Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

The Black Panther Party: From Militancy To Social Activism, De'andre Brown Jr.

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

This research project examines the ways in which the Black Panther Party (BPP) was negatively portrayed by the media and targeted by the government from the moment of the organization's inception in 1966. The BPP’s shift in rhetoric style from militancy to social activism is emphasized by examining the organization’s “survival” programs, such as the Free Breakfast Programs, Free Health Clinics, and Education Programs, and their impact on black communities around the country. Past scholarly opinions about the BPP were driven by a fear from white America toward the organization’s aggressive style of protest and social activism. The government looked …

The Wild Dark Or, La Oscuridad Salvaje: Illuminating Identity Through Failure, Worley B. Gierhart

Undergraduate Theses

This thesis, "The Wild Dark or, La oscuridad salvaje: Illuminating Identity Through Failure," explores how the narrative power of darkness can serve as a catalyst for profound self-discovery, particularly in the aftermath of significant failure. Drawing upon literary analysis and the author's personal experience of shifting academic paths, the study examines how confronting metaphorical darkness allows for a critical rebuilding of identity and self-concept. The play referenced in the title, "The Wild Dark or, La oscuridad salvaje," serves as a central point of analysis, investigating the interplay of theme, setting, and scenario in depicting this transformative process. By engaging with …

No Hope?: Queer Negativity, Afropessimism, And The Limits Of Futurity, Colton Barton

Theses and Dissertations--English

Since their inceptions, black and queer studies have sought to articulate the positions of “black” and “queer” within American social life—often converging on the goal of liberation. This thesis examines the intersection of two “negative” theoretical frameworks—Afropessimism and anti-social queer theory (or “queer negativity”)—to interrogate both the limits and generative potential of radical negativity. Though emerging from distinct intellectual traditions, these frameworks conceptualize blackness and queerness as constitutive negations—gaps within the dominant social order that render those so marked inassimilable to normative notions of humanity. While the convergences of these theories can be illuminating, their shared pessimism risks obscuring alternative …

“A True And Broad Sympathy:” Thomas Hughes, Medievalism, And Social Justice In The Nineteenth Century, Sarah E. Stapleton

Theses and Dissertations--History

Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), used medievalism to help solve social problems of the Nineteenth Century. This contravenes the traditional view of medievalism, especially Anglo-Saxonism, since others have used it to justify the subjugation of people of lower social status, namely the poor in England, enslaved African Americans in the United States, and Indians under British rule.

While the use of medievalism is veiled in Hughes’ work, the subtext of Tom Brown’s Schooldays demonstrated Hughes’ Anglo-Saxonism. Tom Brown and the intertextual material surrounding his narrative exhibit the characteristics of Anglo-Saxonism through cultural primitivism, the concept of allodial, …

Writing Back To Empire: Anticolonial Petitioning And Decolonisation In Postwar British West Africa, 1945–1960, Bright Alozie

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article reexamines petition writing as a strategic form of anticolonial resistance and negotiation in British West Africa between 1945 and 1960. Focusing on Nigeria and the Gold Coast (now Ghana), it argues that petitions – often regarded as apolitical or ineffective – were in fact deeply political texts through which colonised individuals asserted rights, challenged imperial authority, and participated in shaping decolonisation discourse. Drawing on new archival petitions, colonial correspondence, and administrative records, the study analyzes how a wide range of African actors – including trade unions, veterans, women’s organisations, and youth groups – appropriated colonial bureaucratic norms to …

Indigenous-Industrial Heritage: Centering Indigenous Voices In Minnesota's Iron Range, Larissa A. Juip

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Industrial heritage refers to the material remains, sites, landscapes, and practices associated with industrial and extractive activities. As a field, it has historically been concerned with the conservation, management, and interpretation of industrial sites and activities and forms a central narrative within Minnesota's museums. Yet such accounts often privilege object-centered narratives while silencing the presence, knowledge, and contributions of Indigenous and Descendant communities, obscuring their enduring relationships to extractive landscapes. In recent decades, critiques of traditional industrial heritage approaches have identified gaps in the discipline related to the exclusion of marginalized populations, including Indigenous Peoples. Minnesota is home to eleven …

A Case Study Of Harmful Revisionist History: An Analysis Of Nada Por Lo Que Pedir Perdón By Marcelo Gullo Omodeo, Anna Anderson

Honors Program Theses

No abstract provided.

