SOCY Ph.D. Candidate Deonté Hughes Awarded ASA Minority Fellowship

The University of Maryland Department of Sociology is proud to announce that Ph.D. candidate Deonté Hughes has been selected as a fellow in the American Sociological Association (ASA) Minority Fellowship Program (MFP).

Established in 1974, the MFP has supported the training of sociologists of color for over 50 years. The program selects doctoral students to prepare them to assume leadership roles in research addressing contemporary societal issues. As an MFP Fellow, Hughes will receive financial support, professional development, and access to a national network of sociological mentors and peers.

Research Focus: A Strengths-Based Approach

Hughes’ research sits at the intersection of family sociology, race, and inequality. His work applies a critical perspective to the experiences of Black families, focusing not just on how structural racism affects them, but also investigating the specific adaptive strategies these families use to bolster their health and well-being.

By applying this strengths-based perspective, Hughes aims to understand not only how structural racism impacts families, but also how they navigate these challenges. As an MFP Fellow, he notes that the program will "expand the reach of my research" and "provide opportunities for me to collaborate with distinguished scholars." He hopes this platform will encourage the discipline to investigate the specific adaptive strategies families use to protect their well-being under structural adversity.

Through his dissertation, Hughes aims to expand how the discipline analyzes family dynamics under structural adversity:

"One of the primary reasons I decided to research the strengths of Black families within the context of structural racism is to challenge sociologists interested in Black families to not just acknowledge the ways in which structural racism affects Black families but also highlight the adaptive strategies those families use to ensure better well-being and health," he said. "In doing so, I hope to demonstrate how taking a strengths-based approach to studying the relationship between family processes and racism can provide new theoretically rich, nuanced, and holistic understandings of Black families."

Ultimately, Hughes hopes his findings will provide a broader framework for studying inequality that reaches well beyond his own project. He intends for his research to encourage other scholars studying family and inequality to explore how different cultures utilize unique internal strengths to maintain their health and well-being while navigating adversity.

Published on Fri, Jul 10, 2026 - 3:56PM