Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Review Of Decolonising Sociology: An Introduction, Armstrong K. Matogwa

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Decolonizing Sociology is one of the few works in sociology that makes critical assessment of the discipline. It is a kind of self-critique within the discipline that aims to reveal epistemic setbacks that have existed for decades. To arrive to the point, Meghji, has situated his thesis along decolonial sociology, which interrogates dominant sociological theories in the context of imperialism. By so doing, he makes three main arguments as follows; first, what is called sociology is colonial in nature as it is based on the ideas of the Western thinkers namely Marx, Durkheim and Weber which emerged and institutionalized during …

Legal Provisions And Administration Of Land Disputes In Kiteto District, Ca. 1970s – 2000s: The Missing Linkage, Juma Marmo

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

There have been a series of legal interventions on land use in the post-colonial Tanzania to create a good land administration and management in order to end land use conflicts. Scholarship on the legal aspect of land use indicates that legal interventions did not provide lasting solutions to land use conflicts because of their structural and systemic arrangements. In addition, existing scholarship has little focus on the linkage between law enforcement machinery, the peoples’ level of understanding on land laws, and the occurrence of land use conflicts. This paper discusses the violation of laws by peasants, pastoralists, and government officials …

Ancestors In The Archives: Decolonizing Archival Research, Willow White

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Bringing together my identities as an Indigenous woman (Métis Nation of Alberta) and as a scholar specializing in eighteenth-century women writers has involved the continual unlearning of colonial research practices. The following essay reflects on my efforts to work with/in archives in a decolonizing way. I will share some of the practices that I have adopted, not to provide a checklist, but to join the ongoing conversation of many eighteenth-century studies scholars who share a decolonizing desire.

Introduction: Intergenerational Thinking, Katherine Binhammer

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This introduction to a conversation on Intergenerational Thinking that first began at the American Society of Eighteenth Century Studies in Toronto, March 2024, establishes the importance of dialogue across generations in feminist eighteenth-century studies. It synthesizes the methods the participants engage to think with past scholars, rather than disavow such work. While the topics discussed are diverse -- feminist history, Phillis Wheatley, Indigenous eighteenth-century archives, climate catastrophe and Charlotte Charke – the writers share an approach to generational thinking grounded in a critique of the assumption that the new is always better.

Impacto De La Pandemia De La Covid-19 En Las Familias De Los Jóvenes Universitarios De Las Poblaciones Rurales Mayas Del Estado De Yucatán, Jorge Atocha Pacheco Castro

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract. This study examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the families of university students from rural Maya communities in Yucatán, Mexico. Utilizing an anthropological framework, the research highlights the interplay of structural vulnerabilities and cultural resilience. It explores how families navigated economic challenges, social interactions, and cultural practices amid the crisis. Key findings include the reliance on traditional subsistence practices such as small-scale agriculture and backyard farming, which provided a safety net during economic downturns. Socially, rural families reported lower stress levels and stronger communal bonds compared to their urban counterparts, owing to expansive living spaces and outdoor …

Equal For Whom?: An Analysis Of Multicultural Policies In Norway And The Us Through The Lens Of Immigrant Unemployment, Jodie Boisvert

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Norway and the United States boast diverse and equal societies. Both have attempted to implement multicultural policies to facilitate immigrants' integration into the host society. Engaging with the theories of racism, xenophobia, and multiculturalism, this paper analyzes the immigrant unemployment outcomes from Norway and the United States from 2015-2020 to identify patterns and anticipate causal relationships from these patterns. Standardized data from both countries show that immigrants from Global South countries have far worse employment outcomes than immigrants from Global North countries. The xenophobic and racist histories of both countries could explain this. This paper analyzes the multicultural policies of …

Modernist Transitions: Cultural Encounters Between British And Bangla Modernist Fiction From 1910s To 1950s, Shamika Shabnam

Critical Humanities

A Review of Modernist Transitions: Cultural Encounters between British and Bangla Modernist Fiction from 1910s to 1950s

Introduction: Failed Futures? (Post)-Colonial Planning And Future-Making In Tanzania, Ulrike Lindner

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Future-making and planning as social practices are strongly related to the
surrounding society’s political structures and power relations. In this
special issue of ZAMANI, we conceptualize future-making as physical
changes and social practices that shape future conditions by making future
an issue in the present. We analyse how different approaches to the future,
and also surprises and unintended side-effects, have informed the politics
and practices of planning in Tanzania and its various regions.1 When we ask:
“Failed Futures?” we address future in the plural, a term that has diffused
into historical scholarship rather recently and originates from
futurology/future studies, known …

