African American Studies Commons^™

"A Dark, Abiding, Signing Africanist Presence" In Walker Percy’S Dr. Tom More Novels, David Withun

The Coastal Review

Many of the tropes, commonplaces, symbols, and values used and reflected by American literary works written by white authors, as Toni Morrison writes, are “in fact responses to a dark, abiding, signing Africanist presence.” The black/white racial binary and racial différance that mark this presence inform the use of racialized characters as signifiers in the novels of Walker Percy. In the Dr. Tom More novels Love in the Ruins and The Thanatos Syndrome, Percy adopts racial symbolism as a means toward his critique of the American notion of “the pursuit of happiness.” In Love in the Ruins, Percy …

African American Male Veterans' Perceptions Regarding Factors That Influence Community College Completion, Author Edward Solomon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American, male, veteran (AAMV) students are not completing their degrees at a

local community college. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine veteran student perspectives regarding factors that influence community college completion to better understand their unique needs as veteran students. The conceptual framework was Bean and Metzner's model of nontraditional student attrition. The Schlossberg situation, self, support, and strategies transition model served as a foundation to examine each veteran student's personal experience of navigating available community college services to reach their educational goals. Data were collected from interviews with 10 AAMV students. Interview transcripts were …

African American Fathers Raising An Autistic Child, Shannon Latoya Burns-Darden

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Parents of a child diagnosed with autism have a high risk for physical and emotional stress with mental health difficulties. Little research exists regarding fathers with an autistic child, and less information exists on African American fathers who struggle with coping and finding appropriate interventions and resources for raising an autistic child. The purpose of this interpretative, phenomenological study was to analyze the lived experiences of 12 African American fathers raising their child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. This study's theoretical lens was Bowen's family systems theory. The data from this study consisted of 12 interviews with African American fathers …

Recruitment Strategies For A Sustainable Pipeline Of African American College Graduates As Civil Servants, Owen Wilbert Muldrow, Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Government leaders have not been successful in their strategies for developing a pipeline of African American college students to address the absence of African American representation in civil service management positions. Increasing African American representation among civil service personnel may produce a government workforce that reflects American society, which may promote equitable and responsive solutions in serving public interests. The purpose of this qualitative modified Delphi study was to build consensus among a nationwide expert panel of government-affiliated talent managers as to strategies for creating a sustainable civil service pipeline of annual graduating classes of African American collegians. The research …

The Role Of The Black Church In Addressing Collateral Damage From The U.S. War On Drugs, Donald L. Perryman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research is a qualitative examination of African American pastors from urban communities who address the needs of congregants and/or local communities affected directly, or indirectly by mass incarceration. The Black Church, because of its unique sociocultural location and historic role as resource for Black social and economic problems, must help supply the answers to the devastating collateral damage of mass incarceration that primarily affect children and families. The study sets out to understand urban pastors’ perceptions of the role of the Church in the post mass incarceration era. Specifically, the study examines the unique contributions of the African American …

Involuntary "Whiteness": The Acculturation Of Black Doctoral Female Students In The Field Of Clinical Psychology, Carmela A. Maxell-Harrison

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation is based on qualitative research that documents the experiences of Black women matriculating through clinical psychology doctoral programs in predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and the perceived psychological effects of becoming a psychologist in a stigmatized field. Additionally, the historical and collective traumas that are continually experienced by this group and their coping mechanisms are explored and highlighted. More specifically, as existing research has revealed, Black women in doctoral programs in general experience a series of responses to racialized and gendered discriminatory practices leading them to withdraw from their programs or invoke coping mechanisms that may be counterintuitive to …

Developing And Sustaining Political Citizenship For Poor And Marginalized People: The Evelyn T. Butts Story, Kenneth Cooper Alexander

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study tells the deep, rich story of Evelyn T. Butts, a grassroots civil rights champion in Norfolk, Virginia, whose bridge leadership style can teach and inspire new generations about political, community, and social change. Butts used neighbor-to-neighbor skills to keep her community connected with the national civil rights movement, which had heavily relied on grassroots leaders—especially women—for much of its success in overthrowing America’s Jim Crow system of segregation and suppression. She is best-known for her 1963 lawsuit that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1966 decision to ban poll taxes for state and local elections, a democratizing event …