Homiezation, Isa D. Ferris

Social Justice | Senior Theses

This thesis presents Homiezation as a practical framework for building transformative relationships across cultural and racial boundaries, focusing on intercultural engagement for scholars, educators, and community practitioners. Based on community research in Marin County, California, it draws on interviews with Latino/a immigrants, first-generation Latino/a citizens, and one non-Latino BIPOC community member. I coined the term ‘Homiezation’ during my community work to describe the process of fostering care, trust, and shared humanity within Third Spaces, where diverse cultures interact and learn from one another.

Six interconnected themes—showing up, trust, social awareness, cultural humility, humor, and compañerismo—form the foundation of Homiezation. These …

Ferocious (And Tender) Survival, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

A review of Blood Loss: a Love Story of AIDS, Activism, and Art, by Keiko Lane (Duke University Press, 2024) in the Anarchist Review of Books

Geographies Of Trauma And Healing: Resistance, Resilience, ‘Ustawi Wa’, And The Lived Experiences Of African Women Refugees From The Ehagl Region In Canada, Rosemary Njeri Kimani-Dupuis Dr., Rosemary Kimani-Dupuis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation explores the lived experiences of African women refugees from the East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes (EHAGL) region resettled in Ontario, Canada, with particular focus on the complex intersections of trauma, resilience, and healing within global refugee governance. It asks: How do the gendered and spatial dynamics of refugee protection and Canadian settlement systems sustain structural violence against African women refugees, and how do their transnational experiences challenge and reshape dominant frameworks of care, well-being, and institutional response?

Through a multi-scalar analysis—macro (legal governance frameworks), meso (institutional actors), and micro (women’s narratives)—the study explores how trauma …

Unveiling Trauma And Seeking Justice: Exploring Mass Atrocities Against Tamils Through The Lens Of Religion, Culture, And Global Justice, Arrabe Vigneswaran

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper examines the mass atrocities committed against the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, analyzing them through the interconnected lenses of religion, culture, and global justice. It explores how Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism, codified through legal and constitutional mechanisms such as the Sinhala Only Act and state-sponsored cultural erasure, facilitated the systemic marginalization, displacement, and dehumanization of Tamils. The study investigates the legal, political, and cultural underpinnings of these acts ranging from war crimes and ethnic cleansing to potential genocide while assessing the reluctance of both domestic and international actors to enforce meaningful accountability. Drawing on hybrid court models, transitional justice theories, …

“Just Checking”: Racial Profiling And The Criminalization Of Black Students At Post-Secondary Institutions, Yugita Looknauth

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

“Just Checking”: Racial Profiling and the Criminalization of Black Students at Post-Secondary Institutions

This dissertation examined the experiences of Black students who came into contact with campus security at five universities and one college in Ontario, Canada. Critical race theory and methodology, and qualitative research design amplified the voices of 17 participants who shared stories of racial profiling marked by racialization, criminalization, surveillance, and the normalized scrutiny of Black life. These experiences are legitimized by post-secondary institutions that are actively reproducing the very racism they are often celebrated for interrogating by allowing a culture of anti-Black racism to exist with …

Representation In Higher Education: A Closer Look Into Cal Poly Humboldt’S Hsi Designation Through The Courageous Cuentos Retrospective, Audriana Peñaloza

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

When it comes to representation in education, it can be inconsistent. For many students of color, it can either feel like their identity is included in the conversations in the classroom and on campus, or it can feel like an afterthought — especially in higher education. Many colleges in the country are classified as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), Cal Poly Humboldt being one of them. This designation claims that Humboldt has the resources and support systems for all students of color, especially for the Hispanic/Latine population on campus. However, it looks like it is the student population that rise …

Campesino World-Building: Stories Of Migration, Memory, And Care In The Tension Of The Colonial Frame, Chelsea Ríos Gómez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Campesinos, often reduced to the label of “farmworkers”, are too often seen only through the lens of their labor within profit-driven systems. This thesis disrupts that limited narrative by illuminating the rich, expansive nature of vivencias campesinas, ways of being that transcend capitalist measures of value. These vivencias are lived, embodied experiences rooted in campesino lifeways, encompassing cultural, spiritual, and relational practices that nurture and sustain life.

