Black Funeral Practices 

My ongoing first book project is tentatively titled, Death Work and the Body: Contemporary Black Funeral Practices in the United States, examines Black funeral practices in the US by analyzing the practices of death care and the discourses and imaginaries surrounding them with special attention paid to the prominence of the dead body in funeral service. This project recognizes the heterogeneity of these practices and investigates how they are being negotiated, contested, and may be transforming—as the American funeral industry is in unprecedented flux due to market changes, shifts in consumer preferences and, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.

This research has been funded by the Ford Foundation; the National Science Foundation (NSF); Social Science Research Council (SSRC); and the University of Chicago’s Department of Anthropology; Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture; and Social Sciences Division.

Preserving the African Burial Ground

My MA (NYU, Social & Cultural Analysis) thesis chronicled the preservation struggle over the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan in New York City. I employed archival methods and in depth interviews with activists and other key figures who participated in the memorialization efforts in the 1990s. Using museological theory, I argued that the African Burial Ground is a memorial museum intended to honor the dead, educate audiences, and inculcate collective belonging. However, because of the history of slavery and its continued relevance to contemporary racial politics, the site remains highly contested with multiple—and frequently competing— meanings.

To learn about my work as a research consultant click here.