Engaged Scholars: Nyama McCarthy-Brown

November 2023

Engaged Scholars is a series highlighting Ohio State faculty who have made an impact in our communities through their community-engaged research and teaching.

Nyama McCarthy-Brown
Associate Professor of Community Engagement through Dance Pedagogy
University Artist Laureate
College of Arts and Sciences/Dance

I am developing a pipeline for young people in the Columbus area to envision themselves at The Ohio State University, to learn and grow at one of the pre-eminent universities in the world. The structure I am building reaches out to local elementary, middle and high school students through faculty and Ohio State dance students visiting local school sites and partnering in dance programs. Sometimes we participate in their programs, sometimes we invite students to campus to participate in our programs and sometimes we work together in the creation of a community art-making project. Our programming is anchored in three annual programs: a free Saturday morning dance program (Saturdays In The Studios); a spring event where students from across Columbus come and perform in the OSU Barnett Dance Theatre (Columbus Kids Dance Day); as well as the development in a summer dance intensive. Ohio State dance students are involved in these programs and find them rewarding in numerous ways. Students also find these programs to be a wonderful way to explore teaching and arts administrative roles as potential career options. I am using these programs to monitor increase, decrease or stagnancy in enrollment into the Department of Dance from the local residents that engaged in the programs offered.

Why is it important to engage the community in your research and teaching?

I want my research and teaching to have an impact in my community and in the world. Through community engaged scholarship, I feel a personal connection to my research and am invested in making substantive community progress through my research.

What led you to the path of engaged scholarship? How did you get started?

I was a public high school dance teacher before I returned to graduate school to pursue two terminal degrees. Being a public school dance teacher was an impressionable, life-changing experience that was extremely rewarding. Honestly, I could not imagine a career that was completely removed from that population or would not have an opportunity to impact young dancers. For me, the transition from high school to college is one that many people are unable to make for many reasons. I am committed to ensuring that a lack of knowledge about what we do in the Department of Dance and a feeling of being excluded from the institution will not be factors for local youth in Columbus.

How has your scholarship benefited from engaging with community partners?

The possibilities of where my research can go next has grown exponentially because of the infusion of ideas from my community partners. I made an amazing partnership with the director of the Thiossane West African Dance Institute, Suzan Bradford-Kounta. Through my partnership with Bradford-Kounta, I have developed as a dance practitioner of community dance classes; we have worked together to establish a field school and take students to a dance festival in New York; and we have supported each other with grants and other projects. Currently, we are in the midst of a dance research study about the impact of West African Dance on practitioners who carry racial trauma and/or racial battle fatigue. This research would not be possible for either of us to pursue without the other person, we respect and value each other immensely.

What has been a highlight of your community engagement experience?

The highlight of my community engagement is the networking web I created. The community of stakeholders I work with and the knowledge that all of them contribute something great. We work together so everything is not wholly dependent on any one person in the network. In thinking more about this question, a huge highlight for me is when a community partner is happy or satisfied with the work when the work is worthwhile for them. So often institutions come into communities, disrupt the space to check a community service box and then leave, regardless of whether the needs of the community have been met. I am most happy about community engagement when the experience is valued by community members.

What advice would you give to faculty and students who are interested in engaging the community in their scholarship?

Start with something you are interested in and want to explore with new perspectives. Only pursue a project you are open to being flexible about. If you believe there is only one way to complete the project, this is not a project for community engagement. Community engagement can only be successful if you are willing to depend on and value others in the process.

Sample engaged scholarship

Five Pillars was one of my most special community engaged projects. It is a dance I choreographed in 2016, in collaboration with members of the local Mosque in Bloomington, Indiana, and my students at the time, at Indiana University. The work is about the beauty in the Islamic faith, and it was my inspired by my personal call to action to work against Islamophobia in my community. I published an article describing the experience and plan to re-set the piece in 2024 as a part of the Artist Laureate Tour.

Tanya Calamoneri, Colleen Dunagan and Nyama McCarthy-Brown (2020) Ethical Dance Pedagogy, Journal of Dance Education, 20:2, 55-64, DOI: 10.1080/15290824.2019.1566607

Suzan Bradford-Kounta and I are currently working on a paper about the ability of West African Dance, as a community practice, to serve as a healing agent for people who suffer from racial trauma and racial battle fatigue. Recently we closed the data collection portion of this study and moved onto analyzing the data. We plan to present about the process and preliminary findings at the Collegium of African Diaspora Dance at Duke University in the spring of 2024. Thereafter, we will publish the research.

In addition, Suzan and I are also documenting this process as research partners, noting that the relationship requires particular negotiations, as we bring different resources to the table. In essence, we provide a model for equitable research partnerships. I bring Ohio State institutional resources and Bradford-Kounta brings invaluable community connections, lived experiences, and expertise in West African dance forms far beyond my knowledge.

Columbus Kids Dance Day was developed in response to community partners. When I took Ohio State dance students out on tour to local schools, we often performed for schools that had dance classes or programs. After we performed students in the audience would say, "Can we dance now? Will you watch us do our dance?" Typically, student schedules were so tight that we had to return to campus for their next class and the answer was "no." I was so upset by the experience because it is exactly what those moving away from the community outreach model (including myself) are working not to do. Center our (Ohio State) work as superior, worthy of community members/partners giving is attention and applause, but not returning that respect and value for the community we are trying to connect with. Upon returning to campus, I immediately began to work on Columbus Kids Dance Day to bring dance students in the Columbus City Schools to campus to perform for Ohio State dance students and other dance students in the district. Since our inaugural event in 2021, the event has fast become an event of the year, with both community partners and Ohio State dance students loving the event and looking forward to it every year.