On Thursday April 13th at 3:30-4:45, Drs. Julia Charles, Adrienne Duke, and Jessica Fripp will be holding a panel in the library auditorium on the first floor about Jordan Peele’s latest movie success, Get Out. Promoted by the Africana Studies Program, this talk will emphasize on black mental health, a discussion of what Dr. Charles calls “social hypnosis,” as well as the representation of black women in the film as it relates to the social position of black women in America.
In her second year at Auburn in the English Department, Dr. Charles has been doing talks around campus for the past couple of weeks that relate to the condition of black Americans. In February she did a talk on Ava Duvernay’s 13th, and in March did a panel with the Ladies Society of Collegiate Success called “Confessions of the New Black Woman.” Her focus is African American literature, and her academic work in progress concerns racial passing narratives from the 20th century Harlem Renaissance.
Dr. Duke works in the Human Development and Family Studies Department—her focus in her research has been with “integrating theoretical understandings of youth development into programs that promote positive outcomes for youth. Currently, she is studying bullying in schools and how to foster environments that promote “positive peer relationships” over bullying. She serves as Faculty Advisor/Director for the Young Women Leaders Program, a mentor program for junior high school girls, and also focuses on teaching anti-racism in HDFS.
From the Special Education, Rehabilitation, and Counseling Department, Dr. Fripp teaches Masters students in Counseling and Counseling supervision and has been at Auburn for two years. Her career in teaching focuses on creating open and tolerant environments for people of color and pushing back against stigma toward people of color in counseling as well as helping to change views of counseling in communities of color. Her research interests consist of “institutional racism, the role of attitude, stigma, and trust among People of Color within the mental health community, community education towards increasing recruitment and retention of diverse populations in mental health settings” (Dr. Fripp’s website).
According to Dr. Chalres, this panel was inspired by a Black Student Union meeting held during Alpha week that was an open discussion of the themes and reaction to Peele’s movie. Through this talk, Drs. Fripp, Duke, and Charles hope to start more discussion about the treatment of black people in American society and to open the floor to those with diverse and differing opinions about Peele’s film.