Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Empire Rules: Cultures Of U.S. Imperialism In Multi-Ethnic Literature Of The U.S., Luis Paganelli Marin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation concerns contemporary multi-ethnic literature of the U.S. (MELUS) and empire. Namely, contemporary MELUS invites a reckoning with U.S. Empire, an amalgamation of settler colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism, which works through ahistorical and transhistorical cultural narratives. In turn, contemporary multi-ethnic writers uncover our obscured colonial and imperial histories and legacies that racialize, criminalize, and otherize people of color in the U.S within our present moment. This dissertation, then, analyzes recent novels and poetry collections by African American, Native American, Latinx, and African diasporic writers to unmask the efforts of empire-building with the material effects on colonized, marginalized peoples. Reckoning …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Salvadorans, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

A civil war in El Salvador in the 1970s and 1980s created a need for the United States to accept refugees, but the U.S. Justice Department’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) seldom granted petitions for political asylum by Salvadorans. In response, the Cambridge City Council in1985 passed a resolution that gave sanctuary to Salvadoran and other refugees. This helped facilitate Salvadoran migration to Massachusetts. Now after several decades, the Salvadoran population mostly resides in several cities and towns in the Greater Boston area, and over 40% of their population is native born. The social and economic analysis that follows paints …

Curating Digital Pedagogy In The Humanities, Katherine Harris, Matthew Gold, Rebecca Frost Davis

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This is the published introduction to the born-digital, open-access, peer-reviewed *Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities*. More a rationale and scholarly study of both Digital Pedagogy and DPiH in general, this introduces articulates the uses, theory, rationale about digital pedagogy as it has been shaped in U.S. institutions since the explosion of Digital Humanities in 2009. As a separate field now, Digital Pedagogy is built on the generosity of its practitioners, but saving the *stuff* of teaching and pedagogy is difficult. The introduction historicizes this now-published project, its open peer review process, and its development in the early years (starting in …

Immigrants: A Threat To The Economy Or Cultural Identity? A Case Study Of Haitian And Venezuelan Immigrants In Chile, Erin Geist

Honors Theses

Historically, countries often faced the difficult task of favoring one immigrant group over another. Typically, this is in response to their inability to support those immigrants due to an unstable economy. However, some scholars argue that during times of economic prosperity, excluding immigrants may be the result of the group’s incapacity to assimilate to the nation’s “cultural identity”. Since Chile’s conception as a nation and as one of the most prosperous Latin American countries, they have received notably minuscule immigration rates. As a result, Chileans prides themselves as a relatively homogeneous country. Consequently, in 2018, President Sebastián Piñera differentiated visas …

"They Called Me Kimchi Breath" And Other Short Narrative Essays: A Study In Composing Asian-American Identity In Short Nonfictional Essays, Teddy Kim

Honors Theses

The heterogenous lifestyle of Asian-Americans is one of duality. For this ethnic group, personal identity is a mix between American standard practices and inherited Asian traditions. However, even if their cultural practices are primarily American, Asian-Americans are often “Otherized” and outcast when claiming an American identity, forcing them to be regarded as “just Asian.” As such, they are Americans being rejected by America, and as a result have no other place to call home . In this project, I seek to heal the strife this rejection creates, attempting to confront these tensions and resolve them. As a hyphenated American, I …

Full Issue - Maya America V2, I1, Alan Lebaron

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Full issue of Maya America, volume 2, issue 1.

Introductory Note, Alan Lebaron, James Loucky

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Names can encourage dynamic discussion as well as designate purpose and potentialities. “Maya America” refers to the historic and the present-day geographic regions where people of Maya descent live, while “Maya America” also reflects a term of self-identification used by many in the new generations born or raised beyond traditional homelands. The journal features essays and commentary about contemporary and emerging experiences and challenges, rather than endeavoring to establish a new category of “studies” alongside American, Latino, Indigenous, or Central American studies.

