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Chere, Wilson Andres Borja

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Chere is research project and a thesis exhibition installation composed of a series of drawing/paintings and short animations that explores the phenomenon of migration and the African diaspora. This exploration was originated by contrasting aspects of forced and voluntary migration in addition to Kvasnyand and Hales' idea, that "Belonging everywhere or not belonging anywhere" describes the situation among people of the African diaspora.

Through research I intersperse layers of personal history with that of my ancestors and their descendants in the Americas. As a biracial person, a self-identified Afro-descendant from Colombia, South America, I am interested in the process of …

Transnational Historical Fiction In A Postsecular Age: A Study Of The Spiritual Theses In The Works Of Luis Alberto Urrea And Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, Mary Anna Sobhani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study, employing a postsecular theoretical prism, analyzes the spiritual theses given expression through the historical fiction of Mexican-American, or Chicano, author Luis Alberto Urrea and exiled Persian Bahá'í author Bahiyyih Nakhjavani. This study examines three novels: Nakhjavani's The Woman Who Read Too Much, Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter, and its sequel Queen of America. These novels express world-views in which the spiritual has particular importance, not as a supersession of quotidian reality but in an integral partnership with it, the baseline upon which postsecular thought is built. This study concludes that such an expression of world-views signals towards …

The Problem Of The Twenty-First Century In The Cherokee Nation Is The Problem Of The Color-Line : How The Cherokee Freedmen Have Articulated A Sense Of Cultural Identity And Citizenship Claims Over Time., Shannon Spears

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the Cherokee Freedmen, who are people of African-American descent and peoples of mixed African-American and Native American descent, who were once enslaved by Cherokees in the Cherokee Nation, and who have articulated their identity and tribal citizenship status as Cherokee Natives in the Cherokee Nation. Upon emancipation, the Cherokee Nation adopted the Cherokee Freedmen as equal citizens in the Cherokee Nation under article nine from the Treaty of 1866, but this changed after citizens were recorded on the Dawes Rolls based upon blood quantum. The theoretical framework of this research is Antonio Gramsci’s theoretical perspective of cultural …

Between Two Worlds: Stories Of The Second-Generation Black Caribbean Immigrant, Yndia S. Lorick-Wilmot

Trotter Review

People have an endless fascination with character information since it helps us to predict the behavior of those we interact with (King, Rumbaugh, and Savage-Rumbaugh 1999). Stories or narratives serve as an extension of this fascination. They help us make better decisions even without supplying immediate information. When we each talk about the past, our stories not only disclose currently relevant social particulars, but also provide tools for reasoning about action—our own and others’. In many instances, the stories we tell offer explanations of an outcome that resulted when we acted upon something—or serve as indirect memories of a place …

Four Women: An Analysis Of The Artistry Of Black Women In The Black Arts Movement, 1960s-1980s, Abney Louis Henderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project honors and recognizes the art and activism of four Black woman--Nina Simone, Nikki Giovanni, Elizabeth Catlett, and Ntozake Shange that contributed to the revolutionary movements of the 1960s through the early 1980s. This thesis examines the works and political challenges of Black women by asking what elements in their artistry/activism addressed issues specifically related to Black women's unique position in America during the Black Revolution and feminist movements? Both primary and secondary sources such as literature from advocates of the Black Arts Movements and the lyrics, poetry, and visual art of the four Black women artists were used …

An Approach To Understanding Through Practice: Contextual Analysis Of A High School--College Latina/O And Latin American Studies Collaborative Program, Gabriel Antonio Higuera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Collaborative, interdisciplinary, multigenerational, and culturally-rooted educational programs benefit students of historically marginalized groups in the United States. This paper employs critical race theory (CRT) as a means to better understand the greater dynamics undergirding the achievement gap. CRT also serves as a basis for the narrative description of the high school-college collaborative program I created and developed in Phoenix, Arizona, from 2002 to 2006. The program model features 2-year and 4-year college students co-facilitating dialogues on Latina/o and Latin American Studies at participating high schools. Collaborative program structures are analyzed with a focus on their ability to invite community input …

