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Black Girls Youth Participatory Action Research & Pedagogies, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Venus E. Evans-Winters Jan 2024

Black Girls Youth Participatory Action Research & Pedagogies, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Venus E. Evans-Winters

Faculty Scholarship

More than a decade ago, as a group of anti-racist and feminist researchers, including one of the authors, set out to survey the landscape of the schooling experiences of Black girls, we encountered a pronounced knowledge desert that threatened research-informed policy interventions that served to protect Black girls. Most research at the time focused on the educational experiences of male, female, or Black students. There was hardly any readily available data on the school-based outcomes of Black girls as a specific group of students with a unique set of experiences. In Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, & Underprotected (Crenshaw, …


“Yo Sí Soy Boricua, Pa’ Que Tú Lo Sepas”: A Decolonial And Intersectional Analysis Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jocelin Monge Dec 2023

“Yo Sí Soy Boricua, Pa’ Que Tú Lo Sepas”: A Decolonial And Intersectional Analysis Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jocelin Monge

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Historically speaking, political representation in Congressional districts in the U.S. has been predominantly White and male. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is an example of a type of new mestizaconsciousness (Anzaldúa, 1987) given she is the youngest Latina congresswoman ever been elected to serve New York’s 14th Congressional District. This study employs an intersectional analysis on AOC’s viral moments with ‘The Squad’, Puerto Rico, Vogue, and Met Gala. Through a theoretical lens composed of elements of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991) and mestiza consciousness (Anzaldúa, 1987), this study focuses on three significant recurrent themes found in AOC’s estilos de resistencia or sensibilities …


Canadians Redefining R&B: The Online Marketing Of Drake, Justin Bieber, And Jessie Reyez, Amara Pope Ms. Jul 2023

Canadians Redefining R&B: The Online Marketing Of Drake, Justin Bieber, And Jessie Reyez, Amara Pope Ms.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In a country that long failed to accept, include, and institutionalize R&B music as part of Canadian culture, musical artists Justin Bieber, Drake, and Jessie Reyez have successfully broken-down barriers by having successful careers as racially diverse Canadian R&B artists. This qualitative study surveys the literature on classifications of the R&B genre and of Canadian identities in popular media. The theoretical framework of discourse analysis is used to conduct a brief episodic history of Canadian R&B and to evaluate how the music genre “R&B,” is traditionally associated with people who have "Black" and "American" identities, and how a “Canadian” identity …


The Myth Of Perfection: Charting The Rhetoric Of Veteran Disability For A Course To Stability, Nicholas Rader May 2023

The Myth Of Perfection: Charting The Rhetoric Of Veteran Disability For A Course To Stability, Nicholas Rader

All Dissertations

This dissertation rhetorically analyzes discrimination in Western institutional discourses and documentation procedures, such as architectural texts and procedures, through a historiographic lens. An analytical methodology will be offered to show how discrimination of intersectional bodies is historically informed and reaffirmed by the manipulation of Western myths and mythos. Specifically, by mapping navigational mathematics and cartographic methods over rhetorical, architectural, and historiographic theory, it will be shown how the manipulation of Western myths establishes and reifies patriarchal discrimination that eventually fissions into eugenicist logics in nineteenth and twentieth century France, England, and the United States. In modernity, the practice of manipulating …


Shifting The Paradigm With Wednesday Addams: Why Nuanced, Intersectional Portrayals Of Autistic People Matter, Camille Alyse Bassett May 2023

Shifting The Paradigm With Wednesday Addams: Why Nuanced, Intersectional Portrayals Of Autistic People Matter, Camille Alyse Bassett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For decades, Autistic people have been portrayed in the media through dehumanizing stereotypes such as the robot, the superhuman savant, and the empty shell. Through these stereotypes, Autistic people are construed as non-human, above-human, and sub-human but never as human beings with complexity, authenticity, and dignity. In addition to being stereotypical, depictions of Autistic people have historically featured white and male characters, a longstanding pattern that erases Autistic women and people of color, among others. In 2022, however, Netflix’s spinoff series of The Addams Family, Wednesday, brought to the screen one of the very first autistic-coded …