Who Am I? A Reflection Of The In-Between, Maya Figueroa Ferreira

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Adopted before her memory, the personal experiences of the author serve to interrogate the mass exportation and importation of Maya babies. In recounting her search for meaning and reconciliation, she presents to Maya and Non-Maya valuable insights into an expanded meaning for “Maya America”.

Kojichk’Ulal – Kojiq’B’Ej – Kojinatil, Gaspar Tomas, Lorenza Tomas

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Brother and sister discuss Maya community organizations in South Carolina and describe how the Church and Maya heritage work together. Their own path to becoming aware of Maya heritage and their establishment of an active and productive Maya youth group give a powerful example of the possibilities for a better future. They hope to connect with and build relationships with other Maya youth groups in the United States.

Birth Across Borders: Migueleña Maternal Experience In Palm Beach County, Florida, Inbal Mazar

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Dangers for pregnant Maya women in San Miguel Acatán, a highland hamlet in Huehuetenango, Guatemala are exceptionally high. Those who migrate to Palm Beach County, Florida also face significant risks during pregnancy. However, conceptualizing migrants as vulnerable and non-agentive dismisses the opportunity to explore other dimensions of migrant women experiences. Interviews with Migueleña mothers and midwives and health professionals and advocates in both regions revealed resilience strategies Migueleña migrants create and employ as they navigate linguistically and culturally foreign medical systems. The support they provide each other results in more positive maternal experiences under arduous circumstances. Over time, Migueleñas are …

Maya-Americanos En Casa: Los Efectos De La Migración De Guatemala A Los Eeuu En La Región Kaqchikel, Joyce Bennett, Ambrocia Cuma

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Este artículo se trata de que significa ser Maya durante y después de migración a los EEUU desde el área Kaqchikel de Guatemala. Utilizando entrevistas con emigrantes retornados, historias de vida, e otras evidencias etnográficas, señalamos como la vida americana se integra en comunidades Kaqchikeles mayas tras procesos transnacionales. Sugerimos que los resultados de una vida maya-américa se integran en las comunidades de origen en formas que no son tan obvias pero que sí tienen impacto en la vida maya en los pueblos de origen. Por ejemplo, consideramos las relaciones de género dentro de casas en cual alguien se ha …

The Work Of Expert Testimony: Central Americans, Human Rights Defenders, And Immigration Courts, Allan F. Burns

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Anthropologists have worked in legal arenas as experts on civil, criminal, and asylum cases throughout the history of the discipline. Today expert witnesses give opinions on the conditions of countries where immigrants flee, and that work includes ethnographic interviewing, research into the causes of political and social violence, and appearing in court through written affidavits and personal testimony. Expert testimony today includes helping in the defense of people fleeing intimate partner violence, persecution based on sexual orientation, threats and violence by gangs, and those whose political opinions put them at risk. Immigrants in the United States face institutional culture shock, …

Challenges For Maya Family Continuity In A Transbordered World, James Loucky, Katie Goger

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Migration between Central America and countries to the north has increased in scale as well as in contentiousness as a political challenge. Too often, those most involved are peripheral to public discourse and policies. Today sizeable numbers of families, including indigenous Maya families, are participants not only in movement but as through separations across national borders and time. Evolving strategies for maintaining or recreating social cohesion amid disruptions of migration and resettlement involve parents as well as children. Drawing on experiences of families from one highland Guatemalan community, and comparative research into adaptive strategies of immigrant families in the United …

On The Road To Discover My Mayan Voice, Dina Hernandez

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

A young Maya woman recounts her story about growing up “Latina Maya” in Morgantown, NC. As she shares her quest to “discover her Mayan voice”, she reveals insights into the strength of her family and community, and the enjoyment of living.

Immigration Policy – Reporting From The Field, Aileen Josephs Esq.

