Digital Commons Network^™

“I’M Real I Thought I Told Ya”: Developing Critical Media Literacy Through U.S. Latinx Digital Media Representations, Solange T. Castellar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores how audiences engage with U.S. Latinx media representations through the practice of critical media literacy. I interrogate how media consumers construct critical media literacy through interacting with U.S. Latinx figures on digital media platforms, particularly on the social-media app, Twitter, and the user-generated video content platform, YouTube. Throughout this thesis, I argue that users on these platforms who engage with U.S. Latinx pop culture figures, like Jennifer Lopez and Belcalis Almanzar (Cardi B), read, digest, and comprehend a variety of multimedia images, texts, or videos, and that this engagement becomes an accessible form of critical media literacy, …

Afro-Americano: The Transracialization Of The African-American Spanish Speaker, John M. Flanagan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Transracialization is not a biological term connoting the change of one’s skin tone to become a member of a different race. Its definition has its roots in racialization—the ideological process that describes how one assembles ideas about groups based on their race and decides, for example, what a ‘Black’ person is and how ‘Black’ people speak. Thus, transracialization is a linguistic term that describes the political and sociocultural act of recontextualizing one’s phenotype with the use of language, and in so doing, upending the observers’ stereotypical expectations of who one is (Alim 2016). This dissertation deals with how Spanish influences …

Se Dice Pelo Bueno: Black Affirmations In Contemporary Puerto Rican Literature, Amaryllis Lopez

Honors Program Theses and Projects

In recent years, the natural hair movement has demanded social, political, and cultural acceptance of Black hair on a global scale. Particularly in the Hispanophone Caribbean, the natural hair movement has been a tool to not only promote the acceptance of curly, kinky hair but to combat Latin America’s anti-Blackness. I have found that although Black hair in the Hispanophone Caribbean is constantly compared to textures found in nature such as wool and pajón, it has also been regarded as unnatural. My work has been largely inspired by the essay “Beyond blanqueamiento: black affirmation in contemporary Puerto Rico,” in which …

Asian American: A Personal Exploration Of My Identities And Some Possible Implications For Teachers, Seung Youn (Danielle) Kim

Graduate Student Independent Studies

As the population of Asian Americans in the United States grows fast, so does the incidence of racist attacks on Asian Americans. The urgency for anti-racist educators to commit to learning how to best serve Asian American children, their families, and their communities in accordance with antiracist, counter hegemonic linguistic practices, and culturally sustaining principles grows exponentially. Through a deep reflection on my personal and often painful experience as a Korean immigrant in the United States, I use an interdisciplinary approach including Socio- and Racio-linguistics, Social Psychology, Anthropology, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, to analyze some of the challenges that I …

Pecking The Hands That Feed Them: How Society And Government Have Allowed The Poultry Industry To Exploit Labor And The Environment In The American South, Sophie M. Kline

Honors Theses

Americans eat an average of ninety pounds of chicken in one year, but where does that chicken come from? Immigrants and African Americans are the majority of the labor population in poultry processing plants located in the American South. In an effort to highlight the racism, sexism, insecurity, and environmental degradation in the poultry industry, I analyze a variety of ethnographies, articles, and science journals as well as U.S Supreme Court decisions and policies enacted by the U.S federal government in this thesis. Upon examination, I answer why society is pecking the hands that feed them. The analysis concludes that …

Finding Common Purpose: A History Of Community Organizing In Boise, Idaho, Emily Fritchman

History Graduate Projects and Theses

Members of neighborhood associations in Boise have long acted as advocates for historic preservation, environmental conservation, and effective urban growth management. However, little historical research exploring the impact of neighborhood activists on both the regional and national level exists. This project addresses the lack of scholarship through the creation of three key elements: a website that highlights both the history of neighborhood organizing in Boise and significant figures of the activist movement, a community lecture presenting these findings to the public, and a brochure detailing the goals of the project to neighbors. Additionally, this research highlights patterns that will provide …

Making Racial Difference: A Foucauldian Analysis Of School Memories Told By Undergraduates Of Color In The United States, Debbie Sonu

Publications and Research

This paper draws from the writings of Michel Foucault and his recently reconsidered provocations on race and racialization. Using Foucault’s de!nition of ‘internal racism,’ race is understood as a complex set of correlations that are employed for the purpose of establishing (ab)normality and exercising various forms of expul- sion. Racialization is then seen as the circulation of knowledge that makes racial categorization evident as scienti!c truth, linked to themes of science, developmentality, and the governing of popula- tion. To illustrate its subjective materialization, I analyze childhood memories of school told by undergraduates of color at one large public university in …

