defined refugee and immigrant communities.
Dr. LeAnna Luney
Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. LeAnna T. Luney is an assistant professor of African and African American Studies at Berea College. Her scholarship centralizes Black girls’, womxn’s, and femmes’ lived experiences in educational institutions using theoretical and praxis-driven frameworks of Black feminism and decolonization. Dr. Luney specifically focuses on Black girls’, womxn’s, and femmes’ practices of coping and care using intersectional ethnographic research methodologies to create and implement equitable policy in P20 educational systems. Her other scholarship includes educational activism, and supporting students, families, and communities in re-creating and implementing equitable policy in education systems. She has led workshops on diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education, provided cost-free Ethnic Studies reading groups to marginalized communities, mentored undergraduate students on research methodologies, facilitated culturally relevant coping courses to high school students, and has been an invited discussant in numerous campus, departmental, and community talks. She was awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship in 2014, and the 2020 Ethnic Studies Summer Research Grant, the 2020 Ruth Glenn Scholarship, 2020 Ethnic Studies Best Paper Award, and the 2021 Arts and Sciences Consortium of Committees on Climate, Equity, Inclusion and Diversity from the University of Colorado Boulder. Additionally, Dr. Luney was selected for the 2023-2024 Mellon Periclean Faculty Leaders program. Her work has been published in The Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, The Griot: The Journal of African American Studies, Research Issues in Contemporary Education, Frontiers in Education, and book various volumes. Dr. Luney finds joy caring for her dogs and garden, and being in community with loved ones.
Dr. Luney earned a PhD in Comparative Ethnic Studies (with a specialization in Africana Studies) and Certificate in College Teaching from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2021, a M.A. in Pan-African Studies from the University of Louisville in 2018, and a B.A. in African and African American Studies and Psychology from Berea College in 2016.
Tiffany Clark
Tiffany Clark, Manager Specialist for the Lexington Housing Authority, worked closely with Dr. Brandi White on a UK-funded project to identify barriers and facilitators to achieving heart healthy levels of physical activity for African American women in public housing. She also participated in the Remembering Community Angels that her Daughter Zaria Founded along with Peace Walks; an event organized in honor of her son, a victim of gun violence. She recently joined the community fight against gun violence after her son, Zion, was murdered last year. Her involvement with the survivor's group led by Chief Kathy Witt of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department has given her a voice in the Lexington community. She chooses not to call herself a community leader, but a dedicated survivor, a mother determined to be the voice of her son.
Haley Brents
Research Assistant
Haley Brents is a 2022 graduate of the University of Kentucky and is currently a Special Education teacher in Fayette County Public Schools. During her time at the University of Kentucky, she was a William C. Parker Scholar, Still We Rise Scholar, Alma Lee Allen Special Education Scholar, and a James and Patsy Education Scholar. As a student she served as a resident advisor, a teaching assistant, and an executive board member of several student organizations. Upon degree completion, Haley was selected to be the spring 2022 student commencement speaker for her graduating class. She now continues her excellence with the University as a research assistant in the UKY College of Education.
Haley is a Louisville native and began her work in social justice prior to starting her collegiate and professional careers. She was deeply connected to her community through her work with the Muhammad Ali Center Council of Students as a high school student and then a Muhammad Ali Center Council of Students Collegiate Mentor. She continues her work with the Ali Center as the alumni chair for the Muhammad Ali Center Youth Alumni Board. Haley was also a high school member of the One Love Louisville Youth Implementation team, where she advised Mayor Greg Fischer on the needs of youth in the West end of Louisville, as well as, violence prevention strategies for youth. In working on the implementation team, she served as a National Youth Violence Prevention Week planning moderator for Louisville and one of two Louisville youth representatives for the 2018 United States Conference of Mayors.
Additionally, She has had the opportunity to be a civic youth fellow for the Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhood where she Participated in a 7-week research fellowship under Ambassador Attallah Shabazz. During that time Haley shared in the creation of the Youth Coalition of Louisville 2020. Through the coalition, she organized and collaborated with other Louisville youth to build a collective network of young adult organizations working to fight against injustice.
As she continues to plant roots, Haley enjoys finding ways to engage with other youth who share her passions for social justice and research. She plans to continue her advocacy and scholarship in the worlds of community-based research, outreach, and special education.
Amica Snow
Research Assistant
Amica Snow is a native of Lexington, Kentucky and a graduate of Tates Creek High School where she graduated with an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma, a 4.9 GPA, and at the top 10 percent of her class. Amica earned the Good Citizen Award, History Makers of Tomorrow Award, and Principal Scholars Award from Tates Creek High School . Amica is deeply connected to her community and frequently volunteers at the Urban Impact after-school program and the Men’s Hope Center. During her time at the University she has continued her volunteer work, is an executive officer for Minority Education Association in the College of Education, a Chellgren fellow (through the Chellgren Center). Amica also made the Dean’s list both semesters of her freshman year.