Developing An Lgbtqia2+ Affirming Curriculum And Testing Its Impact On Allyship, Tausif Karim Dec 2022

Developing An Lgbtqia2+ Affirming Curriculum And Testing Its Impact On Allyship, Tausif Karim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Why are some conversations considered more difficult in learning spaces than others? What is the potential for educational interventions strengthen our capacities for such challenging conversations and for allyship? Guided by these broad questions, the present thesis focused on LGBTQIA2+ affirming education and sought to specifically test how an intentionally queer online learning experiences impacted the participants’ self-perceived allyship efficacies.

In my thesis, I draw on literature exploring how the “civility, teacher immediacy, or teacher credibility” (Chen & Lawless, 2018, p. 376) of Western education has prevented instructors from bringing topics related to race, gender, immigration, sexuality, and others in …


An Intersectional Approach To Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Women’S Sexualized Body-Positive Imagery On Instagram, Megan A. Vendemia, Kyla N. Brathwaite, David C. Deandrea Dec 2022

An Intersectional Approach To Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Women’S Sexualized Body-Positive Imagery On Instagram, Megan A. Vendemia, Kyla N. Brathwaite, David C. Deandrea

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Our work adopted an intersectional approach to investigate how women’s racial identity may influence how they evaluate and are impacted by body-positive imagery of women on social media. In a 2 × 2 × 2 experiment (N = 975), we examined how source race (Black vs White) and sexualization (non-sexualized vs sexualized) in body-positive images affect Black and White viewers’ impressions of self-interest, moral appropriateness, and body positivity. Results indicated that viewers generally responded more favorably to non-sexualized (vs sexualized) images: Participants reported less self-interested motivations for sharing, found the images more morally appropriate, and believed they were more …


Black Female Athletes’ Use Of Social Media For Activism: An Intersectional And Cyberfeminist Analysis Of U.S. Hammer-Thrower, Gwen Berry's 2019 And 2021 Podium Protests, Ariel Newell Dec 2022

Black Female Athletes’ Use Of Social Media For Activism: An Intersectional And Cyberfeminist Analysis Of U.S. Hammer-Thrower, Gwen Berry's 2019 And 2021 Podium Protests, Ariel Newell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Much attention has been paid to Black male athlete activism both historically and in the contemporary movement for black lives. Black female athletes have also made historic contributions as activists, and they continue to do so. However, Black female athlete activism has not always been acknowledged or heard. This is a problem, as Black women in American sports and society face overlapping racial and gender inequities and injustices that distinctly marginalize and oppress them. However, some Black female athlete activists (BFAAs) have begun using social media to challenge media narratives about themselves, to redefine what it means to be a …


The Personal Is Still Political: An Analysis Of Jessica Valenti's Contemporary Feminine Style, Michala M. Zilkey Aug 2022

The Personal Is Still Political: An Analysis Of Jessica Valenti's Contemporary Feminine Style, Michala M. Zilkey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 2016, Jessica Valenti’s memoir, Sex Object, was published. Sex Object describes Valenti’s experiences of sexualization and objectification in a personal and anecdotal format. The feminine style, a rhetorical style that bridges the divide between norms of femininity and expectations of public oration, has been heralded as essential for advancing the feminist movement. This thesis asks the question, to what extent does contemporary feminists’ rhetoric mirror and diverge from earlier iterations of the feminine style? I argue that Valenti’s employs a feminine style that utilizes relational norms and self-disclosure to illustrate the personal as political and the political as …


Unapologetically Her: A Nomadic-Intersectional Case Study Analysis On Lizzo And Jillian Michaels, Alexia Berlynn Martinez Aug 2022

Unapologetically Her: A Nomadic-Intersectional Case Study Analysis On Lizzo And Jillian Michaels, Alexia Berlynn Martinez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

