Africana Studies Commons^™

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.

How Misogyny In Gaming Affects Black Women/Poc, Niccarri Allen

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This research query explores the gaming industry and how its misogynistic issues affect the Black community in its forums. Research has shown that there has been a suppressed issue of prejudice against women of color in many gaming spaces in the last 20 years. Video games, created for healing and interactive spaces for communities seemingly have normalized its harming nature to minority groups. My research will look into aspects of how gender bias and racism mix into the gaming industry and cause distress among its players. I will research how misrepresentation in the character personas in video games lead to …

Review Of Chadian Sister Engages Kansas City Youth About Peace And Justice/ Citoyenne Du Monde En Construction A Kansas City, Tiffany Hunsinger

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Archetypal Energies And Global Mental Health, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

As a keynote speaker at the Global Mental Health Conference 2024, held at Sophia University, Costa Mesa, CA, in-person and virtually, August 16-18, 2024, my topic was "Archetypal Energies As A Framework for Self-Empowerment and Well Being". The theme of this 2024 global conference was: Enlightened Minds, Compassionate Hearts, and Embodied Wisdom. To supplement my keynote address, I wrote this blog article titled "Archetypal Energies and Global Mental Health".

[Discussions] Vol. 20 Iss. 1

Discussions

This issue of Discussions was published for the Spring 2024 cycle.

Shake Ya Ass, But Watch Yourself: An Intersectional And Decolonial Approach To Exploring The Sexualization Of Female Recording Artists And The Empowerment Of Women In The United States, H.B. Rebeka

Dissertations

This dissertation, titled Shake Ya Ass, But Watch Yourself: An Intersectional and Decolonial Approach to Exploring the Sexualization of Female Recording Artists and the Empowerment of Women in the United States, critically examines the phenomenon of sexualization of women in the music industry and its impact on female empowerment. Through an intersectional and decolonial feminist lens, the study delves into the historical and socio-cultural contexts that shape the portrayal and perception of female recording artists in the United States.

The research traces the roots of feminism and the commodification of racial stereotypes through music, exploring how female empowerment has been …

Eng 155: Introduction To Literary Studies, Joseph Donica

Open Educational Resources

An OER syllabus covering the ways humans have read and continue to read literature from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives. An emphasis is placed on the application of critical thought to writing expository essays and responding to readings.

See Me Show Me: Black Women Representation In Television Sitcoms, Lauryn Jennings

Master's Theses

Television is a commonplace item within the households of America. It brings the family together as well teaching people about other people. With this Black women have been shown in one-dimensional images that are harmful. Although these stereotypes are old they are still present within modern television sitcoms.

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

U.S. Government Agency Podcasts, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Presents podcasts from U.S. Government agencies which can be discovered through the U.S. Government Publishing Office's Catalog of Government Publications. Agencies whose podcasts are presented include the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Peace Corps, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Government Accountability Office (GAO), National Park Service, Department of Justice, Federal Reserve System, and U.S. Naval War College.

The Breakbeat Poets: Translocal Placemaking In The Contemporary Midwestern Lyric, Andy Oler

Publications

In the introduction to the Haymarket Books collection The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop (2015), co-editor Kevin Coval asserts that the anthologized poems are not simply influenced by hip-hop; “these poems are hip-hop.”¹ The anthology’s focus on a genre, a cultural phenomenon, might seem like an odd fit for a special issue on placemaking. Its national frame might seem too expansive for the study of regionalism (though there is a history, established by James Shortridge, of conflating the Midwest with the nation).² But The BreakBeat Poets is also attentive to more precise versions …

Death, Dreaming, And Diaspora: Achieving Orientation Through Afro-Spirituality, Liz Johnston, Jaime Elizabeth Johnston

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Enslavement, colonization, and the systems that uphold racial injustice were and still are a series of new, unfathomable, and challenging experiences that prompt individuals within the diaspora to seek orientation. How does a human cope with centuries of attempts at the systematic destruction of their humanity, culture, and identity? How can they reclaim that identity, especially when so much of it seems lost? I address these questions by utilizing texts from the expansive body of work regarding ethnographic-historical-religious studies on Afro-spiritual practices to better analyze instances in literature in the ongoing practice of diasporic orientation. In this project, I argue …

Motherland Drip: Examining Performativity In Southern Black Motherhood, Daisha Huiel

Master's Projects

This capstone project explores the possibilities of the societal standards of southern Black motherhood creating oppositional experiences for Black women and their claims to freedom and bodily autonomy. I am writing about the lived experiences of southern Black women, including myself, within their communities to explore anti-respectability themes in the lives and performances of southern women and female hip hop performers through the lens of intersectionality. This creative nonfiction1 and scholarship reflect my academic exploration into the ways foundational Black feminist theory and relevant texts connect to my individual lived experiences of motherhood and identity within the post-hip-hop generations. I …

Casar (Auc Community Only) Lecture : Body Autonomy, Culture & Empowering Women In Egypt, Us & Canada: The Differences That Unite Us', The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

