Jasmine Jackson is a fourth-year Transfer majoring in Anthropology with a minor in Art History. For her research project she is working under the advisory of the respected linguistic anthropologist Dr. Samy H. Alim through the Anthropology Department’s Lemelson Honors Program. Her thesis titled “Public Enemy #1: Middle-Eastern and Black Commonalities of Experience Expressed in Post-9/11 Arab and Middle Eastern Hip Hip” examines how Arab and Middle Eastern rappers shape, form, and construct their identities and experiences post-9/11 in relation to Blackness, Black culture, and the ongoing African American experience in the United States. She argues in her thesis that, through their work, Arab and Middle Eastern rappers (especially those based in North America) both directly and indirectly express a kinship with, connection to, and understanding of the African American community’s experiences dealing with racism and oppression in America and that that relationship is conveyed through an array of linguistic, visual, and lyrical mechanisms that reference Black culture, Black language, Black history, and Black icons. Going forward, Jasmine hopes to continue to study the intricacies of identity construction in communities of color in graduate school with the goal of ultimately becoming a professor of Anthropology.