Art Education and African American Studies, Summer 2026

Hands of Remembrance: An African Diasporic Fiber Arts Memory-Making Praxis is a transnational, practice-based dissertation that examines Afro-Bahamian straw plaiting and Gullah Geechee sweetgrass weaving as embodied forms of knowledge and memory-making. Through fieldwork in the Bahamas and South Carolina, the project explores how Black women makers sustain ecological knowledge, cultural memory, and intergenerational traditions through plant-based fiber arts practices. By positioning the hands as sites of knowledge production, the research reframes craft as both a method of inquiry and a system of meaning-making, contributing new insights to African Diaspora Studies, art education, and material culture.