{"id":843,"date":"2026-02-08T23:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T04:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/?page_id=843"},"modified":"2026-02-08T23:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T04:03:11","slug":"tamar-ballard-19","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/tamar-ballard-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamar Ballard &#8217;19"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"730\" height=\"974\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/files\/2026\/02\/IMG_Ballard_Fa22.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-844\" style=\"width:447px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/files\/2026\/02\/IMG_Ballard_Fa22.jpg 730w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/files\/2026\/02\/IMG_Ballard_Fa22-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 730px) 100vw, 730px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>After graduating from Vassar with a major in Urban Studies and working as an Administrative Fellow for the Dean of the College during the 2019\/2020 academic year, I matriculated to Virginia Tech&#8217;s sociology department to start a master&#8217;s degree in Fall 2021. (Definitely influenced by some amazing folks in Vassar&#8217;s sociology department!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In spring 2022, I defended my master&#8217;s thesis proposal titled &#8220;Country Quares: (Dis)identification Discourse in Black Country Aesthetic.&#8221; Inspired by the methods and grounding point of Black music as a historical document from my undergraduate thesis at Vassar, I decided to reach further into the Black American musical cultural bag and focus my master&#8217;s thesis on how Black women and queer musicians use country music as a complication and reclamation of (Black) Americanness, looking specifically at music videos and how identity is asserted through the visuals and the music itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After finishing my masters in Spring 2023, I&#8217;ll be moving on to the PhD program!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After graduating from Vassar with a major in Urban Studies and working as an Administrative Fellow for the Dean of the College during the 2019\/2020 academic year, I matriculated to Virginia Tech&#8217;s sociology department to start a master&#8217;s degree in Fall 2021. (Definitely influenced by some amazing folks in Vassar&#8217;s sociology department!) In spring 2022, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1947,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-843","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1947"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/843\/revisions\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/FLIresearch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}