Imani Ivery - Globalization and Cultural Identity
After graduating in Spring 2016, Imani interned in Beijing, China for the bookstore and Buzz Feed-style multimedia company, One Way Space. She was featured on the companys pop culture podcast where she contributed her thoughts on the controversial Chinese laundry detergent commercial which sparked international outrage for its racial implications toward Black people. The podcast was in Mandarin and heard by over 10,000 listeners in Mainland China. In 2018 Imani began law school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
During her time at UC Berkeley, Imani centered her interests on Globalization and Cultural Identity, or how the different elements of globalization can inform self identity. As a Huang Scholar she was given the critical opportunity of studying intensive Mandarin Chinese in Beijing, where she first focused her research interests on China and its incredibly fast-paced development.
By merging the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and psychology, she was able to take a multifaceted approach to a rarely researched topic: mixed race in China. For her thesis titled Afro-Chinese Athletes: Race, Nationality, and Body Quality, Imani explored the unique sociological category of Afro-Chinese males in sports entertainment and the Chinese social media discourse surrounding their race, nationality and athletic exceptionalism. Using her Mandarin language education received at UC Berkeley, Imani was able to translate multiple Chinese social media sources into English, uncovering an interesting cross-cultural perspective on race and nationality.
