Afro-Am Department PhD Student Maya Cunningham Receives 2024-25 Diversity Scholars Predoctoral Fellowship

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Maya Cunningham, Ph.D. student in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, has been awarded the Diversity Scholars Predoctoral Fellowship at Ithaca College for the 2024-2025 academic year.

The fellowship is for graduate students in their dissertation year and includes a stipend, travel/professional development support, relocation reimbursement, office space, health benefits, and access to Ithaca College and Cornell University libraries. 

Fellows teach one course in the fall semester, one course in the spring semester, do a research presentation and will receive focused mentoring and professional development by senior faculty.

In addition, Cunningham has been awarded the Graduate School Field Research Grant which she will use this summer to complete her dissertation research in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

A two-time Fulbright recipient, Cunningham is an ethnomusicologist, an Africanist/African Americanist scholar, a cultural activist and a Black music practitioner in jazz vocals. Her research focus is on culturally responsive music education for African American students, African American cultural identity and intersections between African/African American identities and traditional African and African American music.

Cunningham received her master’s degree in Afro-American Studies from UMass Amherst and was previously named one of the university’s Research Enhancement and Leadership (REAL) Fellows, which provides summer support to outstanding doctoral and MFA students from historically underrepresented groups.