Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

How Have Trump-Era Immigration And Visa Policies Affected International Students From The 75 Restricted Countries At Minnesota State University, Mankato, Ameer Wazwaz

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Trump era immigration and visa policies have created a restrictive environment that disproportionately burdens international students from countries subject to United States travel restrictions and heightened vetting regimes. These policies operate through nationality-based entry restrictions, discretionary denials, extended administrative processing, and intensified screening. At Minnesota State University, Mankato, students from restricted countries face delayed arrivals, visa denials, disrupted reentry after travel, and uncertainty regarding immigration compliance, potentially reducing enrollment rates, increasing dropout risk, intensifying psychological stress, and weakening institutional trust.

This study employed a mixed methods of explanatory case study design centered on Minnesota State University, Mankato. Data sources included …

La Iglesia Ante La Migración: Hospitalidad, Justicia Y Testimonio Cristiano, Gricelda Careaga

Apuntes: Reflexiones teológicas desde el margen hispano

This paper examines migration as a central theological and social reality, drawing on biblical narratives, Christian ethics, and contemporary experiences. It argues that migration, present from the history of Israel to the present, has shaped communities and continues to challenge the Church to respond faithfully. Grounded in Lovin’s concept of integrity and the theology of the Incarnation, the study contends that the Church is called to embody a distinctive witness through hospitality, justice, and dignity toward migrants. Through an analysis of key biblical accounts—such as Abraham, the Exodus, Ruth, and the flight to Egypt—alongside insights from liberation theology, migration is …

La Enfermedad Del Nacionalismo Cristiano, Joaquín Martinez

Apuntes: Reflexiones teológicas desde el margen hispano

This paper critically examines Christian nationalism as a distortion of the Christian faith, arguing that it is rooted in historical systems of oppression that can be traced back to the Doctrine of Discovery and early European colonial expansion. While often presented as a movement to restore a nation “for God,” Christian nationalism frequently aligns itself with political and economic interests that marginalize vulnerable communities. Drawing from theological reflection, particularly the frameworks of liberation theology and practical theology, this study proposes that the incarnation of Christ serves as a foundational model for understanding true Christian discipleship as one oriented toward justice, …

Relación De Los Desafíos Que Sufren Los Indocumentados En Estados Unidos Con Las Disciplinas Teológicas Y La Historia De La Iglesia, Zulma Tifre

Apuntes: Reflexiones teológicas desde el margen hispano

This theological essay examines the challenges faced by undocumented immigrants in the United States through the lens of theological disciplines and church history. Drawing parallels with the biblical experience of Israel in Egypt, it argues that contemporary immigrants endure systemic injustice, economic exploitation, and social exclusion, particularly due to the lack of legal status and access to basic rights. Using insights from practical theology, liberation theology, and the doctrine of the Imago Dei, the study emphasizes the inherent dignity of all human beings and critiques structures that perpetuate marginalization. It further highlights the historical role of the Church as a …

Indigenous Land Seizure & Environmental Injustice: Impacts Of Settler Colonialism, Lydia Moorman

Journal of Earth and Life Science

The fields of conservation and environmentalism prioritize ecosystem health, yet both emerged from western frameworks that displaced and criminalized Indigenous land stewardship. The idealization of “pristine wilderness” narratives served to justify the removal of Indigenous peoples from their homelands and erased millennia of sustainable land stewardship that had maintained ecological balance long before western conservation existed. These narratives not only misrepresented Indigenous relationship with land but also constructed a false dichotomy between humans and nature that positioned Indigenous presence as a threat rather than a source of ecological knowledge. Simultaneously, anthropogenic expansion; such as pipelines, mining, railroads, and other extractive …

Faik Tagirov And Tatar Constructivism: The Making Of A New Tatar Book, Miriam Akhmetshin

Scripps Senior Theses

Working in the style of constructivism, Faik Tagirov primarily designed book covers for Tatar agitational literature in the 1920s. Studying at VKhUTEMAS and working for numerous publishing houses, Tagirov participated in several domestic and international exhibitions with well-known artists like Aleksandr Rodchenko and El Lissitzky. Tagirov utilized photomontage, geometricism, and unique typographical designs to create potent materials for a Tatar population. Current scholarship fails to adequately acknowledge the diverse influences impacting the work of non-Russian artists such as Tagirov. Using visual and iconographic analysis, I argue for an approach that recognizes Tagirov's work as syncretic in nature, utilizing both indigenous …