My research is guided by four central questions: (1) In what ways have campesinos in pixley resisted exploitative labor systems, and how can this resistance be understood as a form of care labor? …

“Thanks For The [Land] Acknowledgement, Now What?”: Settler Histories And Decolonial Futures At Cal Poly Humboldt’S Schatz Tree Farm, Sangeeta Sarkar

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

As California’s newest polytechnic university, Cal Poly Humboldt is often lauded for its Indigenous-facing programming and commitments to Indigenous peoples. In recent years, Native American Studies faculty, staff, and students, alongside Indigenous community partners, have led conversations about Cal Poly Humboldt meaningfully supporting tribal sovereignty by returning land to Native nations. As Cutcha Risling Baldy summarized in a research interview, “Thanks for the [land] acknowledgement, now what?” (2024, personal interview). However, though Cal Poly Humboldt has made various land acknowledgements and references to Indigenous peoples in its university policies, conversations about #LandBack have been met with resistance from the university. …

Seeing, Feeling, And Hearing The World. A Regenerative Worldview: Rinyi, Pirlirr And Liyan, Kankawa Nagarra Knight, Anne Poelina, Sandra Wooltorton

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In this communication, the Australian authors-two Indigenous women and one woman with Anglo-Celtic ancestry-take us into Western Australian Indigenous language and worldviews, to help us reach toward a regenerative worldview. Indigenous words such as rinyi, pirlirr, and liyan are explored to point us in a direction unfamiliar to many English speakers, to Land and Country as living and responsive. The authors notice that it is very difficult to describe these terms in English, because English language does not seem sufficiently capacious to describe the depth of relational being-with Country that Indigenous languages portray. This may be changing, as various Indigenous …

“We Understand Each Other, Then”: Binaries At Play In The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Christopher P. Jolivette

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

As the United States grappled with the fallout of the September 11th terrorist attacks, another, subtler conundrum was arising. As Mohsin Hamid writes in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a chasm of difference arose between the First World and the Third. In Derridian terms, the United States grew to center itself, forming its own complete national identity that defied the Third World's cultural realm. In his writing, Hamid viciously attacks this deepening realm of cultural difference by taking aim at the violent domineering and heteronormative American culture whose imposition in the Middle East served to severe any ties between the two cultures. …

Apoyo En Comunidad: A Proposed Manual For Latinx And Hispanic Support Groups, Yadira Diaz Romero

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Navigating college life can be difficult; add to that the complications of navigating different cultures and it creates a chasm for young adults to overcome. This is true for many Latinx college students who often attend colleges where few resources exist to offer support in navigating these social and cultural issues in their everyday life. Additionally, while group therapy is championed as a treatment modality for many, few groups exist that target Latinx communities, especially Latinx college students. This project aims to highlight these social and cultural issues faced by Latinx individuals and provide clinicians with a treatment manual to …

Ber Anena’S Vagina Diaries, A Review: An African Student’S Encounter With The American Health System, Akua Agyeiwaa Denkyi-Manieson

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This work delves into the disappointment, indifference, and pretense experienced by the narrator when she sorts the American healthcare system. It also addresses the struggles immigrants face, particularly from Africa, as they navigate a healthcare system that often requires them to prove their pain and worthiness of attention. The narrative emphasizes the importance of not generalizing the entire healthcare system based on a single negative experience while acknowledging the profound impact on one's perception of the system. Furthermore, it explores the paradox between the availability of better resources in America compared to the narrator's home country and the mistreatment and …

El Maíz Del Abuelo: Fidel Márquez Sanchez’S Legacy And Mexico’S Historical Maize Agriculture, Lucia Marquez-Uppman

Scripps Senior Theses

The Green Revolution was an era of scientific development in productive agricultural methods and technologies in the mid-twentieth century. High-yielding seed varieties, artificial fertilizers, irrigation infrastructure, pesticides, and herbicides all developed from this period. Texcoco, Mexico was the center of much of the Green Revolution's education and research from the 1940s onward at the Autonomous University of Chapingo, a prestigious agricultural school, with funding from the US-based philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation. Powerful consequences in the globe's agriculture emerged from the Green Revolution, including the production of maize, a staple crop in Mexico, especially for Indigenous and campesino populations. My abuelo, Fidel …