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Migration is central to human history, yet how we deal with the sojourners among us says much about the soul of a nation. Freedom of movement is an inherent basic human right, yet the protection of a nation’s borders and the decision of who and when and in what conditions people are admitted is also a right that belongs to nation states. It is in this tension that good immigration policy should be found, yet our Congress and many administrations have failed to enact such a policy for over two decades. Aileen Joseph writes with authority and insight based on …

Emigrar: Vale La Pena, Pablo Marcos Martin

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

In this short but comprehensive essay where prose bridges poetry, Pablo Marcos Martin summarizes the immigrant experience in six steps, and reveals the multiple characteristics and the multiple outcomes of the immigration experience. Originally published in 2006, this essay remains profoundly pertinent to the study of survival migration, including family separation, the journey to the border, consequences of choice and circumstance, and the possibilities for failure as well as for happiness.

Queering Identity Politics In Shimon Adaf’S Aviva-No, Yael Segalovitz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article offers a queer reading of Shimon Adaf’s volume of poetry, Aviva-No (2009), analyzing it in conjunction with his recent collection of essays on identity formation, Ani aherim (I am others) (2018). Adaf’s oeuvre has been primarily studied through the lens of ethnicity and race. This article demonstrates that gender plays a key role in his body of work. Aviva-No, which is a lamentation for the poet’s sister, destabilizes the boundaries between the mourning brother and the absent sister. This ontological deconstruction stimulates in Aviva-No a broader undoing of gender as an embodied identity. The volume is replete …

Arab Music And Mizraḥi Poetry, Yochai Oppenheimer

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

The concept of “Arab Jews,” which has appeared in Israeli Mizraḥi (Oriental) discourse over the last decade, resists the framework of Israeli national culture that demands the elimination of Arab identity. For this music suggests possibilities of remembering and “re-presenting” this partially-repressed element. Moreover, the experience of remembering Arab music represents, more than anything else, the diasporic attitude of the Mizraḥim (Oriental Jews). It demonstrates a common legacy that Israeli culture is unwilling to accept and understand. Extrication from the boundaries of Zionist culture (which has historically rejected the diasporic past and its cultures, especially the Arab-Jewish past) manifests itself, …

A Proposed Music Therapy Protocol For Trauma-Informed, Culturally Aware Practice With Migrants At The Us-Mexico Border, Mackenzie K. Conner

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This paper reviews current literature surrounding therapeutic work done with the migrant population and considers it through the lens of future music therapy interventions to be done at the United States (US)-Mexico border. The migration process across the US-Mexico border is often filled with danger and treachery, leading to trauma responses, such as depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder. These traumatic experiences are augmented even further if there is a detention period or separation of families. In work reported by psychotherapists, counselors, and expressive arts therapists, there is often a focus of building empowerment, resilience, and coping skills. Yet …

The Use Of The Birth Control Movement As A Eugenics Weapon, 1920'S-1960'S, Peyton P. Holstein

Young Historians Conference

While Margaret Sanger made great strides in the crusade for legalization and open access to birth control for women, groups paired her work with ideologies such as Social Darwinism to arm the eugenics movement throughout the Twentieth-century. The eugenics movement was a culmination of racism and newly found scientific theories which led a crusade to purify the American population through reproductive cherry-picking on the basis of race. One of the primary ways that this group attempted to weed out “undesirable” races within the American population was through birth control as well as sterilization. These two movements - birth control and …

Finding Aid For The Blues Archive Poster Collection (Mum01783)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

These blues posters, broadsides, and oversize printings, collected by various individuals and institutions, document the world of blues advertising.

Dual Lives Assimilation Literacy, Shiloh Garcia

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

In recent years, the field of literacy studies has not given enough attention to exploring the English literacy journeys of immigrants and in particular, Latin immigrants. Furthermore, there has been little dialogue that has encouraged plans to help fix this issue.