About the lecture: This event was CASAR’s last event opened for the AUC community only. It took place as part of the course AMST 1099 “Exploring Feminist Perspectives in Egypt and the US” taught by CASAR Assistant to Director and Adjunct Faculty Yasmeen El Ghazaly. The Panel included Ms. Malak El-Lamie from Motherbeing NGO representing Egypt, representing the United states was Ms. Alexandra Mcdougall who comes from the NGO ‘Women’s Advocates’ in Northern Minnesota, and representing Canada from the ‘London Abused Women's Centre’ in London, Ontario, is Wendy Goldsmith. Other than Ms. Malak, these guests joined the discussion via zoom, …

Casar Public Lecture: How Far Have Women Come In The Past 120 Years In Egypt And The Us?, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

About the lecture: In honor of the 16 days of activism set by the UN campaigning for eliminating violence against women, CASAR hosted an event to see how far women have come in the past 120 years in the United States and in Egypt, and what changes might be possible in the foreseeable future. This was CASAR’s last public event for the Fall 2023 semester, and was made special by the warm welcome from Director Mark W. Deets, and the efforts of Yasmeen El Ghazaly, who created a video compiling important figures of women throughout the decades in the United …

Casar Public Lecture: The Gaza War: Implications For The United States And Egypt, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

Director of CASAR Professor Mark W. Deets, also a current member of the History department of AUC specialist in African Studies acted as moderator for this Event. CASARs two guest panelists in this discussion were visiting scholar Professor David Dumke and Professor Karim Hagag. Dumke is the Executive Director of the Office of Global Perspectives & International Initiatives at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He teaches Middle East history, U.S. foreign policy, and American politics, and “has written extensively on these subjects.” He also is host and executive producer of WUCF-TV’s award-winning Global Perspectives (Public Broadcasting Service). Dumke spent …

Keynote: Story Culture Live: Black American Story Spaces As Actionable Antiracism Work, Clarissa J. Walker

The Writing Center Journal

“Story Culture Live: Black American Story Spaces as Actionable Antiracism Work,“ was a keynote given at the Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference at the University of New Hampshire in spring 2023. The keynote details the genesis of my podcast, Story Culture Live, which reimagines storytelling as actionable activism in antiracist work and explores concepts such as Black teller agency, kinship, and collective responses to tensions through storytelling that can inform and build new stories in writing centers.

From Mississippi To The Northwoods: A Search For Opportunity, Carol F. Colasacco

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

The submitted article, “From Mississippi to the Northwoods: A Search for Opportunity”, describes the genealogical exploration into the details around one family’s move to northern Wisconsin in the early 1900s. This family research revealed previously unknown details and prompted additional investigation into the historical factors that may have prompted the family’s journey from Mississippi to northern Wisconsin. This article describes the African American history of the Steele family and addresses some of the issues faced by formerly enslaved people and white residents advocated for Black rights in the South that forced them to leave in search of safety and economic …

White Supremacist Print Culture And The Creation Of White Working-Class Ideology In 1860s New York City, Anna Meyer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

J. H. Van Evrie believed in the biological basis of white racial supremacy and Black inferiority beliefs which he spread in his publications throughout the 19^th century. He generated support for Copperhead politicians, pro-slavery Northern Democrats, who would enact his racial policies, in his newspaper the Weekly Caucasian, published in New York City during the Civil War. He adapted the presentation of his racial theories to appeal to the economic concerns of among working-class white men and Irish immigrants by using allegories about the Civil War. The newspaper created a sense of white nationalism and racial solidarity with …

The Impact Of Slavery And Colonialism On The Black Consciousness: Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, The Confessions Of Nat Turner, And Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl, Mariam Badawi

Theses and Dissertations

According to the German author, essayist, and empirical psychologist Karl Philipp Moritz, to be able to analyze someone psychologically, we have to be able to analyze ourselves as one would know oneself better than one would know anyone else. Therefore, he proposed the study of autobiographies to be able to delve into a writer's "innermost soul"; through their knowledge of themselves" (qtd. in Schlumbohm 32). Moreover, "the psychological effect that the ideology of white supremacy and European imperialism, in the form of slavery and colonialism, has had on Africa and her people has never been fully addressed and understood" (Nobles …

“Come Think With Me”: Finding Communion In The Liberatory Textual Practices Of Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Jehan L. Roberson

Criticism

Defining text as anything that can be read, self-identified learner and artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed explores reading as radical communion within her multifaceted textual practice. A 2021 Guggenheim Fellow, Rasheed’s work spans vast bodies of knowledge and temporalities to interrogate both the aesthetic and the limits of the text. At times producing collages with letters cut out from books in her own expansive library, and at other times posting scans from various books that are marked up with her rigorous note-taking, Rasheed approaches the text as an invitation to commune with the author in order to collectively arrive at new …

Black Best-Selling Books And Bibliographical Concerns: The Essence Book Project, Jacinta R. Saffold, Kinohi Nishikawa

Criticism

On October 27, 2021, the Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) sponsored the first in a series of virtual interviews about the Essence Book Project. Founded by Jacinta R. Saffold, the BSA’s inaugural Dorothy Porter Wesley Fellow, the Essence Book Project is a database of the books that appeared on Essence magazine’s bestsellers’ list from 1994 to 2010. In talking about the project with Kinohi Nishikawa, Saffold highlights how Black best-selling books contribute new paths of inquiry to bibliographical scholarship and explains why it is important to archive contemporary Black print culture. Presented in this article is a modified version of …

