Pamela Leong
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A Gift of Time
Annenberg Fellowship Supports Study of Unique Church and its AIDS Program
By Pamela J. Johnson
Pamela Leong was in a tricky situation.
The USC doctoral candidate had decided to do her dissertation research
about an African-American church that offers AIDS prevention and
intervention services to women and children. Her plan relied on the
willingness of affected parishioners to share their stories. At first,
few volunteered.
The innovative church, Unity Fellowship, on Jefferson Boulevard near
the Crenshaw District, was founded primarily for non-traditional
African-Americans in 1982, when the AIDS epidemic was emerging in the
United States. A large portion of Unity’s congregation is low-income
and AIDS- affected.
“I’m Asian-American, I have no religious affiliations, I’m not
HIV-positive and, as a graduate student, I’m technically not
economically at the margins,” said Leong, who hopes to have her Ph.D.
in sociology by the end of 2006. “As an outsider in a research setting,
it was a challenge.”
It took old-fashioned persistence. At the outset, Leong told church
members she was there to do research. Although some members were
forthcoming, most were not. Only after attending the church regularly
for three years did reluctant members begin to open up.
It would have been extremely difficult to dedicate that amount of time
and effort without the support of a Wallis Annenberg Fellowship, Leong
said. She was among several graduate students who received the
fellowship last year.
Since 2001, Annenberg has awarded an annual fellowship to outstanding
graduate students whose research deals with potentially
life-threatening issues facing women and children. The fellowship
provides tuition — $17,160 for 2005-06 recipients — and health and
dental insurance for one year. Students in the College’s humanities and
social sciences departments are eligible.
Leong’s dissertation explores how this congregation meets the needs of
its parishioners without compromising its religious and moral
traditions. She said she was deeply moved by what the church was doing
for a largely ignored segment of society. She recalled one woman, a
former crack-cocaine addict, who told her the church was the only place
that accepted her.
“There’s an authenticity about the people at Unity, which I also find
to be true for many marginalized groups, that is lacking among the more
privileged individuals and groups,” said Leong, who aims to eventually
find a position at a liberal arts college or research university. She
hopes her work helps “take away the stigma, the shame and the pain from
people.
“I hope it opens up the dialogue about some of the controversial issues
in the mainstream religious institutions and empowers those affected.”
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