The Department of African American Studies honors Dr. Chinyere Osuji, Associate Professor, for being awarded a BSOS DRI Seed Grant for her project, "Non-compliant: Resilience among African Immigrants in the Nursing Profession."

Dr. Osuji is conducting a study of first- and second-generation African immigrants in the US nursing profession. The project examines how African RNs from across the continent build resilience against stigmatization. With the DRI grant, she will be examining: 1) public discourse around African immigrants in the United States; 2) the extent of anti-Black racism and nativism in the nursing profession; 3) how foreign-born Africans build resilience against stigmatization in nursing school and on the job as RNs; 4) strategies of resilience across first- and second-generation African immigrants. She will be working with Thu Nguyen (School of Public Health) to understand these dynamics on social media.

Her research is inspired by conversations of anti-African misogynoir and nativism in the Nigerian community where she grew up. It is also linked to her experiences navigating the healthcare systems with a disability. With the DRI grant she hopes to train UMD students to conduct research on racism and nativism in the nursing profession pipeline.

Dean's Research Initiative (DRI) awards provide internal support for competitively reviewed proposals to stimulate research and sponsored research funding for a one-year period. For all categories, evidence of planned future efforts to secure external funding for the activities will be viewed favorably in reviewing proposals. The DRI program runs annually in the Spring semester. Proposals are typically due to the BSOS Research Office in March and awards are announced at the beginning of May. Specific details can be found on the call for proposals in InfoReady when the RFP has been released.