Arts and Humanities Commons^™

African Heritage And The Caribbean-Brazilian Experience, Michelle D. Thompson

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus reflects having students do self-guided research over a semester that doesn't require textbooks.

Black And White Notes: Segregation, Integration, And Urban Renewal Through Pittsburgh's Locals 60 And 471, Nathan Seeley

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores Pittsburgh’s Locals 60, 471, and 60-471 of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) from the late nineteenth century to the mid-1960s. Local 60 was founded in 1896 for white musicians and Local 471 in 1908 for black musicians. While other studies of the AFM take a “top-down” approach, this study examines these Locals from the “bottom-up.” In doing so, it re-examines the causal relationship between music/musicians and the social, political, and economic conditions intersecting with them. This dissertation is built upon seventy-two interviews conducted between former Local 471 members in the 1990s, photographs from Teenie Harris Collection …

Inequality In Crime And The Criminal Justice System, Kyleigh A. Dinnien

Student Publications

This piece is to reflect upon the current criminal justice system we currently live in. There are significant gaps in reform and punishment when looking at minorities. This paper reflects the corruptness that is the criminal justice system and the segregated world we continue to live in today.

The Narrative Of Black Athletes In The National Hockey League, Julia E. Koller

Student Publications

Major league sports have existed in the United States since the 1920s; today we have four major league sports - the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer. All of these sports have changed drastically, especially their demographics. All throughout the 20th century, Black people had fought for rights, both in and out of sports. This paper explores the narrative of Black players in the National Hockey League. Factors such as, socioeconomic status, interest level, and racism look to explain why so few players in the NHL are Black.

Aas 232 African Civilizations, Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum

Open Educational Resources

Exploration of the development of African civilizations from the origin of humankind to the present day. Their contributions to the development of the continent and the major world civilizations. The course carries us through Africa’s major civilizations clusters, and offers a comparative survey extending from the Nile Valley Civilizations, through the Niger River Civilizations, to the Bantu cluster comprising the Central, Southern and Swahili Civilizations. Particular attention is paid to religious and philosophical beliefs, literature and the arts, social and political organization, economic, scientific, and technological developments. Also highlighted are contributions of African women in the history and development of …

Antillean Literature - Comparative Literature In The Spanish Antilles, Cuba, Dominican Republic, And Puerto Rico, Mariana Romo-Carmona

Open Educational Resources

This course will cover literature from Spanish Antilles and will be conducted in English. We will include a study of foundational texts in translation, from the 19^th and 20^th centuries, as well as contemporary works by Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican authors.

Economic Implications Of Racism In The United States, Pranav Kayastha

Student Publications

Racism in the United States has evolved with time, and has now taken a subtle and discreet, yet equally dangerous, form. Hiding under seemingly innocuous political agendas, media outlets, and criminal justice system, the current form of racism is not as easy to call out as it once used to be. Nonetheless, we as a society are targeting, discriminating, and denying equal opportunities to the African American community in a variety of ways. This is hurting not just those directly affected, but the U.S. economy as a whole. To identify and fight against the subtle forms of discrimination, therefore, is …

“Blessed Within My Selves”: The Prophetic Visions Of Our Lorde, Flávia Santos De Araújo

Africana Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay discusses the intellectual and poetic work of Audre Lorde and its significance for contemporary global movements for liberation. My discussion considers Lorde’s theorizing of difference and power, as well as her poetic work, as prophetic interventions within the context of the 1960s to the early 1990s. I argue that Lorde’s intellectual and literary work is the result of a black woman’s embodied experiences within the intersections of many struggles—notably, the ones against racism, sexism, and homophobia. This strategic positionality becomes, as I discuss, the centrality of Lorde’s prophetic vision of collective and inclusive liberation: one that permeates past …

