Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies

Ursinus College

Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 1 - 30 of 225

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Consent In Conversation: Education Of Sexual Violence In Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Emily Benning Apr 2023

Consent In Conversation: Education Of Sexual Violence In Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Emily Benning

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

Maya Angelou’s memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is just one of many titles challenged and banned in public schools for “sexually explicit” content. On page 71 of her 281 page autobiography, Angelou discloses that she was raped at 8 years old by her mother’s boyfriend, and despite it being followed with scenes that emphasize the value of healing through literature, public attention has been directed to the (non-consensual) intercourse itself as a reason for censorship. As censorship efforts have expanded in the past two decades, challengers have continued to add more ban-worthy qualities to the list …


Unchallenged Myth: Abolish The Family And Structure, Julian Barocas Apr 2023

Unchallenged Myth: Abolish The Family And Structure, Julian Barocas

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

There are aspects of society we are taught not to question: government, education, capitalism. These are portrayed as immutable truths that, if presented with a gap in their logical system, are dependent on sidestepping them, referring to the aforementioned immutability, and relying on the status quo to keep their position as societal structures. Sophie Lewis’s most recent case for phasing out the nuclear family structure, Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care, demonstrates how the family is another one of these seemingly universal concepts. The unacknowledged reality of the family is historically one a tool of control rather than …


The Ainu, Meiji Era Politics, And Its Lasting Impacts: A Historical Analysis Of Racialization, Colonization, And The Creation Of State And Identity In Relation To Ainu-Japanese History, Bri Lambright Jul 2022

The Ainu, Meiji Era Politics, And Its Lasting Impacts: A Historical Analysis Of Racialization, Colonization, And The Creation Of State And Identity In Relation To Ainu-Japanese History, Bri Lambright

History Summer Fellows

On March 2nd, 1899, the Meiji government of Japan passed the Hokkaido Former Natives Protection Act. At its core, the act stripped the Ainu of their indigenous identity, labeling the group as ‘former aborigines’ and forcing every member into Japanese citizenship. In an instant, the Ainu became erased in an official capacity from the consciousness of the state and its people, a condition that would last well over 109 years when in 2008 the Japanese state finally acknowledged the Ainu as an indigenous group. What is often not acknowledged is that the implementation and subsequent enforcement of the Protection Act …


Uneasy Is The Head That Imagines The Burden, Michael Adelson Apr 2022

Uneasy Is The Head That Imagines The Burden, Michael Adelson

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

This paper deconstructs and criticizes the very notion of “an obligation to help humanity.” I argue that such an idea of an obligation is an evolution of the ideas that emerged in the 19th century regarding the “white man’s burden.” Referencing historical allusions to the 19th and 20th century European ideas of the white man’s burden, the concept of a greater obligation to help others can be demeaning and self-aggrandizing, creating a modern, updated “new white man’s burden.” As dispositively confirmed through my own anecdotal experiences in higher education, an obligation to help humanity, specifically non-white peoples, …


Persistence In The North Pacific: The Makah People And Their Fight To Protect Their Cultural Heritage, Jeff Cocci Apr 2022

Persistence In The North Pacific: The Makah People And Their Fight To Protect Their Cultural Heritage, Jeff Cocci

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

In the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of North America a whale swims blissfully unaware of its own significance. It is a Gray Whale; scientists would call it Eschrichtius robustus and at nearly forty feet long, it is large enough that it does not have to worry about sharks or other carnivorous animals. Yet there are those that are brave enough to hunt the whale. They are the Makah People of the Olympian Peninsula, in upper Washington state. By doing so, they place themselves at the center of a complex ethical debate amongst activists, scientists, and the general public. …


The Political, The Personal, And The Personified: 18th Century British Political Caricature Art And The Formation Of The British Empire’S Identity, Sarah Johns Apr 2021

The Political, The Personal, And The Personified: 18th Century British Political Caricature Art And The Formation Of The British Empire’S Identity, Sarah Johns

History Honors Papers

An image is often capable of communicating a number of things to a viewer, and political caricature in the eighteenth-century British metropole is one clear example of this. Political caricature became a useful tool for the wealthy—especially white men—to engage in discussions about the power of the British Empire as it continued to expand and grow in strength in comparison to other European Empires at the time. Even so, with the coming of the American conflict, things changed. No longer could these men be sure of what a British identity entailed. A family fractured, changing gender norms, evolving concepts of …


Just Mercy: Mass Incarceration And The Death Penalty, Sophie Auerbach Apr 2021

Just Mercy: Mass Incarceration And The Death Penalty, Sophie Auerbach

Politics and International Relations Presentations

My poster will examine criticisms by Bryan Stevenson in his book Just Mercy. Stevenson points to problems in the U.S. Prison and Justice systems, including mass incarceration, racial bias and sentencing, unfair convictions, and why the use of the death penalty is an unjust and impractical form of punishment that should be abolished. My poster will summarize many of these problems, as well as examine supporting evidence and evaluate different proposals for criminal justice reform.


