UROP Project
Mothers of the Archive
Black Feminist Thought, Ethnography, Qualitative Research, Subjectivity in Research, Memory, Literature
Research Mentor: Ms. Jade Jemison, She/Her
Department, College, Affiliation: English, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: ij24@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Department, College, Affiliation: English, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: ij24@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
LMC, Creative Nonfiction, Preferred
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 6-8, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Open to all majors
LMC, Creative Nonfiction, Preferred
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required: Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 6-8, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:
- Day: Tuesday, September 1
Start Time: 1:00
End Time: 1:30
Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/9270455369 - Day: Tuesday, September 1
Start Time: 3:00
End Time: 3:30
Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/9270455369 - Day: Wednesday, September 2
Start Time: 12:30
End Time: 1:00
Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/9270455369
Project Description
My dissertation project, The Mothers Who Raised Me, is a hybrid memoir-in-essays chronicling the women who have played pivotal roles in my life across childhood to adulthood. As for my scholarly research focus, I explore representations of mother/daughter relationships, how they are portrayed across media and texts, and how those representations impact the ways in which we raise our children.For this UROP project, Research Assistants will analyze a list of texts, provide critical analysis of relationships presented, and research critical and cultural commentary based on the texts. They will explore the rhetorics behind the ways women are represented through image, bodily autonomy, socioeconomics and classism, racism, and reproductive rights and health. Students will also contribute to active archival research, including opportunities to assist in site visits to local collections. Through this fieldwork, they will observe the 'ethnographic archivism' required to preserve Black women's histories, directly supporting the project’s goal of subverting traditional narratives in favor of lived experience.
In the end, Research Assistants will have a better understanding of how rhetorics, representations of specific demographics, and media impact societal expectations of women. We will work together to create a database for these texts, tag them for their specific themes, and discuss our findings during biweekly meetings.
Research Tasks: Research Contributions:
Research and organize findings on critical and cultural criticism based on individual texts in a group database: shared digital workspace (e.g., Notion or Google Drive).
Analyze selected archives, articles, and media texts for maternal themes and patterns.
Identify and tag recurring themes or tropes related to motherhood and daughterhood within text.
Conduct archival fieldwork: potentially assist in site visits to regional archives, documenting findings and observing the intersection of physical preservation and narrative construction.
Professional Development:
Engage in biweekly reflexivity journaling and ethnographic note-taking.
Participate in informal discussions about identity, subjectivity, and representation.
Contribute to a final presentation for the UROP Spring Symposium.
Keep track of time via workspace (Time Squared)
Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required:
Due to the thematic focus for my project, mentees should have personal experience navigating a mother-daughter or maternal relationship — whether through lived experience, caregiving roles, or as someone shaped by maternal figures. This may include complex, estranged, or non-traditional dynamics. This experience would better assist them in their analysis of themes, and how and when to recognize them in the work. It’ll also help with their reflexivity notes.
Critical media literacy and cultural analysis
Awareness of subjectivity and researcher positionality (capability to learn)
Recommended:
Reflexive writing and self-assessment capabilities
Qualitative data organization and tagging
Archival thinking and thematic categorization
Collaborative research and communication
Literature and media analysis
Interest in fieldwork and site-based research: Enthusiasm for exploring physical archives, conducting on-site documentation, and engaging with primary source collections.
Mentoring Philosophy
My mentoring style is grounded in care, connection, and critical reflection (on both sides). I aim to foster a safe, open, and supportive environment where students feel seen, respected, and encouraged to explore both their intellectual and personal growth.My approach is collaborative and student-centered. I meet mentees where they are, tailoring my involvement to their individual needs — whether that means hands-on support, structured guidance, or room for autonomy. In addition to our research expectations, our time together will include regular check-ins, conversations about future goals, and shared strategies for navigating difficult topics or relationships, especially those that intersect with our research themes. Research assistants may also schedule meetings with me outside of our regular meeting times to discuss graduate applications, academia, or other related topics.
I also believe that mentorship should be reciprocal and humanizing. I bring in my own lived experience and vulnerabilities where relevant, not to center myself, but to model growth, accountability, and the courage to ask hard questions. We will work together not only on skill-building and research development, but on how to build networks, receive feedback, manage emotional labor, and sustain curiosity in the face of challenges.
Ultimately, I want students to leave our work together with more confidence in their voice, a deeper understanding of their positionality, and tools they can carry into both academic and personal pursuits.
Additional Information
Hours spent watching media or reading and evaluating texts are included in mentoring hours.This work will create a scholarly foundation for the creative and critical writing portions of my dissertation. Through the nature of their research tasks, Research Assistants will be working closely with my personal reading list and assisting me with my secondary media list.