Digital Commons Network^™

The Second Line Parade And The Construction Of Identity Through Costume In The Group The Undefeated Divas, Gents And Kids., Suellen Da Costa Coelho

LSU Master's Theses

This research aims to investigate the role of costume in identity formation in the second line group The Undefeated Divas, Gents and Kids. The methodology used in this research was data collection through interviews with members of the group. Through these interviews, we seek to establish the importance of costume in reflecting and constructing a sense of community within the group.

While the existing literature focuses on the history of second line parades and their importance in Louisiana’s culture, this research intends to explore costume’s meaning and significance. The purpose of this work is to complement the existing literature in …

Politics Of Belonging: Identity, Integration, And Spatial Practices Of Algerian Immigrants And Their Descendants In Paris, France, Elizabeth Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Using a geographic framework, this dissertation explores how Algerian immigrants and their descendants perform identity and negotiate belonging in French society. Bringing together critical theorizations of race, identity, space, and place, this work investigates what it means to be a racialized minority in a postcolonial context and to learn and experience the boundaries of ‘Frenchness.’ It is based on the narratives of Algerian immigrants who have migrated to Paris, France, and their French-born children. The empirical evidence of the case studies highlights the myriad ways in which Algerian immigrants and their descendants encounter and structure their interactions with French society, …

Decomorose: The Somatic Flowering Of The Living Quality, Shaun J. Martin

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This essay is an exploration of the human maturation process from a transpersonal point of view. The main premise of the essay is the notion that our maturation on the level of consciousness (the living quality) is not synonymous with our bodily maturation or the ongoing construction of our social personality (the identity project). It suggests that transpersonality is a fundamental component in human development, but has been overlooked and left out in most areas of modern culture. The recent rise of mental illnesses and the overall frustration or discontent within our society is a direct result of infrastructures that …

Identity Construction In The Yoruba Group Project Abroad: Discourse Analysis Of Language Use, Tawakalitu Odunayo Lasisi

LSU Master's Theses

This research examines the experiences of five Nigerian Americans who participated in the Yoruba Group Project Abroad in the year 2018. After taking classes on Yoruba language at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels in their various universities here in the US, the students traveled to Nigeria in the summer of 2018 to immerse themselves in the native speakers’ environment in Ibadan, Nigeria. While in Ibadan, they were paired with Nigerian host families (Yoruba speakers) in order to have an overarching immersive experience. These students constitute the population of this research. Using a qualitative research method and an in-depth online …

Educational Investments In Low-Income Households: The Role Of Parental Occupational Identity And Substitutability, Aparna Anand

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Poor parents face difficult trade-offs when investing in their children's education. This dissertation studies how low-income urban households in Southern India, where child labor is a concern, make educational investments for their children. First, I build a model that shows how educational investments are shaped by the possibility of children substituting labor for their parents. Second, I collect parent surveys, child surveys, and student-level administrative data from schools and construct a linked dataset. Third, I examine the relationship between educational investments and several pertinent factors, with an emphasis on child labor substitution and the strength of occupational identity. I find …

Beyond Subculture The Meaning Of Style: Chronicling Directions Of Scholarship On Dress Since Hebdige And Muggleton, Monica Sklar, Jessica Strübel, Katharine Freiberg, Sara Elhabbassi

Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design Faculty Publications

Youth and music-oriented subcultures use dress to embody lifestyle, ethos, individuality, and showcase their perspectives. This literature review analyzes academic writing on dress in conjunction with subculture that has emerged since Dick Hebdige wrote a defining text, Subculture: The Meaning of Style in 1979 and David Muggleton wrote a reaction book, Subculture: The Postmodern Meaning of Style in 2000. Twenty years later, at the same interval between those volumes, and using Joanne Eicher’s comprehensive definition of “dress,” this article reviews the current topics, methods, theories, and priorities. Findings indicate that academic literature on dress and subculture as joint primary variables …

Immortality Through Mind Uploading And Resurrection, Adam M. Leis

Masters Theses

Technology in the last century has flourished exponentially. Previous fantasies are becoming cutting-edge discoveries like global communications, encyclopedic knowledge at the average person’s fingertips, and even medical advances used to improve and extend one’s quality of life and life expectancy. As technology pushes the boundaries of what is possible, ambitious visionaries look to solve the arguably greatest problem known to humanity: death. Transhumanists aiming to use technology to overcome this great human limitation, mortality, present the newest proposed solutions to life’s oldest challenge. One of these solutions, mind uploading, is perhaps the most ambitious, but it is not without its …

Challenging Narratives: Kurdish Young Adults In Istanbul And Chicago, Lydia Shanklin Roll

