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Black Panther depicted a positive representation of Black culture. The film transcended Black minds to believe in power, excellence, and intelligence. Black youth posted images on social media using the Wakanda pose as a symbol of pride. The film not only countered the stereotypical generalized ideologies of African culture, values, and customs, but it capsized false narratives by including the historical context of Black scientist with a female character. Articles summarizing depictions of Black Panther and its influence on Black youth assert that the character of Shuri and her perfection of the sciences contributed to pathways for young Black girls to join science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs. Other factors contribute to the increase of Black girls in STEM programs, but the image of Shuri's character in a position of power of the sciences pinpoints representation as key to cerebral pictures and reflections of Black female excellence in the sciences. However, representation is minimal among Black male youth in STEM programs.

Although it is true that African American male youth have Black male representation in media through sports figures, rappers, and hip-hop artists, inquiring minds need to know that Black male representation in the sciences and mathematics is the formula to how young minds view themselves and their relation to the world. Accordingly, this underrepresentation of Black male youth in STEM programs leads to the big “what if” question. If LeBron James conducted a critical analysis using physics and mathematics to make a 3-point shot, then what is the likelihood that young Black males' interest in the STEM programs would increase?

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of Christian hip hop music performed and practiced in Central Texas. I examine the emerging Christian rap scene through the experiences of members of the local social group known as The 51210 Movement. The 51210 Movement includes various Christian rappers, singers, songwriters, musicians, producers, and sound technicians. Their activities center on the multiple uses of Christian rap within their local communities. The central Texas Christian rap scene is situated within the musically rich city of Austin, the “Live Music Capitol of the World,” and San Antonio, a culturally and religiously diverse city. I focus on how members of The 51210 Movement use Christian rap as a proselytizing and pedagogical tool, how Christian rappers work together to create a self-perpetuating Christian rap scene, and how members of The 51210 Movement negotiate the interplay between the sacred and secular forms of rap to maintain religious authenticity.

This paper aims to argue that providing youth of color with opportunities to explore content while reflecting on and sharing mental health concerns is an under-focused dimension of teaching and learning that has the potential to positively impact these students’ academic achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines

This paper used a qualitative study to interrogate a teaching/learning model through a hip-hop-based science program.

Because urban youth of color are traditionally most disengaged in STEM and also the ones who are the least likely to seek or be provided with mental health tools/services, it is suggested that there is a connection between their low academic achievement and the absence of opportunities for them to address emotions that impact their academic success. Furthermore, if these youths come from communities where mental health stressors are highly prevalent, and teaching is most restrictive, a model for teaching that considers practices that address both their academic and mental health needs becomes necessary.

This work does not intend to devalue or undermine the role of school counselors or traditional teachers. It is believed that the role of the school counselor or social worker when youths identify themes that go beyond the scope of personal challenges is significant and that these professionals should be made available when engaging in this type of work. It is also believed that the educator who may not be privy to hip-hop can successfully engage in this type of activity with STEM students. Finally, the use of science as an exemplar for engaging in this work does not indicate that the other STEM disciplines cannot or should not explore this type of model.

The paper outlines a model that other educators/researchers may use and suggests ways that this brand of research may be implemented by scholars across the country.

Through the implementation of the hip-hop-based science program as an intervention in science classrooms, students are provided the opportunity to bolster science content knowledge and knowledge of self. In addition, utilizing the hip-hop-based science program created an avenue for teachers to develop better understanding of students and their full socioemotional selves. This is especially necessary in STEM education where perceptions of students’ decisions to not engage in the disciplines are directly related to our collective unwillingness to present the subject matter in a way that goes beyond the glorification of its stoic and “old white” history.

This paper suggests a new dimension of STEM research through an exploration of hip-hop culture and youth emotions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the designed cultural ecology of a hip-hop and computational science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) camp and the ways in which that ecology contributed to culturally sustaining learning experiences for middle school youth. In using the principles of hip-hop as a CSP for design, the authors question how and what practices were supported or emerged and how they became resources for youth engagement in the space.

The overall methodology was design research. Through interpretive analysis, it uses an example of four Black girls participating in the camp as they build a computer-controlled DJ battle station.

