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Chad Graham, a second-year Africana Studies student, received the University of Delaware nomination to the National Humanities Center virtual institute, “Podcasting the Humanities: Creating Digital Stories for the Public." Graham also received the Graduate Research Fund in Black and African American Material Culture in the Center of Material Culture Studies. This funding will support Chad's research on Yoruba based music and religious traditions, including Lukumi drum-making and Africana digital humanities.
Graham, an emerging Africana Studies and Africana Religions scholar, said the Podcasting the Humanities institute gave him the skills to use podcasts as an alternative medium for doing intellectual work which will help with his current thesis project, “Black Ecologies of Orisha Music." The thesis explores how Yoruba people in Cuba fostered a relationship with the natural environment to recreate their sacred drums and ritual music.
The podcast training sharpened his ability to effectively communicate technical and Africana religious terminology. “This includes the capacity to demonstrate the sounds, tempo, and phonetics associated with my subject, which is otherwise difficult to capture, “ Graham said. “I want to teach and inspire people to examine the wide range of human experiences, as my professors did for me, but in a new way. This institute is a major step toward that goal."