Fellowship
The Social Justice Reader Program
Inspired by a nationwide call to action and with the guidance of community advisors, the Institute Library is pleased to present the Social Justice Reader Program, a fellowship opportunity for African American New Haven high school students to explore race as a social construct, racial justice, and racism from the disciplinary perspective of their choice.
Working with a mentor, students have established an area of concentration and identified a guiding question which has become the foundation of a project they will present publicly at the end of the fellowship.
The outward facing goal of this program is to nurture a commitment to racial justice in the greater New Haven area and beyond. The inward facing goal is to provide support to young adults that will help them grow as individuals and prepare them to become leaders in their communities and in their professions. Students are paid a stipend for their course of study.
The students for this program are intellectually curious, courageous in their desire to learn and have the willingness to commit to a rigorous eight-month program of study.
Social justice Reader Staff
Dr. Freda Grant is the Program Manager for the Social Justice Reader Fellowship. A native of New Haven, Grant holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Ethnic studies as well as a Master’s Degree in Women’s Studies from Southern Connecticut State University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Public Policy and a Postgraduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender studies from Union Institute & University. Her dissertation “Words of Fire: Stories of Gender Entrapment Among Black Women Remanded to Connecticut’s Family Violence Education Program” explores the connection between racism, public policy and the criminalization of Black women who experience intimate partner violence.
Freda is the Director of Institutional Equity Compliance & Support and ADA 504 Coordinator at Sacred Heart University as well as an Adjunct Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies at Southern Connecticut State University.