Family, Stability, Mentors & Money: Student Definitions Of Success, Arturo Caldera

CMC Senior Theses

This research takes a deep dive into the factors shaping marginalized communities’ educational experiences, particularly for low-income Latino students from migrant backgrounds navigating public schooling spaces. Across sixteen qualitative interviews, participant narratives reveal how a systemic lack of resources at the institutional, interpersonal, and structural levels undermines the quality of support students receive and shapes their academic trajectories. Grounded in student-centered practices and informed by scholarship in multicultural education, Chicanx/Latinx studies, feminism, and psychology, this study contributes to ongoing efforts to move beyond deficit-based frameworks and instead recognize the cultural wealth, knowledge, and resilience students bring from their homes and …

Digital Griots Playing Lottery Tickets: A Study Of Hip Hop And Social Transformation In Ghana's #Fixthecountry Movement, Jaime M. Kowlessar

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

On June 28, 2021, activist Ibrahim Mohammed (Macho Kaaka) was murdered in Ejura, Ghana, after using social media to criticize government failures. When protesters demanding justice were shot by security forces, politically engaged Ghanaian hip hop artists refused silence, contributing to Ghana’s #FixTheCountry movement—the nation’s largest youth mobilization in a generation. Yet scholarly debates about how hip hop contributes to social change remain unresolved, divided between those celebrating its activist potential and those critiquing its limitations. This dissertation introduces the lottery ticket theory as an alternative framework for understanding cultural activism’s relationship to political transformation. Rather than asking whether hip …

Cultivating Diversity In Sustainable Food Systems: Black Farming And Lived Experience In Rural Southern Ontario, Kadeem Jerofy Morgan-Adamson Mr.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research examines the lived experiences of Black food growers in rural Southern Ontario to understand how their perspectives challenge dominant narratives of rurality and inform broader discussions on food sovereignty in Canada. Grounded in postcolonial theory, the study highlights how historical dispossession and persistent inequities shape the access of Black communities to land and resources. Using a mixed-methods approach that includes surveys, semi-structured interviews, and reflexive journaling within a community-based research framework, the study documents the barriers Black food growers face. These include limited land access, insufficient funding, inadequate training pathways, and experiences of racial isolation in rural contexts. …

Front Matter, Maya America Editors

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Includes Cover Art and Table of Contents

Maya Health In The Days Of Deportation Discussion And The Case Example Of Colectivo Vida Digna, Guatemala, David W. Barillas Chon

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Health inequalities and health racism have a long history in the Americas, as in Guatemala and the United States. Drawing upon testimonies and case examples from the Maya non-profit Colectivo Vida Digna [Guatemala]. Barillas-Chon reveals how some Maya in Guatemala have organized to overcome historic and current challenges and are now working with Maya who have returned from the US.

Comentario Al Libro: ¡Qué Chula Te Ves! – ¡Wal Watx’Il Heli!, Glenda Yojana Ixtabalán Hernández

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Por todo ello, leer ¡Qué chula te ves! es un acto de escucha intercultural. Cada poema, desde Majan Mundo hasta los textos finales, mezcla recuerdos personales con escenas cósmicas y denuncias históricas. En esa mezcla se produce una armonía que no es complaciente, sino insurgente: belleza como resistencia. Quizá por eso, al terminar de leer, resuena la frase del prólogo transformada en exclamación colectiva: “¡Qué chula te ves, Madre Tierra!”. No es solo un elogio, sino un compromiso político y espiritual: verla libre, viva y en plenitud; ver también a nuestros pueblos y culturas liberados del racismo y del despojo. …

Women In Santa Eulalia, Guatemala Through The Concepts Of Rootedness, Community, And Migration., Helen Hobson

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

This essay explores the experiences of Maya Q’anjob’al women in the villages of Santa Eulalia in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Women from eleven communities participated in group interviews during the four months I spent conducting fieldwork in 2024, thus building upon my findings from 2022 and 2023. Questions focused on their daily lives, their connections to people and places, strategies for generating income, and the impact of migration on their lives and the community. Two broad themes emerged from the interviews. The first relates to their relationships to the land and community, and how this rootedness supports a wholistic (Indigenous) sense of …

Introductory Note: Profound Guatemala, Alan Lebaron

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Words have historic and contemporary variations in meaning. People who write about the Maya employ words such as revitalization, resurgence, agency, resistance, authenticity, and cosmovision, for example. “Profound” is the theme for Maya America this issue, and we present three examples, two from the past and one from today. The 1st profound comes from Raúl Leiva’s poem Mundo Indigena, and the second from Guillermo Bonfil Batalla who applied the word to Mexico. Our third example of profound comes from Silvia Patricia López Juan, one of the authors in this issue of Maya America.

