A Scholarly Step into Cultural Controversy: Arusha DePeiza Saldenha '09
Like hip-hop, dancehall is a global music and dance phenomenon with millions of fans who love its energy - and legions of critics who loathe its misogyny. For her senior thesis in Africana studies, Arusha DePeiza Saldenha '09 is pursuing an independent study of dancehall, its development in Jamaica, its roots in the African diaspora, and its complex, controversial relationship to women, feminism, and sexual liberation.
The daughter of Trinidadian immigrants, Arusha has a strong interest in Caribbean culture. She is also very focused on what she calls "the independence, empowerment and perseverance of women" - a priority heightened by being raised by a single mother in Boston's inner-city Roxbury neighborhood.
An older sister, now in law school, was the family's first Barnard student, and Arusha remembers an auspicious visit to her sister here: "Even as an eighth-grader, I found the environment and the woman-to-woman relationships very nourishing." She was also delighted by the surrounding city, and knew from then on that she, too, wanted to attend college in New York.
Once here as a student herself, Arusha discovered her passion for the theory and practice of a challenging artistic discipline. "Being at Barnard and in New York really sparked my interest in dance," she says.
An especially inspirational experience was a dance-theory course taught by Paul Scolieri, a scholar of Latin American and Caribbean culture. Arusha has also enjoyed taking movement classes and refining her own performance techniques - at Barnard, and at a Harlem gymnasium that offers training in West African dance to men and women from the local community.
The idea for her senior thesis arose last fall, during her exchange semester at Spelman College in Atlanta. In her interactions with faculty and students at that renowned, historically black, women's college, Arusha found herself intrigued by the range of viewpoints expressed on feminism and on perceptions of the black female body.
Looking beyond dancehall's reputation for sexist lyrics and lewd body language, Arusha began to think about how black women might be using the genre to defy stereotypes and positively express their own beauty and sexuality. She applied successfully at Barnard for a Tow Foundation fellowship to travel to Jamaica and conduct first-hand research.
Now, as she analyzes her accumulated data, drafts her thesis, and completes the other advanced coursework of her senior year, Arusha continues to perform with Orisha, a Pan-African dance group she co-founded with Barnard classmates last spring. Formerly a member of the executive board of Black Organization of Soul Sisters (BOSS), she also remains active in that campus group. And for the third year in a row, she has been named Barnard's Mildred Gluck Tomback '27 Scholar, an honor accompanied by a financial award that helps fund her education.
Arusha plans to teach high school or middle school after graduating next spring, and her eventual goal is to earn a Ph.D. and teach on the college level. She looks forward to helping her students understand dance as a reflection of history and culture, and to guiding them toward the kind of knowledge, insight and independent thinking she has gained at Barnard.
—Anne Schutzberger
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