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

In this dissertation, I explore the interplay between youthful agency and state imposition. Specifically, drawing on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Istanbul, Turkey and Chicago, Illinois, I investigate how young adults who have migrated within one state and to another are navigating the states and bureaucratic systems in which they live. My interlocutors hail from a state that is quintessentially twentieth century, by which I mean the state was established as a nation-state, promoted as existing for members of a particular ethno-linguistic identity, with a charismatic leader who inspired a cult of personality. This narrative of the state has …

Student Identity In The Indian University: Language And Educational Stereotypes In Higher Education, Jessica Sujata Chandras

UNF Faculty Research and Scholarship

This article explores how language ideologies and the use of different languages in colleges and universities in Pune, a city in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, create ways to categorize and stereotype student identities based on language proficiency, caste, rurality, and religious background. Through ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods of participant observations and interviews at two prestigious Pune higher education institutions, I describe multilingual classroom discourse along with perceptions and reflections on language use. The analysis is as much about identity formation in higher education as it is about the education system’s orientation towards Anglo-centric scholarship in India. In Pune’s …

Digital Storytelling As Pedagogy In Linguistic Anthropology, Jessica Chandras

UNF Faculty Research and Scholarship

This article explores teaching linguistic anthropology through digital storytelling as a pedagogical foundation. In a course titled Language, Power, and Social Identity offered remotely in the fall of 2020 at Kenyon College in Ohio, storytelling practices provided a way to explore connections between language and identities among a diverse group of twelve students. Using storytelling throughout the semester in multiple ways, activities and assignments culminated in a final class project of a digital storytelling video. Integrating digital storytelling as pedagogy suggests there is potential to generate greater understanding of experiences of identity formation through creative and inclusive learning practices.

Critical Media Literacy And Black Female Identity Construction: A Conceptual Framework For Empowerment, Equity, And Social Justice In Education, Petra A. Robinson, Ayana Allen-Handy, Kala Burrell-Craft

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the issues of knowledge production, which interrogate and disrupt dominant narratives that subjugate Black females related to their identity. We contextualize our discussion through the lens of critical consciousness and critical media literacy by exploring the role of popular media in identity development/imposition for Black females. We outline issues of Black female identity politics by framing them through the description of critical media literacy as a 21st century literacy, with Black Feminist Theory as our theoretical lens. Similar discussions have remained centered in the field of Media Studies and there has been inadequate attention to these issues …

Exitosos, A Pesar De Todo: What Is The Nature Of Ethnic And Scholar Identity For High-Achieving High School Latinx Students Who Identify As A Boy In A Southern Context?, Alyssa Jasina Villarreal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The present study investigated the nature of the ethnic and scholarly identity development in high-achieving, high school students who identify as both Latinx and as a boy. Further the study explored any interactions between the ethnic and scholarly identities of participants. By conducting this study, it is the researchers hope that documented the student testimonios contributed to the preparation of teachers, school administrators, and families understandings on what leads to success. Furthermore, the study will contribute to the validity of the importance of identifying and acknowledging the individuality each student brings to the classroom and unique experiences that have contributed …

#Younevertoldme: What Jewish American Children Learn About Palestinian Displacement During The Founding Of The State Of Israel, Nancy Sheftel-Gomes

Master's Theses

#YouNeverToldMe: What Jewish American Children Learn about Palestinian Displacement during the founding of the State of Israel examines how the education of Jewish American children in Jewish educational K-12 settings about the founding of the state of Israel omits details and events about the displacement of Palestinians and how knowledge gaps limit the possibility of dialogue among Jewish and Arab/Palestinian college students, and have a negative effect on Jewish identity. Within the methodological structure of Grounded Theory young adults, former students of the researcher, answer questions concerning their memories of what they learned about the founding of the state of …

Out Of The Shadows: A Young Woman's Journey From Hiding To Celebrating Her Identity, Helen C. Collins Ms, Patricia A. Harrison Dr, Marek Palasinski Dr, Marcella (Pseudonym)

The Qualitative Report

In April 2019 the UK government reported that little progress had been made to remedy social outcomes inequality between Roma and the wider population, recommending further recognition of Roma, for example in census data, to enable identification of Roma, their needs, and how to meet those needs. In this article we present an account of one Roma woman’s journey from hiding her identity to celebrating it. We expose five critical incidents that challenge and mould her sense of identity and career aspiration, with insights into her hopes and dreams as she reflects upon the barriers she faces and attempts to …

"Foreign" Language: Examining Systemic Attitudes, Xenophobia, And Foreign Language Anxiety, Olivia Jennings

Honors Theses

With the focus on the systemic attitudes, this study examines previous background in foreign language, attitudes about language in general, and the relation of language to identity. This study stresses the defining process in the making of American as a national and cultural identity, and how it has changed over the years. It examines the role of xenophobia and xenoglossophobia in the context of American identity, and through its evolution in past and current sociopolitical believes impacting an overall disinterest in foreign language. The disinterest in foreign language is investigated to discover the reasons why foreign language programs are being …