Through a close examination of youth interactions in the designed environment – looking at their communication, spatial arrangements, choices and uses of materials and tools during collaborative project work – the authors show how a learning ecology, designed based on hip-hop and computational practices and shaped by the history and practices of the dance center where the program was held, provided access to ideational, relational, spatial and material resources that became relevant to learning through computational making. The authors also show how youth engagement in the hip-hop computational making learning ecology allowed practices to emerge that led to expansive learning experiences that redefine what it means to engage in computing.

Implications include how such ecologies might arrange relations of ideas, tools, materials, space and people to support learning and positive identity development.

Supporting culturally sustaining computational STEM pedagogies, the article argues two original points in informal youth learning 1) an expanded definition of computing based on making grammars and the cultural practices of hip-hop, and 2) attention to cultural ecologies in designing and understanding computational STEM learning environments.

This chapter challenges the notion that Black males in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are missing from the discipline and proposes a model that presents underrepresentation as a function of Black males being both intentionally undiscovered and/or deliberately disconnected from particular academic disciplines. Our work offers a tangible and implementable yet aligned theory/method/exemplar for supporting the STEM genius of Black males through a hip-hop development (HHD) approach that aligns with a unique pedagogical method rooted in hip-hop culture.

In this chapter, we describe a hip-hop based science program as an intervention that combats STEM undiscovery and disconnectedness. We suggest that this program (through its theoretical and methodological roots) provides a set of practices that have the potential to bolster both academic content knowledge and knowledge of self. We argue that this program supports the development of the students' full socioemotional selves – which is a necessary prerequisite to pursuing academic content knowledge.

This paper builds upon a new era of research seeking to understand variability in how desirable outcomes result from engaging rap music as a health enhancing artifact. More specifically, the study explores the music mediated pathways to individual and community well-being. The study emphasizes female music engagement. Quantitative methods are used to examine listening habits and preferences associated with empowering rap music engagement among a female sample of 202 university students using an a priori established path analysis model. Results echo prior research that suggests the functional value of music in helping to define the self independently and articulate one’s social identity within the context of community (Dixon, Zhang, & Conrad, 2009; Hill, 2009; Travis & Bowman, 2012). Specifically, results suggest that among females in this sample, (a) their appropriation of rap music can be empowering, (b) specific factors play a significant role in determining the difference between females that feel more or less empowered from their interactions with rap music, and (c) female listeners were more likely to appropriate rap music for personal and community growth if it was their favorite music type, if they listened often, and if they tended to listen alone more often than with friends. These research findings offer promising routes for more in depth qualitative analysis to help uncover the nuances of preferred engagement strategies and to help define the subjective lived experiences that lead to feeling empowered by music to act toward positive change for oneself and others. Practical results indicate the possibility for gender-specific education, therapeutic or empowerment-based programs that utilize rap music as a rubric.

Uncertainty about Intellectual Property Regulations (IPR) is prevalent in today’s knowledge-based and creative industries. While prior literature indicates that regulatory uncertainty affects creative processes, studies that systematically analyze the effects of IPR on the experiencing of involved actors in creative processes across fields are rare. We ask how core professional actor groups including creators, legal professionals and managers involved in creative processes experience regulatory uncertainty in the fields of music and pharma. By studying practices of engaging with, circumventing and avoiding regulatory uncertainty about IPR, we show how creative processes in both the music and pharma fields are entrenched with emotional-cognitive experiences such as anxiety, indifference and hope that vary by professional group. Our findings point toward managers and legal professionals observing, exposing and cultivating emotions by ascribing experiences to other actor groups. We conclude that comparing regulation-related emotions of involved actors across fields helps to develop a deeper understanding of the dynamics of creative processes.

This chapter focuses on visualization. Seeing the humanities differently is one of the amazing benefits of working with tools mentioned within this category. Whether it be more traditional visualizations like images or video or that which is considered a bit more advanced like augmented or virtual reality, the enhanced perspective gained through the use of these tools offers digital humanities scholars unprecedented disciplinary perspectives while helping to shape new research areas, questions, and understanding of humanity and culture. In addition to visualization and issues related to it, this chapter also examines gaming and how games and play are impacting the digital humanities in exciting ways.