We, in the academy, have a unique opportunity to not only tell the stories of the world but also help create avenues for those stories in order to create change. For this reason, this study focuses on important topics such as the effects of the dominant language on Latin immigrants, if it is possible to have a grounded native …

La Llorona In Nuevomexicana Poetic Narratives: Reflections On Writing And Memory, Sutherland Jaramillo

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This paper focuses on poetic narratives that consider the folklore figure of La Llorona. I argue that contemporary nuevomexicana poets are responding to regional narratives as a way of challenging traditional structures of the lore and female archetypes to reclaim the identity and voice of the figure of La Llorona. Through literature that considers structure and archetype of the lore, Chicana feminist theory, and spectral theory, this essay surveys a selection of poems: “La Llorona Speaks” (2018) by Mercedez Holtry, “Una Carta de Amor de la Llorona” (2011) by Jessica Helen Lopez and “La Llorona” (2018) by Joanna Vidaurre-Trujillo. Through …

Racial Theory: José Martí, José Vasconelos, And The Beliefs That Shaped Latin America, Jose Renteria

History in the Making

This essay compares and contrasts the racial theories of José Martí and José Vasconcelos. It analyzes the social conditions each experienced in their respective time period and location, as well as explaining how such exposures led to their racial understandings and political agendas. The study primarily reveals how nationalistic movements developed due to their influential ideologies, and how both intellectuals influenced other prominent Latin American figures. Lastly, it sheds light on the elements of Martí’s and Vasconcelos’ ideals that continue to survive.

Scrivere Di Islam. Raccontare La Diaspora, Simone Brioni Dr., Shirin Ramzanali Fazel

Department of English Faculty Publications

Scrivere di Islam. Raccontare la diaspora (Writing About Islam. Narrating a Diaspora) is a meditation on our multireligious, multicultural, and multilingual reality. It is the result of a personal and collaborative exploration of the necessity to rethink national culture and identity in a more diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist way. The central part of this volume – both symbolically and physically – includes Shirin Ramzanali Fazel’s reflections on the discrimination of Muslims, and especially Muslim women, in Italy and the UK. Looking at school textbooks, newspapers, TV programs, and sharing her own personal experience, this section invites us to change the …

Touching Hearts In Both Life And Death: Brett Lee Lundstrom, Laurel Schlegel

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

The following article is a product of the Veteran’s Legacy Program, a collaboration between the Veteran’s Association and undergraduate history departments. Undergraduate history students at the University of Denver began writing biographies about the veterans buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

Biography Of Frank Trujillo, Jake Fegan

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

The following article is a product of the Veteran’s Legacy Program, a collaboration between the Veteran’s Association and undergraduate history departments. Undergraduate history students at the University of Denver began writing biographies about the veterans buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.

The Consistency Of Voting Habits Among College Students, Mychala Walker

Virginias Collegiate Honors Council Conference

For generations, it was suggested that college students do not vote, despite research suggesting that voting is habit forming and youth voting can determine the trend for future civic engagement. The purpose of this project is to determine if voter disenfranchisement is the cause of such a lack of civil engagement among college students. I believed that college students did not vote because of the unclear laws and regulations regarding voting as a student. To collect data, I surveyed 71 Virginia State University students of various classifications and majors. Questions regarding demographics, voter registration status, and past voting history were …

Baton Rouge Slam!: An Obituary For Summer 2016: A Critical Performance Ethnography Of Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam, Joshua Hamzehee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This critical performance ethnography presents the theory, methodology, and practice surrounding the fieldwork, scripting, and performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. As participant-observer, director, and co-performer, I unpack social drama, performance ethnography, and slam culture by employing a lens rooted in critical race theory. Local poets permitted me to de- and re-contextualize their interviews into ensemble scenes and theatricalize their slam poems about the recent summer’s charged events. One year later, this involved and embodied process of ethnographic bricolage became the ensemble cast performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. Community members and …

Editorial Introducing The Special Issue For Diversity In Aquatics, Angela Beale-Tawfeeq, Austin R. Anderson, Steven N. Waller

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Introduction to Special Issue - no abstract available