Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

Introduction To Roots Of Justice: A History Of Race And Racism In Nebraska, M. Dewayne Mays, Paul Olson

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

Nebraska has made racism a way of life through most of its history. It is still the way of life for many. In 2020, a Nebraska columnist wrote the following about Nebraska: “[T]he issues stemming from racism can seem like foreign concepts, confined to the larger cities (or the American South) and relics of a distant past.”2 The column goes on to show that these issues were not confined to large cities or to the South; they rested on our back door in Nebraska. Yet, one often heard back as far as one could remember that Nebraska is not and …

A History Of African Americans In Nebraska, Preston Love Jr., Adam Fletcher Sasse, Le Clara Gilreath, Portia Love, Heather Fryer

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

Black people have been present in Nebraska from its earliest days as a U.S. territory. The first U.S. Census of Nebraska, conducted in 1860, counted eighty-one Black people who, together, formed .28 percent of the young territory’s 28,841 residents. That number grew to 3,443 Black residents in 1900, representing 3.5 percent of the 102,555 residents of the state of Nebraska. The number and location of Black Nebraskans varied greatly through the twentieth century, comprising 13.7 percent of the state’s population in 1940 and 11.8 percent in 2020. Although African Americans have been relatively small in numbers, the historical record reflects …

Recent Arrivals: Refugee Resettlement In Nebraska, Emira Ibrahimpašić, Julia Reilly

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

One of the stories Nebraskans tell themselves is that the story of Nebraska is a story of immigration. One of the most recent versions of this story is that Nebraska is one of the best and most welcoming places in the country to be a resettled refugee. In many respects, this narrative is true, but as with all narratives, reality is more complicated. This chapter attempts to paint a fuller picture by providing a detailed history of the foundation of Nebraska’s refugee resettlement program, and an overview of five of the most populous refugee communities in Nebraska. First, we survey …

Exclusion From The Good Life: The Impact Of Anti-Asian Racism On Asian Nebraskans, Heather Fryer, Sharon Ishii-Jordan

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

To understand how Americans of Asian descent experienced, adjusted, and overcame negative experiences in Nebraska, recognizing the external forces on their lives is paramount. The experiences of Asians in their diaspora across the U.S. and Nebraska during a 150-year span have been shaped by both external (global and domestic) and internal (personality and resilience) factors. The presence of stereotypes specifically targeted toward Asian Americans due to exotic imaginings, pseudoscience, and economic fears, in addition to the images created by national media, gave rise to society’s acceptance of stereotypes. These external factors contributed to a belief that continues to this day …

Associations Between Individual And Structural Level Discrimination And Psychological And Physiological Stress Indicators During Pregnancy, Özlü Aran, Melissa Nevarez-Brewster, Kimberly D'Anna-Hernandez, Julia Dmitrieva, Curt A. Sandman, Laura M. Glynn, Elysia Poggi Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In the United States (U.S.) pervasive health disparities in prenatal care disproportionately impact marginalized individuals. The present study investigates whether discrimination at the individual and structural levels are associated with indicators of psychological and physiological stress among pregnant Latinx people living in the U.S., including both U.S. and foreign-born individuals. Pregnant participants (n = 109) reported on birthplace, lifetime experiences of racial and ethnic discrimination, perceived levels of stress, acculturation, social support, and provided residential address data and hair samples for cortisol analysis. Regression analysis revealed that individual level discrimination was linked to higher psychological stress during pregnancy ( …

Ethnic Studies: September 2025, Department Of Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies Department Newsletters

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Welcoming New Faculty

Ethnic Studies Open House

Restorationland: The Lost And Found Objects Of Atlanta's Doll's Head Trail, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

The Doll’s Head Trail is a grassroots, low-art installation nestled within a Southeast Atlanta wildlife preserve. Constructed by volunteers and visitors from decades of environmental debris, the trail converts waste into folk art-inspired “junk” displays. The creative upcycling ranges from a miniscule shrine to “Toxic Masculinity” to a stark shoe pile commemorating child gun violence. This article details how queer theory’s “temporal turn” provides insights into material performance as collaborative regeneration. The curious vignettes playfully invert hierarchies, revealing the merits of small-time memorialization. Through these defiantly unofficial grassroot performances, the Doll’s Head Trail both remembers and restores community ruins, demonstrating …

It's Deeper Than Rap. Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Black Faculty With Hip-Hop Epistemologies Through Counterstory, Austin Ashe

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation study explores the experiences of Black professors who carry Hip-Hop epistemologies and utilize Hip-Hop as a method to navigate the social and structural systems within their predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Grounded in Critical Race Theory, the study utilizes narrative inquiry and counterstorytelling. The analysis involved the development of a composite counterstory featuring the fictional protagonist, Hampton Franklin. The findings highlight common experiences among participants. Findings suggest that Black faculty are insiders whose positions grant them access and influence. Second, they are outsiders that navigate hypervisibility, invisibility, and racial battle fatigue. Third, each participant was a “pedagogue of the …

