Africana Studies Commons^™

Belkis Ayón: Fear, Confusion, Trance, Dignity, And The Sublime., Silvia Márquez Pease

Department of Art and Art History

Belkis Ayón, a cuban artist, takes it upon herself to reveal a secret, to be a transgressor. She believes to be the alter ego of the legendary Sikán, a princess who was punished because she shared the secrets of the Abakuá knowledge that were reserved only for men. I argue that the work of Belkis Ayón caters to the possibility of attainable sublimity through paradoxes of confusion and fear; a state of unsettling discomfort and a sensing of something greater than oneself. And yet, this state of paradoxical affects, predicated by confusion, fear, and trance, result in obsolete boundaries and …

An Interpretive Analysis: Black Men, Masculinities, And The Field Of Tropic Play, Mario D. Lewis

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While much has been written about the participation of Black Men in higher education, such scholarship has often been predicated on empirically derived insights that have privileged phenomenological experiences as a primary point of departure for analysis. While this literature has done much to illuminate how higher education scholars and practitioners understand what Black men pursuing higher education experience, I use this study as an opportunity to think differently about this demographic and those experiences.

With the aim of not only providing nuanced understanding of Black men in college, but also a general methodological shift in how they are studied …

Interviews In Global Catholic Studies: William T. Cavanaugh, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

Mathew N. Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Global Catholicism, interviews William T. Cavanaugh, Professor of Catholic Studies and Director of the Center for World Catholicism & Intercultural Theology at DePaul University.

Overview And Acknowledgments, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

“They Can Only Be Influenced By Their Fears”: Redefining White Mob Violence Against Blacks, 1898 – 1917, Riots Or Pogroms?, Deroy C. Gordon

Doctoral Dissertations

The aim of this dissertation is to help to redefine racial riots carried out against the African American community in the United States during the 19^th and the early 20^th century. I provide an examination to argue for those racial riots to be redefined as pogroms rather than riots. Racial riots that had been carried out against the African American community in the United States often did not get the attention they deserve. The initial framing of those attacks as riots, made it difficult for black victims of those racial riots to seek legal redress or request government …

Ephemeral Elsewheres: Locating Narratives Of Resignation, Resistance, And Refusal In The Poetry Of Black Cuban And Black Brazilian Women, Aidan Keys

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

This essay dissects the language of Latin American revolution and nationalism to locate the body of the black woman and the appropriation of her image. In two seemingly incommensurable radical movements—the Cuban Revolution (1952-1959) and the Brazilian Unified Black Movement (1978-)—the contributions of Black women are unevenly recognized. Reading the poetry of cubanas Nancy Morejón and Georgina Herrera and brasileiras Sônia Fátima and Esmeralda Ribeiro, this essay claims that in both contexts, the Black woman is marginalized to a geographic “elsewhere.” Expanding on this term, coined by scholar Carol Boyce Davies, this essay further identifies temporal and ephemeral “elsewheres.” The …

How African Immigrants Perceive Blackness Within The American Ideality: The Sensory Woman Art Installation, Nya K. Mbock

University Honors Theses

This honors thesis project aimed to create a multi-sensory mural that nods to the African immigrant experience and the overarching themes of idealistic American values. The purpose of this project aims to give visual and audial representation to the perceptions of African Immigrants on American societal issues/ideologies including topics such as; the lived experience of immigrating, the individual relationships Africans hold towards the subject of immigration, and how community and tribalism are closely interwoven with immigration. The guiding question behind my thesis is: How does the ideality of America become perceived and internalized through the eyes of African immigrants? The …

A New Life For Umsl’S African Instrument Collection, Brandon Elliott, Shane Devine, Kieth Stephens

Undergraduate Research Symposium

How should a collection of West African musical instruments - currently in the possession of an eliminated Anthropology department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) - be properly conserved, repaired if needed, and should they be displayed, stored, or donated to another home? The collection, located in the entry foyer of 501 Clark Hall on the UMSL campus, consists of eleven West African drums, three stringed instruments, and one lamellophone. Our team seeks to answer this question to preserve the musical culture of the peoples associated with these instruments. It is important to protect these instruments from degradation or …

Amjambo Africa! (June 2022), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In this Issue Education ..................................3

Moonglade .............................4/5

Publisher’s editorial ..................7

Financial literacy: what is Credit .................8-13

In 7 languages Market Basket ..................14/15

Tips&Info ................................16

Lead in soil ..............................17

All about the Workforce ..18/19

Community Happenings .20/21

photos from community events

News from Africa .............22/36

Health&Wellness ...............24-31

Bridging the healthcare gap

In 7 languages

Columns .......................32/33/39

Nonprofit Organizations

Ask the D.A.

Let’s Talk/ELL

New Voices columns ........34/35

Fragmentation And Fabulation: Reflexivity And The New Black Documentary, Joanna Lehan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis concerns the photographic representation of Black bodies in new, reflexive documentary forms that have been increasingly produced and exhibited in the midst of America’s renewed discourse on race. Approaching this argument categorically, focused on the themes of fabulation and fragmentation, my task here is to uncover the gaps and overlaps between earlier critiques of the documentary image and more recent discourse on photography and race by exploring the specific methods through which select recent documentary projects embed and expand these critiques.

