Congratulations to Glenetta Phillips who on Friday, December 15, 2024, successfully defended her dissertation. The title of Glenetta’s dissertation is: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF FORMERLY INCARCERATED BLACK MALE STUDENTS’ RESILIENCE FOLLOWING PARTICIPATION IN A PRISON-BASED EDUCATION PROGRAM.
A dissertation on the resilience of formerly incarcerated Black male students’ following participation in a prison-based education program, this qualitative study examined the extent to which formerly incarcerated students endured hardships such as mental health disorders, depression, and trauma-informed systemic racism. What was found through deep conversations and discussions with 12 Black males, from New York City, who grew up in harsh and impoverished neighborhoods, was how conditions significantly impacted their mental health and played a role in their final entanglement in the criminal justice system. Resiliency among Black college men facing threats of violence and oppressive situations, coupled with a cycle of mental health and emotional trauma, was fundamental to their courageous sense of pride, grit, pathways taken towards education, and their reintegration during and after incarceration.
This study is important because the results indicated that resiliency and a sense of pride play a large part in ameliorating links between mental health, trauma-informed disorders, impeded progress, and racial discrimination.
Dissertation Committee Chair:
Dr. Susan Iverson
Dissertation Committee Members:
Dr. Yiping Wan