Holding Allies Accountable, Gisselle Flores

Student Publications

Artists, including Rihanna, Cardi B, and Jay-Z, have turned down the NFL’s offer to perform in the halftime show out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick , but it was recently announced that Jennifer Lopez and Shakira will be performing in 2020. This has sparked controversy because some are celebrating that there are two Latinas headlining the Super Bowl halftime show for the first time while others do not view this event as a cause for celebration because they believe that J. Lo and Shakira should have boycotted like other artists have. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira have given no prior indications …

Exigimos Inclusión, No Tolerancia: La Interseccionalidad En Los Movimientos Estudiantiles En Argentina, Angélica Ramos

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Los movimientos estudiantiles en Argentina surgieron en respuesta a las desigualdades y represión dentro del sistema educativo. Los estudiantes intentan luchar para una educación de calidad, igual y gratuita para todos. Lamentablemente, como consecuencia de la historia de genocidio y esclavitud en Argentina, ideas racistas y coloniales existen hoy día en las mentalidades de muchos argentinos. Esta investigación analiza las maneras en que permanece estas mentalidades dentro de los movimientos estudiantiles y como evita la interseccionalidad e inclusión de poblaciones marginalizadas. Porque si continúa la falta de interseccionalidad de parte de estudiantes privilegiados hacia estudiantes y poblaciones femme, trans, indígena …

La Participación Y Representación De Las Mujeres Afrodescendientes En Los Movimientos De Ni Una Menos Y La Marea Verde En El Buenos Aires Actual, Olivia S. Sabini-Leite

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The myth that "there are no blacks in Argentina" or that "we do not have an afrodescendant population" remains prevalent in present-day Argentina since the beginning of state nationalization. However, immigrants and youth have sparked a movement geared at the recuperation of afrodescendancy among afroargentines. From this influence and the 31st National Women's Encounter, a strong wave of Afro-descendant women has grown, promoting the visibility, recognition and constant presence of the afrodescendant population.

During the same years, Ni Una Menos (Not One Less Girl) that responds to gender violence and Marea Verde (Green Tide) that responds to the struggle for …

The Personal Is Historical: Slavery, Black Power And Resistance In Octavia Butler’S Kindred, Megan Behrent

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Imposition Of White Beauty Standards On Black Women, Sabrina E. Robinette

Student Publications

This paper explores the impact of racist beauty ideals on black women through a survey of personal testimonies and an examination of media’s role in perpetrating white beauty. Without sufficient black representation in media, Western beauty standards have excluded black women from defining beauty, which inflicts psychological, physical, and even economic harm on women of color. Companies make profits off of black women’s insecurity from products such as skin lightening cream, chemical straighteners, and hair dye, all of which are an economic burden on black women at best and are life-threatening at worst. Often, black women are forced to turn …

The Making And Silencing Of “Axé-Ocracy” In Brazil: Black Women Writers’ Spiritual, Political And Literary Movement In São Paulo, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In this article, I will focus on two influential writers from the south of Brazil, Cristiane Sobral who currently lives in Brasília, from Rio de Janeiro, and Conceição Evaristo who currently lives in Rio de Janeiro state, from Minas Gerais. I got to know them in São Paulo in 2015 at a public event: the “Afroétnica Flink! Sampa Festival of Black Thought, Literature and Culture.” I will include references to some of their younger contemporaries such as Raquel Almeida, Jenyffer Nascimento, and Elizandra Souza, all of whom reside in São Paulo, in order to illustrate the Black Brazilian women writers’ …

Queer Spaces, Future Places: Conversations With 3 Black Capetonian Femmes On Embodying Liberation, Ivana Onubogu

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Black femme bodies face multi-axial oppressive forces resting on their racialization, gendering, sexuality and possible other factors like socioeconomic status and ability. I interviewed 3 queer-identified Black femmes between the ages of 18 and 35 that are based in or work out of the Cape Town area. Femmes is defined as trans womxn, nonbinary femmes, femme lesbians and femme bisexuals, effeminate mxn, or any other femme-identified queer person. The purpose of this project is to investigate the possibility of a liberated Black queer future as an embodied practice within the context of the Black Capetonian queer community. Participants were selected …

