African American Studies Commons^™

“Come Think With Me”: Finding Communion In The Liberatory Textual Practices Of Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Jehan L. Roberson

Criticism

Defining text as anything that can be read, self-identified learner and artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed explores reading as radical communion within her multifaceted textual practice. A 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, Rasheed’s work spans vast bodies of knowledge and temporalities to interrogate both the aesthetic and the limits of the text. At times producing collages with letters cut out from books in her own expansive library, and at other times posting scans from various books that are marked up with her rigorous note-taking, Rasheed approaches the text as an invitation to commune with the author in order to collectively arrive at new …

Coded: Dialect Diversity In The Secondary American Classroom, Madeline Dunn

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the differences between dialects along racial, cultural, and ethnic lines with a specific focus on Black and Latine students inside the public secondary classrooms of America. The focus of the paper is on two linguistic tactics: “code-switching,” a linguistic practice which teaches students to separate their home language from the language they use in formal or professional settings, and “code-meshing,” a linguistic practice to teach students how to mesh together multiple dialects with which a student is familiar. Through the creation of a historical framework and an analysis of existing literature, theory, and pedagogical practices regarding the …

“Madam” Elizabeth: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley’S Sisyphean Attempt To Join The “Cult Of True Womanhood”, Bella Biancone

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Nineteenth century notions of femininity and etiquette were governed by strict societal standards. “True Womanhood” was defined by four fundamental virtues– piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. However, there was another pre-requisite for joining this revered cult¬: whiteness. No matter how pious or domestic a woman of color was, she could never hope to be considered a proper lady by Victorian standards. In discerning what it meant to be a member of that “cult of True Womanhood,” Black women were used to determine the boundaries of white womanhood; a “True Woman” was to be the antithesis of the stereotypical sexual and …

Educating For Global Competence: Co-Constructing Outcomes In The Field: An Action Research Project, Kristina A. Van Winkle

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Capacity building for globally competent educators is a 21st Century imperative to address contemporary complex and constantly changing challenges. This action research project is grounded in positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship, relational cultural theory, and relational leadership practices. It sought to identify adaptive challenges educators face as they try to integrate globally competent teaching practices into their curricula, demonstrate learning and growth experienced by the educators in this project, and provide guidance and solutions to the challenges globally competent educators face. Six educators participated in this three-phase project, which included focus groups, reflective journal entries, and an exit interview. Data …

Gender, Race, And Class In Various Aspects Of American Literature: A Portfolio, Harry Olafsen

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

In this portfolio, Harry Olafsen takes a closer look at various texts in American Literature, including women in 1960s country music, Us directed by Jordan Peele, and southern women's diaries from the Civil War.

Still Writing At The Master’S Table: Decolonizing Rhetoric In Legal Writing For A “Woke” Legal Academy, Teri A. Mcmurtry-Chubb

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

When the author wrote Writing At the Master’s Table: Reflections on Theft, Criminality, and Otherness in the Legal Writing Profession almost 10 years ago, her aim was to bring a Critical Race Theory/Feminism (CRTF) analysis to scholarship about the marginalization of White women law professors of legal writing. She focused on the convergence of race, gender, and status to highlight the distinct inequities women of color face in entering their ranks. The author's concern was that barriers to entry for women of color made it less likely that the existing legal writing professorate, predominantly White and female, would problematize the …

Subversive Sponsorship : Organized Literacy Education And The Long Civil Rights Movement., Jaclyn Hilberg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents literacy sponsorship as a narrative framework that complicates the history of black struggles surrounding educational equity as a civil rights issue. While that history has traditionally been framed as a fight for black access to and participation in white-sponsored institutions, this dissertation demonstrates that a number of prominent black intellectuals and activists instead argued for black sponsorship of black literacy and pursued such sponsorship as a political strategy to advance the goals of the civil rights movement. As such, this project contributes to the body of alternative historiography in rhetoric and composition that examines sites of literacy …

African American English And Urban Literature: Creating Culturally Caring Classrooms, Erin E. Campbell, Joseph J. Nicol

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Language and literacy are a means of delivering care through consideration of students’ home culture; however, a cultural mismatch between the predominantly white, female educator population and the diverse urban student population is reflected in language and literacy instruction. Urban curricula often fail to incorporate culturally relevant literature, in part due to a dearth of texts that reflect student experiences. Dialectal differences between African American English (AAE) and Mainstream American English (MAE) and a history of racism have attached a reformatory stigma to AAE and its speakers. The authors assert that language and literacy instruction that validates children’s lived experience …

