Assistantship helps research on African-American male success

A graduate assistantship awarded to a College of Education doctoral student will help investigate how institutions recruit, retain and support African-American men.

Marques Dexter, a doctoral student in the UGA College of Education's department of kinesiology, has been awarded the UGA AAMI Graduate Research Assistantship from the Office of Institutional Diversity and its African American Male Initiative. During this nine-month assistantship, Dexter will assist professor Tarek Grantham from the department of educational psychology to research literature related to African-American males.

As a student in the sport management and policy program, Dexter's research focuses on the experiences and identities of African-American males, specifically on student athletes who are high-achieving and attend predominantly white universities. Dexter said the assistantship will allow him to broaden his understanding of the literature surrounding African-American males and pathways to their success.

"While working as the graduate research assistant for the African American Male Initiative here at UGA, I will be able to enhance my understanding of the literature on African-American males, as well as discover how UGA is implementing strategies to successfully recruit, retain and support African-American males," he said.

As a researcher, he added, his goal is to address ways educational institutions—at all levels—can support African-American males throughout school and into a successful career.

In addition to his role as a graduate teaching assistant in kinesiology, where he is teaching a lecture course on the social aspects of sport, and as a research assistant for the Sport Instruction Research Lab, Dexter is a student ambassador for the College of Education and is president of the Graduate and Professional Scholars organization on campus.