African Literature Association, Vivan I. P. Steemers

Instructional Development Grants

The primary mission of the African Literature Association is to facilitate the attempts of a world-wide audience to appreciate the efforts of African writers and artists. Its annual conference brings together scholars, teachers and writers that focus on themes related to African literature. This year’s main theme revolved around issues connected to “Institutions of African Literature: Future, Present, Past,” including sessions on the following topics: publishers, institutions of literary criticism, journals of African literature, discourse founders in African literary criticism and the university campus as an institution of African literature. However, a multitude of other themes were discussed during the …

Peace In The Home, Peace In The Nation: Conceptions Of Justice For Rural Women Of Northern Uganda, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

UNM International Studies Institute Fall Lecture Series 2019 "Peacemaking In Africa"

Using Mobile Technology To Enhance Learning Transfer, Corinne Brion

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Today, I invite you to Ghana to present the findings of a study that examined the extent to which mobile technology enhanced the transfer of learning post training. Seven school leaders from three different schools were interviewed after they attended a three-day leadership training. Additionally, I sent conversation triggers twice a week using WhatsApp. For this research study, WhatsApp was chosen to follow up after the three-day leadership training for several reasons: (1) the school leaders engaged on WhatsApp prior to the training for administrative purposes with the NGO Ghanaian staff; (2) school leaders are busy and have limited time …

Harlem And Abroad: Notes To An International 'Renaissance', Joshua I. Cohen

Publications and Research

Like other intractable figures of the Harlem Renaissance, the movement’s visual artists sometimes exceeded their expected parameters, and thus their anticipated representativeness of a locality. Their images, in other words, did not automatically disclose Harlem-bound or even US-bound concerns. Now familiar through continual reproduction in exhibition catalogues, scholarly monographs and literary compendia, certain artworks from the period – such as Archibald J. Motley’s Blues (1929; Figure 1) and Aaron Douglas’s Congo (c. 1928; Figure 2) – subverted any definition of the Harlem Renaissance that would hinge on a narrowly delimited urban geography or national imaginary. Motley, who painted ‘Blues’ during …

The Shape Of You: Music's Impact On Identity, Codi Yhap

Music Summer Fellows

Investigating the multiple functions of music, scholars from various fields have expressed that music can regulate moods and emotions while providing listeners a way to navigate their identity. Focusing primarily on the genre of rap, this research has placed the field of Music and Emotion in conversation with Hip-Hop studies. The field of Music and Emotion has thoroughly measured/examined listener thought processes, bodily response, and cultural influences when engaging with music. Despite the rise in scholarship addressing popular music and emotion, the field rarely includes popular music in its discussions unless, perhaps, the genre is jazz. Recognizing that there are …

Re-Visioning Ralph Ellison’S Invisible Man For A Class Of Urban Immigrant Youth, Camille Goodison

Publications and Research

In this essay, I will explore Ralph Ellison’s 1952 classic novel, Invisible Man, as a text that has contemporary and relatable themes for a modern-day classroom of mostly urban youth. This essay is also a personal journey into how Ellison’s inventive approaches to form helped create a work that lends itself to contemporary reimagining. It asks the question, can Ellison’s interest in creating a living Afro-American literary tradition rooted in the lore of the ‘peasant’ or common folk have contemporary applications? How does Ellison’s belief that everyday folk expression has value hold up for today’s readers? I try to …

“It’S Hard Out Here If You’Re A Black Felon”: A Critical Examination Of Black Male Reentry, Jason M. Williams, Sean K. Wilson, Carrie Bergeson

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Formerly incarcerated Black males face many barriers once they return to society after incarceration. Research has long established incarceration as a determinant of poor health and well-being. While research has shown that legally created barriers (e.g., employment, housing, and social services) are often a challenge post-incarceration, far less is known of Black male’s daily experiences of reentry. Utilizing critical ethnography and semi-structured interviews with formerly incarcerated Black males in a Northeastern community, this study examines the challenges Black males experience post-incarceration.

