Congratulations to Dr. R. Cassandra Lord, recipient of SSHRC-funded Insight Grant
The Department of Historical Studies is thrilled to congratulate Dr. R. Cassandra Lord on receiving a SSHRC Insight Grant for $101,842. SSHRC is the federal research funding agency that promotes and supports research and research training in the humanities and social sciences. The SSHRC Insight Grants are an investment to "advance knowledge and deepen our understanding of people, societies and the world."
Inside La Barbería: Redefining Afro-Cuban Male Style and Aesthetics As Principal Investigator, R. Cassandra Lord leads this 3-year ethnographic study examining Havana's Afro-Cuban barbershops as key sites where Afro-Cuban men negotiate and express new forms of Black masculinity. Emerging in the wake of Cuba's 2010 economic reforms, which expanded private enterprise, Havana's small barbershops have become sites of Afro-Cuban style and identity production, with barbers now pioneering Afro-Cuban men's style and grooming. Amid persistent racial and economic inequalities, these barbershops function as informal spaces for articulating Afro-Cuban identity at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class. The grant will support the creation of a Community-Building Resource for Afro-Cuban Barbers, to promote informal networks for resource-sharing and peer-to-peer professional development, as well as undergraduate training in feminist qualitative research supported by a community-based researcher in Cuba and Research Assistants trained through the WGSS Feminist Undergraduate Research Hub. |
