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Performing Blackness In A Mulatto Society: Negotiating Racial Identity Through Music In The Dominican Republic, Angelina Maria Tallaj-García

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My dissertation analyzes Dominican racial and ethnic identity through an examination of music and music cultures. Previous studies of Dominican identity have focused primarily on the racialized invention of the Dominican nation as white, or non-black, often centering on the building of Dominican identity in (sometimes violent) opposition to the Haitian nation and to Haitian racial identity. I argue that although Dominicans have not developed an explicit verbal discourse of black affirmation, blackness (albeit a contextually contingent articulation) is embedded in popular conceptions of dominicanidad ("Dominicanness") and is enacted through music. My dissertation explores ways in which popular notions of …

Waging War On Education: American Indian Versions, Donald Warren

Education's Histories

Article excerpt: "America Indian histories as analytical levers...case studies of what happens methodologically when education historians attempt to cleanse their methods of ethnocentrism and similar predispositions."

Hmong Parents Critical Reflections On Their Childrens Heritage Language Maintenance, Terry Yang

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This study utilizes a qualitative method to explore the critical reflections of Hmong parents helping their children maintain their native language. Specifically, it examines parents thoughts, feelings and experiences related to Hmong language maintenance. Findings reveal that Hmong parents worry about their children losing their ability to speak their native language. They believe that maintaining the Hmong language provides advantages in achieving academic success, attaining careers, and continuing to serve as role models in the community. Parents stressed the need to use Hmong at home in order to help their children develop and maintain the language. They reported some successes …

[Special Issue On Sea Demographics] Response - Asian American Studies, Peter Nien-Chu Kiang

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Response to Dr. Mark E. Pfeifer's featured article.

[Special Issue On Hmong Newcomers To Saint Paul Public Schools] The Affective Consequences Of Cultural Capital: Feelings Of Powerlessness, Gratitude, And Faith Among Hmong Refugee Parents, Bic Ngo

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

In education research, the analysis of the role of cultural capital has focused primarily on its role in parent involvement. Little attention has been paid to how cultural capital affects the attitudes or feelings of parents about their worth and roles as parents. In this article I examine the impact of the exclusionary characteristic of cultural capital on refugee Hmong parents from Wat Tham Krabok. I highlight themes of uncertainty, powerlessness, gratitude and faith that parents repeatedly raised when speaking about their childrens education. I suggest that paying attention to the affectiveemotionalconsequences of cultural capital is critical for understanding the …

[Special Issue On Hmong Newcomers To Saint Paul Public Schools] Supporting Hmong Newcomers Academic And Social Transition To Elementary School, Martha Bigelow, Letitia Basford, Esther Smidt

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

When elementary aged Hmong children were resettled in St. Paul Public Schools after the closing of the Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp in Thailand, their families largely enrolled them in either a Transitional Language Center or a Language Academy program. This study reports on the perceptions teachers and educational assistants had about how well these programs met the needs of this unique population of newcomers. Findings show that the Transitional Language Centers were better able to ease the adjustment to school for the Hmong newcomers because of the safe, bilingual environment they created.

Heritage Language Maintenance And Use Among 1.5 Generation Khmer College Students, Ravy S. Lao, Jin Sook Lee

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Most studies of heritage language maintenance have reported a steep attrition in heritage language use among the 1.5 and 2nd generation children of immigrants, in particular among East Asian groups. However, not much is known about the role of heritage languages and the patterns of language maintenance within refugee communities. This study focuses on heritage language use and maintenance among 1.5 generation Khmer college students. The findings show that Khmer students report a high frequency of heritage language use within the home with their parents as well as outside of the home with their co-ethnic peers. The data reveal that …

"Shes American Now, I Dont Like That": Gendered Language Ideologies In A Laotian American Community, Daryl Gordon