Redefining Gendered Spaces: The Case Of The Indofijian Female Qawwal, Vicky V. Shandil

Pacific Studies

Qawwali, an IndoFijian musical performance, links directly to first generation Indian indentured laborers brought to Fiji by British colonizers between 1874 and 1916. The form of qawwali considered in this paper is performed as a challenge between two vocalists both assisted by musical ensembles, respectively. Firstly, this paper describes IndoFijian qawwali and its connections to South Asia and then pays attention to IndoFijian identity because the female qawwal’s ethnic identity precedes her performance-based identity. Through Qawwali female performers created a new public identity, that of a female qawwal. This transpired through the inclusion of females on a stage traditionally exclusive …

Dance And Know You Are A Part: The Instrumentality Of Performative Politics And Dance In The Configuration Of Local Social Memory And Afro-Brazilian Identity And Agency In Pelotas, Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil, Triston R. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The arts have been a refuge from perpetual repression and omission, and, a platform for social activism for Afro-descendants in the Americas. In Brazil this is very much the case. With performance serving as a social barometer or a looking glass, dance becomes a source of cultural knowledge, acts as preservative, and negotiates individual mobility within a given context. The Afro-Brazilian dance company, Cia de Dança Daniel Amaro in Pelotas, Brazil grants its members a means of activism and agency to challenge entrenched national narratives and reinterpret local social memory.

Most academic writings about dance or performance in Brazil, focus …

A New Twist On The “Un-African” Script: Representing Gay And Lesbian African Weddings In Democratic South Africa, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

This essay examines the media coverage surrounding two African weddings of lesbian and gay couples in South Africa, as a lens onto the evolving cultural politics of black queerness in that country. Two decades after South Africa launched a world-leading legal framework for LGBTI protections, I argue that these media representations depict the growing inclusion of black LGBTIQ people as a process of bridging the supposed “gap” between homosexuality and African culture. This new “bridging the gap” script seemingly rejects the older, dominant script portraying homosexuality as intrinsically “un-African.” But I argue that it instead reproduces the “un-African” script in …

Bless Your Heart: Constructing The ‘Southern Belle’ In The Modern South’, Staci Defibaugh, Karen Taylor

English Faculty Publications

Language and identity are intricately woven into the personal and public lives of social groups. Words and phrases may originate in a subculture morphing into mainstream culture on the comingled streams of interactions among the masses. These words and phrases have specific meanings within their original contexts in their home cultures, yet they vary and evolve as they travel on the above-mentioned comingled streams of interactions and conversations. In this paper, we explore the typified Southern expression, ‘bless your heart,’ examining the ways in which this phrase is used, understood and reinterpreted as it circulates within the South and outside …

“Scientists Can’T Really Talk To People”: Unpacking Students’ Metacommentary On The Racialized And Gendered Science Nerd Trope, Sarah K. Braden

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Mass-media representations of the stereotypical science nerd position scientists as white, male, and largely English-speaking. Teachers and students who state a desire to work in equitable science learning communities may nonetheless reproduce inequities through their classroom practices which either embody or validate the science nerd stereotype. This study compares secondary students’ metacommentary on the science nerd trope in a mass-media representation to their metacommentary on their own and their peers’ classroom practices and sheds light on design elements for Critical Race Media Literacy (Yosso, 2002) tasks that may promote equity in science education spaces.

Identity Negotiation And Construction Among Saudi Learners Of English As A Second Language, Nouf Aljasir

BAU Journal - Society, Culture and Human Behavior

This qualitative longitudinal phenomenological study was conducted to investigate identity negotiation and construction in a second language (L2) learning environment. Data were collected from 35 Saudi learners of English in the United Kingdom over a one-year period using a background information questionnaire, three sets of in-depth interviews, which were carried out before, during, and after the study abroad (SA) program, and monthly reflective journals. Data analysis revealed several opportunities and challenges that the participants encountered during their SA period. The findings also showed that most learners succeeded in negotiating and constructing an intercultural identity, which allowed them to actively seek …

Identity In The Late Woodland Northeast: Interpreting Communities Of Practice From Paste Composition At The Thomas/Luckey And The Losey 3 Sites, Douglas S. Riethmuller

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Thomas/Luckey’s 13th -15th and Losey 3’s 14th-17th century occupations in the Late Woodland Northeast contain assemblages with incongruous regional pottery types; Kelso Corded and an assumed non-local Shenks Ferry. I argue the presence of Shenks Ferry vessels at these two sites indicates the movement of people who reproduced their natal designs upon arrival, rather than trade. The question of whether identity and communities of practice can be discerned from pottery decorations and paste was answered by analyzing sherds with pXRF. While pottery types are based on visual attributes, pXRF looks at elemental composition. Decoration is mimicable, but paste is not; …