Rees Odeil And Patti Mattox Bryant Papers, (1957-2007), Rees Odeil Bryant, Patti Mattox Bryant

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

Finding aid for the Rees Odeil and Patti Mattox Bryant Papers, (1957-2007).

Finding Aid For Rees Odeil And Patti Mattox Bryant Papers, Patti Mattox Bryant, Rees Odeil Bryant

Rees Odeil and Patti Mattox Bryant Papers

Finding aid for the Rees Odeil and Patti Mattox Bryant Papers.

Muddling The Middle: Cynical Representations Of Ethnic Relations In V.S. And Shiva Naipaul, Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

In this essay from the collection, Seepersad and Sons: Naipaulian Synergies, Kevin Frank argues that coming from a creolized society, unlike their father, Seepersad, V.S. and Shiva Naipaul's representations of "race" and ethnicity in their works is cynical, favoring one side in the Indo- and Afro-Caribbean racial antagonism, mainly because of their anxiety about "Black Power."

Hispanics In The U.S.: Migration And Adjustment, Mariana Romo-Carmona

Open Educational Resources

This course will discuss the challenge that the multifaceted Latino/a-Hispanic reality poses to the anglo-european and monocultural conception of the United States. For the most part, mainstream approaches to the study of Latino and Latina populations in the United States tend to focus on Latinos/as as a problem group, somehow outside and distinct from society. In our approach, we will shift perspectives to the myriad identities that in fact constitute the U.S. We will read and discuss texts on the socio-economic and political origins of migration from Latin America and the Spanish speaking Caribbean to the United States, as well …

Negotiating With Patriarchy: Women, Sexuality, And Power In Yoruba Sacred Oral Genres., Ajoke Adebisi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study argues that Yoruba oral genres offer women models “of “and “for” ways of enduring resistance from patriarchy. In the myths, proverbs and praise poems, women challenge marginalization in ways incomparable to what prevails in other world religions. By engaging Yoruba oral genres, this study offers insights into how the Yoruba reflect on sharing of power among the male and the female. The study also highlights how Yoruba oral genres speak to the power imbalance in male /female relationships and sheds light on the prescriptions oral genres offer women for negotiating these imbalances.

Grime And Spirit: On A Hype!, Monique Charles

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Grime is a genre of Black British music originating from London at the turn of the twenty-first century. In this article, I explore responses to moments of Grime music making and engagement in live performance settings. I make connections between Grime, Black music streams (Lena), Black Atlantic (Gilroy) practices, the Black Public Sphere (Baker) AND how engagements at these intersections are connected to spiritual practice in the context of live performance. The power in Grime live performance settings; where the spiritual is found, connects to the sonic characteristics deployed, embodied and emotive responses and cultural practice. Spirituality, through cultural practice, …

“In The Beginning Was Body Language” Clowning And Krump As Spiritual Healing And Resistance, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In the neighborhood of HollyWatts in Los Angeles, dance allows a shift from existing as bodies presented as sites of threat and extinction to sources of spiritual empowerment. Clowning and Krump dancers—their subjectivity and their dancing bodies—negotiate survival from trauma and socioeconomic marginalization. I argue that the dancers’ performances act as embodied narratives of “re-membering in the flesh.” The performance acts as a spiritual retrieval and re-integration of traumatic memories and afflictions into memory through the body. Choreography and quotes from dancers support the claim that Krump and Clowning is “re-membering in the flesh” that enacts self-worth, self-defined sexuality, and …

The Multiracial Bronx: A Unique Cultural Incubator In Post War America, Mark Naison

Occasional Essays

No abstract provided.