Race, Ethnicity & Culture With Purpose: The Growth Of A Multicultural Church Ministry, Jamar R. Mabry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Christianity is a major galvanizing factor. However, it is prudent to pay attention to the real and latent divisions in society that hinder social harmony: even without the calming effect of the Christian faith. Attempting to form a multicultural church must therefore involve an understanding of the races and ethnicities that comprise the target population. That process is as academic as it is pragmatic. The academic aspect of conceiving race involves a historically literate understanding of the heritage and factors that created the present race and ethnic power relations not only in the locale: but across the entire country as …

Life After The El Label: Conversations About Identity, Language, And Race, Veronica Arizaga Aguayo

Doctoral Dissertations

Currently, the English Learner (EL) label is found in every facet of education concerning learners with home languages other than English. While the EL label is designated to objectively identify students who are indeed learning English, it also brings with it an unintentional, outward forced identity that institutes an unwillingness among peers and teachers to socially and academically engage with EL-labeled students. Not only has the label warranted inequitable academic opportunities, wide graduation gaps, and a consistently wide achievement gap, it has also perpetuated a deficit model and negative perceptions of the learners, especially with the racialized rhetoric that has …

Using Positionality To Dismantle The Missy Anne Syndrome In English Methods Classrooms, Darlene Russell

New Jersey English Journal

No abstract provided.

Park Blues Langston Hughes, Racial Exclusion, And The Park Ballad, Margaret Konkol

English Faculty Publications

This chapter draws attention to the lack of parks and nature recreation amenities during the 1920s and 1930s in predominantly African American city neighborhoods through Langston Hughes’s political poetry, specifically his blues-inflected ballad “Park Bench,” as well as “Chicago’s Black Belt” “Restrictive Covenants,” and “One Way Ticket.” Through the figure of the tramp/vagrant/bum, “Park Bench” voices a protest against inequality mapped into city space. Asserting that access to nature should be a fundamental condition of a democratic society, the poem situates the park bench as a charged site for public dialogue. The chapter argues that this poem and other Hughes …

Empire And Its Afterlives, Inder Marwah, Jennifer Pitts, Timothy Vasko, Onur Ulas Ince, Robert Nichols

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

At the time of its 2005 publication, Jennifer Pitts’ A Turn to Empire was among a handful of works in political theory probing imperialism’s constitutive influence over modern political thought.

Outlandish People: Gypsies, Race, And Fantasies Of National Identity In Early Modern England, Sydnee Wagner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since the arrival of Romani people in England in the 16th century, the figure of the Gypsy has been a staple of English literature and culture. My dissertation, Outlandish People: Gypsies, Race, and Fantasies of National Identity in Early Modern England, argues that representations of Gypsies, from Shakespeare’s Othello and Antony and Cleopatra to Ben Jonson’s The Gypsies Metamorphosed, served as a foil for English writers to create a distinctly white early modern English subject. By investigating the racialization of the Gypsy, this project considers technologies of race that lie within the parameters of England itself. Though the English …

Out Of Home: Social Class In Women’S Writing, 1950–2016, Lisa M. Karakaya

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Out of Home: Social Class in Women’s Writing 1950 – 2016 employs an intersectional feminist and critical race theory methodology to examine social class in relation to gendered and racial subjugations in the work of selected French and francophone women authors across diverse regions. This dissertation features Annie Ernaux’s texts in the introduction, and then the colonial societies of French Indonesia and Algeria as depicted by narrators in the position of colonizers in the first two chapters. In the last two chapters, post-colonial or settler societies of Guadeloupian and Québécois texts are shown as depicted by colonized or marginalized narrators. …

Are Logic And Math Relevant To Social Debates?, Michael A. Lewis

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

Social debates, as well as discussions about certain highly charged issues, such as racism, gender identity, and sexuality, usually turn on the uses or mentions of key words. That is, the conclusions we can draw from such discussions depend on how certain terms are used or mentioned in them. Yet participants in social debates may often fail to precisely define their terms or fail to make important distinctions in terms uttered by others. Both logic and mathematics pay attention to the importance of precise definitions when it comes to engaging in discussions, arguments, or proofs. Logic also makes an important …

