IU Doctoral Student Receives Fellowship to Study Funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Doctoral student Katherine Wheatle has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2016–17 AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research and Travel Awards

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Katherine Wheatle is a School of Education doctoral student who has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2016–17 AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research and Travel Awards. Wheatle is currently working on her dissertation, “‘Ward of the state’: The politics of supporting Maryland’s black land-grant college, 1886-1939.”

Wheatle’s dissertation will illuminate the distribution of funds from the Morrill Land-Grant Acts by the State of Maryland between the University of Maryland – College Park and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Funds received from the selling of public lands were disproportionately distributed between the institutions. This unequal and inequitable distribution of public funds began a legacy of unequal support of Maryland’s public Black colleges by the State which has led to the colleges' current state.

“Under the direction of state legislation, appropriations received from the selling of public lands were disproportionately distributed between the institutions. This unequal and inequitable distribution of public funds began a legacy of unequal support of Maryland’s public Black colleges by the State which has led to the colleges' current state,” Wheatle explained.

Wheatle is currently completing her dissertation in Washington, D.C., where the archives of the colleges she’s studying are readily available. She’s optimistic her research can be used within modern school funding discussions.

“It is my hope that this study, though historical in nature, will insert historical context into contemporary policy discussions about state-support of public minority-serving institutions,” she said.

Wheatle is the only AERA recipient from any Big Ten school, and it’s an honor she acknowledges, especially given the nature of her dissertation.

“My study is not an easy topic to contend with, but it is meant to recenter race in contemporary political conversations that should not excuse a racist past,” Wheatle said. “Beyond the potential of the study itself, I am humbled to see my name and study among students at institutions that I, as a first-generation, low-income, Black woman, would not have dreamed to attend. But here I am, my name next to theirs. It’s a blessing.”

Wheatle also serves as a Graduate Student Representative on the Board of Directors for the Association of the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).