The Yute Lab is committed to public sociological, community-engaged study of young people’s lifeworlds in urban contexts. With a focus on qualitative and ethnographic methods, the lab examines how youth navigate identity, belonging, consumption, and refusal within the structures and spaces that shape their social worlds. The Yute Lab is committed to scholarship that takes youth seriously as social actors, meaning makers, and theorists of their own lives. The lab also serves as a training ground for emerging researchers, combining critical inquiry with intentional mentorship to develop the next generation of ethnographers and qualitative scholars committed to youth, urban, and transnational ethnographic social research. Its inaugural project: "‘Ghetto Flowers’: Aesthetics, Refusal, and Excess in Philly Prom Culture", focuses on the 'Prom Send-Off' as a site of meaning-making and refusal.
Members
2026 CJLS/ RISE Fellow
Qua’Nae Golston-Thomas is a rising Junior at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, studying within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences with interests in Black youth culture, visual storytelling, and community-based research. Her work is rooted in exploring identity, representation, and the lived experiences of marginalized communities through creative and interdisciplinary methods. Outside of research, she has experience in youth organizing, social media activism, and education-focused programming.
Prom project- I’m most excited about exploring the cultural and emotional significance within the rise of Black prom culture. I’m especially interested in how fashion, aesthetics, and visual expression can tell more nuanced stories about identity, belonging, celebration, and resistance. I’m looking forward to contributing to a project that highlights emerging Black girl coming of age narratives and the creativity behind them. I’m also interested in examining the negative reactions and criticism surrounding Black prom culture, especially the way celebrations of achievement and new beginnings are often unfairly labeled as “ghetto,” within larger social contexts.
