Digital Commons Network^™

Relationship Of Covid-19-Related Racial Discrimination And Oppressed Identities On Chinese American Mental Health, Allison A. Fong

Doctoral Dissertations

Although anti-Asian hate has been present throughout history, the country witnessed an uptick in race-based violence and discrimination against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing the framework of intersectionality, this quantitative cross-sectional study aimed to capture the additive impact of various forms of oppression, including COVID-19-related racial discrimination, on levels of depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction in Chinese American college students (n = 35) in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. Within this relationship, bicultural identity integration was also explored as a possible moderator. Although regression analysis did not show significant relationships between COVID-19-related racial discrimination and intersectional discrimination …

Examining Transcultural Approaches In Art Education: Transversality, Identity Formation, And Intercultural Understanding, Alexandra Grace Parsons

Master's Theses

Art education is often treated as marginal within formal schooling, valued as enrichment rather than recognized as a vital contributor to students' intellectual, cultural, and emotional development. Funding and policy decisions made by state and local bodies produce significant regional disparities in access to art education across the United States. This thesis examines how transcultural approaches to art education can respond to increasingly diverse, post-migrant school communities. Using a comparative qualitative case study design, the study analyzes program structures, partnership models, and pedagogical practices at Birmingham Arts School in the United Kingdom alongside schools within Fulton County and Atlanta Public …

The Merger Of Short Rising And Falling Pitch Accents In Serbo-Croatian: A Socio-Phonetic Study, Aleksa Sotirov

Linguistics Undergraduate Senior Theses

This thesis is a sociophonetic study investigating the surface realisation of the short-falling and short-rising pitch accents in different dialects of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language. In particular, it investigates the hypothesis of a merger-in-progress between these two pitch accent contours in Belgrade and surrounding areas by analysing phonetic data collected from 17 young speakers of various dialect areas.

The study shows several significant results. We find that the two short accents are, indeed, continuing on their merging trajectory, and most strongly in the Belgrade area. Unexpectedly, we find that they tend to merge in favour of the rising accent, …

Cyberspatial Cartographies: Mapping Digital Nationhood Within The California-Punjabi Diaspora., Saihajpratap Singh Bajwa

Master's Theses

This research investigates the phenomenon of digital nationhood, the idea that a new form of community is actively produced through interactions taking place within digital social networks and forums. These spaces function as more than repositories of information or cultural archives; they are living ecosystems in which identity is constructed through mutual encounters among members of a diaspora, where shared references, meanings, and concepts proliferate across multiplex networks. The central questions animating this inquiry are: can a nation exist without a territory, and are these encounters producing what we might conceive of as a digital nation?

The Punjabi people serve …

Remembering Return: Diasporic Identity And The Tabom Community In Accra, Elizabeth Akosua Adobea Danso

Theses - ALL

This thesis examines the historical and cultural significance of the Tabom community in Accra, Ghana, as a case study in diasporic identity, collective memory, and return migration. As descendants of Afro-Brazilian returnees who arrived in the Gold Coast in the early nineteenth century, the Tabom occupy a distinctive position within Ghana's social and historical landscape, navigating multiple cultural affiliations across Brazilian, Yoruba, Hausa, Ga, and Ghanaian identities over generations. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Jamestown, Accra, including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and oral history collection, this thesis argues that Tabom identity is neither static nor reducible to a singular …

From Farewell To Fáilte: The Voices Of Iowa’S Irish Daughters, Katie Hermanson

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Irish women’s immigration to Iowa brought rich culture and lasting impacts, despite their contributions being silenced by history. Women left Ireland for economic opportunity and education abroad to support their impoverished families. Millions emigrated between 1830 and 1915, spreading across the world. The Irish women who came to the United States encountered discrimination and cultural stereotyping as they worked in domestic service, developed religious orders, taught school, owned businesses and raised families. Women bore the burden of supporting their families in Ireland by sending remittances home and communicating between countries. Their cultural identity as exiles dwelled in guilt for leaving …

Fluid Belonging, Soft Boundary, Jingyi Liu

MFA in Visual Art

This thesis conceptualizes cultural identity as a fluid and dynamically generated process shaped through the experience of migration. Drawing on contemporary art practices and theoretical frameworks of diaspora and hybridity, the thesis is structured around four interrelated dimensions: fluid identity, memory fragmentation, material interaction, and spatial displacement.

