We are proud to report that SOPHIA LINDNER, an Undergraduate Research Fellow at the Mitchell Center this year, is the recipient of the 2020 Sadie Tanner Alexander Prize in Africana Studies. Named in honor of Sadie Tanner Alexander, the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in economics in the United States (1921) and the first woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School,  this prize is awarded for a senior honors thesis of exceptional merit in Africana Studies.

She won the award for her senior thesis in Sociology, “Effects of Tourism Decline on Afro-Cuban Navigation and Perception of the Entrepreneurial Cuban Tourism Economy.” The thesis centers on the racial navigation of modern entrepreneurial tourism in Cuba with a focus on Afro-Cubans. She uses in-depth interviews and participant observation to explore the impact of race on access to and success within Cuba's casa particular, or entrepreneurial tourism, economy.  The project takes a sociological approach to work towards determining the possibilities of the casa particular as an option for black Cubans who wish to gain its economic and mobility-centered benefits, as well as understanding the racial mentality of those who already occupy a place within the rapidly changing sub-economy. Though the immediate implications of the project are confined to the uniquely affected economy within Cuba's national borders, Sophia intends to use her understanding of the functions of racial identity in Cuba's social and economic spheres to contribute more broadly to the body of knowledge encompassing more transnational understandings of the relationship between identity, the economy, and the state.

Sophia, who majors in Sociology and Africana Studies, also serves as Director of The Inspiration, an a cappella group that focuses on music of the African Diaspora, and is a member of Onda Latina, Penn's premier Latin dance troupe.