The Real 1920s: How The Immigration Act Of 1924 Empowered And Encouraged Organized Nationalism, Amanda Pawling Apr 2021

The Real 1920s: How The Immigration Act Of 1924 Empowered And Encouraged Organized Nationalism, Amanda Pawling

History Presentations

The 1920s were a key era for women and women’s rights. It was also a key era for immigration reform and antiimmigrant sentiment. My research is asking if and how there is a correlation between these different takes on one decade. What my research has shown is that while women were fighting for equality and their right to vote, many were also fighting for traditional family values, family roles, conservatism, and nativism. When it comes to the KKK and its rhetoric of America first and anti-immigration, women were not only in the background but front and center in the fight. …


Reverence And Reliance: Informing An Environmental Ethic, Malik Geraci Jan 2021

Reverence And Reliance: Informing An Environmental Ethic, Malik Geraci

Charles Rice Post-Graduate Research Fellowship

This research fellowship studies the relationship between introduced religious identity and traditional cultural identity within indigenous communities as it relates to environmental conservation practices in Peru.


Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Black Americans With Diabetes, Ted Studt Jul 2020

Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Black Americans With Diabetes, Ted Studt

Biology Summer Fellows

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all Americans in varying ways, but it has hit the American Black population particularly hard. It also impacts immunocompromised individuals, especially those with conditions that involve damage to or hindering of the cardiovascular or respiratory systems. I found myself asking several questions – how much did this affect individuals who suffer from such conditions, especially those who are Black Americans; how much does systemic racism play in the current pandemic; what could be done about all this; and so on. Since I myself have lived with type I diabetes for almost two decades at the …


Communal Reciprocity In The Andes: An Ethnohistorical Approach To The Relationship Between Ayni And Food Production, Catherine Curran May 2020

Communal Reciprocity In The Andes: An Ethnohistorical Approach To The Relationship Between Ayni And Food Production, Catherine Curran

Spanish Honors Papers

Ayni, or reciprocity, historically characterizes Quechua culture as a fundamental aspect of ancient Andean societies. Furthermore, ayni represents a cosmovision that may come from pre-Hispanic times (as a political practice and ideology of the Inca Empire), that can be found in the texts of historians of the colonial period and endure to the present day. In this way, ayni is an ancient principle that has influenced Andean communities and continues to maintain today as a way to re-energize and maintain livelihood of the community through environmental conservation and complex household economies of sharing land, labor, and food. Due to …


The Case Of Kashmir: Ethnic Mobilization And Insurgency, Kayla Hofmann May 2020

The Case Of Kashmir: Ethnic Mobilization And Insurgency, Kayla Hofmann

Politics Honors Papers

This paper analyzes ethnic identity and potential reasons for conflict through a constructivist lens. Using the case study of Kashmir, I explore the past and present events in the state and the salience of ethnicity, specifically Kashmiri Muslims and Indian Hindus.


The Shape Of You: Music's Impact On Identity, Codi Yhap Jul 2019

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 …


Black Women’S Wellbeing: The Intersections Of Race, Immigrant Status, And Mental Health Among African Diasporan Women In Houston, Texas, Sianneh Vesslee Jul 2019

Black Women’S Wellbeing: The Intersections Of Race, Immigrant Status, And Mental Health Among African Diasporan Women In Houston, Texas, Sianneh Vesslee

African American and Africana Studies Summer Fellows

My central research question is: how has white supremacy impacted African Diaspora women’s mental health, access to mental healthcare, and identities as mental health patients in the United States as discernible in advertisements and state policies for psychological wellness? More specifically, I will investigate whether and/or how white supremacy shapes the ways in which advertising and state policies for mental healthcare address the particular needs of black women who immigrate to Houston, Texas from Lagos, Nigeria and Coahuila, Mexico. I choose those geographies because Houston is a U.S. city with one of the highest populations of black immigrants from Nigeria …


Effects Of Social Media On Self-Image Of Emerging Adults, Floyd M. Curry Jr. Jul 2019

Effects Of Social Media On Self-Image Of Emerging Adults, Floyd M. Curry Jr.