‘Sold Down The River’: Histories Of Production, Trade, And Transport Along The Waterways Of The Kilombero Valley, Tanzania, Jonathan M. Jackson

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article considers the centrality of waterways in the Kilombero Valley of Tanzania to the region’s histories of development from above, particularly in terms of infrastructure, crop production, trade, and transport. Early colonial investigations hoped Kilombero’s riverine system might prove a navigable link from the coast to the Southern Highlands. The British colonial era instead focused more on utilising riverine networks for internal goods transport. Throughout these colonial visions – simultaneously ambitious and naïve – the prevalent dug- out canoe was considered unsafe, inefficient, and replaceable by modernised methods. But the canoe – a symbol of indigenous knowledge and practice …

Nurturing Traditional Midwifery And Medicine: The Entangled Path Of Health Integration In Post-Independence Kilombero, Tanzania, Veronica Kimani

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This paper focuses on the Tanzanian government’s ambitious endeavour to enhance health, particularly midwifery services following independence. The initial strategy by the government involved promoting Western medicine by establishing healthcare facilities and training medical personnel. However, the strain of a burgeoning population and limited resources soon became evident, prompting the government to recognise the need for the incorporation of traditional medicine, previously overlooked. This integration posed its own set of obstacles, as the focus on herbal remedies overshadowed crucial aspects of conventional midwifery, such as rituals. While research has shown the resolve of the government towards medical integration between different …

Health Infrastructure Planning In Tanzania, 1961–1980s: The Problems Of Future-Making, Frank Edward, Ulrike Lindner

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

Between 1961 and 1978, Tanzania invested significantly in the health service provision – from training requisite manpower, provision of health education to building the necessary infrastructure in order to improve health conditions of the population. As existing research indicates, the investment paid off considerably in qualitative terms, for instance, with a gradual increase in life expectancy and a decline in infant mortality. This paper examines the vision of the state of health in Tanzania by using the prism of infrastructure. Its focus is on direct and indirect physical infrastructures, particularly medical buildings and facilities. Through the analysis of archival and …

Front Matter - Zamani 1, No. 1, Editors Note

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This is the maiden issue of Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies. It charts the beginning of a continental journal that is based in an African higher education institution within Africa. It breaks away from the traditional historical journals in Africa of being national or regional and at best being owned and operated by scholars and institutions from Europe and North America. With this maiden issue, the journal seeks to demonstrate that it is part of the bigger knowledge decolonization movement. It seeks to influence historical writing and research by giving more Africanness in ownership, operations, production and knowledge …

Medical Mission Futures: German Protestant Missionaries And Modern Healthcare In Southern Highlands, Tanzania,1891–1940, Luoneko Kaduma

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

The history of colonial missionaries in Tanzania is marked by a complex interplay between evangelical efforts and the provision of Western biomedicine, which functioned as crucial mechanisms for conversion and cultural transformation. Missionaries viewed the improvement of African health as a project aimed at attracting converts and propagating Christianity. However, the available data indicates that, instead of genuinely expressing interest in converting to Christianity, the majority of Africans primarily sought mission medical assistance for medical reasons while maintaining strong connections to their traditional beliefs and healing practices. This paper, drawing from archival documents, ethnographic accounts, and missionary writings, focuses on …

‘Prevention Is Better Than Cure’: Smallpox Vaccination In Postcolonial Tanzania, 1961–1980, Musa Sadock

Zamani: A Journal of African Historical Studies

This article examines the smallpox vaccination programme in postcolonial Tanzania from the 1960s to the early 1980s as part of the postcolonial future making in preventive medicine. The article departs from extant scholarship on smallpox vaccination in postcolonial Tanzania, which depicts the intervention as a success, while relegating to the background challenges associated with the intervention. The article argues that the smallpox vaccination programme registered challenges and successes that offer lessons for combating of future epidemics. The achievements of the programme were due to the adoption of specific public health policies, namely mass vaccination and public health education as well …

Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (Tpdc) And Its Role In Self-Reliance And Sustainability, Ladislaus Norbeth Tumbu

Theses - ALL

Tanzania possesses significant natural gas reserves, currently estimated at 57.54 trillion cubic feet, with the potential for further discoveries. This thesis examines the socio-economic impacts of Tanzania’s substantial natural gas reserves, focusing specifically on the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and its engagement with the local communities in Mtwara and Lindi. TPDC is the national oil company and owner of all licenses for energy development in the country, wholly owned by the government of Tanzania with all its shares held by the Treasury Registrar. Through comprehensive literature review and field visits to production sites, the study examines TPDC’s management of …

