Recent Work

The Center for Black Studies Research is one of the research units within the Office of Research at UCSB. Our academic mission is to organize, promote, and administer interdisciplinary research among faculty and students on the social, political, historical, cultural, and economic experiences of people of African descent primarily in California, other parts of the U.S., and the Caribbean. Our mission is to disseminate the research products and the ideas generated therein through a variety of mechanisms including working papers, edited volumes, special editions of journals, conferences, and colloquia.

Black California Dreamin': The Crises of California's African-American Communities

(2012)

Black California Dreamin’: The Crises of California’s African-American Communities presents a diverse group of essays highlighting particular issues facing black communities in California. In this co-edited volume, the authors engage in thought-provoking analyses that include topics such as gentrification, education, foreclosures, homelessness, migration, incarceration, entrepreneurship, urban renewal, gun violence, youth violence, community building, asset stripping, black-brown relations, art as resistance, and the criminalization of poverty. The volume serves as an interdisciplinary contribution to the body of work in Black California Studies.