The 28th Women of Color at Penn Annual Staff Award went to the South Asia Center’s very own Amelia Carter, who was recognized earlier this Month for her continued commitment to the UPenn, Philadelphia, and broader communities.
In addition to serving as a board member for community development organizations such as Germantown United CDC and community-based art organization iMPeRFeCT Gallery from 2013-2016, Amelia has organized social and art events targeted at Philadelphia's Queer and Lesbian communities of color such as For Queer’s Sake, art salons, and house concerts where queer women artists of color have a space to share their work and build community.
While at the South Asia Center, Amelia helped to develop the SAC Summer Research Internship program under the guidance of Dr. Lisa Mitchell. The program enables Penn students from all backgrounds to travel to South Asia for 8-10 weeks to conduct research on issues ranging from LGBT movement building in Kolkata, to post conflict development work in Sri Lanka and more. Recently she developed the SAC Chennai and Philadelphia Artist Residency which enabled three Penn students to live and work with artists in India over Summer 2017. Artist mentors from Chennai were then brought to Penn for a teaching artist residency where they led a collaborative art exhibition at the Charles Addams Gallery with residency students and conducted workshops with more than 200 K-12 students from the Philadelphia area. Since 2013 Amelia has worked closely with South Asia Studies Department staff to organize the SAC C.U. in India/Southeast Asia program where undergraduate Penn students study a subject related to South Asia intensively for a semester, then travel to Asia for hands on experience dealing with the subject over winter or spring break. The program has consistently served an academically, financially and racially diverse group of students and has covered issues related to gender, development, sex-worker rights, religious studies, culture and art.
For this and all other work that she’s contributed to the larger and continues to do, the South Asia Center is proud that Amelia was recognized by the Women of Color Committee as one of this year’s award recipients.