With various iterations of the meaning and representation of a feminist woman, feuds arise, especially amongst public figures who capture the media’s attention. This paper analyzes the discourse amongst two communities with opposing views about feminist representations: the body-positive community and the fitness community. Utilizing an intersectional theoretical framework allows us to understand the levels of oppression and marginalization members of the body-positive community, specifically plus-size Black women, endure while also running up against the fitness community. There is no better illustration of this phenomenon than the public skirmish between Lizzo and Jillian Michaels. The goal of this case study …


(Un)Matched: Racialized Narratives Of U.S.-Based Japanese Men, Masculinity, And Heterosexuality In Online Dating Apps, Keisuke Kimura May 2022

(Un)Matched: Racialized Narratives Of U.S.-Based Japanese Men, Masculinity, And Heterosexuality In Online Dating Apps, Keisuke Kimura

Communication ETDs

In this study, I documented and examined U.S.-based Japanese men’s narratives about their day-to-day experiences in and across online dating contexts. Through the analysis of narratives, I critiqued how multilayered differences (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and more) working with dominant social structures affect their everyday experiences within the spectrum of power, privilege, and marginalization in the transnational space. Specifically, the overarching purposes and goals of this study were to better understand U.S.-based Japanese men’s online dating experiences and to critique the relationalities of how Japanese men’s narratives (i.e., micro-level context) and their beliefs/attitudes within and between cultural communities …


The Effects Of News Framing On Policy Support For Incarcerated Black Women, Rebecca Pool May 2022

The Effects Of News Framing On Policy Support For Incarcerated Black Women, Rebecca Pool

All Theses

Mass incarceration has disproportionately affected many people; however, Black women have been routinely dismissed from the majority of prison scholarship and are at a particular risk through harmful stereotypes that serve as justification for their imprisonment. By examining their unique stance in the prison-industrial complex, this thesis draws attention to mechanisms to generate support for these women. Under the framework of framing theory and critical media effects, this research determined whether individual attribution of responsibility frames or societal attribution of responsibility frames affect individuals’ support for anti-mass incarceration public policies. According to the results, there were no effects between Black …


Queens Of Discourse: An Observation Of Black Insta-Comediennes, Naoka Foreman May 2022

Queens Of Discourse: An Observation Of Black Insta-Comediennes, Naoka Foreman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study observed the ways Black females on Instagram perform sociopolitical humor online to push back against the dominant culture in this digital age – maintaining the Black comedy tradition. It explores and illuminates the strategies of resistance exhibited by Instagram comediennes through a textual analysis informed by minor discourse, intersectionality, and critical feminist theories. Each comic’s personae were investigated and their content on Instagram was randomly selected and coded then grouped into themes. Black insta-comediennes shared Black feminist thought, modified beliefs about Black females or conventionality, and negotiated with the industrial demands of show business to earn subjectivity on …


Equity + Catalyst Framework Guide, Naomi M. Silas Apr 2022

Equity + Catalyst Framework Guide, Naomi M. Silas

Culminating Experience Projects

There has been a shift in society, in light of Covid-19 and the global pandemic, more people have begun to recognize the structural and institutional injustices that exist in this country. Social innovation allows collaboration between people from different sectors, disciplines, industries, and backgrounds; in order to create sustainable change to complex social issues. Design thinking is an iterative process used in business to create innovation and products; it’s also used for social impact.

The goal of the Equity + Catalyst Framework is to bridge concepts that include design thinking, and embodiment, as well as lived experiences and community care …


Intersectional Silencing In The Archive: Salaria Kea And The Spanish Civil War, Kathryn Everly Mar 2022

Intersectional Silencing In The Archive: Salaria Kea And The Spanish Civil War, Kathryn Everly

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

Salaria Kea was the only African American woman to serve with the American Medical Unit during the Spanish Civil War. Her experience has been silenced and edited within the archive by traditionally more authoritative voices. Reconsidering the impact of intersectionality on personal experience can lead to a better understanding of Black U.S. participation in voluntary war efforts as well as to a decentering of the predominant euro-centric versions of the war in Spain and of history in general. The impetus of many African Americans to join the fight against fascism in Spain stemmed directly from the Italian invasion of Ethiopia …


