Update: 8/1/2025

Thank you all sooooooo much for your generosity and support this week. You all acted fast, and I truly appreciate it. Your kindness has reminded me just how powerful community can be. Every donation, message, and act of care reminds me that we don’t get through life alone. With all of your support this week and with alitttle bit of my own elbow grease through out the rest of the month, I will have just enough by September to pay off my bursar account and enroll by September 10th !

Side note: One approach I take in my teaching is to frame the classroom as a community. Central to my pedagogy, regardless of the subject, is helping students learn how to build community and how to participate meaningfully within it. This involves showing up for one another during critical moments and offering support in ways that reflect our individual capacities.

In the true spirit of Ubuntu, I am who I am because of who we are, and for that, I am profoundly grateful. You all are truly what it means to be a community, personified. Asè

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7/27/2025: Hello, my name is Bobby Davis, and I am in the final year of my doctoral program in African American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University. My research focuses on the cultural, spiritual, and social lives of Black church instrumentalists, exploring how they shape and impact worship experiences across multiple church settings. Through years of interviews, fieldwork, and community engagement, my dissertation uplifts the stories and practices of musicians who serve as the heartbeat of Black worship traditions.

Unfortunately, Indiana University-Bloomington recently changed its policies and now requires students to fully pay off their bursar account balances before enrolling. In past years, I could pay a portion of my balance to stay enrolled, but that option is no longer available. I currently need to register for G901: Advanced Research, the final course I must take while I complete and defend my dissertation. Without enrollment, I cannot finish my degree.

As someone who values privacy and independence, it is hard for me to ask for help publicly, but I truly need my community’s support to cross the finish line. Every donation, no matter the size, will go directly toward the outstanding balance preventing my enrollment.

I am so close to completing this degree, and your help would mean the world to me. Thank you for reading my story and for supporting me through donations, shares, or words of encouragement.

With gratitude,

Bobby Davis