Flores De Caña: Documental, Adrianna Cruz-Manjarrez

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

García Ortega, Martha. (2024). Flores de Caña. El Colegio de la Frontera Sur. https://youtu.be/W3Yv_gOT_EQ?si=nHK-70sEa22tZUFO Dirección: Martha García Ortega Fotografía: Marco Girón y Martha García Ortega Edición y posproducción: Meztli Vianey Suárez Mc Liberty Reseña por Adriana Cruz-Manjarrez Universidad de Colima

El Último Viaje, Gaspar Pedro González

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Gaspar le hizo una oferta a la revista: publicar uno de los capítulos de su último libro, Hojas de Onoño. El capítulo, titulado El Último Viaje, narra el último viaje de un anciano a la comunidad de su juventud, ubicada en el departamento de Huehuetenango, Guatemala. De forma lírica y metafórica, el autor describe cómo se desvanecen los recuerdos y la tristeza por las personas que ya no están. El poeta Daniel Caño escribió una breve reacción personal a la historia que incluimos al final de esta.

Full Issue - Maya America V7, I2, Maya America Editors

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Full issue of Maya America, volume 7, issue 2.

Living Experiences Of Indigenous Health Practice: Belizean Maya Communities And Belize Migrants, Kristina Baines

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Belize Maya communities, like many indigenous communities around the world, have long experienced challenges to maintaining health as they interface with an ever-expanding globalized model of development. This essay explores the relationship between traditional ecological practices and health in the context of a holistic understanding of what makes healthy bodies, healthy communities and healthy lives. Using the author’s Embodied Ecological Heritage (EEH) framework and a phenomenological lens, the essay shares how sensory experiences become embodied through everyday practice, promoting health and general wellbeing. This grounded theory, developed in and with Maya communities, helps us understand ways to consider and support …

Princesa Chnab’Jul Un Espacio Para La Mujer Maya Huehueteca Que Florece A Través Del Empoderamiento, Silvia Patricia López Juan

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Este documento recoge la historia viva de las mujeres mayas de Huehuetenango que, a lo largo de las décadas, han representado a sus pueblos en espacios de incidencia cultural. Más que un recuento de coronas, títulos y certámenes es un homenaje a la resistencia, la dignificación y el despertar de voces que durante mucho tiempo fueron silenciadas por el racismo y la exclusión. El surgimiento del certamen de la Princesa Xinabajul no fue casual: nació en un contexto marcado por la marginación de los pueblos originarios, donde la mujer maya no fue considerada apta para ser Reina Departamental. A pesar …

Ethnic Studies December Newsletter, Department Of Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies Department Newsletters

Student spotlight, faculty spotlight, event

Star Wars: Andor – An Abolitionist Study Guide, Marcelo Garzo Montalvo, Isaac Ginsberg Miller

Feminist Pedagogy

This study guide provides a set of activities for teaching abolition through Season 1 of the speculative fiction TV series Star Wars: Andor (2022). Through the practice of critical literacy (viewing, reading, and analysis), we offer various ideas on how to engage Andor as a relevant pedagogical tool for studying and teaching abolitionist movement histories and methodologies. By guiding students through a critical analysis of this widely-circulated, mainstream cultural text, we seek to activate an abolitionist pedagogical lens that can be applied across various genres and media – making tangible connections between popular culture and political struggles writ large. These …

Israeli Hasbara And The Nba’S Palestine Exception: The Impossibility Of Capitalist “Social Justice”, Chen Chen, Anthony J. Weems, Roc Rochon, Daniel Sailofsky