From Blame To Dialogue: In Quest Of Intergenerational Respect On Climate Sustainability, Peter M. J. Hess Ph.D., Spencer M. Mcnairn Jan 2022

From Blame To Dialogue: In Quest Of Intergenerational Respect On Climate Sustainability, Peter M. J. Hess Ph.D., Spencer M. Mcnairn

CSU Journal of Sustainability and Climate Change

Conversations about rapid climate disruption can become side-tracked by blame-seeking: who or what nations or cultures or age brackets are most responsible for global warming? This paper seeks to move beyond blame to constructive dialogue by modeling mutual respect and understanding on the part of two people separated in age by forty years: a recently graduated CSU Chico senior and an actively retired academic. They are second cousins, part of an extended family that for decades has mutually influenced and educated each other on sustainability and other environmental topics.


An Unspoken Story Of Education: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Racism In Education, Elisa A. Perez-Garcia Jan 2022

An Unspoken Story Of Education: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Racism In Education, Elisa A. Perez-Garcia

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Privilege is when one voice is the norm, but some children’s voices are underheard within research. Extensive research has demonstrated that Hispanic face multiple barriers within the education system. This study examines how whiteness within the education system can impact a Hispanic student’s perspective of the world. An autoethnographic approach is used to analyze five stories. A grounded theory approach identified emergent themes from the stories shared. The four themes that emerged among the stories were intersectionality, privilege, social construct, and microaggression. It demonstrated minority students’ experiences and interactions could profoundly affect how they view their identity. There are measures …


Experiences Of Latin American Au Pairs In El Paso, Texas: Perceptions And Challenges In A Border Context, Nathaly Carolina Hernandez Garcia Dec 2021

Experiences Of Latin American Au Pairs In El Paso, Texas: Perceptions And Challenges In A Border Context, Nathaly Carolina Hernandez Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For the last three decades, the French term Au Pair has been used to name the exchange program that allows foreign young people (primarily women) the possibility to immerse themselves in American culture while living, working, studying, and traveling in the United States. Within the context of globalization in which we live, this program has experienced significant growth in Latin America and Europe, among others. The purpose of this exploratory study was to explore and make visible the concerns raised by female Au Pairs from Latin America who participate in the program in El Paso, Texas, a border community along …


"Ain’T I A Woman?”: The Intersectional Representation Of Black Women Professional Leaders Above The Concrete Ceiling In Scandal And How To Get Away With Murder, Jessica Love Aug 2021

"Ain’T I A Woman?”: The Intersectional Representation Of Black Women Professional Leaders Above The Concrete Ceiling In Scandal And How To Get Away With Murder, Jessica Love

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the politics of re-presentation of the two Black leading characters in Shonda Rhimes’s televised series, Scandal (Olivia Pope) and How to Get Away with Murder (Annalise Keating). This textual analysis explores how the characters are re-represented as leaders at the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality using Kimberlé Crenshaw’s (1989) theory of intersectionality. This study also imposes Patricia Hill Collins’s (2005) matrix of domination to explicate how the hegemonic structure of the concrete ceiling conditions their identities and exertion of power in the workplace. To do this, the researcher investigated cultural workplace expectations tied to notions …


“Being Myself Paid Off:” Blackness, Feminized Labor, And Authenticity In Black Beauty And Lifestyle Content On Youtube, Melissa Monier May 2021

“Being Myself Paid Off:” Blackness, Feminized Labor, And Authenticity In Black Beauty And Lifestyle Content On Youtube, Melissa Monier

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis centers Black women in conversations of digital feminized and aspirational labor online, reframing prior scholarship that has generally identified digital content creators as young, white, female, cisgender, and upper class. I use an intersectional, Black cyberfeminist approach to better understand how race and gender impact digital feminized and aspirational labor. In a 2015 study of fashion bloggers, Brooke Duffy and Emily Hund identified three elements of entrepreneurial femininity: discourses of “the destiny of passionate work,” staging “the Glam Life,” and sharing “carefully curated” intimate details of one’s personal life on social media. My thesis applies these three elements …


