Social Justice Commons^™

Conducting Oral History: Background And Methods, Katrine Barber

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter-length essay describes the practice of oral history through real world examples: the steps to conducting oral history interviews, things to consider when developing a project or an interview plan, and ethical considerations. How oral history has enlarged the historical record and changed scholarly interpretation of the past are highlighted.

Institutional Decline Or Evolution?: An Intergenerational Analysis Of African-American Religiosity, Ellis Braveboy Walker V

Whittier Scholars Program

African American religion, born from the traumas of institutionalized slavery, has played a significant role in the religio-cultural development of enslaved Africans and their descendants. Forced to adapt to the tumultuousness of systematic mistreatment and dehumanization at the hands of oppressive European forces, African peoples managed to create faith-based safe spaces in which they could socialize freely amongst themselves, ultimately protecting their indigenous spiritual belief systems and negotiating them with a reinvention of Eurocentric Christianity into the Black Church. This hybridization of West African spirituality and the Christian faith cemented itself into the culture of Black Americans for generations. However, …

“Yellow Fever” + Pornhub Statistics: A Sociological Sickness, Patricia Plachno

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

This essay was written to explore the complexities behind "Yellow Fever," or the fetishization of Asian women. In further understanding the origins of "Yellow Fever", shining a light on historical stereotypes and microaggressions assist in problematizing this phenomenon. Pornhub's yearly statistics provide a tangible outline of the sheer volume of participants in racial fetishization.

El Trabajo De Las Mujeres: Los Impactos Del Feminismo Socialista En La Organización Sindical De Buenos Aires Después De La Crisis Orgánica De 2001 / Women’S Work: The Impacts Of Socialist Feminism On Buenos Aires Union Organizing Following The 2001 Organic Crisis, Elise Williamson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En diciembre de 2001, en Argentina eclosionó una crisis orgánica en donde emergieron múltiples experiencias de participación social, política y cultural. En este período de dura inseguridad política y económica, se desarrolló una relación rejuvenecida entre la clase trabajadora de las fábricas que cerraban y despedían a sus empleados y los movimientos sociales (movimientos de trabajadores desocupados, asambleas de vecinos en los barrios de Buenos Aires y feminismo, entre otros). Poco tiempo después, con la recuperación económica, una nueva generación se incorporó a los nuevos empleos creados a la salida de la crisis. Esta generación, que había vivido las experiencias …

La Formación De La Identidad Afrodescendiente Y Su Manifestación En Movimientos Políticos, Simone Watson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The intent of this investigation is to identify the primary elements that have incited the emergence of the political movements of the Afro-descendants within Chile. Across the world people of darker hues, specifically those of African descent, face systemic discrimination and therefore oppression by the hands of states across the African Diaspora. Until 2019, Chile had not acknowledged the existence of Afro Chileans, their culture, nor their contributions to Chilean society. The intrinsic nature of racial discrimination in Chile alongside the lack of government recognition of the Afro Chilean identity has produced political movements within the country, most notably in …

Down The Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Fall 2023, Center For Archaeological Studies, Mccall Library

Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter

Public newsletter sharing information about progress and discoveries during the ongoing Down The Bay Project.

Ley N° 26.160: Su Implementación Y Efectos En La Lucha Por La Recuperación Territorial Mapuche En Las Provincias De Neuquén Y Río Negro (2006 - Presente), Noura Lamb

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En 2006, la Ley de Emergencia Indígena, Ley N° 26.160, fue aprobado por el Congreso de la Nación de Argentina para detener los desalojos de las comunidades indígenas y crear relevamientos técnicos-jurídicos-catastrales a través del Instituto Nacional de Asuntos Indígenas (INAI). La implementación de esta ley ha variado entre provincias ya que depende del sistema gobierno provincial para su realización, y como resultado de la falta de finalización del relevamiento, se ha extendido 4 veces. Este proyecto utiliza un análisis de documentos públicos, informes, medios de comunicación y entrevistas personales para investigar cómo la implementación de la ley difiere entre …

Retracing Revolutionary Footsteps: The Legacy Of The People’S War In The Maoist Heartlands, Katherine Coetzer