The Layers Of Trauma In Gisella Perl’S I Was A Doctor In Auschwitz, Tiffany Sidders

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

Contemporary trauma theory argues that trauma operates in a binary, linear fashion that represents healing from a crisis. As one of the foremost trauma theorists, Cathy Caruth situates trauma within a binary framework of either victim or perpetrator but does not fully account for victims who became perpetrators or those who perpetrated for survival—or for the survival of others. One example of such a figure is Gisella Perl. In her memoir I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz, Perl describes multiple layers of trauma that create a deeper connection to her emotions and her lived experience in Auschwitz. Unlike other …

Front Matter, Maya America Editors

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Includes Cover Art, Definitions, and Table of Contents

Introductory Note: Maya America Volume 7 Issue 1 2025, Robin Chancer, Alan Lebaron

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Maya America Volume 7 Issue 1 presents essays, commentaries, and literature that directly or indirectly address our theme for this journal issue: “Maya Cosmic Health.” The authors examine various topics of health, and the collective work addresses the meaning of health as understood through Maya cosmovision. The editors of this special issue aim to encourage bridge-building between Maya health cosmovision and biomedical or psychological practitioners. In addition, we recognize the opportunity to address rapidly changing technological realities, the responses of Maya peoples, and the emerging potentialities for partnerships.

Book Review: Ch’Ul Mut: Sacred Bird Messengers Of The Chamula Maya, David Stoll

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

by Maruch Méndez Pérez and Diane Rus University of New Mexico Press, 2023 xli + 365 pp., 75 black-and-white photos, 77 color plates, 4 appendixes

Guatemalan Maya Women’S Attitudes Towards Biomedical Contraception After Migrating To The United States, Shreenaya Prabu, Iris Parshley, Robert Malkin

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Medical providers in the United States who discuss the use of contraceptives with Maya women migrants might discover strong reluctance and complex beliefs about the social and physical benefits of biomedical contraceptive measures. This research report presents information about contraceptive usage among Maya in Guatemala and how usage or attitudes toward contraception might have changed while living in the United States. The research team, during 2024, interviewed six adult female Guatemalan Maya refugees over Zoom to understand their thoughts toward contraceptive use before and after migrating. Discussion points included: lack of sexual education in Guatemala, health concerns arising from using …

Paris Trip Blog: The Codex Pérez And The Unesco Conference On Language Technologies, Gaspar Tomas

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Gaspar Tomas discusses his trip to Paris, where he attended the UNESCO conference on language technologies. Gaspar has long studied and lived within Maya cosmology; thus he also visited the Codex Pérez. Gaspar explains that technology can and must be employed in the preservation of Indigenous languages. In his own words: “Just as our ancestors once protected our languages, we must remember that ancestral knowledge is not lost; it simply waits to be reclaimed. The responsibility now lies with us to preserve, promote, and archive our voices to shape our future better.”

Full Issue - Maya America V7, I1, Maya America Editors

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Full issue of Maya America, volume 7, issue 1.

Integration Of Modern Treatments With The Cosmology Of Health Contributes Integrally To Physical, Emotional And Community Wellbeing, An K'A'Ch Guzmán Marcos

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

An K'a'ch Guzmán Marcos, an Ixil health care worker in the Ixil region, Guatemala, describes how cosmology forms an integral part of the people's identity. She describes the importance of cosmic health to the lives of the people, and the increasingly successful efforts of Ixil workers to build bridges of understanding with the biomedical medical profession.

Ancestral Languages In The Digital Age: My Experience At Unesco Presenting A Paper Entirely In Kaqchikel, Kawoq Baldomero Cuma Chávez

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Baldomero Cuma gave an invited presentation to the International LT4All UNESCO conference in Paris. He gave his presentation entirely in the Kaqchikel language. In this commentary, Baldomero discusses his beliefs about language and why he presented at the conference in his Maya language. To Baldomero, Maya language preservation has profound connections to the integral being of the Maya, and language preservation should be much more than mere academic research and information collection. As he writes, "In our homes, from the womb of our mother and at birth, we hear our identity, starting with the 'ta, ta, ta, ta' or with …

Mi Experiencia En La Unesco Al Presentar Una Ponencia Totalmente En Kaqchikel, Kawoq Baldomero Cuma Chávez

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Por primera vez un hablante nativo de kaqchikel se dirigió a una conferencia mundial de la UNESCO completamente en una lengua ancestral. El educador, autor y guía espiritual maya Baldomero Cuma Chávez hizo historia en París, Francia, en la Conferencia LT4ALL 2025: Language Technologies for All, con una convincente presentación sobre la preservación digital de las lenguas mayas. El discurso de Cuma Chávez en kaqchikel, una lengua con aproximadamente 475 000 hablantes, marca un antes y un después en el reconocimiento mundial del patrimonio lingüístico indígena. Su presentación destacó la creciente necesidad de integrar a las lenguas mayas en los …