Indigenous Metal: Rage, Rejects, And The Reconstruction Of Culture, Louis W. Asbury

Master's Theses

Metal music’s latest frontier is Indigenous metal, combining explorations of Indigenous identity with the heavy and aggressive stylings of the music genre. To explore this new subgenre, this study asks to what extent can metal music be used as a political tool and what are some of the broader effects of metal bands working to better their communities. This thesis utilizes case studies of two notable Indigenous metal scenes, the Rez metal scene in the Navajo Nation and the Māori metal scene in Aotearoa. By collecting data from these scenes, including lyrics, videos, interviews, and audience interactions, this thesis thoroughly …

Re-Indigenizing And Collaboratively Tending Urban Greenspaces, Divinity Nnenne Adewale

University Honors Theses

This work details the active process of land tending with the intention of re-Indigenization in the Pacific Northwest at several Portland sites; The Native American Student Community Center, PSU Oak Savanna, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Land tending is an intuitive process, one rooted in love and respect for life of all forms as well as becoming the perpetual student; land tending is not a skill to be mastered, only practiced. Unlike environmental management, tending cannot be done separate from the earth, in a classroom or otherwise. Connections are what tending is built on top of: the foundation; effort …

Outside Of The Norm: On Blackness And Neurodivergence In The Workplace, Safia Abdulle

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

The traditional workplace is a neurotypical workplace. The foundations of the neurotypical, traditional workplace stem from the developmental norms and social processes which imbed neurotypicality into Western society. Children, from a young age, are praised for appearing neurotypical and are punished for any deviations outside of the ‘norm’—internalizing and problematizing neurodivergent behaviours as ‘unproductive’, ‘problematic’, and ‘abnormal.’ Moreover, existing as racialized and neurodivergent highlights specific, intersectional issues in the workplace worth reflecting on. As a result of these marginalizations, racialized and/or disabled, neurodivergent people must utilize masking strategies as survival mechanisms. Radical re-imaginings of the current workplace, and consequently society, …

This Will Not Be Generative, Sehrish Naudhani

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

This Will Not Be Generative by Dixa Ramírez-D’Oleo critiques Western feminist narratives, revealing how concepts like generativity and symbiosis often disguise violence against Black and Indigenous communities. Through analysis of works by feminists such as Donna Haraway and references to films like Get Out and Midsommar, Ramírez-D’Oleo argues that Black and Indigenous lives are cyclically exploited to uphold white supremacy. Rather than depicting these communities as mere victims, she emphasizes their resilience and acts of resistance. This review underscores Ramírez-D’Oleo's call to rethink the narratives shaping our understanding of race, ecology, and feminism, making it a critical read for …

Finding Racial Identity: Analyzing Eddy L. Harris’S Journeys Through Africa And The Southern United States, Veronica G. Johnson

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Modern Agricultural Servitude: The Modern Farm Worker Experience In The Salinas Valley, Jesus E. Tavarez

Chicana and Chicano Studies ETDs

The prevailing narrative in Chicanx studies focuses on the historical labor activism of the United Farm Workers (UFW) in the 1960s and ‘70s. I am particularly interested in examining the contemporary campesino experience in the Salinas Valley by discussing the history behind Mexican cheap labor, low wages, exploitive work conditions with inadequate healthcare, agrochemical exposure, and historical consciousness of farm workers. I will argue that farm workers are in dire need of a migratory reform as an approach to improve the working conditions of farm workers throughout California. This research aims to shed light on how the multi-billion-dollar agribusiness industry …

¿Qué Futuro Les Espera A Los Trabajadores Latinos? El Calor Extremo, Las Promesas Vacías Y La Incertidumbre Política, Yunior Rivas Garcia

Capstones

Este artículo explora las condiciones mortales que enfrentan los trabajadores latinos en Estados Unidos debido al estrés por calor, un riesgo creciente en sectores esenciales como la construcción, la agricultura y el almacenamiento. A pesar de representar una proporción significativa de las muertes laborales, las protecciones contra el calor son insuficientes, y la falta de regulación federal agrava la vulnerabilidad de estos trabajadores, muchos de los cuales son indocumentados. A través de casos específicos, como la muerte de Esvin Cruz Mateo, y un análisis de las políticas laborales actuales, el texto examina las fallas estructurales que perpetúan la inseguridad laboral …

Is Sexyy Red Minstrelsy, Or Are We Overreacting?, Malik Brizan-Reed

Capstones

This criticism piece explores the controversial female rapper Sexyy Red. It challenges negative perspectives about her persona, primarily based on respectability politics. It highlights Sexyy Red's ability to capitalize on a moment and business savviness. The article has themes of racial double standards and classism. Sexyy Red is more than the "ghetto Black girl," aesthetic. She's a mother and entrepreneur who is authentic to herself.

