CIBS Fellow Seth Garcia
Tell us about yourself.
I was born and raised in Tempe, Arizona. I moved to Lexington in 2019, graduated from UK in 2023 and earned three bachelor's degrees in history, anthropology and secondary social studies education. After graduating, I spent a year teaching middle school in the Gila River Indian Community just south of my hometown. I graduated with my master's degree this May, and fall 2026 will be my first semester in the Ph.D. program.
Why did you choose Black studies?
It took time for me to find Black studies. I have always felt an urge to help my community by teaching, and my initial plan when I started school was to become a high school history teacher. Through my courses in anthropology and my senior seminar with Dr. Kathryn Newfont, however, I discovered a passion for what Dr. Newfont calls "justice history." I felt called to do justice to historical figures that had been marginalized and exploited. I continue to choose Black studies because it is more than an act of social justice. I believe telling Black stories is our due diligence as historians of any subject. As I grow as a Black studies scholar, I continue to find the slogan of CIBS to ring true: We cannot understand where humanity has been and where we are going without Black studies. I chose Black studies because I feel it is necessary to study and share the fundamental importance of Black people to the making of the modern world.
Why did you choose UK?
I chose UK for my graduate studies because I built strong research foundations here during my undergrad. I felt that UK was the best place to continue building upon those foundations. While I had other grad school opportunities, UK had access to more resources that could benefit my continued research in African American history. I also knew for a fact that there were faculty at the university who were both brilliant and helpful because I had experienced their kind brilliance already.
What is your favorite course?
A course that completely changed my life was Soul and Cosmos in Native American Culture. This was an undergraduate anthropology topics course taught by Dr. Shannon Plank. This course transformed me from a student trying to get his degree to a scholar hungry to do research. It also let me to pursue a degree in anthropology. During my time as a grad student, my favorite courses have been the two research seminars I've taken. Having the freedom to write my own full-length research projects has been both thrilling and fulfilling.
What are you working on now?
At the moment I am finishing up a Special History Study for Mammoth Cave National Park on the Black history of Mammoth Cave with Drs. Anastasia Curwood and Le Datta Grimes. I have been studying Mammoth Cave since I was an undergraduate, so seeing this project come together has been an incredible experience. This semester I will be reading for my qualifying exams and teaching.
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CIBS/Lexington Public Library-Kentucky Room Internship
Student Intern Achan Mangi
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Achan Mangi. I am a junior accounting major with a strong interest in research, organization and engagement. Through both my academic experiences and professional opportunities, I've developed skills in communication, attention to detail and collaboration. As an intern at the Kentucky Room, I've had the opportunity to work in an environment while learning more about local history, archival preservation and public service.
What made you choose this internship?
I chose this internship because I wanted the opportunity to gain experience in a setting focused on education, history and engagement. The Kentucky Room stood out to me because it allows people to connect with local history and important historical records. I was also interested in strengthening my research, organizational and communication skills in a hands-on environment outside of the lectures.
What has been your favorite part of the internship?
My favorite part of the internship has been working directly with historical materials and learning more about archival preservation and research processes. I've enjoyed seeing how the library helps preserve important pieces of Lexington's history while making those resources accessible to the public. I've also appreciated the opportunity to learn from experienced staff members in a professional and collaborative environment.
How has the internship influenced your educational plans?
This internship has helped me develop further skills that will benefit me in both my academic and professional future, especially in such areas as organization, communication and attention to detail. Although I am pursuing accounting, this experience has shown me the importance of research, professionalism and public service in any career field. It has encouraged me to continue seeking opportunities that allow me to combine analytical skills with meaningful community impact.
What are you working on in the library now?
I am working on a project involving historical newspapers from the 1930 Lexington Leader that focused on news within Black communities. As part of this project, I transferred articles from microfilm onto the computer, where I used Photoshop to improve the quality and readability of the images. Afterward, I transcribed the articles to make the text more legible and accessible for future research and preservation purposes.
This experience has allowed me to strengthen my technical, research, and attention-to-detail skills while contributing to the preservation of important local history.
Thank you Dr. Curwood, Sarah Hubbard, and the staff at the Lexington Public Library for this opportunity.
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CIBS/Lexington Public Library-Kentucky Room Internship
Student Intern Lilly Penney
Tell us about yourself.
I am a history and anthropology major from Grand Rapids, Michigan, with minors in Spanish and Latin American, Caribbean and Latino studies. I would have to say that my favorite class this semester is ANT: 328: The Ancient Maya.