Akedah, The Holocaust, And The Limits Of The Law In Roth's "Eli, The Fanatic", Aimee L. Pozorski

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Akedah, the Holocaust, and the Limits of the Law in Roth's 'Eli, the Fanatic'" Aimee L. Pozorski argues that Philip Roth's 1957 short story dramatizes the tension between the law on the one hand and the philosophy of ethics, on the other hand with the story's protagonist ultimately choosing ethics as evidenced by his identification with a displaced Hasidic Jew near the story's end. In reading the story through the inter-textual references to the Genesis story of the Akedah, Pozorski discusses the limits of the law in the face of vulnerable children and within the context of …

Toward A Transnational Queer Futurity: The Photography Of Catherine Opie, Zanele Muholi, And Jean Brundrit, Camille Erickson

Art and Art History Honors Projects

North American photographer Catherine Opie and South African photographers Zanele Muholi and Jean Brundrit create art that documents the lived experiences of queer and LGBTI-identified individuals and communities. Although their varying geographic and cultural specificities contribute to diverse representations, this research applies a queer transnational methodology to analyze how each artist uses the body as a site for re-visualizing queer identities. Employing cultural theorist, José Esteban Muñoz’s conception of a queer futurity reveals how these artistic projects resist the majoritarian politics of the present and envision potential utopian spaces of transformation. By embracing collectivity, belonging, and difference, the photographs enact …

Caribbean Traditions In Modern Choreographies: Articulation And Construction Of Black Diaspora Identity In L'Ag'ya By Katherine Dunham, Viktoria Tafferner-Gulyas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The interdisciplinary field of Dance Studies as a separate arena focusing on the social, political, cultural, and aesthetic aspects of human movement and dance emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Dance criticism integrated Dance Studies into the academy as critics addressed the social and cultural significance of dance. In particular, Jane Desmond created an integrated approach engaging dance history and cultural studies; in the framework of her findings, dance is read as a primary social text. She emphasizes that movement style is an important mode of distinction between social groups, serving as a marker for the production of …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 89, No. 44, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Rogers, Shelby. Kentucky General Assembly Approves 1.5 Percent Cut – Budget
• Beasecker, Allyson. Transgender Student Aspires to Transition – London Chandler
• Allen, Whitney. Club Sports Prepare for Spring Weather – Intramural Sports
• Allen, Whitney. Greek Week Kicks Off Sunday with Spring Sing – Fraternities and Sororities
• Allen, Whitney. WKU Gets A Taste of Latin America for Fourth Year In A Row – Hispanic Organization for the Promotion of Education, HOPE
• Boyd, Kayla. Resident Assistants Share Rewarding Experiences – Housing & Resident Life
• Holloway, Kae. Dress to Impress (Your Fictional …

La Voz Spring 2014, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Alturas Duo
• Dominican Citizenship
• Magdalena Gomez
• Roberto Tejada

English In South Asia And Pedagogical Implications, Brittany R. Ehret

Senior Honors Theses

English at present maintains a significant role as a second or foreign language in the region of South Asia as well as globally. In a discussion of this topic, it is important to explore a brief history of the expansion of English and its origins in South Asia. It is also essential to provide a background of South Asian English and its unique linguistic characteristics as well as its use in different contexts of South Asia. The perspectives of linguists and educators who are native to the region of South Asia should be included as much as possible in this …

The Black Experience In The United States: An Examination Of Lynching And Segregation As Instruments Of Genocide, Brandy Marie Langley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis analyzes lynching and segregation in the American South between the years 1877 and 1951. It argues that these crimes of physical and social violence constitute genocide against black Americans, according to the definitions of genocide proposed by Raphael Lemkin and then the later legal definition adopted by the United Nations. American law and prevailing white American social beliefs sanctioned these crimes. Lynching and segregation were used as tools of persecution intended to keep black people in their designated places in a racial hierarchy in the United States at this time period. These crimes were two of many …