The Interplay Of Racial Identity Attitude And Religious Orientation On The Social Integration Experiences Of Black African College Students And African American College Students Attending Predominantly White Institutions In The United States, Christina Miattamengie Johnson

Dissertations

Problem

Not much attention has been devoted to the academic experiences of Black African college students, the latter being typically categorized with those of African Americans (Kim, 2014). While research has effectively documented the social challenges that African American college students experience at (Predominantly White Institutions (PWI). much less research has been conducted on the social experiences of subcategories within the Black population, specifically, Black Africans. Though researchers have speculated on the potential differences between the social integration experiences of Black Africans and African American college students as these relate to religious orientation and racial identity attitude, no empirical studies …

Gender, Politics, Market Segmentation, And Taste: Adult Contemporary Radio At The End Of The Twentieth Century, Saesha Senger

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation explores issues of gender politics, market segmentation, and taste through an examination of the contributions of several artists who have achieved Adult Contemporary (AC) chart success. The scope of the project is limited to a period when many artists who figured prominently in both the broader mainstream of American popular music and the more specific Adult Contemporary category were most commercially viable: from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. My contention is that, as gender politics and gendered social norms continued to change in the United States at this time, Adult Contemporary – the chart, the format, and the …

The Successful Transition Of Black Men At Historically White Universities, Regina M. George

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

There is something going on with Black men in America who go to college. As university enrollment has become more diverse with all ethnic and economic groups attending in greater numbers, as Black women are graduating at unprecedented rates, as postsecondary education becomes an increasingly significant employment requirement, the persistence to graduation rate of Black men as a group is among the lowest. Historically White institutions of higher education seek to ensure academic success and increase 4-6 year graduation rates for all students. Perhaps Black men can inform the process and lift everyone with their knowledge. This is a qualitative …

African American Aged Adults' Attitudes And Perceptions About Assisted Living Facilities, Delois Ann Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In comparison with the national U.S. population, African American aged adults are less likely to reside in assisted living facilities (ALFs). At present, little qualitative data exist concerning how African American aged adults perceive living at home as opposed to living in an ALF. Using a phenomenological approach, this study explored how African American aged adults who live at home feel about residing in ALFs. The research questions focused on aged adults' perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about ALFs and the conditions that may prevent African American aged adults from living in ALFs. A conceptual framework based on the Purnell Model …

Improving Hypertensive Therapy Outcomes Among African Americans, Tanya Sullivan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The effects of nonadherence to prescribed blood pressure medication adversely impacts

African Americans (AA) in comparison to their European American counterparts. The

associated health consequences of uncontrolled hypertension include heart failure, stroke,

and renal dysfunction. And the treatment of the complications negatively impacts quality

of life and contributes to increased health care costs. To address the problem at 1 clinic, a

quality improvement (QI) project was developed by the clinic nursing staff, but the

project had never been evaluated. The project included blood pressure measurements

assessed among AA patients before and after implementation of a 4-item Morisky

Medication-Taking Adherence Scale …

Self-Defined: A Womanist Exploration Of Michelle Obama, Viola Davis, And Beyonce Knowles, Idrissa Nichelle Snider

Wayne State University Dissertations

Intersectional research that focuses on the experiences and representations of Black women should place emphasis on examining the communication of resistance. This dissertation builds upon the work of Womanist (Walker, 1983) and Black Feminist scholars (Collins, 1991; Harris-Perry, 2011) in order to identify and interrogate the harmful systemic nature of various stereotypes and controlling images of Black women. These controlling images historically include representations such as the Mammie, Sapphire, Jezebel, tragic mulatto, and even newer images like the angry black woman. Through a close reading of Josephine Baker’s “Danse Sauvage" performance, the research points to modern day examples of when …