Within the artist’s practice, traditional techniques are reactivated as both cultural signifiers and material approaches that adapt and transform across shifting contexts. Fragmentation is understood not as the loss of information but as a mode of reassembly. Materials such as ink, textile, and dye function as active agents that carry time and cultural …

The Voices Of Educators And Elders: Examining A Supplemental Educational Program Through A Culturally Responsive Lens In Gullah Geechee And African American Communities, Kelly D. Shelton

Dissertations

African American students in South Carolina experience historical educational suppression (Anderson, 1988; Bowers et al., 2018; Fabel, 2019). This qualitative case study investigated how the use of African Diaspora and Gullah Geechee culture in supplemental education programs supported the academic success of youth. Using a culturally and historically responsive literacy and critical race theoretical framing (Gay, 2013; Hammond, 2015; Ladson-Billings, 2014; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1997; Mills, 1997; Muhammad, 2020), this study captured the voices and insights of community elders and program directors of The Village Group, that makes use of Gullah Geechee cultural, academic, and vocational practices to engage and …

Examining Structural Stigma In American Policy Making: A Case Study Of California Senate Bill 403, Anjali Bushan

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

The South Asian American community is one of the fastest growing communities in the United States (Budiman & Ruiz, 2021). While research has explored various aspects of the South Asian American diaspora, limited research has focused on the caste system in the diaspora. This study examined caste on a macro level in American policy making. Using a qualitative case study design, it explored how the policy making process of California Senate Bill 403, a bill intended to prohibit caste discrimination, impacted structural stigma on caste and demonstrated interest convergence between caste supremacy and white supremacy in the United States. Findings …

Preserving Their Institutions While Living Among Strangers: Heritage Adaptation Exhibited Within Missoula, Montana’S Chinese Community, 1860 – 1940, Sophia Hattie Etier

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation by publication reconstructs the history, cultural institutions, and adaptive strategies of Missoula, Montana’s Chinese community between 1860 and 1940, arguing that the population underwent a long-term, multi-generational process of heritage adaptation shaped by exclusion, isolation, and demographic decline. Drawing from Kalervo Oberg’s 1954 culture shock model, the study proposes a new theoretical framework—heritage shock—that extends the four-stage adjustment process from individuals to cultural communities. This model demonstrates how diasporic populations collectively navigate periods of arrival, crisis, adjustment, and long-term adaptation when confronted with sustained external pressures. Using an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates archival research, archaeological and faunal analysis, …

A Qualitative Study: How Does The Underrepresentation Of Black American Contributions To American Society In K-12 Curricula Affects Black Students' Self-Perception?, Deniece M. Rogers

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

This qualitative phenomenological study examined how the underrepresentation of Black American history in K–12 curricula influences individuals’ understanding of American society, identity, and cultural belonging. Using open-ended questionnaires distributed via Qualtrics, thirty-seven participants reflected on their educational experiences, the extent to which Black American history was included, and how its omission shaped their self-perception and social awareness. Guided by Critical Race Theory (CRT) and The 1619 Project, the study was organized around six a priori themes identified in existing scholarship: Awareness of Historical Omission, Identity and Self-Perception, Social and Cultural Impact, Reactions to the Education System, Emotional Responses, and Broader …

"Time And Place Have Had Their Say": A Digital Historical Context Guide To Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Anna Kephart Norris

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Harlem Renaissance author, anthropologist, and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. As part of the modern American literary canon, Their Eyes Were Watching God is assigned in countless secondary and post-secondary classrooms across the United States each year. Yet students find the book difficult to understand and educators find it challenging to teach due to its dialect, racial themes, and nuanced historical setting. In this paper, I argue that better understanding of Their Eyes Were Watching God's historical context eases these difficulties in reading and teaching the …

The Maroons: The First Black Nationalists Of The Americas, Marquise K. Camp

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Maroon communities are seldom discussed in academic discussions about Black nationalism. This suggests that the goals and achievements of the Maroons differed from those of Black nationalists, and that there are no significant historical links between the two. This project argues that Black nationalists and the Maroons are closely related, not only because of their shared roots in the African diaspora but also because they both sought independence and self-governance for Black people. The aims of Black nationalists like Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X closely resemble those of the Maroons. By examining the Maroons alongside Black nationalism, one can gain …

Reclaiming Bodily Autonomy Through Gullah Geechee Natural Healing, Tamaray Yvonne White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In today’s sociopolitical climate, restrictive reproductive laws continue to disproportionately target Black women, reinforcing historic patterns of racialized and gendered oppression. This thesis argues that Black women will recommence their usage of traditional herbal healing as both a survival strategy and an act of reclaiming bodily autonomy in defiance of hostile legal, financial, and medical systems. The Gullah Geechee community serves as a blueprint for this transition, offering cultural continuity, intergenerational knowledge, and a model for community-based healthcare and resistance. By tracing the historical necessity of herbal medicine among Gullah Geechee women, this study situates ancestral natural healing within contemporary …