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

As gender identities have shifted within the Laotian American community, perceptions of English proficiency have emerged as a site in which complex ideologies about gender identity are explored and contested. While Laotian women experience expanded opportunities for enacting their gender identities through wage labor and access to education, Laotian men experience a narrowing of opportunities, having lost traditional sources of power such as land ownership and high status professions. Laotian mens enactment of a discourse of nostalgia and the development of language ideologies, specifically the belief that they are more proficient English speakers than women, play an important part in …

A Qualitative Study Of The Long Term Impact Of Welfare Reform On Cambodian American Families, Karen Quintiliani

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Many Cambodian American families have struggled on the economic margins since their arrival to the U.S. in the 1980s. To raise families in poverty Cambodians created family survival strategies to buffer themselves against economic uncertainty and the vagaries of the social welfare system. They combine public assistance with formal and informal work activities of household members, including teenagers and young adults, to survive. With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 or Welfare Reform, Cambodians lost vital economic resources. Based upon a longitudinal qualitative study from 1998-2007, this article looks back on how first generation …

Conspiracy Of Silence And New Subjectivity In Monkey Bridge And The Gangster We Are All Looking For, Quan Manh Ha

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This article analyzes the memories of traumatic experiences held by major characters in two contemporary Vietnamese American novels: Lan Caos Monkey Bridge and Le Thi Diem Thuys The Gangster We Are All Looking For. Because the parents who experienced trauma during the Vietnam War refuse to share their haunting pasts with the coming-of-age narrators who are maturing in the United States, both narrators feel suffocated by a very palpable conspiracy of silence, and eventually they must find release from their parents traumatic and haunting pasts in order to create a new subjectivity for themselves in a new homelanda subjectivity that …

Role Of Family, Culture, And Peers In The Success Of First-Generation Cambodian American College Students, Jennifer Tang, Simon Kim, Don Haviland

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Cambodian American college students are often overlooked in academe because of the model minority myth. The stereotype overshadows the challenges and heterogeneity in the Asian American and Pacific Islander population. This exploratory study examined the experiences of 13 first-generation Cambodian American college students at a large, public institution in California. Findings revealed that, despite obstacles of being first-generation with limited cultural capital, students were transformed into successful leaners when they received validation from their parents and peers and felt a sense of belonging to the college community through their involvement in an ethnic-based student organization.

Book Review: The Latehomecomer By Kao Kalia Yang, Sarah Hansen

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

No abstract provided.

Cambodian Family-School Partnership: Toward An Evolving Theory, Peter Tan Keo

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This article explores the current debate around family-school partnerships. Traditional family-school partnership theories do not account for the intended voices of Cambodian families. This article draws from existing research on Southeast Asian families more generally in order to develop a research-based, data-driven family-school partnership conceptual framework for Cambodian American families. It is believed that a pro-ethnic, voice-centric family-school partnership fosters an inclusive, supportive learning environment for Cambodian children. The logic undergirding that belief assumes that this partnership is likely to increase cultural awareness between critical home-school partners. At the very least, the proposed concept model serves as a theoretical building …

Annotated Bibliography: Academic Publications From 2008 To 2009 Related To Southeast Asian American Education And Advancement, Kathleen Langham

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Examination Of The Psychosocial Adjustment Of Khmer Refugees In Three Massachusetts Communities, Leakhena Nou

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This paper uses a sociological stress process model to explore the Khmer adult refugees' experience in Massachusetts. The analysis is based on the responses of three focus groups in the Khmer communities of Lowell, Lynn, and Revere, Massachusetts. The focus groups provided an in-depth understanding of sources of stress, stress mediators, and psychosocial adjustment/adaptational patterns for Khmer refugees who had experienced the Cambodian genocide. Symptoms and reactions associated with underlying causes of mental health problems had culturally specific relevance to physical illness and mental health.

Editors' Introduction - Fulfilling A Critical Need: The Journal Of Southeast Asian American Education & Advancement, Wayne E. Wright, Kimoanh Nguyen-Lam, Chhany Sak-Humphry, Leslie Turpin, James Knaack

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

No abstract provided.

Fantahistorical Vs. Fantafascist Epic: “Contemporary” Alternative Italian Colonial Histories, Simone Brioni Dr.

