African American Studies Commons^™

A Model Of The Process African American Adolescents Use To Integrate Their Bilingual Identity With Their Overall Identity In A Foreign Language Immersion Environment: A Grounded Theory Study, Kim Romero

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this grounded theory study was to develop a model that illustrates how African American adolescents in a foreign language immersion environment integrate their bilingual identity with their overall identity. For this study, bilingualism is defined as the ability to use two languages for academic and/or business purposes. I used multiple interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, and journals to collect data. The most important part of the identity integration process for African American adolescents in a foreign language immersion environment is choice. The loss of choice caused conflicts during the identity negotiation process. The participants perceived their bilingual ...

Toward A Theology Of Transformation: Destroying The Sycamore Tree Of White Supremacy, Hannah Kathleen Griggs

Celebration of Learning

Black liberation theologians come to terms with white supremacy by collectively remembering the story of the Exodus and Jesus' crucifixion--affirming God's preference for freedom and in-the-world salvation. The particular history of white American Christianity requires a different story to provide the foundation for our social memory. As white American Christians, we have certain blind spots—blind spots created by historical and social privileges that have given white people unequal access to power and resources. The story of Zacchaeus has the potential to help reframe white Christianity’s conception of race relations in the United States, shifting from a reconciliation ...

Is This Black Enough For You? A Comparative Analysis Of African-American Families Portrayed In Black Family Television Comedies Between 1980 And 2000, Joycelyn Jonas-Fowler

Electronic Theses & Dissertations Collection for Atlanta University & Clark Atlanta University

Research shows that black people watch more television than any other race of people, and, given that television is the most influential media tool, the content of what may affect an audience’s behavior and beliefs deserves analysis. This study examines the black family, alleged pathology, strengths that are specifically associated with them, its portrayal on television, and how television is used as a tool for socialization and influence. A content analysis of the top thirty black family shows that appeared on major network television between 1980 and 2000 was conducted to determine if the family framed was portrayed realistically ...

Mutual Vulnerability And Intergenerational Healing: Black Women Hbcu Students Writing Memoir, Zelda Lockhart

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study sought to gain insight into the unique experiences of Black women students who were writing memoir toward the goal of self-definition in a Black feminist learning environment at a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). Two teaching methods included personal plot (an extension of expressive writing that offers writing prompts for emotional closure), and biblio-fusion (a combination of expressive writing and bibliotherapy) (Lockhart, 2017a; 2017b). Interviews were conducted with six Black women participants and triangulated against their personal essays and online journal responses. Personal plot, a form of narrative analysis was used to construct paragraphs on what ...

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim ...

Malcolm X And Black Lives Matter: How Media Bias, Globalization, And Exigence Affect The Messages Of Rhetorical Movements, Nancy Heise

Honors Theses AY 17/18

In order to provide insight into the effectiveness of messages about racial equality for black Americans, this project utilized Critical Race Theory (CRT) to assess and juxtapose two Malcolm X speeches with rhetoric from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, through neo-Aristotelian Criticism. The messages from Malcolm X’s two speeches and the rhetoric from the BLM movement were extrapolated and defined through Critical Race Theory. Themes of globalization, Black Nationalism, epistemology, white-centricity, black-affirmation, self-identification, imagery, and media bias have been touched on and explored. The speeches, the rhetoric and all of their elements were placed in their historical contexts ...

Rewriting History: A Study Of How The History Of The Civil War Has Changed In Textbooks From 1876 To 2014, Skyler A. Campbell

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

History textbooks provide an interesting perspective into the views and attitudes of their respective time period. The way textbooks portray certain events and groups of people has a profound impact on the way children learn to view those groups and events. That impact then has the potential to trickle down to future generations, fabricating a historical narrative that sometimes avoids telling the whole truth, or uses selective wording to sway opinions on certain topics. This paper analyzes the changes seen in how the Civil War is written about in twelve textbooks dated from 1876 to 2014. Notable topics of discussion ...

Condemning Colonization: Abraham Lincoln’S Rejected Proposal For A Central American Colony, Matthew Harris

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article focuses on a proposal by Abraham Lincoln to settle freed African Americans in Central American countries. The backlash from several countries reveals that other countries besides the warring United States were also struggling with reconciling racial issues. This also reveals how interwoven racial issues were with political crises during the Civil War because it not only effected domestic policies but also international relations.

Thesis- Redefining, Reshaping, And Recultivating The Image Of Black Women- What It Means To Be Beautiful In Modern Society (2).Docx, Jennessica Holliday

Jennessica Holliday

Black Islamic Evangelization In The American South, Chester Warren Cornell

Theses and Dissertations

Broadly speaking, my research focus is on African American religion, with particular interest in the various manifestations of black Islam in the United States. I am particularly interested in the question “Has religion served as an opiate or stimulant for black political protest?” And my research attempts to answer it by chronicling the experiences of black Muslims in southern prisons. My dissertation builds on Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010). Alexander argues that African Americans were not over-represented in America’s prisons in the 1970s, but with President Reagan ...

Progressive Commemoration: Public Statues Of Historical Women In Urban American Cities, Melanie D. Chin

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Women who made notable accomplishments are underrepresented in commemoration. Some American cities have brought women to the forefront of becoming visible through commemoration in statues. This thesis compares the commemoration of historical women in four different American cities. Stakeholders hold the key to implementing and changing public policy to increase the visibility of women and people of color in public monuments. Cities which lack representation of women and people of color may learn from and follow the efforts of a leading city to achieve lasting and effective change in representing those who historically been underrepresented.

