African American Studies Commons^™

Tracing The Dispossession Of The Enslaves Black Woman And A Potential For Resistance., Lila R. O'Conell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

The Black Ancestral Artist Path, Cerina Zuleica Shippey

Senior Projects Spring 2023

The Black Ancestral Artist Path is a project dedicated to uncovering the migratory pattern between Black American Creatives from NY to Paris. Why has this trend continued today from those of the Lost Generation? What about France entices the American? And how does living there change their art and sense of self? This project also compared Black French artists and their understanding of the French colonial empire. When these two groups are brought together, how do they learn from one another? Black Americans are forced to reckon with the both the freedom and the privilege they experience being able to …

The Freedom Handbook, Sydney Oshuna-Williams

Senior Projects Fall 2023

"The Freedom Handbook." This autobiographical exploration is not only a personal endeavor but a response to the critical framework presented by Frank Wilderson in his book, “AfroPessimism”. For those unfamiliar with AfroPessimism as a theory, it ultimately positions Black people as socially dead, prompting me to challenge the conventional understanding of it solely as a critical theory. If we accept the claims that human life hinges on the complete objectification of a distinct people, the implications extend far beyond the realm of theory, urging us to confront the very essence of freedom itself. As you embark on this journey with …

Sisterhood: : Locating The Photography Of Carrie Mae Weems, Latoya Ruby Frazier, And Deana Lawson Within A Rhizome Of Black Feminist Discourse, Taylor Fama Ndiaye

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Radical Folk Heroes: Anansi & Br’Er Rabbit’S West African Origins & Their Forced Pilgrimages, Sage Adia Swaby

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Blackness & The Performance Of Our Cultural Identity: A Social, Political & Spiritual Exploration Of The Racialized Performance, Teron Lavell Byrd

Senior Projects Spring 2021

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

Despite The Blues: Richard Wright And Ralph Ellison’S Blues Based Works, Miranda Virginia Reale

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Ain't got no mother, ain't got no culture

Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schoolin'

Ain't got no love, ain't got no name

Ain't got no ticket, ain't got no token

Ain't got no god

–Nina Simone, “Ain’t Got No-I Got Life,” from the album Nuff Said (1968).

In between human intention and reality lies a disproportionate space that Albert Camus labels “the absurd.” Modern man’s affliction is thus absurd, as orthodox systems turn obsolete, the traditional virtues of the past cease to be familiar. The epistemology of the absurd may not have developed from American soil; but I …

From Colonial Agriculture To Community Resilience: A History Of The United States Gulf Coast, 1718-2005, Olivia Champion Johnson

Senior Projects Fall 2020

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

Textuality And Historical Crisis In John Edgar Wideman's Philadelphia Fire, Zelda Mazor-Freedman

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

A History And Analysis Relevant To The Us Border: A.K.A. "Fuck The Border”, Cole Rainey-Slavick

Senior Projects Spring 2019

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

Borders are proliferating throughout the world today; dividing the core from the periphery, racially excluding vulnerable peoples, and facilitating the exploitation of labor. But, it has not always been like this. Borders were once limited only to a small scattering of city states, and even these borders looked little like those of today in terms of their enforcement or function. Where do borders come from? What do they do? What social forces produce and alter them? What is the history of the US border? What is the border …

Black W(H)Ole Theories, Roobi Starla Gaskins

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Artist Statement

I make work that attempts to liberate the body beyond the confines that society has prescribed to it. I am interested in the manifestations of the internal human; illuminating the internal voice that is often silenced, persuaded, and deemed as illegitimate, despite the fact that it might be the most true. As a mixed Afro Latina woman, my own identity and existence as a visible body is constantly at the mercy of those who I surround myself with, where my external ambiguity falls a victim to constant mislabeling. As a result, the fluidity of my appearance in racial …

Los Chinos De La Chinesca: Destabilizing National Narratives And Uncovering The Forgotten History Of The Chinese In Mexico, Mya Hansel Gelber

Senior Projects Spring 2018

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

Punishing Assemblages: A Queer, Decolonizing Theory Of The American Prison, Liam Hopkins

Senior Projects Spring 2018

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

The Architecture Of Confinement: An Exploration Of Spatial Boundaries In Wright, Poe, And Foucault, Samantha Feig

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Little Black Books: Exploring Modes Of Reclamation Of Black American Identity Through Afro-American Children's Literature, Aaliyah Armani Barnes

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College

Human Gumbo And All Its Glory: Taking A Look At Black Culture And Mardi Gras Indians In The Face Of Erasure, Jayde Tyranique Davis

Senior Projects Spring 2017

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

“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.

Pawns: Value Perception, Need Diversity, Soraya Jo-Anna Cain

Senior Projects Spring 2016

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

"Disreputable Houses Of Some Very Reputable Negroes": Paternalism And Segregation Of Colonial Williamsburg, Nora Ann Knight

Senior Projects Spring 2016

This project attempts to intertwine the intentionally separated narratives of the foundation of Colonial Williamsburg and the narrative of Williamsburg's black community.

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 …