"We're Taking Slut Back": Analyzing Racialized Gender Politics In Chicago's 2012 Slutwalk March, Aphrodite Kocieda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined bodied activism in Chicago's Slutwalk 2012 march, a contemporary movement initiated in Toronto, Canada that publicly challenged the mainstream sentiment that women are responsible for their own rape and victimization. Adopting an intersectional approach, I used textual analysis to discuss photographs posted on the official Chicago Slutwalk website to explore the ways this form of public bodied protest discursively engages women's empowerment from movement feminism as well as third wave and postfeminisms. I additionally analyzed the overall website and its promotional materials for the Slutwalk marches as well as how Chicago's photographic representations privilege the white female …

Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers: Redefining Feminism On Screen By Kathleen Rowe Karlyn; African American Actresses: The Struggle For Visibility, 1900-1960 By Charlene Regester; Unsettling Sights: The Fourth World On Film By Corinn Columpar: A Review By Mantra Roy, Mantra Roy

Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Japanese American Cultural Identity: The Role Of Wwii, Internment, And The 3/11 Disaster In Japan, Carrie L. Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the nature of Japanese American cultural identity through an examination of the historical contexts of WWII, internment, and the 3/11 disasters in Japan. Interview data was analyzed using both interpretive and critical paradigms. I then utilized the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI), the corresponding concept of identity gaps, and critical-cultural hybridity. It was found that Japanese Americans construct, enact, and relate to their identities in markedly different ways despite belonging to the same cultural group. In turn, I am proposing further revision to CTI's communal frame to exemplify the shared and contested elements of a collective. This …

Autotraduction, Traduction Interculturelle Et Intersémiotique Dans La Quarta Via De Kaha Mohamed Aden, Simone Brioni

Department of English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“A Hidden Part Of Me”: Latino/A Students, Silencing, And The Epidermalization Of Inferiority, Jason G. Irizarry, John Raible

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latino/a Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) as analytical tools, this article examines the experiences of a seven Latino/a high school students at various points of engagement with the school-to-prison pipeline. Building on and extending Franz Fanon’s (1952) concept of the epidermalization of inferiority, the authors demonstrate the nuanced ways that institutional racism and other interrelated forms of oppression function to contribute to a sense of internalized oppression among Latino/a youth. We critically examine the ways in which dialogue and collaborative research undertaken in a supportive classroom atmosphere can help students move from feeling shame and …

Indigenous Engagement And Resistance In The 21st Century: Empowering Indigenous Identity With Indigenous Film, Heather A. Hafer Cole

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Indigenous people of the United States have historically been and continue to be objectified and misrepresented in art, history, science, literature, and mass media. This continued colonization contributes to loss of respect for culture, identity crisis among indigenous youth, health disparities of epidemic proportions, poor performance in education, substance abuse, violence and poverty. This qualitative study expands upon existing scholarship in media anthropology (Dilworth, 1996; Ginsberg, 1991 & 2008; and Prins, 2002) and indigenous studies (Rader, 2011; Singer, 2001; and Tuhiwai Smith, 2012) by analyzing the indigenous voice expressed through media practice, storytelling as a tool for empowering indigenous identity …

Teaching Australian Literature In A Class About Literatures Of Social Reform, Per Henningsgaard

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article presents an intriguing thesis about proximity and identification, distance and empathy based on the experience of teaching Sally Morgan’s My Place to American university students alongside Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in a class examining literature as an agent of social change. Indeed, its response to the question, “How does the Australian production of My Place influence its American reception?” will surprise many people. Students more readily demonstrate empathy with characters and are prepared to ascribe their unenviable life circumstances to social structures that propagate oppression when reading literature about cultural groups …

The Hip In Hip Hop: Toward A Discipline Of Hip Hop Studies, Monica Miller, Daniel White Hodge, Jeffrey Coleman, Cassandra D. Chaney

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Editorial.

Speech Is My Hammer, It's Time To Build: Hip Hop, Cultural Semiosis And The Africana Intellectual Heritage, Samuel T. Livingston

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

The article examines Hip Hop music's relationship with African cultural symbolism and the discipline of Africana Studies. The author maintains that Africana Studies must reclaim the study of cultural semiosis, which may be used to contextualize Hip Hop praxis. Examining semeiotic traces within African and Afrodiasporic primary sources, including Hip Hop lyrics, the article posits that Hip Hop is the latest development in a long tradition of Afro-Kemetic oral artistry, semeiotic systems and the uses of these dual literacies as modes of resistance and affirmations of Black historical and cultural agency. The article adapts Harryette Mullen's literary model of African …

Journal Of Hip Hop Studies

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

No abstract provided.