Fragmentation is a category of production I use to frame a movement of Black photographic artists …

The Problem Of Blackness In America: Becoming When The Being Never Comes To Be, Nkiru Anyaegbunam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The problem of Blackness in America is a consequence of the historical reality and continued legacies of colonialism, the triangular trade and chattel slavery that have been facilitated through violence and capitalism. This thesis will argue that this problem that is pronounced through racialized institutional systems of violence such as mass incarceration and housing inequality, which disproportionately negatively impacts Black Americans is part of a larger discourse on the human and (mis)recognition. This violence has created a quintessential incompleteness for Black Americans who neither are recognized as citizens nor human. The problem of Blackness will be continuously grounded in this …

Mrs. Florence Mante's Amazing Grace School, Daniel Keith Davis

LSU Master's Theses

Mrs. Florence Mante’s Amazing Grace School is the story of both Mama Florence and the children that she has dedicated her life to. Mrs. Florence Mante is the Ghanaian cofounder of the Amazing Grace Preparatory School. The West African school is committed to developing African leaders and ending the cycles of poverty in the village of Kodiekrom. My thesis focuses on using interview-driven artwork and collaborative storytelling to depict the unique challenges and triumphs of Mama Florence’s life in Ghana. Digital illustrations, a narration from Mama Florence, and music take the viewer on her deeply compelling journey, raising awareness for …

Spirituality & Wellness In The Black Lgbtqia+ Experience: A Literature Review, Black Pruitt

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature review explores the intersections of race, sexuality, spirituality, and wellness. The findings highlight the complex trauma caused by both racialized and religious violence and how they have historically impacted the lives of Black LGBTQIA+ people today. The research offers evidence for the benefit and efficacy of implementing traditional Afrodiasporic spirituality into expressive arts therapeutic treatment, particularly for Black LGBTQIA+ people and communities. This research also suggests the necessity for actively and effectively dismantling Western psychological frameworks and approaches that have been historically harmful towards Black and LGBTQIA+ people in order to pave pathways towards collective healing and liberation.

The African Diaspora In Contemporary Italy: The Challenges Of The Migration Crisis In Lampedusa, Daniel Varela

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

This senior integrative research will unpack the trials of displaced African people migrating into Italy. The migration crisis is a byproduct of our complicated international system riddled with wars, poverty, and persecution of marginalized groups. This study will focus on intersectional identities to facilitate a demand advocating for a group of people with limited agency, autonomy, and visibility. Some key questions to be answered in this study are: What challenges facing migrants in Italy within narratives in film and literature? How do positionality and locality play a role in migrant narratives?

Decolonizing And Enriching Opera: A Nigerian Folktale One Act Opera, Miracle O. Amah

Dissertations, 2020-current

Aligned with the decolonial aims of this project, this English and Yoruba language opera promotes an international understanding of African operatic styles which reflect literary, musical, instrumental and dance cultural traditions. This paper addresses some of the issues faced by people of color in the opera world, ways that people of color have been resilient in this genre and ways to enrich the opera world with the aim of decolonizing and deframing the white racial structure. This opera was first performed on March 29th, 2022 and was created as a workshop for performances in high schools, colleges, music institutions, and …

Answering The Call: Disrupting The Logics Of Capitalism Through Indigenous Economies, Madeline Jaye Bass

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Capitalism, racialism, and indigenous exploitation are deeply entangled practices. In their implementation, they each rely on forms of extraction and subjugation with long-lasting impacts. Denise Ferreira da Silva uses a Black feminist practice of “reading” in order to explicate the ways lives are valued and lost within this pursuit of global capital. Despite overwhelming extraction, looking closely and reading into Indigenous lifeways and organizing practices encourages the pursuit of “otherwise worlds.” This essay uses a close reading of da Silva’s chapter on global capital, and the larger collection it comes from, as a way of exploring the economic practices of …

Black Homelessness In Los Angeles, Dezmin Hemmans, Rosemary Kim

Honors Thesis

Throughout American history, Black people have experienced disproportionate amounts of racism, inequity, and lack of resources. This systemic lack of resources and disparities contribute to an overall lack of individual economic development. These factors were further emphasized following the COVID 19 pandemic, which, increased the separations between others. At the start of the Reconstruction Era, the recently freed enslaved faced homelessness as they left plantations penniless with nowhere to go. They were met with both de facto and de jure segregation codified through restrictive covenants, deed clauses that restricted the sale of property to Black people (Cite). Today, Black people …

Meet And Run, Gia M. Binner

Theses and Dissertations

A defense for Gia Binner’s MFA Thesis, Meet and Run, argues that accessible art, known in this paper as commercial dance, is a meaningful vehicle for social change and that it has the ability to dismantle the outdated, European concert dance dominance by modeling the interdependency of both worlds.

Western Christianity And The Origins Of Antiblackness, Eurocentrism, And White Supremacist Ideology., John Chenault

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigates the cult(ural) and intellectual history of Western Christianity to address a significant gap in the literature pertaining to the origins of whiteness/antiblackness in the West and its subsequent socialization worldwide. Western Christianity’s seminal role in the social construction of the whiteness/antiblackness dichotomy has been undertheorized, neglected, and ignored. This study finds early Christian theologians categorically imposed conceptual metaphors about Blackness on African people that depicted them as the exemplars of evil to teach Christian doctrine about sin and salvation. It connects these original antiblack discourses directly to the theo-political arguments Western European Christians used centuries later …

Authentically (Un)Real Assessing Vh!'S Basketball Wives And Its Violent & Colorist Portrayals Of Black Women., Wilma Denae Powell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Does reality television serve as solely a form of entertainment, or could reality television also be maintaining hegemonic beliefs and reinforcing biased views of Black women? Since 2010, Vh1’s Basketball Wives has given audiences the opportunities to entertain themselves by watching women who are/were married to, dating, or are the mothers of children fathered by professional basketball players. Despite the show’s name, few members of the cast are currently married and audiences only get mere glimpses of the cast in motherly or marital interactions. So, what does Basketball Wives offer audiences who tune in to watch Black women for entertainment? …