What made you choose this internship?
I chose this internship because I wanted to know more about the historical African American community of Lexington. As an outsider to the city, I felt that the best way to pursue this interest would be to study its past through existing archival material, and the library has just that.
What has been your favorite part of the internship?
My favorite part of this internship is how it has affected my view of modern-day Lexington. Because of how closely I've studied the people and places of interest in 1910 Lexington, I can point out former residences, churches and businesses owned by African American Lexingtonians walking down today's streets. I feel as though I now have a deep understanding of Lexington's past and how it's changed throughout the years.
How has the internship influenced your educational plans?
The internship has encouraged me to pursue graduate school and perhaps even a doctorate. I've found I really love the process of researching and combing through archival sources as well as contributing to the archival record. It has additionally deepened my interest in the study of the African diaspora in relation to the Transatlantic slave trade and the subsequent introduction of racial delineations by allowing me to study the aftermath of such history in a city I am familiar with. I believe that the study of marginalized communities and their experiences is crucial to an overall understanding of history today.
What are you working on at the library now?
At the moment, I am researching and planning a small library exhibit on Dr. Mary E. Britton, Kentucky's first licensed Black female physician and a prominent voice for African American peoples and women's civil rights in the late 19th and early 20th century. When I'm not doing that, I am continuing to work my through the Lexington Leader's March 1910 newspapers on the library's microfilm to clip and document articles about the African American community for uploading to the digital archive.
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CIBS Fellow Ariane Ribeiro Santana
Tell us about yourself.
I'm a 24-year-old history major born in Rio de Janeiro. I earned my degree at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil) and am currently a second-year M.A. student. I had the opportunity to start researching as an undergraduate, and my focus was women and gender in the Beat Generation, a movement that is largely based in the United States. For that reason, I always knew I wanted to come to the United States for graduate school.
Why did you choose Black studies?
Although Brazil holds one of the most racially mixed populations, and the debates by Brazilian scholars surrounding race and ethnicity are absolutely brilliant, my undergraduate curriculum did not include a lot of Black studies. We did see how race and racism affected the history of Brazil, especially through histories of slavery and resistance, but for the most part, the historiography in the curriculum was largely European and male. Much like the erasure of women in the Beat Generation led me to my undergraduate research, my questioning of where were Black people in the Beat Generation led me to my current research on Amiri Baraka (who was a Beat poet for a brief period).
Why did you choose UK?
UK's History Department is one of the strongest in terms of African American and Africana Studies, which gave me the confidence to pursue this field I had had little training in until then. Black Studies, and Black Studies at UK specifically, have both been fulfilling to me for a few reasons. Reading about struggles similar to my own but at the same time also about Black pride and the joys of being Black makes me feel more connected to Blackness. This element is heightened by my being in a department with brilliant Black people as part of the faculty, something that is very inspiring to me. Black studies also constantly challenges me to rethink antiracism strategies in the present, broadening my views on what it means to be Black in the United States, in Latin America and everywhere else.
What is your favorite course?
I don't think I have a favorite course overall, since I've taken so many classes that have picked my brain in very interesting ways, but the most eye-opening ones have been outside my comfort zone. Decolonizing Archaeology (ANT) and Amiri Baraka's Many Lives (ENG) have both been classes outside of the history department that I've had the opportunity to take and made me reconsider a lot of ideas. The first one made me reflect on indigenous peoples and their role in history as well as how archaeology and history work so closely together they run the risk of falling into very similar pitfalls of positivism that are based on white supremacy; the latter forced me to pay attention to the form of Baraka's writing, whereas history tends to hyperfocus on the content of it. They were both challenging in their own ways, but I wrapped them up feeling like I had broadened my horizons.
What are you working on now?
Currently, I'm working on my M.A thesis on Amiri Baraka, his trip to Cuba in 1960 and how seeing postrevolutionary Cuba helped radicalize him into becoming a Black Nationalist and, later, a Third World Marxist. It is very much transnational research that I, as a Black Latina, feel connected to. I am also looking into going on to the Ph.D. next fall, so hopefully I will have the opportunity to broaden the scope of my research then. Additionally, I am working on Dr. Nikki Brown's project Documenting Racial Violence in Kentucky by transforming the Chicago Tribune's annual lists of lynchings into spreadsheets for easier access by scholars and the public at large.
Photos
Top: Johnathon Davis with Ariane Ribeiro Santana
Bottom: Winn Williams, Kip Cornett, Ariane Ribeiro Santana, Jill Rappis