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In 1996, Nepal was engulfed in a civil war when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – hereafter referred to a— launched a guerilla war against the state. In historical and political scholarship on the conflict, there has been a tendency to situate the conflict with a neat set of causes and consequences. In focusing on the macroscale changes, such narrations of “Big History” obscure the experiences of the Nepali people who were—and continue to be— impacted by war with the loss and violence endured clinically tallied in human right reports and social science studies. Within rigid analyses, the variegated …

Born A Foreigner: Tibetan Statelessness In India, Sonam Rikha

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

A majority of the Tibetans in India are stateless, meaning that they have citizenship to no internationally recognized country. India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and has no national refugee framework. Therefore, residents of India are either designated as foreigners or citizens. Tibetans—including those that were born in India—are labeled as “foreigners” in India. Stateless Tibetans in India have no permanent legal status, making them vulnerable to detention and deportation. Furthermore, stateless Tibetans can’t buy property, have limited educational and career opportunities, and constantly have to renew documentation in order to reside in India. While …

El Canto Del Río Ayampe Que Corre En La Mitad: “La Narración Socioecológica Y El Conflicto Territorial Entre La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas Y El Recinto De Ayampe”, María Juanita Durán González

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas existe un legado de narración socioecológica, o socioecological storytelling. Las historias cuentan las luchas medioambientales del pasado en defensa de su tierra colectiva y las riquezas que viven en ella. Pero, como se escucha por las voces de los comuneros, la pelea por proteger su territorio ancestral es constante. Actualmente, enfrentan un conflicto territorial contra el poblado de Ayampe que busca empoderarse del territorio para institucionalizar su independencia. Cuentan que los líderes de la independencia no tienen raíces ancestrales en Ayampe, pero quieren hacer crecer su dominio para que eventualmente se incluya el Río …

Hacia Un Contra-Archivo Radical Y Queer: El Archivo De La Memoria Trans Y La [Re]Construcción De La Memoria Colectiva Sobre La Violencia Institucional En Argentina, Valeria Bula

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación analizará algunos procesos vinculados a la producción de la memoria travesti y trans* en Argentina a partir de la experiencia del Archivo de la Memoria Trans (AMT). Reconociendo el espacio de la memoria en Argentina como un espacio de lucha política, compuesto por diferentes interpretaciones y narrativas, el relato ofrecido por el AMT se estudiará como la adición de una nueva dimensión de complejidad al campo de la memoria en torno al terrorismo de Estado, específicamente en relación con la identidad de las víctimas. En este trabajo, propongo un análisis de la manera en que el AMT se …

The Politics Of The Self: Psychedelic Assemblages, Psilocybin, And Subjectivity In The Anthropocene, Joshua Falcon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how psychedelic substances become drawn into particular sociohistorical and political arrangements, and how psychedelic experiences with psilocybin ‘magic mushrooms’ are used as tools of subjectivation. Guided by literatures in philosophy, critical theory, and the social sciences that focus on subjectivity, assemblage theory, and critical posthumanism, I argue that psychedelics are drawn into variegated assemblages, each of which conceptualizes the nature of psychedelics in highly specific ways that reflect implicit conceptions of the world and the self. In developing the concept of psychedelic assemblages, this research provides a window onto the politics of the self in the Anthropocene. …

Forgotten Immigrant Voices: West Indian Immigrant Experiences And Attitudes Towards Contemporary Immigration, Danielle Cross

Honors Scholar Theses

Scholarly work and media coverage both point to the negative effect that the rhetoric and policy of former US President Donald Trump had on the lived experience and wellbeing of immigrant groups explicitly targeted by it (i.e., the “Trump effect”). Typically, the focus has been on Muslim and Latino immigrants as well as those less-explicitly targeted but still affected by Trump-era policies, such as temporary workers. This thesis explores whether Black immigrants from the English-speaking Caribbean, a group notably missing from the literature of “Trump effects” on immigrant experiences, experienced similar attitudinal or practical effects as a result of contemporary …

As Seen On Screen: American Ambivalence Shown Through Death Penalty And Vigilante Films, Lisette Donewald

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States is one of the last western nations still practicing capital punishment. A history of and commitment to vigilantism and its ideals offers an explanation of America’s retention of capital punishment. Employing scholarship on law and popular culture and vigilantism, this thesis finds that pro-death penalty frames are prevalent in vigilante films while anti-death penalty frames are prevalent in films that focus specifically upon capital punishment. Since the 1960’s however, there has been a gradual shift towards anti-death penalty frames and away from pro-death penalty frames as well as changes in the themes presented in the two genres …

