The Researchers
Mentee & Mentor
Cabot Postal & Dr. Adriana Chira
Cabot studies the Bomi Hills iron mining concession in northwestern Liberia, 1944–1977 — what the extraction of iron meant for development, labor, and global politics. Dr. Chira's own work, Patchwork Freedoms, recovers the history of an underexplored Black peasantry in eastern Cuba, pieced together from fragmentary archival sources.
Mentee & Mentor
Laniah Bowdery & Dr. Kyrah Malika Daniels
Laniah researches Black women's multiple religious allegiances, comparing Memphis and Atlanta, the two cities that raised them. Dr. Daniels' forthcoming book examines religious healing traditions across Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo — work she traces to her own family's history.
In Their Own Words
Curiosity Is the Fuel
"Curiosity is the fuel that helps you be resilient in the face of these challenges."
-Dr. Adriana Chira
More Lenses
"The truth of the matter is we don't live in a world that is anthropology. We don't live in a world that is psychology or that is art history. We live in a world that is complex and that falls into different categories. So these are all just lenses to help us understand the world around us. And if that's the case, then more lenses can, I think, offer greater insight."
-Dr. Kyrah Malika Daniels
Social Importance
"I want my research to have a sort of social importance to it, in whatever way that can be."
-Cabot Postol
The Missing Puzzle Piece
"We know so many things already, but there's a missing puzzle piece. Sometimes humanities is that puzzle piece."
-Laniah Bowdery