Moving Up The Pipeline: Factors Associated With Interest In School Psychology Programs, Amrita Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the growing number of minority students in U.S. public schools, only a small percentage of school psychology graduate students, trainers and practicing school psychologists identify themselves as racial minorities. Analyses were conducted on 512 responses to a national survey that investigated demographic and other qualitative factors that are associated with interest in school psychology master’s and doctoral programs. Additionally, analyses were also conducted to examine demographic differences that exist between undergraduate students interested in PsyD versus PhD school psychology programs. The study aimed to investigate whether there was: (a) a significant relationship between doctoral interest and higher household incomes, …

The Story Of Property: Meditations On Gentrification, Renaming, And Possibility, Rachel Brahinsky

Politics

Property is a story. We assign land and resources legal status, and we narrate this as ownership and power. The interlocking loans, credit, and debt from which housing markets are compiled are built through narratives about value and its origins. The urban landscape, which is made by those markets, is produced through a confluence of human decisions, made with information about conditions and access. This information is based in stories—stories about what will sell, whether risk is viable, and what constitutes risk itself. These interlocking stories produce processes such as gentrification, one of the key contemporary challenges of booming cities …

Racially Diverse Adolescent Friendship Groups: A Phenomenological Research Study, Arielle Brooke Mottes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

School psychologists and other school personnel are trained to engage in selfreflective and culturally humble practices to better serve an increasingly racially diverse student population. While most literature on cultural humility (CH) focuses on its development in professionals, this research study looks at its development in students experiencing the phenomenon of racially diverse friendship. Previous research has found there to be a significant relationship between Theory of Mind (ToM) and social competence. The intended purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between ToM and CH amongst high school students who are part of racially diverse friendship groups. …

Intermarried Couples: Transnationalism, And Racialized Experiences In Denmark And Canada, Rashmi Singla, Hema Ganapathy-Coleman

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Despite an increase in interracial or mixed marriages (intermarriages) globally, the experiences of couples in such marriages are generally under-researched, particularly within psychology. Using a cultural psychological framework and qualitative methods, this paper studies the psychosocial experiences of couples in intermarriages. It focuses on four South Asians in ethnically intermarriages in two settings: two Indian-origin men married to native Danish women in Denmark, and two Indian-origin women married to Euro-American men in Canada. Data from in-depth interviews were subjected to a thematic analysis yielding an array of themes, of which this paper presents the two most dominant themes across the …

Confronting And Condemning “Hard Doctrine,” 1978–2013, Matthew L. Harris

Mormon Studies Review

Although Spencer W. Kimball’s 1978 revelation in the Salt Lake Temple ended the 126-year-old priesthood and temple ban affecting persons of African descent, questions about racial teachings in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lingered. The revelation, canonized as “Official Declaration 2” in Latter-day Saint scripture, failed to repudiate the theology justifying the ban.1 Some members, consequently, continued to assert that black people were cursed, equating their dark skin with misdeeds they allegedly committed in a pre-earth life.2 Anguished over these microaggressions, black Latter-day Saints petitioned church officials to condemn racism within the church as well as remove …

Race(Ing) Towards Legal Literacy For (Im)Migration Amidst Covid-19, Patriann Smith, S. Joel Warrican

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

Historically and contemporarily, immigration laws have disproportionately affected immigrant faculty and students of color because they often inadvertently function as racial policy. (Critical) legal literacy enacted via a bottom-up approach can help to address such laws. Higher education institutions, organizations, labor unions and associations are uniquely positioned to use critical legal literacy as a tool of advocacy for immigrant faculty and students of color amidst the adverse effects of COVID-19.

Race And The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In India, Taunalyn Rutherford, Joe Chelladurai, Vinna Chintaram

Mormon Studies Review

Paul Reeve has argued that the Book of Mormon’s imperative, “all are alike unto God,” “met its match in an American religious and racial culture which insisted otherwise.”1 The complexity of race and its construction in “Indian culture” over the course of a much longer history has created a formidable match for a Mormonism characterized at times by its “whiteness” and “Americanness.”2 Race in India is a multifarious and changing phenomenon. Contemporary scholars claim that India is facing “a race problem made up of a combination of ignorance and denial.”3 The policy of geographic boundaries rather than self-selection creates diverse …

The Mobility Of Race: An Indigenous Feminist View From Aotearoa/New Zealand, Gina Colvin

Mormon Studies Review

This paper provides a commentary on how race and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints intersect in Aotearoa/New Zealand and will include an exploration of the mobility of race through an analysis of hermeneutics in the LDS Church. I will argue that while the interpretative lens of sacred texts, including the four standards works of the LDS Church, is shaped by and enforced by an American patriarchal leadership, the redemptive power of scripture will be lost to a population who can least afford another spiritual deprivation.

