Ethnic Studies Commons^™

“Fighting For Our Future” The Grassroots Victory For Ethnic Studies In The Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Eli L. Davies

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This Capstone project captures personal participant ethnography of the 2023-2025 campaign to reinstate an esteemed Ethnic Studies consultant at the Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, CA. I joined students, educators, parents, and community members to form a grassroots movement of resistance to counter right-wing Zionist attacks on Ethnic Studies. This paper will show how the rich legacy and spirit of resistance within Watsonville contributed to the victory against academic repression in K-12 Ethnic Studies.

The Partsongs Of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Alan Davis

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This document examines the complete set of thirteen partsongs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) a body of choral works underrepresented in both scholarship and performance. Before the twentieth century, English partsongs had already developed a rich lineage through composers such as Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Edward Elgar, and Charles Wood. Around 1900, the genre flourished further in the works of Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi, and Herbert Howells, whose partsongs were published by Novello & Co. and featured in The Musical Times. Within this broader context, Coleridge-Taylor’s contributions stand apart: his partsongs reveal a distinctive harmonic …

Mountain Communities During A Time Of War: A Case Study Of The Hutsul Region In The Carpathian Mountains Of Ukraine, Pavlo Rybaruk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the ethno-ecological technologies employed by the Hutsul people within the highland agrarian economy of the Carpathian Mountains. Over centuries, the Hutsuls have developed ethno-ecological technologies that maintain ecological integrity while supporting community livelihoods.

The study addresses three primary research questions: What are the most important ethno-ecological technologies of the Hutsul highland economy? How might these traditional ethno-ecological practices be applied to economic, agricultural, and tourism development in the Hutsul region? How might these traditional ethno-ecological practices be combined with contemporary approaches to encourage sustainable development in the region?

The research explores the devastating impact of the Russian …

A Plática With Jimmy Santiago Baca, Nick Daniel Rivas

Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal

A Plática with Jimmy Santiago Baca, interview by Nick Daniel Rivas.

Transnational Networks Of Film Repetitions In East Asia : Proliferation And Limitations, Roman Kusaiko

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

A growing number of contemporary film critics, influencers, and audiences criticize film remaking, a tested and successful Hollywood practice. The main complaints are a lack of originality, overreliance on repeated titles, and an openly commercial nature. Despite criticism, film remakes have existed for decades and are a vivid and resilient form of recycling under new cultural and geopolitical circumstances. Contemporary film remaking reflects the impacts of globalization, transnationalization, and the rapid development of new media and digitalization.

Nevertheless, there is a tendency to theorize on film remaking, often relying on the dichotomy of the source and a remake or, less …

Ethnic Studies November Newsletter, Department Of Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies Department Newsletters

November 2025, student spotlight, current events

Pedagogical Escapism And Western Performativity: A Psycho-Aesthetic Critique Of Belly-Dance Adaption Symbolics, Maryam Farahani

Comparative Woman

This paper addresses positionality misreading in Western pedagogical adaptions of belly dancing. Raqs Sharqi, known in the West as belly dancing, is a predominantly West Asian and North African discipline and performance art with multimodal varieties, globally taught and practiced while crossing sport, narratology, and story-telling boundaries. As a unique performance activity, it portrays a dynamic entertainment space to connect one’s multiple identities. I argue that Raqs Sharqi, not only as an aesthetic-educational art form but also, perhaps unwittingly, reiterated as an Orientalist communication trope in belly dancing, has forged East-West performativity models. However, the historical education-literature for Western women …

The Game Of Chance, Alieth Caceres

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Through my first semester at college, I was faced with the capability of not coming back due to being from a low-income family. Being a first-gen, I didn’t have anyone to guide me and I went from place to place begging for something to hold on to. My biggest goal for my family and I is to graduate from college and it is unfair that this opportunity will come short only because of financial problems. In some moments I felt all was lost, some telling me that I couldn’t and should just give up. All the connections I had reached …

Breaking Barriers First-Gen Experiences, Fiorella Salazar, Alondra Hernandez, Alieth Caceres, Aolanni Jimenez-Gonzalez, Alberto Martinez, Karol Martinez, Jesus Arias, Julian Melendez Miranda, Gabby Flores, Isabell Lachinpour, Jefferson Ramos, Annette Gomez, Zahir Pineda, Alejandra Rodriguez, Carla Bueno

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

In Breaking Barriers: First-Gen Experiences, first-gen students showcased their stories through poems, art, research, and personal reflections. Every story reflects resilience and creativity as they navigate their educational and personal journeys with a first-gen identity. These are stories that we can connect to and learn from to further build bridges for future generations in The First to Go Program!