Lost Art And Lost Lives: Nazi Art Looting And Art Restitution, Sophia Gravenstein

Student Publications

During the Nazi Regime, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seized an estimated one fifth of all art in Europe and more than 5 million cultural objects before 1945. The Nazis established control over the regime and furthered their racist ambitions through stealing art of any cultural or monetary value to them. They stole “degenerate” art in an attempt to annihilate “racially inferior” races, and “racially pure” art for the glorification of the “Aryan” race. Since the end of WWII, the return of Nazi-looted art to its original owners or their heirs has been an important avenue for remembrance of and …

The Epic Journey Of Pepe The Frog: A Study In Post-Truth, Jaq Webb

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Abstract

The internet meme Pepe the Frog is an excellent avenue for exploring the relationship between post-truth politics, new media, and viral ideas. While memes as conceptualized by Richard Dawkins are essentially timeless components of human society, internet memes as exemplified by the hijacking of Pepe the Frog by the Alt-Right and the Trump campaign are a novel force with uniquely dark implications for liberal democracy. In this study, I attempt a leftist analysis of the best thinking about Post-Truth Trump-era politics and the communication tactics of the Alt-Right, which suggests that some of the same cultural and material forces …

Towards A Psychological Science Of Abolition Democracy: Insights For Improving Theory And Research On Race And Public Safety, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Phillip Atiba Goff

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We call for psychologists to expand their thinking on fair and just public safety by engaging with the “Abolition Democracy” framework that Du Bois (1935) articulated as the need to dissolve slavery while simultaneously taking affirmative steps to rid its toxic consequences from the body politic. Because the legacies of slavery continue to produce disparities in public safety in the U.S, both harming Black people and the institutions that could keep them safe, psychologists must take seriously questions of history and structure in addition to immediate situations. In the present article, we consider the state of knowledge regarding psychological processes …

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_A Time For You! Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and wrapping up the Fall 2021 Semester.

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_ Happy Last Week Of Classes Black Bears! Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and wishing University of Maine community members a happy last week of classes.

Black Feminism And Me/Maine Webinar, University Of Maine Alumni Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Video of the University of Maine Alumni Association's Black Feminism and Me/Maine Webinar.

The conversation was facilitated by Laren Babb who pursued a graduate degree in chemistry from the University of Maine. Around the table will be: Dr. Samaa Abdurraqib, Associate Director, Maine Humanities Council; Dr. Lori Banks, Assistant Professor of Biology, Bates College; Dr. Leslie Hill, Professor Emerita of Politics, Bates College; Amara Ifeji, Director of Youth Engagement and Policy, Maine Environmental Association and National Geographic Young Explorer; and Kosi Ifeji, Bangor High School student and Youth Hub Coordinator, Maine Environmental Education Association.

The event was made possible with …

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_Hanukkah, World Aids Day, And More! Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and details of specific events related to the impact of Maine’s Child Welfare practices within Indigenous communities, Hanukkah, and World Aids Day.

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_The Power Of A Story Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and specific events related to Native American Heritage Month.

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_Happy Veterans Week! Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and details of Veterans Week events at the University of Maine.

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_Doing The Work This Native American Heritage Monthemail, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and events related to Native American Heritage Month.

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_Closing Out Lgbtq+ History Month Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and specific details of events related to LGBTQ+ History Month and Halloween.

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_Happy Coming Out Week! Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and specific events related to Coming Out Week and LGBTQ+ History Month events.

President Memo_The Importance Of Indigenous People's Day, Joan Ferrini-Mundy

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Message to the University of Maine community from President Joan Ferrini-Mundy regarding Indigenous People's Day and the relationship between Native Americans and the University of Maine.

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_Reflecting On Indigenous Peoples Day Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and reflecting on Indigenous Peoples Day

Umaine Office For Diversity And Inclusion_Happy October! Email, University Of Maine Office For Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Email from the UMaine Office for Diversity and Inclusion with various details of the Office's work and specific events related to LGBTQ+ History Month, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Indigenous Peoples Day, and National Coming Out Day.

Honors College_Dei Scholarship Webpage, University Of Maine Honors College

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Screenshot of University of Maine Honor College webpage with details of the new Robert B. Thomson Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Scholarship