Final Essay Sentimentalism.Docx, Autumn Lockey

Autumn Lockey

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 …

Crossing Selma's Bridge: Integrating Visual Discovery Strategy And Young Adult Literature To Promote Dialogue And Understanding, Steven T. Bickmore, Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil, Paul Binford

Middle Grades Review

Urban communities, separated by race and class, experience a disproportionate number of gun deaths, police shootings, crime, violent and nonviolent protests, as well as disparities in housing, education, and employment. These discussions are visual and textual, appearing in both traditional and social media outlets. How do adolescents read and make sense of these images? We discuss integrating a Social Studies practice, Visual Discovery Strategy, with Young Adult Literature to provide students with the skills to both critique images from the events in their lives and produce responses through both traditional and digital methods.

Exorcising Power, John Jarzemsky

Theses and Dissertations

This paper theorizes that authors, in an act I have termed “literary exorcism,” project and expunge parts of their identities that are in conflict with the overriding political agenda of their texts, into the figure of the villain. Drawing upon theories of power put forth by Judith Butler, I argue that this sort of projection arises in reaction to dominant ideas and institutions, but that authors find ways to manipulate this process over time. By examining a broad cross-section of English-language literature over several centuries, this phenomenon and its evolution can be observed, as well as the means by which …

Thomas Jefferson, Slavery, And The Language Of The Textbook: Addressing Problematic Representations Of Race And Power, Sarah L. Thomson

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This paper uses critical discourse analysis to demonstrate how two written texts about Thomas Jefferson and slavery construct very different representations of the past. The paper suggests methods that teachers can use to help students critique representations of marginalized groups in written texts, and develop a more authentic understanding of the experiences of enslaved African American men and women.

Elementary Teacher Knowledge Of And Practices For Teaching Reading To African American Students, Camille Jacqueline Little

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

State standardized tests results indicated that between 2012 and 2016, fewer African American students at a rural, Title I elementary school met state standards in reading compared with other racial/ethnic groups of students. A gap in practice existed because the school and district had not conducted studies to understand teacher knowledge and practice as they related to teaching reading to African American students. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to address the problem and gap in practice by exploring elementary teacher knowledge and understanding of the learning needs in reading among African American students. Tomlinson's theory of differentiated …

I Need A Prince To Watch Over Me. Really?! Re-Visioning "Happily Ever After" In Gloria Naylor's Women Of Brewster Place, Anita August

English Faculty Publications

Chapter One ............................................................................................... 23

I Need a Prince to Watch Over Me. Really?! Re-Visioning ‘Happily Ever After’ in Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place

The Origin And Development Of Tigrinya Language Publications (1886 - 1991) Volume One, Abraham Negash

Staff publications, research, and presentations

Tigrinya is a Semitic language spoken in Eritrea and in the Tigray Region of Northern Ethiopia. Tigrinya is one of the nine languages in Eritrea. It was one of Eritrea's official languages (along with Arabic) during the short-lived federation with Ethiopia (1952-1962). When Ethiopia officially annexed Eritrea in 1962, Amharic also formally replaced Tigrinya and Arabic; and was established as an official language by the imperial government of Ethiopia. In 1993, when Eritrea officially declared its independence through referendum. Tigrinya regained its status as a working language.

Tigrinya has its own alphabet of 32 letters adopted from Ge'ez, a language …

“Realists Of A Larger Reality” Conceptualizing Creative Possibilities That Couldwork In Expanding Contemporary Human Rights, Amanda J. Beckley

Senior Projects Fall 2016

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Self-Fashioning, Double Consciousness, And A History Of Representation: The Narratives Of Frederick Douglass And Solomon Northup As Compared To Runaway Slave Advertisements, Samira Leila Omarshah

Senior Projects Spring 2016

In many ways, slave narratives represent written archives of the the authors’ identities, and testaments to those identities. Through the consideration of what constitutes self-making and representing a struggle unknown to the intended reader (white Americans), the parts of an identity that are left out of the narratives become apparent. This project aims to consider “The Narrative of Frederick Douglass” and Solomon Northup’s “Twelve Years A Slave” as advertisements for abolition as well as mediums for self-making for their authors. By then comparing the two narratives to Runaway Slave Advertisements written by slave owners, deeper issues concerning relationships between slave …

Faculty In Print - Beyond The White Negro: Empathy And Anti-Racist Reading, Kimberly Chabot Davis

Bridgewater Review

Excerpt from Kimberly Chabot Davis, Beyond the White Negro: Empathy and Anti-Racist Reading (University of Illinois Press, 2014)

Ua1c11/23 Wku Libraries Photo Collection, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

WKU University Libraries photograph albums.

