2006               University of Dar es Salaam  UF African Studies and Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research - Gender and Development Faculty Exchange Program. Spent one month getting to know scholars on campus and researching women's dissdertations in the East Africa Collection at UDSM and other African universities.

2003/2005     Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) manuscript division. Washington, D.C.Howard UniversityGathered original materials on Anna Julia Cooper and other important Black women educators of the early Twentieth Century for Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History.In press.

2003              Scholar-in-Residence, University of Florida Paris Research Center, Paris, France. Awarded travel grant as Scholar-in-Residence, University of Florida Paris Research Center (Gayle Zachmann, Director), Reid Hall, France. Investigated life and scholarship of Dr. Anna Julia Cooper (Sorbonne, Ph.D. 1925); interviewed Michel and Genevieve Fabre, two architects of African American studies programs at the Sorbonne University; and took a “Black Paris” tour to important sites in the history of African Americans who lived, worked, and studied in Paris. Served as consultant for Virtual Monmarte International Project (See "Consultations Outside the University).

1999-2003      Dissertation: “LIVING LEGACIES:BLACK WOMEN, EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHIES, AND COMMUNITY SERVICE, 1865-1965” Directed by: John H. Bracey Jr.
The first chapter of this dissertation is an introduction to the topics of community service-learning and Black women's intellectual history.   The author outlines definitions, theoretical frameworks, guiding questions, and methodological approaches in this research.  Here, Ms. Evans explains the contribution that Black women’s educational philosophies can make to current practices of community service-learning.

          Chapter Two is a survey of the presence, oppression, contribution, and creative resistance of Black women in United States educational systems between Emancipation in 1865 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A comprehensive picture of research on Black women’s educational experience in the United States is presented.  Ms. Evans argues that Black women’s educational experiences offer a rich historical context in which to comprehend the larger social conditions in which contemporary educators are working.

          In Chapter Three, the author presents four educators whose work provide clear examples of how Black women have theorized and practiced community-based education. The writing of Frances (Fanny) Jackson Coppin (1837-1913), Anna Julia Cooper (1858?-1964), Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955), and Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) are presented.   Connections are made between these educators' intellectual development and their work for local, national, and international community empowerment.

          In Chapter Four, the author details the contribution that this work makes to Black women’s intellectual history. Ms. Evans analyzes the experiences and thoughts of the four Black women case studies, considers aspects of Black Feminist Thought, and outlines the impact of cultural identity on social experience. Recommendations are made about how to use historical analysis in order to practice community service-learning in a culturally appropriate manner.

           In Chapter Five, areas of future research are presented, specifically those areas that relate to the ideas of Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and John Dewey. Lastly, Ms. Evans includes observations about her own experiences as a student and practitioner of community service-learning.

          In Chapter Six, "A Discussion on Sources," the author reviews the most popular service-learning literature and surveys African American educational historiography that is relevant to those doing service-learning work.

2002              Comprehensive Exams / Masters degree final project: “African-American women, education, and community empowerment, 1865-1964” In this research paper, I focused on the theories, institutions, curriculum, and pedagogy of Black women educators and delineate how they connected academic study to community service between Emancipation and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Within this century of service, I covered broad themes in Black women’s educational experiences and presented examples such as Fannie Jackson Coppin, Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, Mary McLeod Bethune, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Septima Clark as case studies in Black women’s educational and community leadership. Pass with Distinction

2002              Graduate Certificate final project: “The History of Black Women in American education.”  Although there is much written on Black women’s participation in American education, there is no contemporary, full-length monograph addressing the topic.  The many journal articles, dissertations, and books that discuss Black women as students, teachers, and administrators in formal and informal educational settings constitute a great deal of research; however, none have traced the complete experience of African American women in broad historical and educational context.  In this work, I constructed a comprehensive picture of the research that has been written about Black women’s educational experience in the United States and presented that collection of information within a frame of Black history, woman’s history, and educational history.  This essay was a survey of existing historiography that informed my dissertation on the subject of historic issues regarding the experience of Black women in formal and informal settings of American education.  Here, in an essay met the final requirement for the Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies, I connected existing research that records the presence, oppression, contribution, and creative resistance of Black women in American educational systems.

2001  - 2002               National Campus Compact Engaged Scholar Research Fellowship This

two-year fellowship is awarded through Brown University to two graduate students in the United States who are active scholars in the field of community service-learning.  ($5,000 stipend)  This honor helped me work closely with my professors in the Afro-American Studies and Women's Studies departments as well as with those in the Office of Community Service-Learning to begin to strengthen the relationship between Campus Compact and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).  By visiting HBCUs and networking with the service-learning staff there, I was able to explore service and learning in an environment that is informative and beneficial for all involved but especially relevant to communities of color.  My individual efforts were a small part of organizational collaboration between National Campus Compact, American Association of Higher Education , United Negro College Fund , and the HBCU Faculty Development Network to share resources involving community service-learning and HBCUs.  I have provided the Campus Compact with the content of a web site that will allow students, faculty, administrators and community partners to share information about community service-learning at HBCUs.  The web site will feature contact information, syllabi, and research by HBCU faculty who are engaged in linking academic coursework to community defined service projects. 

2000 - “Creative Service-Learning: A Multi-level Resource Guide for Faculty.”Connecticut Campus Compact. Trinity College. Researched service-learning history, principles, and practice and conducted interviews at public and private two- and four-year colleges in the state of Connecticut.  I used this information to prepare a manual to be used as a tool to help new and experienced service-learning faculty to incorporate or revise service learning principles and practices within their classrooms sponsored this research in order to produce a report that can be used to advance current research and to inform the practice of service learning in higher education.

1998 - “A Cultural Framework for the Study of Sport History in Brazil.”  Costa, Margaret D., Ph.D. and Evans, S. Y. California State University, Long Beach. This paper presented the inherent value of recognizing culture as a practical means to further the study of sport history in Brazil. The authors presented examples of the impact that Brazil’s unique culture has had on the way that human beings play, as well as suggested classroom strategies for the development of research in the area of Brazilian sport history.

1998 - “Activism: The Fundamental Link Between Women’s Studies and Service Learning.” Rozee, P. D., Ph.D., Evans, S. Y. and Aragon, M. This research reveals activism as the fundamental root and common link of both women’s studies and community service learning.  This is realized by comparing the parallel four step processes of each pedagogy, as interpreted by two methodologically complimentary studies: Kolb’s model of experiential learning and Hoffman & Stake’s characteristics of women’s studies.  This paper was developed to accompany a workshop for the 1999 National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) convention.

1998 - “The Quality of Rights: A Literary Analysis of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United States’ Bill of Rights.” California State University, Long Beach McNair Program. This paper compared and contrasted these two documents using literary political criticism. Specifically this paper applied Marx’s Dialectical Materialism as interpreted by Fredric Jameson and Bertell Ollman as a method of better understanding these two documents that define human and citizens’ rights.

1997 - “How Solid is the Rock?:  Gauging the Historical Accuracy ofSchoolhouse Rock.” California State University, Long Beach McNair Program.This paper studied the information presented in the ten segments of America Rock, the American History portion of the popular children’s animated program Schoolhouse Rock.  The cartoon segments were compared to historical documents and reports found in contemporary educational and historical texts for the purpose of measuring the correctness of the popular presentation of history in the program.