Rambling Blues: Mapping Contemporary North American Blues Literature, Josh-Wade Ferguson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Rambling Blues: Mapping Contemporary North American Blues Literature” revises the methodological assumptions that have underwritten our understanding of blues literature and the politics of race and region that surround it. Where previous commentators have defined blues literature primarily through its formal and thematic connections with blues music and with the sociohistorical contours of black southern life more generally this dissertation expands the boundaries of how we conceive blues literature by examining Langston Hughes’ poems “The Weary Blues” (1925) and “Po Boy Blues” (1926) August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984) Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones (2011) James Hannaham’s Delicious Foods …

“Voodoo” In The Black Atlantic: Haiti And New Orleans Compared, 1791-1915, Susan L. Kwosek

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is a comparative study of religious development, resilience, and sustainability in Haiti and New Orleans between 1804 and 1915. In each location, a new religion developed from the spiritual practices of enslaved Africans: Haitian Vodou and New Orleanian Voodoo. This study asks key questions about religious development, resilience, and overall sustainability in the Black Atlantic. How did Haitian Vodou mature into a national religion and resist challenges to its legitimacy from Haitian elites and Euro-Americans throughout the Atlantic World? How were whites in the U.S. able to usurp the identity of New Orleanian ceremonial Voodoo and transform it …

"Protest Literature" Or Race As A Social Construction: An Analysis Of Baldwin's Blues For Mister Charlie, Sonia Potter

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This article discusses James Baldwin's 1964 play Blues for Mister Charlie as it functions as a form of protest literature that aims to portray race as a social construction. It contextualizes itself with background on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till as it applies to the plot of the play, and it explores subjects of miscegenation, interracial mixing, and the role of the press in evoking societal change during the Civil Rights Movement.

Contesting Slavery In The Global Market: John Brown’S Slave Life In Georgia, Michael Drexler, Stephanie Scherer

Faculty Journal Articles

John Brown, author of Slave Life in Georgia, published in London in 1854, proffered a radical approach to ending slavery in the USA in step with Marxian economics. In this paper, we will explain how Brown’s representation of subjectivity may have caused critics to neglect it. Brown treats freedom as something foreign and external. He has to learn what freedom means, first through exposure to a model of liberal citizenship and then through the experience of several modulations of fugitive liberty. Brown’s social world is wholly determined by external forces. Whether slave or freeman, he faces ambiguous situations. Is …

A View From Within: University Honors Programs And African American Women At A Predominantly White Institution, Janell Lindsey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

American higher education undergraduate honors programs are respected for the work they do to encourage college students to push themselves towards achievement in learning during their time earning an undergraduate degree. The social movements of the mid-20th century forced open the doors of predominantly white institutions (PWIs) to African American students. Since that time, the number of African American students attending PWIs has increased; however, the research that focused on African American women in higher education, and more specifically honors programs, has not been a significant topic of study. The findings indicate that being the only female person of color …

Reframing As Reclamation: Trauma Theory, African Spiritualism, And Ecocriticism In Jesmyn Ward’S Sing, Unburied, Sing, Alexandra Cohl Ms.

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores how ecocriticism and trauma theory intersect within Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) to tackle the complex act of collective healing. Trauma, and its subset transgenerational trauma, have often been a focal point for critical analysis of other African American texts that engage with ghosts and hauntings, such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987). Often, these ghosts are symbolic of transgenerational trauma in fictional works. While this association is apparent in Ward’s novel, this thesis applies the aforementioned modes of scholarship alongside African-based spiritualism to investigate further the inclusion of ghosts. To accomplish this approach, this thesis …

The Homecoming Of The Negro Spirit: Black Spiritual Intelligence As A Structural Form Of Intelligence, Quincy Brown

CMC Senior Theses

In Is Spirituality an Intelligence? Motivation, Cognition, and the concern of Psychology of Ultimate Concern, Robert Emmons develops a case for spirituality as a form of intelligence. His thesis claims that spiritual intelligence is a “set of capacities and abilities that enable people to solve problems and attain goals in their everyday lives”: “the capacity for transcendence; the ability to enter into heightened spiritual states of consciousness; the ability to invest everyday activities, events, and relationships with a sense of the sacred; the ability to utilize spiritual resources to solve problems in living; and the capacity to engage …