Out Of Time: Temporal Performativity And Resistance In Popular American Film, Television, And Theater, Meghan Johnston Aelabouni Jan 2021

Out Of Time: Temporal Performativity And Resistance In Popular American Film, Television, And Theater, Meghan Johnston Aelabouni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that religious world-making in popular culture can reveal and resist hegemonic times. Taking as my primary case study the United States in the 2010s, particularly the shift from the Obama to the Trump era, I analyze cultural constructions of time—as sacred history, destiny, and “the times”—that reflect and shape national identity and belonging in the American imagined community. In this context, such temporal constructions have privileged whiteness and heteronormative masculinity, positioning those who embody or approximate this norm as “of the times,” while also displacing BIPOC, women, and queer people as “out of time.” I posit time …


Fatty Fatty Two-By-Four—Can’T Get Through The Dressing Room Door?: An Examination Of Excess As Queer Failure, Miranda Dottie Olzman Jan 2021

Fatty Fatty Two-By-Four—Can’T Get Through The Dressing Room Door?: An Examination Of Excess As Queer Failure, Miranda Dottie Olzman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Failure and fat are not linear. It is taught, learned, reminded, and internalized. Our bodies have memories that are built through repeated moments. And for me, failure has been a part of my body’s map since I was born. This project is the culmination of many failures. In this dissertation, I am examining queer failure in multiple contexts including body size, as well as religion to create a corpulent critique. I do this by examining the lineage of queer failure as well as queer temporality as it is linked to failure (Edelman; Muñoz; Halberstam; Love) with fat queer bodies serving …


Understanding The Resilient Practices Of Journalists In The Face Of Hostile Sources: An Intersectional Approach, Kelsey Renee Mesmer Jan 2021

Understanding The Resilient Practices Of Journalists In The Face Of Hostile Sources: An Intersectional Approach, Kelsey Renee Mesmer

Wayne State University Dissertations

After former President Trump began calling the news media “the enemy of the American people,” many scholars and journalism practitioners worried about such anti-media’s trickle-down effect and how it would complicate work for local reporters. Given a growing need to pay attention to hostility toward journalists, this project sought to better understand the ways journalists experience the trickle-down effects of anti-media rhetoric in the form of hostile interactions with sources who vilify journalists; how women and journalists of color experience these effects to different, possibly heightened degrees; and how journalists are resilient in spite of these challenges. Drawing on 38 …


Becoming A Mom: Intersectionality And Fashion Consumption For Millennial Latinas And The Role Of Social Media Influencers, Leslie M. Cuevas Aug 2020

Becoming A Mom: Intersectionality And Fashion Consumption For Millennial Latinas And The Role Of Social Media Influencers, Leslie M. Cuevas

Doctoral Dissertations

When it comes to motherhood for women of color, the topic of women empowerment is scarce, and the media mostly portrays Latinas through traditional ethnic stereotypes. The advent of social media has presented women the opportunity to engage in identity formation as they exercise empowerment in choices and self-monitoring online. A good example of this transition in power involves fashion influencers who use their personal influence to change the meaning of motherhood, making it more accessible and realistic to women in general. However, a lack of diversity remains within the influencer industry as white women are the majority. Drawing upon …


An Analysis Of Vogue: Femininity & Intersectionality As A Societal Standard In Fashion, Cassidy Tamburro May 2020

An Analysis Of Vogue: Femininity & Intersectionality As A Societal Standard In Fashion, Cassidy Tamburro

