History Commons^™

Tunisia: The Colonized Road To A Democratic Identity, Kara Broene

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

The death of one Tunisian man by self-immolation in 2010 created uprisings in 18 other Arab countries in what is known as the 2011 Arab Spring. As a result, Tunisia managed to overthrow its long-standing autocratic government and establish a democracy; it is the only nation who has managed to maintain those changes since 2011. As the first point of protest and the only success story, what makes Tunisia different from the other 18 nations? While there has been research on why Tunisia has succeeded, there is little on how Tunisia’s colonial history under France for 75 years might have …

The Colonial Origins Of Institutions In Mauritanina, Mahfoudha Sidelemine

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

This paper examines and evaluates the state of development in Mauritania, a former French colony in West Africa. The drivers of (under)development that the paper focuses on are institutions. By focusing on institutions as the main factors that determine the development process of the country, I also focus on the colonial origins of institutions. Hence, in this paper, I draw on Acemoglu and colleagues’ argument on the origin of colonial origins of institutions as they identify two types of colonial institutions—Inclusive and Exclusive (Acemoglu et.al.2001). However, in this research, I argue that there is a third type of institution the …

Forest City Memories: A Comprehensive Look At Black History In London Ontario, Isaac Edward Mapp

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

The way we record history and reflect on the events of the past often shows the present foundation a community stands on to be socially sustainable and to look toward the future with better clarity. The city of London’s history is some of the richest in Ontario, and the heroism surrounding this history is proudly planted throughout the nooks and crannies of London and beyond. Anyone walking through Victoria Park will notice the Holy Roller tank which fought on D-Day and beyond, or the war memorial featuring a proud and rigid soldier and canons to celebrate Victoria Park and London’s …

2022 Mlk Keynote Address: Eddie Glaude Jr. Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Eddie Glaude Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including his most recent—the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own—take a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.

In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s …

2022 Mlk Keynote Address: Eddie Glaude Jr. Pre-Event Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Eddie Glaude Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Eddie Glaude, Jr. is an author, political commentator, public intellectual and passionate educator who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including his most recent—the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own—take a wide look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy.

In his writing and speaking, Glaude is an American critic in the tradition of James Baldwin and Ralph Waldo Emerson, confronting history and bringing our nation’s …

#Aminext: The Link Between European Colonization And Gender-Based Violence In Contemporary South Africa, Jenna Meredith Pagel

Capstone Showcase

Alarmingly, the female murder rate in South Africa is five times the global average (BBC News 2019). According to data from 2017 and 2018, a woman is murdered every four hours in South Africa (Wilkinson 2019). More than 30 women were killed by their spouses in August 2019, and at least 137 sexual offenses are committed per day in South Africa (Francke 2019).

For this thesis, and in order to understand why South Africa has some of the highest rates of violence against women in the world, I consult a number of scholars who conclude that the overall issue of …

Retelling The Classics: The Harlem Renaissance, Biblical Stories, And Black Peoplehood, Mina Magalhaes

Celebration of Learning

Applying social identity theory to the process of creating peoplehood can illustrate the positive power that literature has in uplifting marginalized communities by showing their worth. James Weldon Johnson’s “The Creation” and Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain, both composed during the Harlem Renaissance, offer one way to create Black peoplehood by creating depictions of God’s love for His Black people through the repurposing of biblical stories. Through the implementation of social identity theory to Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain and Johnson’s “The Creation,” I argue that these two authors addressed the need among African Americans to …

The Secret Police: The Heavy Hand Of Apartheid Government, Christine L. Moore

Student Scholar Showcase

The secret police during the apartheid in South Africa’s had a heavy hand that causes fear and also death. They used many tactics such as violence, intel, media, and various forms censorship to help get the job done. In the late 70s to the early 90s there was a massive surge of anti-apartheid movements throughout the country as well as internationally, which led to an increase in trying to put down these various movements. With so much more work to do and with only a handful of of members, these squads became to get overwhelmed, which ultimately led to their …

Exalted And Debased: Psychological/Sexual Conflict As Bildungsroman In Half Of A Yellow Sun, Anne Lance

Scholars Week

While many still view the Bildungsroman, novels of formation or coming of age stories, as the purview of stuffy formation novels like Dickens’ Great Expectations or Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, there is significant scholarship that suggests a recent revolution in the genre that centers women, people of color, and males in post-colonial or war-torn spaces.

My paper examines Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2006 novel Half of a Yellow Sun as an example of a Bildungsroman through the focalization of one of the main characters, Ugwu, as he endures two psychologically conflicting sexual experiences, one …

No Such Thing As A Slave Narrative: Abba, Coobah, And Sally, Shelby K. Miller

Student Scholar Showcase

Within history, there is a push to combine and generalize individual experiences into a single narrative. However, individual slaves lived massively different lives even when they lived on the same planation. My presentation will focus on three specific slaves from Thomas Thistlewood’s sugar cane plantation in Jamaica. These three women lived in the same place, experienced the same brutality, and yet all responded differently to their trauma. I will agree that historians cannot create a comprehensive slave narrative because of these varying and greatly contrasting lives.

