海角论坛

July 30, 2018 鈥�  is one of Georgetown鈥檚 newer faces. This fall, he鈥檒l help welcome its newest faces by leading one of the Georgetown 海角论坛 Ignatius Seminars.

Fields, the Idol Family Term Chair in the , will lead the seminar 鈥淏lackness as an Organizing Strategy: Black Participation in Post-Civil Rights Social Movements,鈥� open to incoming first-year students in the Fall 2018 semester.

RACE, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY

Fields arrived on the Hilltop last fall after spending six years at Stanford University.

He was drawn to both the faculty in the Department of Sociology and the university as a whole.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a contingent of young, next-generation scholars who are doing fun, interesting, theoretically compelling work here. The prospect of coming to join that crew was really appealing,鈥� Fields. 鈥淭he university itself also seemed committed to grappling with the same kind of issues that really animate my work 鈥� issues of race, culture, and society.鈥�

ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM

Fields鈥� interest in unusual overlapping identities 鈥� as he puts it, 鈥減eople who do things you wouldn鈥檛 expect them to do鈥� 鈥� led him to conduct a yearlong academic study on young women who have taken up knitting. While working on that project, he started thinking about other similarly incongruous groups, eventually arriving at a unique specialty: Black Republicans.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not a monolithic experience. Black Republicans have lots of different experiences within the party, depending in part on their motivations for being there,鈥� Fields said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a perception of Black Republicans having weak or nonexistent Black identities, and I haven鈥檛 found that to be the case at all.鈥�

Fields published a book, , in October 2016. While the national political landscape has shifted significantly since then, his insights are still very much applicable.

鈥淭hings have changed, but the broader themes of the book are actually playing out,鈥� Fields said. 鈥淥ne of the biggest messages was that you will know Black Republicans by the white leadership of the party 鈥� and that鈥檚 certainly the case.鈥�

EXPANDING RESEARCH

In recent years, Fields has expanded his research on Black identity and shifted its focus to representation of Blackness in the commercial spheres. He鈥檚 well suited to study the subject, having worked for six years in advertising before pursuing a graduate degree.

鈥淚 wanted to look at a context where racial identity operates almost like a human capital skill,鈥� Fields said. 鈥淚f Coca-Cola or McDonalds says 鈥榃e want to market our products to black audiences in a compelling way,鈥� a black advertising agency can say 鈥楬ey, we can do this.鈥欌��

Fields will explore multiple levels of Blackness in advertising, from the experience of Black people working in agencies to the mainstreaming of multicultural marketing to the incorporation of race issues into business culture.

鈥淚鈥檓 really excited about that project 鈥� I think it鈥檒l start to explore the ways race gets incorporated into the institutional missions and business practices of companies, not just at the individual worker level鈥� he said.