Bio

Amanda Boston is an assistant professor of Africana studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Her current projects explore gentrification’s racial operations in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, and their role in the making and unmaking of the borough’s Black communities. As an Arts Research with Communities of Color Fellow, she will conduct a year-long ethnographic research project with the Brooklyn-based Laundromat Project. Boston holds a PhD and an MA in Africana studies from Brown University, an MA in political science, and a BA in political science and African & African American studies from Duke University. She is a trustee emerita of Brown and a member of the board of directors of the Municipal Art Society of New York. She also sits on the alumni council of the New York City-based Prep for Prep program, which provides students of color with life-changing educational and leadership opportunities.

Amanda Boston and The Laundromat Project (The LP) are designing and executing an ethnographic research project that engages artists, neighbors, and peer organizations. The project will explore how the organization can best harness its resources and use the arts to foster community and collective neighborhood power. Findings will shape programming and literature, as well as The LP’s approaches to relationship-building with community members and organizations locally and beyond.