Nepaliness As Assemblage: Diasporic Belonging, Colorism, And Caste In The Associational Life Of Nepali Migrants In Florida, Shuvechha Ghimire Sharma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The research fundamentally challenges romanticized ideas of migration—shedding older inequalities, idealizing “leveling up,” and being a part of “unified diasporic communities”—and unmasks a rather uneasy, far more intricate reality: the preexisting sociocultural and political structures and identities are not shed, rather actively reproduced and rigorously, often consciously, reconfigured within the transnational diasporic spaces. As such, the research reveals that Nepali diasporic associations in Florida play a vital role in perpetuating and reshaping social inequalities and contested national identities, significantly impacting transnational dynamics. The work contends that caste hierarchies persist in structuring associational life, influencing participation and resource distribution. Concurrently, colorism …

Narrating The New Cold War: Investigating Chinese Cyber Propaganda And Sino-American Tensions On Bilibili, William G. Highfill

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This thesis examines Bilibili, a Chinese video-sharing platform originally known for its anime, comics, and gaming (ACG) content, as a critical site for the formation and circulation of nationalist discourse in the context of a “New Cold War” between the United States and China. As ideological rivalry increasingly shifts from traditional state media and military posturing to decentralized digital platforms, Bilibili offers a unique case study in how propaganda evolves in participatory online spaces. Through a combination of digital ethnography and discourse analysis, this research explores how Bilibili’s algorithmic infrastructure, comment culture (弹幕), and remix-oriented design allow users to not …

The Algorithm Of Inclusion: Homonationalism, Queer Advocacy, And Digital Marketing Of Un Ecosoc Ingos And Indian Ngos, Dewansh Chauhan

Master's Theses

Advocacy organizations have increasingly turned to social media as digital platforms become integral to contemporary activism, shaping public discourse and securing institutional legitimacy. This thesis examines the organizational communication of organizations that support marginalized sexualities within a neoliberal and homonationalist context. Employing Critical Content Analysis (CCA), the study analyzes a representative sample of 200 Instagram posts from 2024, comparing two international NGOs with ECOSOC status at the UN (Outright International and ILGA) and two national NGOs in India (Humsafar Trust and Naz Foundation). The findings reveal how homonationalist tendencies may manifest at the intersection of engagement metrics, identity-centric rhetoric, brand …

Transnational Childcare Labor And The Politics Of Affect In Contemporary Black Women’S Fiction, Gul Deniz Hos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Neoliberal globalization has stimulated a continuous rise in migrant women’s domestic work in industrialized Western countries. In the global North, a growing number of female immigrants have supplemented precarious, low-waged, unprotected, unstable, or even unwaged care labor undertaken by mostly female residents as cleaners, caregivers, nurses, babysitters, or domestic service workers. Thus, ironically, non-migrant women’s participation in the public workforce is enabled by migrant women’s mostly devalued, underpaid domestic work in private households. It also upholds the perception that childcare is a private rather than public responsibility. The exploitation of women’s reproductive labor and the feminization of childcare has a …

Art As Resistance: Challenging Colonial Legacies Through The Eyes Of South Asian Diasporic Women, Sofina Tanni

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how South Asian diasporic women artists in New York utilize art to resist colonial legacies and express their multifaceted identities. Through ethnographic research, it highlights how themes of nostalgia, preservation, community, and activism shape their work, fostering collective resistance and transformative decolonial pathways.

Recognizing Speculative Literature: Conceiving Identity In The Archives Of Enslavement, Gabriella Greco

Theses and Dissertations

One of the key problems of the archive of enslavement, borne out of the violent erasure of enslaved identities, is the struggle to reconstruct and honor those lost identities. Recognizing Speculative Literature: Conceiving Identity in the Archives of Enslavement investigates postcolonial archival processes and the resulting documents to identify a spectrum of speculative literary genres that can be used to supplement traumatic archival erasures, often of female voices and identities, to further understand the power dynamics. To clarify, I use the term ‘speculative literature’ here to refer to a mode of literature that relies on the few fragments that may …

‘Soñando En Un Futuro Mejor’: U.S. Empire, Racial Capitalism, And Garífuna And Afro-Caribbean Radicalism In Caribbean Honduras, 1920-1963, Cristian Jose Padilla Romero