Promoting Cultural Belonging Through The Arts: Community Partner Snapshot Of Latino Art Midwest, Kayla Vasilko

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Kayla Vasilko just completed her Master’s degree in communication with a focus on semiotics and the impact of higher education on positive social change in the Purdue Graduate School and the PNW Department of Communication and Creative Arts. While earning her degree, she had the opportunity to complete a service-learning project to celebrate Spanish culture through the arts and work the community partner Latino Art Midwest. Latino Art Midwest works to promote understanding of the role of arts and creative expression among Midwestern Latina/o communities. Students can explore their site, “view the art, and interpret the unique qualities of Latina/o …

Ballroom: An Exploration Of Queer Survival And Self-Sufficiency, Jet Mezini

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

The AIDs epidemic and its disinformation alienated queer people from U.S culture. As a result, queer people, especially queer people of color, began meeting together to express their self-made culture, a series of competitions among themselves, the underground scene of “ballroom.” Ballroom reveled in self-awareness and bordered on satire, being inspired by Western standards that were unable to be applied to a queer populous. This essay will analyze these cultural norms, understanding how they served as methods of reclamation for queer people, and how ballroom evolved to reflect social progression.

Book Review: Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory Of Indigenous Cultures, Arcia Tecun

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures by Victor Montejo

Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021. 248 pp

Arcia Tecun analyzes and interacts with Montejo’s discussions and logics, resulting in a postcolonial indigenous conversation between reviewer and book author.

Corazón De Maíz Un Tributo A Los Pueblos Mayas, Patricia López

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

English Abstract:

Corazón de Maíz gathers the stories and recipes for traditional Maya cooking in the regions of Huehuetenango, and is designed to promote the survival of the culinary system of the grand-mothers, and the food that they prepared with love for the whole family. This “culinary novel” contains myths, legends, stories of the origin of some foods, cooking tech-niques and methods. The foods prepared in the altiplano region developed from millenary traditions, the Hispanic invasion, the ravages of climate change bringing droughts and plagues that destroy life, and the various consequences and influences of migration. For the Maya, corn …

A Wīnak Perspective On Cosmovisíon Maya And Eco-Justice Education, Arcia Tecun

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

This article responds to questions of relational ethics in Indigenous mobility with a critically conscious approach to cosmovisíon Maya in Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley). An urban and mobile Mayan positionality, identified as Wīnak, guides an analysis of complex Indigenous experiences, and possibilities found in Eco-Justice. The limits from the prevailing and dominant colonial logics of conservation and environmentalism are re-imagined through Indigenous approaches to ‘Earth Wellbeing’. The application of critically conscious cosmovisíon Maya reveals a simultaneous challenge to systems of power, and to formations of an Indigenous relational ethic that is both locally meaningful and globally relevant. This essay concludes …

Revisiting Men Of Maize: Historical Truths, Literary Distortions, And Asturias In Today’S Guatemala, Elaine Elliott

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

In 2024, a renewed appreciation for the Guatemalan Nobel Prize winner Miguel Ángel Asturias is taking place to mark the 50th anniversary of Asturias’ death. This essay examines the historical and literary context of the author’s groundbreaking novel Hombres de maíz (Men of Maize), and the book’s portrayal of indigenous Maya resistance against ladino landowners in Guatemala. Evidence indicates that Asturias obtained his views of ladino – Maya conflict from historic land conflicts in Ilom, Chajul. Asturias distorted the events, but his book inspired a generation of revolutionaries, some of whom organized and fought in the Ixil region and Ilom. …

Mixed Race Futurity Through Contemporary Archetypes: Mutants, Cyborgs And Dhampirs, Kobe Jackson

Masters Theses

Analysis of Enlightenment philosphes reveals how the contemporary archetypes, mutants, cyborgs and dhampirs may be situated as sources for understanding mixed race positionality. Arranged on a trajectory of hybrid mythology reaching from ancient times into the present day, their contemporary relevance is put into context. Through modern speculative fiction, historical mythology and the theoretical frameworks of sociology, and philosophy, two tropes are revealed to be imposed roles for mixed race people. The first one, the tragic hybrid is a term which references a character specific to the context of American colonial slavery, the tragic mulatto. By reframing the term, tragic …