"Istwa Sa A Pa Senp": Body, Land, And Family In Haitian Afrofuturist Fiction, Sora Edwards-Thro

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project is primarily a collaboration with eleven Haitian and Haitian-American authors on a collection of short Afrofuturist fiction stories. In analyzing and interpreting their works, I focus especially on the figures of zonbi and lougawou. Empathizing with these multifaceted, sometimes-monstrous beings emphasizes the importance of becoming comfortable and familiar with fragmented selves. In addition to the stories themselves, I discuss the writing and genre-defining processes that shaped them. We began with two workshops, one in Miami and Port-au-Prince, kept in touch with each other via groupchat and social media while writing, and peer-edited and reviewed each other’s submissions ...

Pawns Of Policy And Problematized Perception: The Sustainability Of Inequality Through The Space Of African-American Childhood, Jen-I S. Costosa

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

African American children are simultaneously entrapped by the construct of race and while excluded from the construct of childhood. Race has bifurcated the timeline(s) and bastion of childhood in which one has clear milestones and expectations and the other is nonlinear, fickle, and subject to a suspicious gaze. Recent research describes this phenomenon as “dehumanization”, “age overestimation”, and “adultification.” However, the aforementioned classifications of African American children’s’ experience presents the assumption in which this particular group would first have to be viewed both as human and also as a child, which is arguable. Policy, both children centric and ...

Black Lives Matter: An Analysis Of Social-Political Activism In Social Media, Ivy Lutz

Honors Theses, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Using the contexts of institutionalized racism, ideological dogmatism, and oppression of people of color, this paper will argue the following hypothesis in regards to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and social media activism. People who post on social media about social-political issues have positive relationships with boycotting, protesting, or attending political meetings outside of the online sphere. However, this positive relationship does not correlate to a positive relationship or engagement in regards to their feelings on BLM movement, discrimination of blacks, and police treatment of blacks. If this is the case, then the data for social media postings will ...

Insurgent Knowledge: The Poetics And Pedagogy Of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, And Adrienne Rich In The Era Of Open Admissions, Danica B. Savonick

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Insurgent Knowledge analyzes the reciprocal relations between teaching and literature in the work of Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, and Adrienne Rich, all of whom taught in the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) educational opportunity program at the City University of New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Drawing on archival research and analysis of their published work, I show how feminist aesthetics have shaped U.S. education (especially student-centered pedagogical practices) and how classroom encounters with students had a lasting impact on our postwar literary landscape and theories of difference. My project demonstrates ...

Urban Geography, Gentrification, And Memory Of The Black Panther Party: An Essay In Photographs, Mikayla A. Kraus

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This creative project is a magazine which focuses on and highlights the politics and contributions of the Black Panther Party to the Black Liberation Movement in Oakland. The magazine is titled “Black Panther” as a homage to the Panthers’ newspaper that published 537 issues during the time they were active. Divided into five sections, the magazine includes the political profiles of Panther leaders in Oakland, a walking photo tour of significant and historical sites related to the Black Panther chapter in Oakland, a dissection of the anti-imperialist and Black Marxist theories practiced by the Panthers, a highlight of the Panthers ...

Congolese Refugee Students In Higher Education: Equity And Opportunity, Refik Sadiković

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore Congolese refugee students’ experiences in higher education in the United States. In order to understand the challenges Congolese students face in higher education, this study used narrative inquiry methodology to investigate Congolese students’ lived experiences that affected their educational endeavors before and after resettlement to the United States. The study examined personal stories of 10 Congolese students in the Pacific Northwest using semi-structured in-depth interviews, one-on-one follow-up interviews, field notes and two focus group interviews. Using narrative analysis five reoccurring themes were identified and discussed in the findings. The study findings indicate ...

Racial Peeves: The Exploitation Of Microaggressions, Olivia Gabrielle Ellis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Racial Peeves: The Exploitation of Microaggressions documents my personal experience of dealing with microaggressions throughout my life, as well as the history of these racial issues. This thesis also documents the creation of my Senior BFA Exhibition of the same title inspired by 1970s Blaxploitation posters.

The Creation And Development Of Rise, Paul Randall Mcinnis

Theses and Dissertations

In “The Creation and Development of Rise”, I will explain how my play evolved from

the initial writing process until the actual production of the show.

The Department of Theatre allows students to experience the development of new work through

the functions of the classroom. The goal is to simulate how a process would occur in the professional world.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the journey of creation within Rise. Rise tells the story of the

community of St. Marie, Louisiana during Mardi Gras, 1972. The play highlights the city’s

triumphs and downfalls, and it is ...

Historicizing Muslim American Literature: Studies On Literature By African American And South Asian American Muslim Writers, Wawan Eko Yulianto

Theses and Dissertations

In response to the challenge of understanding Muslim Americans in a way that highlights their integral role in the United States through literature, this research starts with two questions: 1) how should we read Muslim American literature in relation to the lived experiences of Islam in America? and 2) how does Muslim American literature contribute to the more mainstream American literature.

To answer those questions, this research takes as its foundations the theories by Stuart Hall and Satya Mohanty on, firstly, the evolving nature of diaspora identity and on the epistemic status of identity. Following Hall’s argument that every ...