Biography

Yasser Arafat Payne, Ph.D., is a professor of sociology with the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware. He holds a joint appointment as an associate professor with the Department of Africana Studies at UD.

Payne’s street ethnographic research program examines policing and reentry; economic well-being and educational inequality; and gun violence with street-identified Black-Americans by utilizing Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR) —.the process of doing research and activism with street identified populations.

Payne’s work has appeared in Journal of Urban Health, American Journal of Community Psychology, Sociological Forum, Sociology Compass and Race & Justice. Payne and his colleagues have also authored the book project: Murder Town USA: Homicide, Structural Violence and Activism in Wilmington (Rutgers University Press, 2023).

Research Interests

Payne has organized a street ethnographic research program centered on exploring notions of resilience and resiliency with The Streets of Black and Brown America using an unconventional methodological framework entitled: Street Participatory Action Research (Street PAR)—the process of involving street identified Black populations on the actual research team. Street PAR projects can take on many forms, but at the very least include the following three features: (1) research orientation; (2) intervention for Street PAR members; and (3) a vehicle for action and activism in local communities. 

Challenging the dominant arguments in the literature, Payne asserts that all of The Streets of Black and Brown America are in fact, resilient. His research also focuses on racial identity, street identity, school violence, physical violence, Gangster Rap music and culture as well as the topic of street participatory action research.

Teaching Interests

Payne's specialized courses focus on the lived or ethnographic experiences of street-identified populations. Specifically, he offers undergraduate (SOCIO/AFRA381) and graduate courses (SOCIO/AFRA650) on street ethnography. Also, Payne teaches an undergraduate course on Gangster Rap Music and Culture (SOCIO/AFRA373) as a way to compliment his street ethnographic portfolio. Further, he teaches a graduate course entitled Racial Stratification (SOCI661), which examines race as a multifaceted construct, or gendered and classed concepts in the fields of sociology, criminology and Africana studies. Payne also offers two undergraduate core courses focused on race: (a) Race, Class & Gender (SOCI415); and (b) Race, Gender & Poverty (SOCI418).