Social Power Of Jazz Festivals, Olga Bekenshtein

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Jazz festivals occur in all parts of the world, small cities and metropolises, urban and rural landscapes, stadiums, churches, streets, and abandoned factories. Being a part of the entertainment industry, they have the potential to impact social change. Jazz festivals help us reconsider notions of identity and community, and their communal experience has the potential to undermine dominant social norms. The industry of jazz festivals is based on Black music and has a history of positive and negative social outcomes. Evaluating festivals through the symbolic meaning of music provides an optic into how festivals marginalize and exploit African American cultural …

Try The Wine: Food As An Expression Of Cultural Identity In Roman Britain, Molly Reininger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research surrounding cultural identity and food customs throughout history are published often, but any research that attempts to combine the two are often based in more recent history. Few combinations of the two are available, and fewer explore the implications within ancient colonization and expansion.

The research for this thesis was conducted with three viewpoints in mind: the colonization of Britannia from Romans within the new colony, the colonization from the native Briton's perspective, and the Roman citizens within Britannia at the end of Rome's military involvement with the colony. This method was chosen because in the early years of …

Navigating Refugee Subjecthood: Cambodian American Education, Identity, And Resilience, Yvonne Y. Kwan

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

To investigate trauma formation associated with the intricacy of Cambodian-specific experiences, this study examines how refugee identities and daily diasporic experiences shape the larger subject positions of subsequent generations—particularly through the concept of refugee subjecthood. Cambodian American students’ navigation of ethnic and racial identity reveals that in comparison to the available discursive narratives about their history (given to them through multicultural education), the younger generations’ is an inexact fit. To draw out the relationships between collective feelings and social experiences, this article addresses how Cambodian American students not only come into recognition about their positions as refugee subjects but …

Creatively Exploring Self: Applying Organic Inquiry, A Transpersonal And Intuitive Methodology, Larisa J. Bardsley Phd

The Qualitative Report

This article explores the merit of using Organic Inquiry, a qualitative research approach that is most effectively applied to areas of psychological and spiritual growth. Organic Inquiry is a research approach where the psyche of the researcher becomes the instrument of the research, working in partnership with the experiences of participants and guided by liminal and spiritual influences. Organic Inquiry is presented as a unique methodology that can incorporate other non-traditional research methods, including intuitive, autoethnographic and creative techniques. The validity and application of Organic Inquiry, as well as its strengths and limitations are discussed in the light of the …

Danzantes Aztecas Y Promotoras Tradicionales: The Ritual Performances And Identity Politics Of A Mexican American Danzantes Aztecas Y Promotoras Tradicionales: The Ritual Performances And Identity Politics Of A Mexican American Ceremonial Community, Dina K. Barajas

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation is an ethnographic study which examined the ritual performances of an interconnected Mexican American and Mexican immigrant danza Azteca and curanderismo ceremonial community located in central and northern New Mexico, and central México. This project also explored if and how these rituals recognize the practitioners’ indigeneity. As a Mexican American and Native scholar and ceremonial participant of this community, I provided an “insider’s” understanding of the epistemologies and ontologies that inform these ceremonies. My positionality and methodology acted as a lens to critically examine danzantes’ and promotoras tradicionales’ claims of indigeneity. Importantly, this work provides a fluid conceptualization …

“Give Me Some Beautiful Holy Images That Are Colorful, Play Music, And Flash!” The Roma Pilgrimage To Csatka, Hungary, István Povedák

Journal of Global Catholicism

This study introduces the Csatka pilgrimage, which is one of the most significant festive events for Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. Csatka, a small and secluded village, became one of the most important pilgrimage sites for Roma since the mid-20th century. Tens of thousands of Roma, entire families from Hungary and the surrounding countries arrive to the feast on Nativity Day at the beginning of September. For them, however, the rite is not only about religious actions, but also about their powerful role in strengthening Roma ethnic identity. Through the analysis of the rite, we can gain a good …

Breaching Boundaries: Homogenizing The Dichotomy Between The Sacred And Profane In Csíksomlyó, Zsofia Lovei

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines how a Marian shrine in Csíksomlyó, Transylvania acts as a Foucauldian heterotopia for Magyar speaking individuals, residing in the Carpathian Basin, and beyond in the diaspora most especially during the annual Pentecost pilgrimage. Following introductory remarks on the site and my stance, I turn to methodology, and Hungarian scholarship on the topic. Afterwards, I provide a “thick description” of fieldwork I conducted on-site in May of 2015. I then turn to various theoretical ties, which I support with emic analysis. Lastly, I turn to ideas of heterotopias, and provide a brief formal analysis. My main incentive is …

Overview And Acknowledgments, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.