The Witty And Hilarious Stories Of Shum Fre-Hans - ተረካብ ዘረባ ሽም ፍረሓንስ, Abraham Negash

Symposium on Eritrean Literature

Before the beginning of written literature, the stories told by people known for their wisdom and intellect in their villages were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth.

However, as time went by and the tellers of Eritrean folklore passed away and the rest of society became nonchalant, the meaning and pleasurable messages started to fade away from the memory of society. If those stories had been written down, they would have enriched and contributed immensely to the development of Eritrean language, culture, and literature.

Considering that a lot has been said and narrated in different regions on …

Naming Rape: The Social Practice Of Power, Agency, And Victimization In The Italo-Ethiopian War, 1936-1940, Caroline Waldron Merithew

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This paper, “Naming Rape,” shows how and when rape got named as part of the movement against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1936. I show that activists used the term strategically at certain points and specific places of the struggle to sway opinion and move the international community to challenge fascist violence and expansionism. Naming rape was something new for antiwar activists at this time.

Connections Between The Niagara Movement, The N.A.A.C.P., And Alonzo Herndon’S Atlanta Life Insurance Company For The Purpose Of The Long Civil Rights Movement, Andrea Desantis

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Research And Study Of Fashion And Costume History Spanning From Ancient Egypt To Modern Day, Kaitlyn E. Dennis Miss

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Through a generous donation to Morehead State University, research has been conducted on thousands of slides containing images of artwork and artifacts of historical significance. These images span from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the inaugural dress of every first lady of the United States. The slides are in the process of being recorded and catalogued for future use by students in hopes of furthering academic comprehension and awareness of the influence of fashion and costume history through the ages. Special thanks to the family of Gretel Geist Rutledge, faculty mentor Denise Watkins, as well as the Department of Music, Theatre, and …

In Search Of Askia Mohammed, Joe Wilson

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

This is my MA thesis. I contextualized the Songhay oral history concerning king Askia Mohammed. I placed the folk lore in cultural and historical context to illustrate that the Epic of Askia Mohammed is a complex work of mythology that communicates difficult and complicated information in easily understandable "picture stories." These stories are not at all factual and often distort the historical narrative, but they do so in order that the audience is entertained, cultural norms are reinforced, and the historical account is preserved in a culturally approved framework.

Race, Class And Wealth: Thomas Gainsborough's Mr. And Mrs. Andrews (1750) And Yinka Shonibare's Mr. And Mrs. Andrews Without Their Heads (1998), Yema Thomas

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Desert Fog: The Disappearing Memory Of The Herero Genocide, Elizabeth S. Topolosky

Celebration

This paper examines why certain human-created traumas, especially genocides, are forgotten while others become established topics of public and intellectual discourse. The Herero Genocide in German West-Africa of 1904 to 1907 serves as the main example of these "forgotten traumas." In particular this paper focuses on the time period of the genocide, the progress of technology at this time, and the identity of the victims as possible reasons for the "weakness" of the memory of this event.

Afro-Environmentalism: Black Stewardship In The New Millennium, Shelby Renee Burks Ward

Black Issues Conference

In the 21st century, societies face serious environmental problems. Black leadership in the environmental arena—stewardship—is vital for successful decision-making that respects all life on the planet, human health, and sustainable economy. Afro-environmentalism will explore how the legacy of the civil rights movement inspires environmental activism, current environmental problems, and how people of African descent are needed to effectively address those problems.

As African-Americans, the civil rights leaders of yesterday gave us an incredible legacy. Men and women fought against oppression and gave their lives for equal treatment, justice, and freedom. Today, environmental problems also include matters of injustice, untruth, and …

The Comparison And Contrast Of South Africa’S Apartheid With Australia’S Stolen Generations., Alexis Lynn Powers

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Black Women And Apartheid: Oppression, Resistance And The Post-Apartheid Struggle, Erika Levy

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Session D-1: African Muslims And The Transatlantic Slave Trade, Steven Buenning

Professional Learning Day

African Muslims played central roles in the largest forced migration in human history; the transatlantic slave trade. This presentation employs primary sources from the online collection of the National Humanities Center and from the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (Emory University). Participants will engage in close reading of two memoirs of Muslim slaves, as well as three newspaper articles written in 1828. In addition, participants will receive geography exercises. A Powerpoint and a full list of helpful resources are included.

Unity In The Black Community, Cecilia Uhlezipi Shamis Dzingira

Black Issues Conference

Dzingira, Cecilia

Black Issues Conference 2012

Unity in the Black Community

Abstract

Background: As an African American student who attends a pre-dominantly White Institution, I’ve found that the importance of unity is much more greater than we allow it to appear; by “We” I am referring to the African-American population that rests within the University’s community. When a new student is admitted into the University, it is not difficult that not only is there segregation between all races of students, but also within the different races lays a much deeper separation. Because of these issues that rise within communities …