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation argues that Afro-Caribbean and Garífuna radicals in 20th-century Honduras forged, at different times, radical, race-conscious, and sometimes anti-imperialist and nationalist politics that contested both U.S. corporate domination and the racialized exclusions of the U.S and Honduran nation-state. Focusing on the period between 1920 and 1963, it traces struggles across the Caribbean coastal cities of La Ceiba, Trujillo, Puerto Cortés, and Tela. By foregrounding Black and Indigenous working-class actors, like Centeno García and Alfonso Lacayo, it highlights how racial capitalism, labor radicalism, and anti-Black state and corporate repression intersected in Honduras’ banana economy. The stories of individuals like Centeno …

แม่กับลูกชายเควียร์ในวรรณกรรมของนักเขียนเควียร์เวียดนามพลัดถิ่น: บาดแผลกับการแสวงหา "บ้าน", อภิสิทธิ์ ตรั่น

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

วิทยานิพนธ์ฉบับนี้มีจุดมุ่งหมายเพื่อศึกษาความสัมพันธ์ของแม่ผู้อพยพจากสงครามเวียดนามกับลูกชายเควียร์เวียดนามพลัดถิ่นในประเทศสหรัฐอเมริกาในตัวบทคัดสรร โดยมุ่งสำรวจให้เห็นบทบาทของบาดแผลที่เชื่อมร้อยคนสองรุ่นเข้าไว้ด้วยกัน รวมทั้งการแสวงหาพื้นที่แห่งการเยียวยาสำหรับกลุ่มคนชายขอบ กลุ่มตัวบทคัดสรรได้แก่ On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019) ของ โอเชียน วอง (Ocean Vuong) The Magic Fish (2020) ของ จุง เล เหงวียน (Trung Le Nguyen) และ Things We Lost to the Water (2021) ของ เอริค เหงวียน (Eric Nguyen) จากการศึกษาพบว่า ตัวบทคัดสรรมิเพียงถ่ายทอดบาดแผลจากสงครามเวียดนามซึ่งทำให้ตัวละครแม่สูญเสียและถูกตัดขาดจากรากเหง้าในบ้านเกิด พร้อมทั้งต้องเผชิญกับอคติทางชาติพันธุ์ เพศ และชนชั้นเรื่อยมา แต่ในขณะเดียวกันก็นำเสนอกระบวนการเรียนรู้บาดแผลจากสงครามเวียดนามของลูกชายเควียร์ อันนำมาสู่การทำความเข้าใจสภาวะพลัดถิ่นของตนเองในฐานะชาวอเมริกันเชื้อสายเวียดนาม นอกจากนั้นตัวบทคัดสรรยังนำเสนอบาดแผลจากการมีเพศวิถีแบบเควียร์ของลูกชายอันนำมาซึ่งความรู้สึกผิดแผกในครอบครัวและชุมชนคนเวียดนาม และการถูกกดทับในสังคมอเมริกันที่ยังคงมีอคติต่อกลุ่มรักเพศเดียวกัน อย่างไรก็ดี แม้บาดแผลของแม่กับลูกชายเควียร์จะขับเน้นให้เห็นสภาวะ “ไร้บ้าน” อันเป็นประสบการณ์และอารมณ์ความรู้สึกที่ตัวละครแบ่งปันร่วมกัน แต่การเรียนรู้บาดแผลซึ่งกันและกันของตัวละครยังเป็นพลังสร้างสรรค์อันนำไปสู่การแสวงหา “บ้าน” อันเป็นพื้นที่ของการเยียวยาและเอื้อให้อัตลักษณ์พลัดถิ่นที่มีความแตกต่างหลากหลายสามารถดำรงอยู่ร่วมกันอีกด้วย

Perceptions And Localization Of The Chinese New Year : A Case Study Of Celebrations In Bangkok, Liqian Peng

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This study investigates how Chinese residents in Bangkok perceive the preservation and localization of Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations, focusing on how traditional heritage and adaptive practices coexist in a multicultural environment. A total of 226 valid questionnaires were analyzed from participants who celebrated the 2025 CNY in Bangkok. Results across five perception dimensions—traditional practice, cultural pride, community status, localization acceptance, and cultural identity—show that respondents generally hold moderately positive attitudes toward both traditional and localized elements of the festival. Participants express strong attachment to rituals such as family reunions, ancestral offerings, and lion or dragon dances, underscoring the continued …

Emergent Leadership: A Study Of Ethiopian And Eritrean Diaspora Leaders, Bethel Zelalem

