Borne from a series of tweets about academia, being a Black “first” or “only”, and hiring and promotion, the BPPP collaborative team includes researchers at various career stages who bring both personal experience and research expertise with regard to the issues that marginalized scholars face in academia.
Dr. Shantel Gabrieal Buggs, Ph.D
Co-Primary Investigator, Florida State University
Dr. Buggs is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Florida State University. She specializes broadly in culture, race and racism, gender, intimacy, digital life, and work inequity in academia. Most of Dr. Buggs’ current published work explores how race and ethnicity, gender, and sexuality shape the ways that people build and negotiate intimate relationships; however, she has several collaborative projects that explore the experiences of racially and gender marginalized faculty and students at universities in addition to the BPPP. You can read more about her research and writing at her website or follow her on Twitter.
Email me: sbuggs@fsu.edu
Dr. Whitney N. Laster Pirtle, Ph.D.
Co-Primary Investigator, University of California, Merced
Dr. Pirtle is an Associate Professor of Sociology and McArthur Foundation Chair in International Justice and Human Rights at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced), where she also directs the Sociology of Health and Equity (SHE) Lab. Dr. Pirtle has interdisciplinary expertise in critical race theory, social inequality, health disparities and health equity, Black feminist sociology and praxis, and mixed methodologies. Some of her recent relevant work detailed the terrain women of color must navigate in academia, and explored anti-Black institutional embeddedness as experienced by Black students at a Hispanic Serving Institution. You can read more about their research and writing at their website or their Twitter.
Email me: wpirtle@ucmerced.edu
Dr. prabhdeep singh kehal, Ph.D.
Research Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
dr. kehal is a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They specialize broadly in how racism, misogyny, and colonialism are experienced in cultural organizations, and how equity-based policies are implemented in such knowledge-based settings, such as in defining hirable merit in the elite US research professoriate. While dr. kehal’s published work explores how historic forms of exploitation influence the preservation of elite US academic cultures, their collaborative and future work considers how people create their own senses of self (subjectivity formation in settler colonial and post-colonial contexts), and how they use sites of knowledge – universities, libraries, or archives – to address the material inequalities they experience. You can read more about their research and writing at their website or their Twitter.
Bernard Coles IV, MA
Research Associate, Duke University
Bernard Coles is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at Duke University. He is a data-driven research scientist highly skilled in data analysis and visualization, with a focus on diversity and equity. Coles has over seven years of experience utilizing these skills to uplift the needs of communities of color by analyzing networks and historical patterns to create innovative solutions to their needs. His dissertation illuminates how adolescent experiences impact adolescent development and adult health outcomes by race. You can read more about his research on Twitter.
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BLACK Ph.D. PIPELINE PROJECT 