Sport Management Collection

Sport is a notable site for the Israeli state in its hasbara (public diplomacy, or “explaining”) effort that seeks to normalize the conditions of ethnic cleansing, illegal settlement, and apartheid practices in historic and occupied Palestine. Against the backdrop of the genocide in Gaza and the lack of international sport sanctions against Israeli teams, this paper maps several hasbara activities/attempts featuring the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the last decade. This is a worthwhile case, not least because of the NBA’s self-branding as a socially “progressive” league composed of a primarily Black/African American athletic workforce. Two major observations are made: …

“Fighting For Our Future” The Grassroots Victory For Ethnic Studies In The Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Eli L. Davies

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This Capstone project captures personal participant ethnography of the 2023-2025 campaign to reinstate an esteemed Ethnic Studies consultant at the Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, CA. I joined students, educators, parents, and community members to form a grassroots movement of resistance to counter right-wing Zionist attacks on Ethnic Studies. This paper will show how the rich legacy and spirit of resistance within Watsonville contributed to the victory against academic repression in K-12 Ethnic Studies.

The Partsongs Of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Alan Davis

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This document examines the complete set of thirteen partsongs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) a body of choral works underrepresented in both scholarship and performance. Before the twentieth century, English partsongs had already developed a rich lineage through composers such as Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Edward Elgar, and Charles Wood. Around 1900, the genre flourished further in the works of Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gerald Finzi, and Herbert Howells, whose partsongs were published by Novello & Co. and featured in The Musical Times. Within this broader context, Coleridge-Taylor’s contributions stand apart: his partsongs reveal a distinctive harmonic …

Mountain Communities During A Time Of War: A Case Study Of The Hutsul Region In The Carpathian Mountains Of Ukraine, Pavlo Rybaruk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the ethno-ecological technologies employed by the Hutsul people within the highland agrarian economy of the Carpathian Mountains. Over centuries, the Hutsuls have developed ethno-ecological technologies that maintain ecological integrity while supporting community livelihoods.

The study addresses three primary research questions: What are the most important ethno-ecological technologies of the Hutsul highland economy? How might these traditional ethno-ecological practices be applied to economic, agricultural, and tourism development in the Hutsul region? How might these traditional ethno-ecological practices be combined with contemporary approaches to encourage sustainable development in the region?

The research explores the devastating impact of the Russian …

A Plática With Jimmy Santiago Baca, Nick Daniel Rivas

Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal

A Plática with Jimmy Santiago Baca, interview by Nick Daniel Rivas.

Transnational Networks Of Film Repetitions In East Asia : Proliferation And Limitations, Roman Kusaiko

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

A growing number of contemporary film critics, influencers, and audiences criticize film remaking, a tested and successful Hollywood practice. The main complaints are a lack of originality, overreliance on repeated titles, and an openly commercial nature. Despite criticism, film remakes have existed for decades and are a vivid and resilient form of recycling under new cultural and geopolitical circumstances. Contemporary film remaking reflects the impacts of globalization, transnationalization, and the rapid development of new media and digitalization.

Nevertheless, there is a tendency to theorize on film remaking, often relying on the dichotomy of the source and a remake or, less …

Ethnic Studies November Newsletter, Department Of Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies Department Newsletters

November 2025, student spotlight, current events

Pedagogical Escapism And Western Performativity: A Psycho-Aesthetic Critique Of Belly-Dance Adaption Symbolics, Maryam Farahani

Comparative Woman

This paper addresses positionality misreading in Western pedagogical adaptions of belly dancing. Raqs Sharqi, known in the West as belly dancing, is a predominantly West Asian and North African discipline and performance art with multimodal varieties, globally taught and practiced while crossing sport, narratology, and story-telling boundaries. As a unique performance activity, it portrays a dynamic entertainment space to connect one’s multiple identities. I argue that Raqs Sharqi, not only as an aesthetic-educational art form but also, perhaps unwittingly, reiterated as an Orientalist communication trope in belly dancing, has forged East-West performativity models. However, the historical education-literature for Western women …

The Game Of Chance, Alieth Caceres

First-Gen Voices: Creative and Critical Narratives on the First-Generation College Experience

Through my first semester at college, I was faced with the capability of not coming back due to being from a low-income family. Being a first-gen, I didn’t have anyone to guide me and I went from place to place begging for something to hold on to. My biggest goal for my family and I is to graduate from college and it is unfair that this opportunity will come short only because of financial problems. In some moments I felt all was lost, some telling me that I couldn’t and should just give up. All the connections I had reached …