Pearl Buck’S Humanitarian Vision In War And Peace, David M. Crowe

Presidential Fellows Articles and Research

"Eurasia, that vast continental region that encompasses Europe and Asia, was a tablet for many of Pearl S. Buck’s works and campaigns for human rights and international efforts to improve the human condition globally. Though she is principally known for her works on China, some scholars, while acknowledging that her novels were principally for an American female audience, gave little attention to her significant body of non-fictional works on a variety of subjects on America and East Asia. I made my first trip to China in the summer of 1985 via the Trans-Siberian Railroad and Mongolia to Beijing."

Decoding Omens From Animal Calls And Sightings: An Ethnozoolinguistic Study Among The Iraqw Of Tanzania, Chrispina Alphonce

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Understanding the interplay between cultural beliefs, language, and environmental signals is crucial for comprehending how communities engage with their natural surroundings. Despite existing research on cultural interpretations of natural phenomena, little is known about how animal calls and sightings specifically predict omens within the Iraqw community in Tanzania. This study examines the Iraqw ethnozoolinguistics of omens, focusing on their role in forecasting social events, both positive and negative, and on how these signals reflect the community’s cultural understanding. A qualitative research design was employed, with data collected through introspection, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews, grounded in ecosemiotic, ecolinguistic, and …

Investigating The Plant Folk Taxonomy In The Bena Language Of Tanzania, Adriano Utenga

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper surveys plant identification and categorisation among the Bena. Each society’s cultural uniqueness and peculiarity in categorising the local biodiversity informed the study. The researcher conducted the study in Lupembe Ward, Njombe District Council, where Bena is the predominant language. Five elderly speakers of Bena, knowledgeable about plants, were selected through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. Jungle-walk-and-identify and focus group interviews were the key methods for data collection. Using the Perceptual-Taxonomic Theory as a guide, I analysed the data thematically. The study found that the Bena cannot identify the unique beginner “plant” (the all-inclusive word for the notion plant). …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Stolen, Lost, And Replaced: Testimonios Regarding Chicana Responsibilities To The Spanish Language, Fawn-Amber Montoya, Ashley Martinez

International Journal on Responsibility

Using testimonio, the authors address how the Spanish language represents a component of Chicana identity. They illustrate how geography, history, and colonization impact Chicanas’ relationship with the Spanish language. Using testimonio allows the writers to explore the Spanish language in the United States through their personal experiences.

Resumen

Usando “testimonio”, las autoras abordan cómo el idioma español representa un componente de la identidad chicana. Ilustran cómo la geografía, la historia y la colonización afectan la relación de las chicanas con el idioma español. El uso de “testimonio” permite a las autoras explorar el idioma español en los Estados Unidos a …

Femtoring Book Club: Turning Pages, Uplifting Latinas, Heather A. Hathaway Miranda

Gatherings

Amid the social isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, I initiated Learn, Laugh, Lead, and Self-Love, a virtual femtoring program designed for Latina women aged 19 to 25. This weekly space incorporated interactive elements such as icebreakers, creative responses to visual art, and intentional community-building practices to cultivate trust and solidarity. After one year, the virtual gatherings transitioned into a monthly femtoring book club for women of color, launching with The Four Agreements and centering themes of gratitude, affirmation, and the reflective practice of sharing tunas and espinas© (joys and challenges). Drawing on my prior participation and support of an in-person …

Women, Race, Recovery: How Some Of History’S Most Impactful Thinkers Reflect On Their Own Healing, Karol Cooper

Gatherings

With examples from influential women of color feminists, the essay points to some obstacles in the way to developing a true practice of recovery for women of color academics whose research brings them in continual contact with histories and enactments of harm against women and people of color. As women of color in higher education, articulating our health and healing needs in our own terms would help us clear a path to promoting ourselves as whole and healthy persons, in addition to promoting us along a career path. The essay collects reflections on health struggles from famous women of color …

"Breaking Barriers: First-Gen Experiences", Julian Melendez Miranda

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Journey to college as a first-generation student, navigating challenges and self-doubt.

First Gen Voices, Jesus Arias

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Looking back at my first semester, I’ve made some truly fond memories. Starting off with an amazing group of people in the program and going on our retreat helped me find a community I could rely on. This community has remained by my side, even during challenging times, and for that, I’ll always be grateful. Whether it was tackling escape rooms or being part of First Year Seminar, the first-gen community has shown itself to be incredibly strong and tightly connected.

The First Generation, Alberto Martinez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

My poem basically describes how I feel as a first-generation student is. Many of us including myself, felt as if we were alone, not knowing if we have someone by our side, but through our experience, we do share a common ground. First to go is a place where we all can share that and is a place where we do not have to be alone but have the support of those around us who can relate to how we feel.

Roots, Aolanni Jimenez-Gonzalez

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

This poem closely focuses on my experience and acceptance of my first-generation identity. Language is a symbol of my heritage from my family and how I carry hope and resilience as I navigate my everyday life. I want to depict my journey through language and how it serves as a powerful source to communicate with my loved ones and others. While appreciating the roots and strength of my family and striving to live out my dreams and be the first of many to come.