Name: Anabella (Bella) Afra Boateng
Email: aa8772@nyu.edu
Program: Sociology of Education
Research interest: Race & Technology; Black Geographies; Black Youth; Afterschool Learning Opportunities; Makerspace Education
Principal Advisor(s): Dr Mercy Agyepong (Dissertation Committee Chair, NYU), Dr. Kayla DesPortes (Dissertation Committee Member, NYU), Dr. Rayvon Fouché (Dissertation Committee Member, Northwestern University)
Research Description/Bio: Bella is a 4th-year doctoral candidate in the Sociology of Education program at NYU Steinhardt. She is also a NYLON fellow at the NYU Institute of Public Knowledge and a key collaborator at the JET Computing Lab at UC San Diego. Before pursuing her PhD, Bella played an integral role in setting up a girls-only Advanced Level STEM school in her home country, Ghana, which serves female high school students throughout Africa. In addition, she worked with acclaimed non-profit youth educational institutions in New York City to advance their teaching and learning objectives. Bella holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Soka University of America and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.
Bella’s interdisciplinary research bridges STEM equity, Black techno-cultural innovation, and the transformative power of makerspaces. Her dissertation examines how Black-owned after-school makerspaces in NYC empower young learners to challenge systemic exclusion in technology. By centering Black geographies and techno-cultures, she explores how these spaces foster not just technical skills but also a sense of belonging, creative autonomy, and futuristic imagination among students often marginalized in STEM.
She has extensive experience designing culturally responsive STEM curricula and spearheading initiatives that expand access for students who’ve been historically excluded from technological narratives. Her work doesn’t just ask how STEM education can be more inclusive; it demonstrates what’s possible when innovation is rooted in community wisdom and identity-affirming pedagogy.
Selected Awards, Publications, and Presentations:
Publications:
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Afra Boateng, A., (2020). Reinstating the inherent dignity of marginalized communities in Ghana. Journal of interdisciplinary studies in Education, 9(SI), 80-101.
Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings
DesPortes, K., Shaw, M. S., Afra Boateng, A., Gaines, D., & James, C. (accepted) A Womanist Analysis of an Asset-Based Anti-Gun Violence Curriculum. International Society of the Learning Sciences, 2024
Presentations:
- Afra Boateng, A. (2025, August). Exploring the meanings of geography [Roundtable Discussion]. 2025 American Sociological Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
- Afra Boateng, A., (2025, February). We are our history. Invited lecture at University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
- Afra Boateng, A., (2025, February). A Womanist Analysis of an Asset-Based Anti-Gun Violence Curriculum. Invited Talk at University of California, San Diego, California, USA.
- Afra Boateng, A., (2024, May). Building friendships, fostering intellectuals; hoe Du Bois & Kwame Nkrumah’s amicable relationship advanced Radical Black Thought via Ghana. Paper presented at the inaugural Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois: Crossing Boundaries for Social Justice. Brown University, Rhode Island, USA
- Afra Boateng, A., (2023, June). Ghana as a site of Black diasporic solidarity. Invited talk at Institute of African Studies Seminar Series, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
- Afra Boateng, A., Cooper, L., Pereira, P., (2020) Unheard Voices: Understanding Epistemologies for Equity in Schools. Proposal accepted for panel discussion at the 64th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Miami, Florida
Grants and Awards:
- 2025 Mazi Award for Social Change
- 2025 Steinhardt Doctoral Research and Travel Grant
- 2025 Sociology of Education Conference Scholarship