Disparities Within School Discipline: An Examination Of Race, English Language Learner Status, & Suspension, Serena Boyce

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

There is much discussion in the United States about how in-school and out of school suspension negatively impacts students who are subjected to this form of exclusionary discipline. There is concern about whether there are disparities in school suspension rates between students from different subgroups and their peers. Research in this area has shown that racial/ethnic minority students, as well as students with the factors of having a low socio-economic status and being male, make some schools more likely to use school discipline than others. A question to be answered in the area of school discipline is related to if …

Bonding Over Bondage: Slavery, Racial Complexities And Commonalities In New Orleans, 1803-1819, Andrew Ruben Rodriguez

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Different events in the nineteenth century have transformed America’s sociopolitical,

physical and cultural landscape and contributed to the formation of an American identity based on political liberty, a concept that revolved around the notion of freedom. The concept of slavery, which was opposite of liberty, would be a powerful force throughout American history. As Reverend John A. Ryan explained, liberty “consists mainly of the right to engage in an occupation, to make contracts, and to acquire property. From the beginning of our history as a nation, the constitutions of the various states protected this sphere of liberty for members of …

Utilizing A Community-Based Doula Care Intervention To Reduce Race-Based Perinatal Health Inequities In Jefferson County, Kentucky, Brendan Mathews

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

Target Population and Need

The United States is currently the only industrialized nation in the world experiencing increasing rates of

pregnancy-related mortality.

1,2

Black women die at 3-4 times the rate of their white counterparts.

1-5

This disparity

is likely caused by the experience of systemic racism, which increases allostatic load and produces epigenetic

modifications linked to higher likelihood for poor birth outcomes. Biases perpetuated by health care providers

result in black women being less likely to receive quality healthcare and more likely to experience poor perinatal

1-7 to all pregnant women.

health outcomes.

The provision of doula-based care can …

Diverse And Inclusive High Courts: A Global And Intersectional Perspective, Alice J. Kang, Miki Caul Kittilson, Valerie Hoekstra, Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Critical race feminists call attention to the ways in which multiple and overlapping forms of privilege and discrimination shape individual experiences and perspectives. In this article, we argue that judiciaries cannot be fully inclusive if their composition does not reflect a society’s intersecting sources of disadvantage. We consider intersectional inclusion on high courts from a compar-ative perspective. Most existing practices of representation on high courts promote the inclusion of groups as if they are internally homogenous. We explore the attempts at and successes of promoting intersectional inclusion in the context of the high courts of Canada and South Africa. Although …

Is It Because I'M Black Or A Woman? Constructing An Intersectional And Trauma-Informed Model Of Social Support, Moriah Lynn Johnson

Master's Theses

Inequality in the lives of Black women comes in many forms. As Kimberle Crenshaw observed, Black women experience inequality through the criminal (in)justice system, political and popular cultural representations that stereotype and exclude Black women and when accessing much needed social services (1991). As in the tradition of Black feminist scholars like Kimberle Crenshaw and Rose M. Brewer, this paper challenges stereotypical conceptions of Black womanhood within and outside of sociology, while proposing a relationship between the scholarship and social inequalities experienced by Black women. From this framework, I examine the inequalities Black women experience when accessing social services, consider …

South Asian Americans’ Identity Journeys To Becoming Critically Conscious Educators, Radhika Khandelwal

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Typical identity stereotypes for South Asian Americans, such as the model minority myth, do not convincingly support a trajectory into K–12 education, as South Asian Americans are not readily seen as agents for social change. This qualitative study explored how South Asian American educators’ understanding of their ethnic and racial identity interplayed with their practice as critically conscious educators for social justice. Eleven participants who self-identified as social-justice-oriented were interviewed to share their experiences as South Asian American educators. Their responses revealed South Asian American educators develop their ethnic identity consciousness in complex ways, demonstrating self-awareness and subsequently draw upon …

Navigating The Silences: Social Worker Discourses Around Race, Cherie Bridges Patrick

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This thesis explored social worker discourses to learn what they could reveal about professional workplace practices and experiences with race and racism. The study traced the subtle and elusive racism often found in everyday professional conversations that are not considered racist by dominant consensus. Using tools of thematic and critical discourse analysis (CDA), and van Dijk’s (1993, 2001, 2008, 2009, 2011) general theory of racism and denial (1992, 2008), data from 14 semistructured interviews and one focus group with a racially diverse group of social workers was analyzed in two ways. First, thematic analysis offered a horizontal or flat exploration …