Who We Are: Incarcerated Students And The New Prison Literature, 1995-2010, Reilly Hannah N. Lorastein

Honors Projects

This project focuses on American prison writings from the late 1990s to the 2000s. Much has been written about American prison intellectuals such as Malcolm X, George Jackson, Eldridge Cleaver, and Angela Davis, who wrote as active participants in black and brown freedom movements in the United States. However the new prison literature that has emerged over the past two decades through higher education programs within prisons has received little to no attention. This study provides a more nuanced view of the steadily growing silent population in the United States through close readings of Openline, an inter-disciplinary journal featuring …

Exploring Prejudice, Miscegenation, And Slavery's Consequences In Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson, Steven Watson

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

This research paper analyzes Mark Twain's use of racist speech and racial stereotypes in his novel Pudd'nhead Wilson. Twain has often been criticized for his seemingly inflammatory language. However, a close reading of the text, supplemented by research in several anthologies of critical essays, reveals that Twain was actually interested in social justice. This is evident in his portrayal of Roxana as a sympathetic character who is victimized by white racist society in Dawson's Landing, Mississippi during the time of slavery. In the final analysis, Twain's writing was a product of the time period during which he wrote. This …

“Everything She Knew": Race, Nation, Language, And Identity In Philip Pullman’S The Broken Bridge, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

A decade before his international acclaim for the His Dark Materials fantasy series, Pullman authored The Broken Bridge, a coming-of-age tale featuring Ginny, an Afro-British teenaged girl living in postmodern coastal Wales. The Broken Bridge delves into dilemmas of racial identity, ideologies of language and location, and aspects of non-Western religion that are not often touched upon in young adult literature. Pullman’s deft characterization prevents Ginny from becoming a caricature; instead, he presents the story of a very real sixteen-year-old girl with resentments, fears, and doubts. Ultimately, The Broken Bridge serves as a metaphor for the irreconcilability between an …

African American Literature: Books To Stoke Dreams, Jane M. Gangi, Aimee Ferguson

Education Faculty Publications

In addition to market forces, unconsciously damaging trends in many textbooks for teacher education have resulted in classroom trade book collections that represent children who are primarily white and middle class. While all children—whether from Argentina, Afghanistan, or Algeria—deserve to see themselves and their families in books, the focus of this article is on new publications that depict African Americans.

Teachers who are committed to learning all they can about multicultural literature and culturally and gender relevant pedagogy become agents of change.

Includes significant bibliography of Resources and list of Children’s Literature That Picture Children of African Descent.

Paul Laurence Who? Invisibility And Misrepresentation In Children's Literature And Language Arts Textbooks, Mary Jackson Scroggins, Jane M. Gangi

Education Faculty Publications

This article is a call-and-response-type conversation between two women—educators, mothers, lovers of words—on the representation of books about children of color in literature and language arts textbooks for preservice teachers. Scroggins shares anecdotes on the experience and real-life effects of invisibility, misrepresentation, and underrepresentation; her comments are italicized. Gangi reviews select textbooks and booklists. Both comment on the state of multiculturalism in children's literature.

Parts of this article were presented at the conference "Color, Hair, and Bone: The Persistence of Race into the 21st Century," held at Bucknell University on September 27, 2002. Other parts are adapted from Encountering Children's …

Ua77/1 Western Alumnus, Vol. 42, No. 6, Wku Alumni Association

WKU Archives Records

Alumni magazine published by WKU. This issue has the following articles:

• Wood, Willson. He Did Not Teach Art - He Taught People - Ivan Wilson
• Dixon, Frances. Russell Miller - Benevolent Despot of Western Theatre
• The Ivan Wilson Center for Fine Arts
• Conway, Sheila. For New Center . . . A Fine Arts Send-Off - Ivan Wilson Hall
• Hackney, Karen & Richard Hackney. Soaring in '77: Satellite Research
• Branham, Judy. Homecoming 1973
• Conway, Sheila. Music, By Gemini! - Gemini 15
• Given, Ed. For More Than A-Mews-ment - Marvin Mews
• Dunn, Thomas. WKU Professors Complete International TV Research
• Remember 1966-67
• Pomp, …

A Critical Analysis Of Negro Character In The American Novel Of The South 1935-1940, Alice Veronica Johnson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation

I have observed in reading novels by both white and Negro authors that only certain types of Negroes have been portrayed. The question kept rising in my mind, Why? Usually it is the highly colorful, sensational, immoral type that is shown to the exclusion of the self-respecting, decent living, ordinary, everyday Negro.