Africana Studies Commons^™

Black Mothering And Environmental Justice Activism: A Black Ecofeminist Framework, Kayla N. Miller , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

A Meditation On Afrosurrealism, Black Gender, And The Non-Human, Logan K. Shanks

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Quotidian Black life is characterized by our ability to alchemize violence into generative life-sustaining properties of matter. In this paper, I will measure Black matter based on anything produced and engaged by Black collectives. While Black existence is not tied to white violence, descendants of enslaved Black people enter our worlds of worlds greeted by a white captor. It is not until we consciously recognize that we are in his dream that we can work to escape the white captor’s circadian rhythms. Through this paper, I will tease out the contradictions of our Black living-unliving. I will employ an anti-methodological …

Introduction: Toward An Ethical Mutilation Of The "Human" And "Body", José E. Valdivia Heredia , '23

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

No abstract provided.

It’S What Our Grandmas Did: Decoding Black Wellness, Joy, And Liberation In Contemporary Digital Hoodoo Practice Through A Cooperative Healing Literacies Framework, Patrick Li , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Hoodoo, Conjure, and Rootwork refer to the constellation of African American traditions of spiritual and physical healing, ancestral devotion, retaliation, and protection created in response to chattel slavery. The current study investigates the multimodal potentials of Hoodoo for holistic healing in the contemporary digital age. Expanding on Erika Gault’s definition of digital Black religion studies as “the study of Black folks’ digital pathways to healing and wholeness (freedom) and their religious contribution to the development of digital technology,” I triangulate a framework of Hoodoo Healing Literacies (HHLs) using practices of Rootwork, Conjure, and CyberHoodoo. These practices correlate to bio-psycho, psycho-spiritual, …

Development Of Southern Interracial Marriage And Divorce: Why Our Children Are Code-Switching, Zoe R. Grant

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

The fundamental basis of my final paper will be of my own lived experience. In my paper, I will argue that as a result of an interracial divorce, mixed-race children are learning to code-switch leading to a greater sense of empathy and community. I will pull from the theoretical framework of Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza” as well as other sources to support my claims.

By focusing heavily on a southern perspective, I will question whether or not a history of southern interracial marriage causes a strain on nuclear families. Are interracial children having new experiences, and …

Mommy, Me, And We: Why Black Mothers Have Turned To Doulas, Janessa Harris

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

Maternal mortality rates have disproportionately affected black mothers for far too long due to the lack of value that black bodies hold in medical spaces. Because of this concerns voiced by black people are often disregarded and ignored until the very last minute. But what if this was changed? This paper will focus on how black mothers have worked against Western medical systems that silence our voices, but instead turn to doulas who work to make these mothers feel seen, heard, and cared for. Through this, we make birthing a careful and collective effort to turn Mommy&Me to Mommy&We.

Àṣẹ After Man: The Rupture Of The Christian-Colonial Project As Decolonial Ceremony, Eden Segbefia

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

This project is a theoretical exploration of the Yoruba concept of àṣẹ and its role in unsettling the hierarchies imposed by Christian colonialism. Sylvia Wynter's explanation of the ways in which Christian colonialism has affected the very concept of Man proves crucial here. Àṣẹ is an example of a decolonial concept because of its ability to rearrange animacy, especially as it is conceived in Western European epistemology. Wynter and other interlocutors are utilized to support this argument and imagine new possibilities in considering the relationships between Christian colonialism, alterity, plasticity, and animacy.

Sitting Here With You In The Future: Reimagining The Human Through Digital Art, Jared Z. Sloan

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

This paper presents a novel construction of the Human that arises from digital art. Taking an interdisciplinary approach incorporating perspectives from queer theory, afropessimism, science and technology studies, and more, I analyze the works of three digital artists: Lucas LaRochelle, Arafa Hamadi, and Natalie Paneng. I chart the ways in which these artists negotiate borders between the physical and digital, human and non-human, and real and fantastical to challenge hegemonic Western ideas about humanity and the individual. I claim that by restricting the information available to the user in various ways, the picture of the Human that emerges from each …

“The Work We Came Here To Do”: Crossings, An Introduction, José E. Valdivia Heredia , '23

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Rise Of Meritocracy Under The No Child Left Behind Act: A Look Into Nclb’S Effects On Low-Income Students, Abdulahi O. Salam , '23

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This paper uses the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 to analyze the rise of meritocracy in American public education and its effect on low-income, minority students. NCLB grew out of a global need to produce, compete and innovate, and the public education infrastructure was used to manufacture workers. Schools focused on categorizing students by test scores and placing students on different educational, economic, and career paths. Success under meritocracy is individualist and disregards the systems of inequality that determine the losers and winners. Minority students are blamed for their lack of success instead of examining outside factors that …

As We Trudge Through: An Autoethnography Of My College Experience, Destiny R. Samuel , '22

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

The Fundamental Jolt: The Native’S Untethering From The Character Of The Colonized Subject Through The Inherent Dialectics Of Colonial Violence, Maleyah Peterson , '21

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

A Hip Hop Episteme: Understanding Hip Hop Culture’S Ways Of Knowing And Expressing Knowledge Through Time Travel And Traditional African And Afro-Diasporic Spirituality, Brandon N. Ekweonu , '20

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Perhaps one of my earliest and most interesting Hip Hop experiences occurred early on in my childhood. I remember being in my mother’s bedroom, and I think the lights were off. And I was using my mother’s Sharp CD-C600 Mini Component System with the 3-CD Drawer Changer to play a CD copy of 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album that she had purchased for me. I remember being really excited to be playing my favorite song on the album, “In Da Club” (I used to pretend it was my birthday and that 50 Cent was rapping for me, …

Gee’S Bend And The Commodification Of An African-American Tradition, Catherine Williams , '19

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

The quilters of Gee’s Bend have experienced an incredible transformation within their community as a result of the outside discovery of their quilts. After multiple interventions during which the quilts were taken out of their original context, the women have risen to fame in the art and quilt worlds. In this thesis, I examine the transformation that both the community and their quilting tradition have undergone as a result of the aforementioned interventions.

Speaking Power: Analyzing The Expectations Of 20th-Century Black Womanhood Through Thomas Vs. Hill, Tiauna Lewis , '19

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

In this paper, I argue that Dr. Anita Hill was subjected to countless stereotypes of Black women during her 1991 testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Committee and a majority of the American public denied Hill her right to be her own witness and instead faced a panel of white men and millions of onlookers who were ignorant to the importance of looking at the case through an intersectional lens. While Judge Clarence Thomas called upon the trope of a wrongfully-accused Black man, Hill was made out to be akin to a white woman who accused an …

Civic Goods And The Machine In Westchester: An Unauthorized Minority Report: The Case Of New Rochelle And Mount Vernon New York, Roxanne Neilson , '15

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

The purpose of this study is to look at what impact shifting demographics in a suburb of New York City has on publicly funded institutions as waves of immigrant groups arrive and then establish themselves. The study answers the question: Does political participation and representation matter; does access to the polity transform subsequent newcomers to the suburbs equally? Is there a case for reparations? I examine the historical record and closely review both the literal and figurative paths that led to the success of some groups as well as the demise of others in two cities in Westchester County New …