The Black Women and Pleasure Project

Description of research project: Broadly, this project seeks to understand the sources of and uses of pleasure in Black women’s lives in the age of social media. The methods for this study are virtual interviews with straight and queer Black women (ages 18 to 35) across the U.S.; virtual interviews with Black women who are social media pleasure educators; and qualitative analysis of the pleasure educators’ social media content. Analysis of these data will shed lighton the following topics: how social life shapes straight and queer Black women’s sources of pleasure; how pleasure and desire show up in straight and queer Black women’s sexual identity formation trajectories; and how Black women pleasure educators define the uses of pleasure for Black women on social media.

Description of work that will be assigned to research assistants: RAs can work on various aspects of the project. The main tasks will be: managing social media ads to recruit participants; scheduling interviews; taking analytical notes during some interviews; transcribing interviews; and organizing and writing analytical notes about social media posts.

Graduate student contact information: Please email Maya Glenn (mayglen@umich.edu) with (1) your unofficial transcript and (2) a brief statement (1 paragraph) that explains why you are interested in this project and what you hope to gain from working on it. Include “SURO” in your subject line.

Supervising faculty member: Dr. Karin Martin

Average hours of work per week: 3-9 hours

Range of credit hours students can earn: 1-3

Number of positions available: 3