Transnational Ritual Poetics Of Blackness In Performance, Nina A. Mercer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I investigate transnational ritual poetics of Blackness through a historical, cultural, and spatial lens, centering my exploration on the recurrence of circles, the crossroads, and waterways. I show how these formal poetics activate Africana cosmologies, cosmogonies, and mythologies dramaturgically by centering contemporary New York City performance works that bring together dance, theatre, and music. I contextualize NYC performance case studies in relation to performance practices in contemporary Salvador da Bahia. I am particularly interested in how the recurrence of circles, the crossroads, and water as formal poetics catalyze interventions along contested water-ways and landscapes marked by Black …

'I Don’T Fit That Stereotype': Participant Photography And The Visual (Re)Positioning Of Black Men, Quaylan Allen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This paper examines how Black men use a participant photography project as a tool for meaning making during the current political and social context of anti-Black racism, Black activism, and intersectional politics. Using a critical visual methodology in the analysis of the images, this paper will examine how Black men make meaning of current social issues through the types of images they produced, how they make meaning of the types of audiences they are speaking to through the project, and how these meanings are reflected through their repositioning practices in the visual project. Specific attention is paid to how they …

Blacklash: Phenomenological Hermeneutics In Black Dance, Darvejon A. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The horrors inflicted on Black bodies, souls, and spirits in the United States during the transatlantic slave trade, the Jim Crow era, and the current era (2023) have a lasting legacy of trauma metabolized through the body and transmuted generationally. Jones uses this data to contextualize the work of Black dance artists as hermeneutic phenomena in which the Black dance artist is a hermeneut tasked with delivering a message of the Black body/spirit complex: “I AM HUMAN. DO NOT KILL ME.” This paper examines how Black dance artists frequently petition for their survival — incessantly subjugated to the interpreter’s empathy, …

Sweat Equity: Lynn Nottage's Radical Dialectic Of Deindustrialization, Jocelyn L. Buckner

Theatre Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Lynn Nottage has devoted her career to researching and telling stories of Black individuals and communities with expressed interest in laborers, advocating for their agency, humanity, and legacy. In her second Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Sweat, Nottage dramatizes more recent US history, illuminating the lives of workers marginalized by the deindustrialization of the Rust Belt in the early 2000s. Sweat is emblematic of Nottage's sustained effort to deploy playwriting as activism and stand in solidarity with those whose stories she chooses to tell. As a constant theme in her works, Lynn Nottage's stories align with marginalized workers' efforts and histories, …

Give The Drummer Some: A Dive Into Drum Breaks And Drum Break Production, Kyle Kaldhusdal

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper traces the history of hip-hop culture through the evolution of the drum break, the original context of drum breaks in funk and soul music, their influence on DJ culture, and the subsequent impact of drum breaks on music and music production. It follows the development of breakbeat compilations in the 1970s and 1980s, parallel to the development of turntablism and sampling techniques. It also examines in detail how copyright litigation in the 1990s shaped the development of sample-based music genres and created a niche market for originally-recorded drum breaks over the subsequent decades.

"Enlightened Motherhood": Frances Ellen Watkins Harper And The Conception Of Black Womanhood, Christina Rose Walcott

History

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an influential nineteenth-century activist and writer. She was active in the antislavery lecture circuit and the suffrage movement. She developed a conception of Black womanhood through her writing that culminated in a richer understanding of equal rights in the United States. This thesis reexamines her work from an interdisciplinary standpoint. She developed her vision of Black womanhood over time through the character of the enslaved mother in the Antebellum era, the nuances of freedom during the Civil War and Reconstruction era, and finally through home as a personal space and as a nation in the …

The Creation Of Political Survival Strategies By Black Collegiate Women On Virginia’S Predominantly White Campuses, Maya Jenkins

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The University of Mary Washington is a liberal arts institution founded in 1908 as a normal and industrial school for women (Our History - About UMW, 2015). Because of its small size, Mary Washington was historically known as Virginia’s “undiscovered gem” (Boyer, 2011). Mary Washington is described as a place built to support the “innovative, passionate, intellectual, and genuine” (Boyer, 2011). However, in 2020, the deaths of Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade and a racial protest that took place near the college’s campus caused many Black collegiate women at Mary Washington to question if their university was built to support …

"Are You Experienced'? The Life, Music, And Legacy Of Jimi Hendrix, Samuel K. Lavine

Student Publications

Jimi Hendrix is a household name for any fan of 60s rock music. His unique, effects-driven approach to music simultaneously revolutionized the genres of Rock and Blues. From his use of amplifier feedback, Wah Pedal, and hammer-on fingering in solos to his lyrics an outlet with which he processed his childhood, his music musicianship helped define a decade of music. He found success in England as a Black creator while African Americans continued their fight for Civil Rights back in America. England’s acceptance of Blacks and love of American Blues allowed him to hone his craft in London before leaving …