Science-Fictional North Korea: A Defective History, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

Kafkaesque, Orwellian, eerie, surreal, bizarre, grotesque, alien, wacky, fascinating, dystopian, illusive, theatrical, antic, haunting, apocalyptic: these are just a few of the vaguely science-fictional adjectives that are now associated with North Korea. At the same time, North Korea has become an oddly convenient trope for a certain aesthetic – an uncanny opacity; an ominous mystique – that many writers and artists have exploited to generate striking science-fictional effects in texts with little or no connection to North Korean reality. (The 2002 Bond film Die another Day, for example, draws from North Korea’s science-fictional aura to animate North Korean super-villains who …

Growing 'Homeplace' In Critical Service-Learning: An Urban Womanist Pedagogy, Vanessa Lynn Marr

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of critical service-learning from the perspective of urban community members. Specifically, it examines the counternarratives produced by Black women community gardeners who engage in academic service-learning with postsecondary faculty. The study focuses on this particular group because of the women's deep involvement with grassroots organizing that reflects their sense of self and other community members, as well as their personal and political relationships to Detroit, Michigan. Given the city's economic disparities rooted in racial segregation, structural violence and gender oppression, Detroit is a site of critical learning within a postindustrial/postcolonial context. This intersectionalist approach to …

Humanistic Psychology In Selected Plays By Lorraine Hansberry: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Shaimaa M. Saeed

English Language and Literature

Psychoanalysis has long been a breakthrough in the field of literary criticism. This book celebrates the intermarriage between two fields: psychology and literature. It provides a thorough analysis of selected dramatic texts authored by the Afro-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry. Such analysis is achieved through employing the humanistic psychology theories of the leading humanistic psychologists: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Rollo May to emphasize that features of humanistic psychology are detected in Hansberry's plays. The interdisciplinary nature of the book calls for psychology and literature readers who have a passion for deduction & induction and a desire to navigate through different …

Artist As Citizen: Transnational Cultural Work In The National Democratic Movement Of The Philippines, Ryan Anthony Leano

Doctoral Dissertations

The inspiration for this topic comes from my own experiences as a Filipino transnational cultural worker in this movement. There has been research done on Filipinos in the arts and social movements, however there is a paucity of information concerning Filipino cultural work. Cultural work and cultural workers are intentional in creating culture as an act of resistance to imperialism, as of the stories they tell though their creative work are not revealed much in mainstream media. Cultural workers also seek to debunk the myth of artists working in isolation from the community. As shared by the participants in this …

Rolodex Of Saints: A Collection Of Short Stories, Yvette D. Benavides

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A critical preface and collection of short stories.

Seeds Of The Real People: How Cherokee Folk Ways Conflicted With Colonial Culture, Christopher Gunn

Masters Theses

The diplomatic relationship between the Cherokee and English colonists (and later the United States) was complex and affected by many variables. Chief among them were the cultural differences between the two peoples and how those differences interacted. Because the two groups were from long separated and isolated continents, their cultural ways were almost entirely alien to one another, with only the shared nature of the human condition to give them any common ground. Initially they had much to offer each other, with trade and military alliance becoming the foundation of their relationship. As the two communities grew closer together, however, …

Native Footprints: Photographs And Stories Written On The Land, Kathleen J. Martin

Ethnic Studies

This essay examines the work of Native photographers and artists and the ways their work addresses the decolonizing practice of the study of visual images, as well as stimulating anomalous and unexpected interpretations. It situates representations from a starting point of power, oppression and hegemony as central components of visual imagery, and also as an opportunity to promote dialogue and encourage new interpretations and narratives. This manner of investigation may function as a way to stimulate what wa Thiong’o has conceptualized as “decolonizing the mind” as it applies to images, and to re-imagine Native life as integral and continuous on …