Nia Whitmal is a doctoral candidate in anthropology from Amherst, Massachusetts. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and now studies the wealth accumulation strategies of Harlem’s Black property-owners and real estate agents under the guidance of Chloe Ahmann at Cornell.
What is your area of research and why is it important?
I study the wealth accumulation strategies of Harlem’s Black property-owners and real estate agents and the way they conceive of ‘luck’ to explain their advantageous position in the neighborhood. I investigate the class dynamics within Harlem’s Black communities alongside the private developments that continually alter the landscape of the neighborhood, unmoor residents’ claims of belonging, and stoke tensions between newcomers and long-standing Harlemites. Alongside structured interviews and participant observation, I employ ethnographic filmmaking for nuanced depictions of an upwardly mobile Black elite, a largely underrepresented population in anthropological research.
What does it mean to you to have been selected for a Zhu Family Graduate Fellowship
There is a dearth of large-scale funding for scholars in the humanities, let alone fellowships that reward interdisciplinary research in the humanities. My doctoral work is situated in anthropology yet pulls from Black studies, documentary production and exhibition, and urban studies. At times, I struggle to reconcile the separations between these disciplines. The Zhu Fellowship, however, provides critical encouragement and material support to refine the resonances between documentary, Blackness, and housing in Harlem. The Zhu Fellowship is a directive to continue to fashion connections between seemingly disparate modes of inquiry.
Read the full interview on the Cornell University Graduate School website.