Psychology Summer Fellows

This project extends previous research on social media and self-image and focuses on the developmental phase of emerging adulthood. We measured individuals’ reports of feeling of being in the emerging adult developmental period, their self-concept clarity and ethnic identity, and their use of social media for self-presentation and comparison with others. An online questionnaire was administered to participants who were in the age group of emerging adulthood (18-25 years). Results indicate that those who were in strong agreement that this was a time of experimentation and that this was a time of feeling “in-between” had greater clarity about their self-concept; …


Inclusivity In Higher Education Core Curricula: Cultivating Justice In The Classroom, Joanna Timmerman Apr 2019

Inclusivity In Higher Education Core Curricula: Cultivating Justice In The Classroom, Joanna Timmerman

CIE Essay Writing Contest

No abstract provided.


Between The Mind And Body, Gabbie Pitt Oct 2018

Between The Mind And Body, Gabbie Pitt

CIE Essay Writing Contest

No abstract provided.


Who Wins And Who Loses? How Gentrification Caused By Public Transportation Is Felt Differently Across Race, Rosina Shipman Jul 2018

Who Wins And Who Loses? How Gentrification Caused By Public Transportation Is Felt Differently Across Race, Rosina Shipman

Politics Summer Fellows

When does a public good become harmful? And who does it harm? To tackle these questions I take a detailed look at how public transportation affects housing prices. Public transportation is a common good utilized by people of all different socioeconomic levels, but scholars have found that the presence of a new public transportation stop can be a catalyst for gentrification, raising housing prices and displacing previous residents. While this positive relationship between housing prices and public transportation is well documented, there is a lack of literature on how gentrification, caused by public transportation, affects neighborhood-housing prices across race. In …


The Journey Of An Emotional Black Boy, Alonzo Elias Jul 2018

The Journey Of An Emotional Black Boy, Alonzo Elias

Philosophy Summer Fellows

The title of my project is "Emotional Nigga" a.k.a. "Emotional Black Boy" because people would be comfortable if I called it so. The audience for this project may want to think of it this way. The title I chose is meant to express the struggles I faced in my journey to self-awareness. I decided to share my story through fifteen topics, which have brought me a better understanding of myself and will hopefully help the audience as well. These topics are Self-Love, Prelude: Intimacy and Attachment Theory, Relationships, Sex, Beauty, Sexuality, Love, Self-Love, Spirituality, Religion, Astrology, Psychology, Self-Care, and Life. …


The Effects Of Abuse For African Americans Using Critical Autobiographical Analysis, Shelby Carmichael Jul 2018

The Effects Of Abuse For African Americans Using Critical Autobiographical Analysis, Shelby Carmichael

Psychology Summer Fellows

This analysis looks into the effects of sexual and physical abuse on the social outcomes and behavior of black children into adulthood. Incorporating current research findings on the effects of abuse on childhood development, an autobiographical analysis is conducted through the lens of critical theory to see the direct impact abuse has on an individual’s behavior and their social outcomes. Specifically this analysis will investigate the factors of socio-economic background, race, culture, community response to admitting abuse, access to therapeutic resources, externalized behavior, internalized behavior, and adulthood outcomes for African American abuse victims. This research contributes to the sparse literature …


Understanding The American Subaltern: An Exploration Of Complex Literary Characters Through Socio-Cultural Lenses, Sophie Gioffre Jul 2018

Understanding The American Subaltern: An Exploration Of Complex Literary Characters Through Socio-Cultural Lenses, Sophie Gioffre

English Summer Fellows

This project involves the analysis of three novels — Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Ann Petry’s The Street, and Toni Morrison’s Sula — featuring main characters who are forced to navigate realistic socio-economic environments rooted in racist, sexist, and classist systems of oppression in the United States of America. Through the process of completing close-readings of the novels, conducting extensive secondary research on historical contexts, and examining other scholarly criticisms and interpretations of these novels, I develop new insights into the main characters’ plights. To transfer this conceptual understanding into a more personal and empathetic …


Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Nation: The Theology Of White Supremacy In Liberal White American Christianity, Sophia Driscoll Gamber Apr 2018

Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Nation: The Theology Of White Supremacy In Liberal White American Christianity, Sophia Driscoll Gamber

Religious Studies Honors Papers

Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Nation explores the relationships between white supremacy, American nation-building, and Protestantism. The argument operates on two levels. It is firstly concerned with unpacking the development of white supremacy as a cultural theology that evolved alongside the American project from European colonization to the present day, one which infiltrates all aspects of the American project and provides its unjust racial hierarchies with divine justification. To this end, the project then turns to an analysis of the development of American nationalism and discusses the ways in which we have cultivated a heroic American mythology that undergirds both white supremacy …


What It Means To "Take A Knee", Shayna Kushner Oct 2017

What It Means To "Take A Knee", Shayna Kushner

CIE Essay Writing Contest

No abstract provided.