Department of English Faculty Publications

This article focuses on Enrico Brizzi’s L’inattesa piega degli eventi [The Unexpected Turn of Events, 2008], La nostra guerra [Our War, 2009], and Lorenzo Pellegrini e le donne [Lorenzo Pellegrini and the Women, 2012], a trilogy of alternative history novels that imagines what would have happened to the Italian empire if Italy had not allied with Germany during the Second World War. Drawing on Giorgio Agamben’s reflections on contemporaneity (2009), I analyze how this trilogy represents Fascism and its colonial legacy in relation to the history of politics and soccer in Italy. I also compare Brizzi’s trilogy to Mario Farneti’s …

Ethics In Exhibitions: Considering Indigenous Art, Rachel Bonner

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

Rhetorical Imperialism, Allison Welty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

José Donoso’s The Obscene Bird of Night is often described as a grotesque labyrinth of symbols and images representative of the Latin Boom literary moment. The novel’s purposefully ambiguous construction opens itself up to two opposing readings that reveal discrepancies and conflicts in postcolonial and globalization studies, and as such, my project consists of two papers, easily read separately or in conversation with one another. The first proposes a reading of the novel as an assertion of marginal identity onto the world stage, ultimately upholding the indigenous native as a source of strength. Here, the novel’s appropriation of the folklore …

The Lived Experiences Of Limited English Proficiency, Spanish-Speaking Male Ex-Offenders, Paula Nery Sanchez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Spanish-speaking men in the United States with limited English proficiency following their release from prison. The study specifically examined the experiences of these men in their efforts to access health care treatment, housing, education, and employment in Central Pennsylvania. An empirical, phenomenological research design was employed that used self-stigma, critical race, and self-determination theories for in-depth interviews with 8 men who spent 5 to 24 years in prison. A tiered coding method was used to generate 6 interconnected themes that tell the story of these men's lives: …

Tweeting Away Our Blues: An Interpretative Phenomenological Approach To Exploring Black Women's Use Of Social Media To Combat Misogynoir, Kelly Macias

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

In the age of social media, many Black women use online platforms and social networks as a means of connecting with other Black women and to share their experiences of social oppression and misogynoir, anti-Black misogyny. Examining the ways that Black women use technology as a tool to actively wage resistance to racial, gender and class oppression is critical for understanding their role in the human struggle for greater peace, beauty, freedom and justice. This study explored the experiences of 12 Black women in the United States and Britain who use social media for storytelling and testimony about their lives …

2015 Aapp Monograph Series: African American Professors Program, John Mcfadden, Brianna R. Cornelius, Lorell C. Gordon, Stacey L. Olden, Odell L. Glenn Jr., Yvon L. Woappi, Sheldon J. Johnson, Genine L. Blue, Bethany A. Bell, Elizabeth Leighton

Monograph Series

The African American Professors Program (AAPP) at the University of South Carolina is proud to publish its fourteenth edition of this annual monograph series. AAPP recognizes the significance of offering its scholars a venue on which to engage actively in research and to publish their refereed papers. Parallel with the publication of their refereed manuscripts is the opportunity to gain visibility among scholars throughout institutions in national and international settings.

Scholars who have contributed papers for this monograph are acknowledged for embracing the value of including this responsibility within their academic milieu. Writing across disciplines adds to the intellectual diversity …

Yeah You Write: Authenticity And Authority In Katrina Literature, Terri Coleman

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

La Voz January 2015, El Instituto: Institute Of Latina/O, Caribbean, And Latin American Studies

La Voz

In this issue:

• Mead Lecture: Jossiana Arroyo-Martinez
• Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer
• El Instituto Internship Placement
• Blood Rising: Art and Social Justice

Inequities, Resistance, And Motivations In Latin@ Teacher Trajectories: Implications For Latin@ Teacher Recruitment And Retention From A Testimonio-Based Study, Carla Borovicka

