I am Sheryl Felecia, a doctoral candidate in Education Sciences at the University of Kentucky and I am currently conducting my dissertation research in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. My research focuses on the Steve Biko Cultural Institute in Pelourinho and the course CCN, or Black Consciousness and Citizenship. I am interested in how students who enroll at the institute learn how to be black and what that black identity looks like. Being a researcher is sometimes difficult; a lot of the things that people normally do in groups – excursions and travel within the city or country – I do alone. There are lots of support systems here in Salvador including my amazing host family, several other researchers from the United States and some ex-patriots that help out when I’m a bit lost but, no one holds your hand at the bus stop when you’re on the way to your research site. I’ve learned to be self-reliant and spend as little as possible while relying on the adventure to come to me. (I know, I know – super cliché.)
My love for Latin America runs deep. When I was very young, I saw Celia Cruz on a Sesame Street segment and, the very next day, I started learning Spanish. My crush on Brazil didn’t begin until after I started graduate school in 2013. After doing some extensive reading in the main library on UK’s campus, I found a book. The second sentence read, “Brazil has the second largest Afro-descendent population in the world.” Since my senior thesis was on Dr. Carter G. Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro and I knew that I wanted to continue that work, expanding it to an investigation of the relationship between race, identity and education in Latin America, I put Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Panama aside (for the mean time). I started learning Portuguese using Duolingo in March of 2014 and haven’t slowed down yet.
This isn’t my first time in Brazil. I came to Salvador for the first time last year (2015) and was fortunate to be matched with my current host family. That trip served as the pilot study for my current research. Another happy circumstance surrounding my trip last year was a group of students from my undergraduate institution, Spelman College. Two of them happened to be in the same house and the three of us went on several excursions together around town, learning as we went along. Last year, I was brimming with excitement and anxious energy about what might happen while I was here. This year, most of those exciting things feel a bit like old hat. (But, that’s probably for the best since looking like a foreigner in any country makes one an easy target.) The hardest thing about being here is maintaining a certain degree of silence with regard to discrimination and racism in the area. On more than one occasion, I’ve been treated differently as a result of my color. These differences seem to evaporate the moment I start speaking English and that frustrates me on a daily basis. It was a slight adjustment to sit back and be completely ignored in a store on the basis of race; it’d happened to me before in New Jersey, Georgia and Kentucky but being abroad made it feel different somehow.
As a matter of fact, most of the more jarring adjustments I had to make in order to fit in here in Salvador were made during that time when everything was new and made me feel like a high school freshman. Although I was only here six weeks last year, I managed to contract three stomach viruses of various assortments, got bitten by at least ten mosquitoes in at least twelve different places, and learned just how delicate of a balance my natural hair requires in ninety degree heat with little to no cloud cover. However, I also learned more Portuguese than I could ever learn with an application on a Smartphone, I made new friends and incredibly valuable connections for my research and my future, and I have at least two adoptive “mothers” who will look out for me whenever I come to Brazil.
I suppose I say all of that because as frustrating, tiring, irritating, challenging, and stressful living abroad can be – for however brief a period – it is also a blessing, an opportunity, a learning experience, a growing period, and the perfect time to find out just who you really are when no one else can help you but you. My time here in Brazil is never perfect. Speaking from a research standpoint, I’m often let down by interviews or stood up by participants. Racism and classism are very real in this city and this country. Yet, I’ve never let that stop me from coming back or continuing to pursue the course and that’s how I know that I’ve grown.
Since I’m here to complete research, most of what I’m doing has to remain confidential for the sake of the privacy of my participants. However, I do post the occasional photo on my Instagram and I have been using the tags #theDrMeansProject, #blackresearcher, #blackgirlsresearchtoo, #diasporicconnections, #blackdoctoralcandidate, and #mypassportisvalid. Outside of my research, I started a great organization with some amazing women called m.a.g.i.c. or Maximizing Achievement for Girls in Careers. Check out our website and our Instagram page!