Scholars Week

The goal of this research project is to see if Vogue has evolved or changed its fashion coverage to be more intersectional as well as evolved in what it means to be ideally feminine. The research question that guided my work is: How has Vogue’s intersectionality and feminine ideals evolved in its fashion coverage from 1975 to 2019? My methods include a semiotic analysis of Vogue magazine covers images from 1975 and 2019, examining model diversity, cover-photo elements, and representations of styles. A qualitative analysis, including content-coding, of Vogue fashion articles 1975 and 2019. The main findings included that Vogue …


Because I, As A Black Woman, Can: Using Autoethnography To Investigate And Evaluate Hegemonic Systems Of Oppression Facing Queer Black Women, Mayah-Peacelynn Bell May 2020

Because I, As A Black Woman, Can: Using Autoethnography To Investigate And Evaluate Hegemonic Systems Of Oppression Facing Queer Black Women, Mayah-Peacelynn Bell

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In this thesis, I use autoethnography to uncover systems of oppression that are rooted in the existing structures and dominant culture of a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). My beliefs supported by various Black scholars infer that some alleged practices intentionally silence communities of color and can impose upon them as they attempt to make sense of their experiences in academia, the work place, and in the home (bell hooks, 1993, 1994; Calafell, 2012; Griffin, 2011; Boylorn, 2011; Hill-Collins, 1989, 1990). Black students, like myself, are potentially withheld from reaching our full capacity as critical thinkers while simultaneously mastering the master’s …


Critical Race Theory And The Impact Of Oppression Narratives On The Identity, Resilience, And Wellness Of Students Of Color, Gerdonna J. Ellis May 2020

Critical Race Theory And The Impact Of Oppression Narratives On The Identity, Resilience, And Wellness Of Students Of Color, Gerdonna J. Ellis

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I explore the different stories students of color draw from and internalize to understand their identities in relation to oppression and resilience. Through reviewing critical race theory (CRT) and critical whiteness literature, I identify what I call the “oppression narrative”, in which students of color are often discussed as being oppressed and disadvantaged. Stories are powerful, and in many ways the stories we hear and believe about ourselves make us who we are. Eight narrative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with students who attended a predominately white institution (PWI) and identified as black or Latinx. Seven themes emerged …


Reclaiming Images Of Black Women: An Investigation Of Black Womanhood In Visual Communication, Taylor Simone Thomas May 2020

Reclaiming Images Of Black Women: An Investigation Of Black Womanhood In Visual Communication, Taylor Simone Thomas

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis investigates how Black womanhood has been visually represented in hopes to either recognize Black women as full, nuanced, and legitimate participants of society or to reinforce monolithic representations built from the constructs of social, political, and economic oppression. It also gives an analysis of Black feminism and how Black feminist thought can be applied to the creative process in hopes of challenging visual misrepresentations of Black womanhood. The aim of this thesis is to show that artists and visual communicators do have a responsibility to be conscious of the messages conveyed in their work. In addition, they must …


Performances Of An Able, Academic Mind, Caleb Green Jan 2020

Performances Of An Able, Academic Mind, Caleb Green

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Western culture individualizes issues of public health. This is especially clear in academic life, where the structures of the university disable atypical bodies and minds in order to force them to simultaneously perform the roles of scholar, teacher, and colleague. The university not only fails to accommodate afflicted minds and bodies, it also produces more precarity in the process. This project is a performance ethnography of my time in the academy, starting with my life as an undergraduate being disciplined into academic life, moving toward recruitment for graduate school, and ending with events surrounding the construction of this very project. …


Feminism And Message Alignment Within Girl Scout Camps, Emily Susan Hinrichsen Jan 2020

Feminism And Message Alignment Within Girl Scout Camps, Emily Susan Hinrichsen

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

There has been a recent move in the United States for individuals and organizations toactively empower girls and women, provide them with equal opportunities, and help them build confidence. One organization that has been pursuing these goals is Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), and Girl Scout camp is a specific setting in which the organization communicates empowerment, leadership, and inclusion to its members. This study utilized a feminist lens to explore message alignment within GSUSA, focusing on Girl Scout campers and Girl Scout camp staff as two important stakeholders who receive messaging from the organization. The researcher evaluated the …