Educational Studies Dissertations

The demographics of Oregon’s teacher workforce do not reflect the student population. The most noticeable gap exists between Latin@ students and Latin@ teachers. The purpose of this testimonio study was to explore perceptions of the underrepresentation of Latina teachers in Oregon K–12 rural schools situated in new Latin@ diaspora communities. The researcher wished to ensure that sociohistorical and sociopolitical events as well as the lived experiences help to inform the understanding of the underrepresentation of Latin@ teachers in Oregon. A purposefully selected participant sample comprised nine Latina educators who worked in primarily rural Oregon schools. The primary data collection method …

Drawing Testimony, Coming To Writing: Ebe Cagli Seidenberg’S Le Sabbie Del Silenzio And Il Tempo Dei Dioscuri, Eveljn Ferraro

Modern Languages & Literature

This essay considers the question of how “coming to writing” describes the creative process, how mourning becomes language, and how the emptiness of silence turns into word, in relation to the life and literary work of Italian Jewish writer Ebe Cagli Seidenberg. In other words, how did Cagli’s exile to the U.S. facilitate her voice? And how did language become, for her, nothing less than a form of “country”? In examining her journey to testimonial writing, I contend that visual imagery—a combination of visual artifacts and visual memories—plays a major role in getting past the wall of silence, overcoming the …

From A-Town To Atl: The Politics Of Translation In Global Hip Hop Culture, Holger Droessler

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This article examines the linguistic and cultural tensions in global Hip Hop culture through an analysis of the performance of Gsann, an emcee from the Tanzanian Hip Hop crew X Plastaz, at the 2009 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Hip Hop Awards in Atlanta. Gsann's rhymes in Swahili, his emphasis on religion, and his global travels distinguished him from his African American colleagues in the cipha. At the same time, the decision by the BET producers to translate Gsann's Swahili rhymes into English has to be seen within the longer history of cultural and linguistic politics in Tanzania and the United …

Thinking Outside The (Archival) Box: Innovative Uses Of Jules Henry’S Field Notes, Miranda Rectenwald

WashU Libraries Presentations

This poster presents a case study of how archived documents provide multi-faceted, dynamic opportunity for teaching and learning in both academia and indigenous communities. Anthropologist Jules Henry compiled extensive language and cultural field notes in the 1930s while living among the Xokleng Laklãnõ (Brazil) and Pilaga (Argentina) communities. Until recently, these documents and photographs archived at Washington University in St. Louis were seldom used. However, by starting a collaborative digital project with Unicamp State University (São Paulo, Brazil) a number of innovative uses have emerged. Examples include: The Unicamp Linguistics Department is working with the Xokleng Laklãnõ to turn the …

Queer Provisionality: Mapping The Generative Failures Of The Transborder Immigrant Tool, Alison R. Reed

English Faculty Publications

Alison Reed investigates the border- and boundary-crossing performance of Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0’sTransBorder Immigrant Tool (TBT), an incomplete cell phone program that offers GPS, guidance, and poetry to those attempting to cross into the United States across the Mexico/US border. Reed suggests a provocation-based performance of “queer provisionality,” revealing the aesthetics of oppressive power structures by juxtaposing them to social utopias. Interrogating the national neoliberal project of both US liberalism and US conservatism, Reed’s essay is also a transcription of the performances launched around TBT, the social and political machinery set into motion by Electronic Disturbance Theater’s failed utopian project.

Historicity, Achronicity, And The Materiality Of Cultures In Colonial Brazil, Amy J. Buono

Art Faculty Articles and Research

"In this essay, I use three nontraditional forms from the visual culture of colonial Brazil—Tupinambá featherwork, Portuguese Atlantic mandinga pouches, and azulejos (tilework)— in order to meditate upon materiality and temporality as methodological problems with which our discipline should engage. Each of these art forms has historical trajectories that span cultures, continents, and centuries, a circumstance that raises questions as to how such diverse and stubbornly nonhistoricizable genres can be melded into a coherent historical narrative of the visual and material cultures specific to 'Brazil,' especially when two of them — the mandinga bags and azulejos — are not intrinsically …