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the lived experiences of young Ethiopian and Eritrean diaspora leaders in the United States who have been recognized by others as embodying emergent leadership. The research was inspired by the firsthand observations of a gap in leadership representation and recognition among first- and second-generation East African diaspora young adults, particularly those navigating bicultural identities and intergenerational tension. Guided by Borderland Theory (Anzaldúa, 1987) and Emergent Leadership Theory (Bormann, 1972; Mumford et al., 2002), the study explored how young adult Ethiopian and Eritrean diaspora members in the United States, nominated as embodying emergent leadership by their communities, experience …

Afrissippi, Peter Muvunyi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how Guelel Kumba, a Senegalese Fulani griot, chef, and musician currently residing in Oxford, Mississippi, incorporates West African cuisine and music into his daily life in the South. This profile study asks: How does Kumba's performances and cooking translate Fulani heritage into Mississippi's blues and soul-food scenes? The research employed observation, secondary sources, purposeful semi-structured interviews, and a documentary.

Kumba views tradition as an arsenal, preserving its essential rhythms and flavors while reworking family recipes and tunes to suit local tastes. Customers can eat, listen, and interact their way into shared history at his food truck and …

Feeling Foreign / Foreign Feeling: Affect In Southeast Asian Diasporic Short Story Collections, Francys Aerin Fortes

Theses and Dissertations

Affect studies have long been saturated with scholarship investigating the fluidity of emotions, though a larger turn in the field now prioritizes the felt experiences of marginalized peoples. Sianne Ngai’s work is one part of this turn that seeks to unpack the effects of oppressive systemic forces on Black, Brown, and queer bodies. Sianne Ngai reexamined the nature of emotions in her seminal text Ugly Feelings (2005), particularly concerned with how negative feelings are disproportionately felt by marginalized bodies as a result of conditions of obstructed agency, systems of power, and wage labor capitalism. Drawing from Ngai’s writing, this thesis …

Political Communication In A Multicultural Metropolis: Chinese Ethnic Media And The 2023 Toronto Mayoral By-Election, Dongwei Lin

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Chinese are the second largest visible minority group in Canada and the most frequently reported ethnic or cultural origin in Toronto. Mandarin and Cantonese are, respectively, the largest and third largest non-official languages in Toronto. However, little research exists on the role of the Chinese ethnic community in Toronto municipal politics, especially the role of Chinese ethnic media in Toronto municipal elections.

The key argument of this thesis is that “Chinese ethnic media represent complementary public sphere(s) for informing and engaging Chinese Canadians in local political participation and discussion.” Through the 2023 Toronto Mayoral By-Election case study, this thesis examines …

Lineation To Liberation: The Transformative Power Of Poetic Rhetoric, Amber Rae Alvarez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project explores the transformative power of poetic rhetoric and examines how poetry as a form of expressive art serves as a means of reclamation in the aftermath of encounters with the American criminal justice system. I contend that poetry provides a space where folks can reimagine (and reclaim) their identities, asserting their agency in empowering and authentic ways. Taking a Cultural Studies and Critical Prison Studies informed approach, this project engages the concept of lineation to liberation to conduct a close reading analysis of artist (Reginald) Dwayne Betts’ poetry. Betts’ work not only provides a powerful example of how …

“Know What I’M Sayin’?”: Advocating Hip-Hop As A Primary Source For Historical Scholarship, Christopher Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rap, hip-hop’s most characteristic element, evolved from cultural practices combining in New York and spread across the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century. This thesis argues in favor of the use of rap as primary source material in future historical research. Authenticity has always surrounded hip-hop, making rap a window into artists’ perspectives. Storytelling traditions in rap’s roots allow for fiction’s use as a tool to discuss reality in lyrics. To demonstrate rap’s strengths as a primary source, the thesis examines Let’s Get Free, dead prez’s 2000 debut album. The song “They Schools” is dissected section-by-section …

Contemporary Caribbean-American Literature: Identity Struggle For Caribbean Diasporic Subjects In American Racial And Cultural Contexts, Samirah Munahi Almutairi

English Theses & Dissertations

This study includes six contemporary literary texts (novels and short stories) that offer exemplary representations of identification process of the Caribbean diaspora situated within American context. The texts included in this study are: Disposable People by Ezekel Alan (2012), Now Lila Knows by Elizabeth Nunez (2022), Brother, I’M Dying by Edwidge Danticat (2007), “Cheap, Fast, Filling” in Ayiti by Roxane Gay (2011), Dominicana by Angie Cruz (2019), and “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands” in How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs (2018). By studying representations of identity formation throughout the Caribbean-American literature, a postcolonial analysis integrated with cultural studies …