Our Christian Nation: White Supremacy And The Making Of An American Theology, Sophia Driscoll Gamber Jul 2017

Our Christian Nation: White Supremacy And The Making Of An American Theology, Sophia Driscoll Gamber

Religious Studies Summer Fellows

What does it mean to be a “Christian nation,” a nation which is blessed by God above other nations? This moniker of divinity and chosen-ness has been in some way attached to the American project since its conception, though many in the ensuing years have criticized American life and culture as distinctly un-Christian. Furthermore, what does it mean to be American? To trace citizenship back to the origins of the nation reveals a sense of American-ness which is bound to whiteness. Since our earliest foundations, white supremacy has been in a close symbiotic relationship with our structures of government and …


The Harlem Renaissance's Hidden Figure, Jada A. Grice Jul 2017

The Harlem Renaissance's Hidden Figure, Jada A. Grice

English Summer Fellows

This project will seek to look at the Harlem Renaissance’s hidden figure, Jessie Fauset. Jessie Fauset was born to an A.M.E. minister and his wife as one of ten children in Camden County New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia. From there she got her college degree and began teaching all over the country. She has written four novels, There is Confusion, Plum Bun, The Chinaberry Tree, and Comedy: American Style, all of which I have read this summer. Each novel focuses on the early twentieth century black family. I will be analyzing these novels under the four themes of passing, …


Investigating Female Indigenous Leadership In Latin America, Roseangela G. Hartford Jul 2017

Investigating Female Indigenous Leadership In Latin America, Roseangela G. Hartford

Spanish Summer Fellows

This project investigates gender constructs and the complex assigned gender roles in settings of female indigenous leadership in Latin America. It examines two distinct indigenous communities, including the BriBri society in Yorkín, Costa Rica and the Maya peoples in Santa Anita, Guatemala that demonstrate the circumstantial spectrum in which women can obtain leadership roles and what actors directly influence this process. Each case study explores the fluidity of gender identities in which concepts of masculinity often guide female empowerment and liberation. With Costa Rica abolishing their military in 1948 and Guatemala experiencing a 36-year civil war (1960-1996) and a major …


The Ethics Of Reparations For Slavery, Kyla A. Jermin Jul 2016

The Ethics Of Reparations For Slavery, Kyla A. Jermin

Philosophy Summer Fellows

Reparations has always been a lingering topic in American history – one that is heavily discussed, but never quite put into action. Though there are many who agree that payment is owed for slavery, or that a crime was committed, they are often dissuaded by various issues, or by the idea that reparations are “too divisive” and would encourage racial dissension. In my project, I address these arguments, and establish a case for reparations and the ethical responsibility behind it. My project explores themes of duty, responsibility, and compensation for wrongdoing as applied to the American slave trade. In this …


Staging Colorism, Mya D. Flood Jul 2016

Staging Colorism, Mya D. Flood

Theater Summer Fellows

Colorism is a topic not frequently discussed in the African American community. My research focuses on representations of colorism in American drama. Using this research, I am workshopping a creative performance piece about this taboo topic to educate both Ursinus students and community members of all racial backgrounds. The research involves dissecting plays that confront colorism and the everyday struggles dealing with the stereotypes that come along with lighter and darker skin. My research takes the form of an annotated bibliography of plays about colorism and/or racism, a 20 page research paper about colorism in drama, and a draft of …


Talk About Race In The Undergraduate Classroom: A Discourse Analysis, Leighnah L. Perkins Jul 2016

Talk About Race In The Undergraduate Classroom: A Discourse Analysis, Leighnah L. Perkins

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

As researchers have noted, many people are afraid to talk about race (Alexander, 2010; Miller & Harris, 2005). Given the race-related events and tragedies occurring in the U.S. today, people need to find ways to move past this fear in order to work together to solve societal problems. Harris (2003) suggested that the undergraduate classroom is a key place to engage in discussions about race. This research project examined the ways that college students talk about race and race-related problems in the classroom. The data collected for this project included observations and audio recordings of three sections of a seminar …


Statistical Plight Of Black Women, Kimberly-Joy M. Walters Jul 2016

Statistical Plight Of Black Women, Kimberly-Joy M. Walters

Sociology Summer Fellows

The purpose of this research is to examine how television shows and their portrayals of professional Black women impact the interpretation of marriage rates by race and perpetuate ideologies about the angry, unlovable Black woman. Using a content analysis of cable and network television shows with Black professional women as lead characters, this study connects an analysis of the characters’ lived experiences to normative expectations of Black women in relationships to call into question the prevailing narrative that Black women are in part personally responsible for their statistical plight. I will closely study how the two stereotypes, the Jezebel and …