Maya Migrants And Psychotherapy: Recommendations And A Case Study From Comunidad Sol In Canton, Ohio, Robin Chancer, Gerónimo Ramírez, Ernesto Ajanel Calel, María Ixcoy Mejía

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

This article approaches the question: How can non-Indigenous mental health practitioners work appropriately with Maya K’iche’ and Ixil communities in the United States? The authors are three Maya leaders and one non-Indigenous psychotherapist, the four of whom have worked together for several years. Psychological treatment rooted in Euro-American paradigms can be minimally helpful—if not harmful—to many Indigenous communities (Dudgeon & Bray, 2016). Traditional approaches such as cognitive-behavior therapy continue the colonial preoccupation with individual pathology and the separation of mind, body, spirit, and nature. The authors suggest that more appropriate approaches would include acknowledging structural oppression and centering the K’iche’ …

Book Review: Un Maya Migrante: Un Viaje Sin Retorno/A Maya Migrant: A Journey Of No Return, Christián González Reyes

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

By Gaspar Pedro González Yax Te’ Books, 2021. 262 pp

The Crucial Role Of Grassroots Social Organizations In Advancing Immigrant Legal Protections And Reshaping Immigration Policy, Isabella Reynolds

McNair Summer Research Program

This research project examines how grassroots social organizations contribute to the advancement of immigrant legal protections and shape immigration policy, with a particular focus on formerly incarcerated migrants in California. I focus on case studies and the personal experiences of organizers from Homies Unidos, Border Angels, and other organizations that operate near the San Diego–Tijuana border region. The study illustrates how these groups provide essential services, mental health support, and community-based initiatives for vulnerable and formerly incarcerated immigrants. By conducting oral histories and ethnography as methods for preserving emotional labor and shared memory, this research challenges prevailing narratives that criminalize …

Black Americans’ Strategic Disengagement In Digital Protest: A Thematic Analysis Of Youtube Responses To Latino Deportation Appeals (2025), Professor Meya E. Hargett

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

This qualitative study, grounded in digital discourse theory, investigates Black Americans’ responses to the Latino community’s calls for protest support against federal deportation policies under the current U.S. administration. Twelve publicly available YouTube videos from Spring 2025 were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis to identify key patterns in Black discourse, including themes of strategic withdrawal, political disillusionment, solidarity fatigue, and historical tension.

This study defines 'stand down' as a deliberate, non-antagonistic decision to refrain from participating in another group’s protest movement. Findings indicate that disengagement is not rooted in apathy but is shaped by long-standing racialized experiences, ideological misalignment, and …

The Impact Of Black Faculty On First-Year Black Student Retention, Sense Of Belonging, And Racial Identity At Historically And Predominantly White Institutions, D'Andrea L. Williams

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The presence and engagement of Black faculty members in higher education can significantly impact Black students' college experience in their first year, especially at historically and predominantly White institutions. Emphasizing the importance of representation mentorship and relationship building, this study stresses the importance of Black faculty in fostering a sense of belonging, strengthening racial identity development, and contributing to the retention rates of Black college students during their freshmen year. On campus, Black students face the challenges of a campus climate plagued by racism, unfair expectations, mistreatment, microaggressions, and discrimination. Representation matters, and the sharing and affirming of those experiences …

In The Name Of The Mother, The Nation, And The Race: White Women, The Jim Crow South, & Moralized White Supremacist Feminism, Shayna M. Lawson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis introduces the concept of moralized white supremacist feminism to examine the central role white women played in constructing, legitimizing, and sustaining racial hierarchies in the Jim Crow South through a network of cultural and political organizing, particularly through the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Women’s Ku Klux Klan. Far from passive observers, white women were strategic agents of segregation, leveraging ideals of purity, motherhood, and moral virtue to enforce anti-Black violence and oppression through educational, civic, legal, and symbolic institutions, as well as extra-legal practices. Drawing from archival materials, oral histories, and critical race theory, this study …

Where Did All The Democrats Go?, Reese Adkins

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Following the reelection of President Obama in 2012, many political scientists such as Ruy Teixeira and John B. Judis, believed that this signaled the beginning of many Democratic electoral victories to come. They published their argument in their book, The Emerging Democratic Majority, in which they explained the Democratic Party’s plan to gain a systemic advantage in presidential elections. This was to be achieved by winning elections through winning the vote of minority groups, white women, and young college-educated people. This has been far from the case. Donald Trump, with political experience, shocked the world after winning the 2016 election …

Transnational Politics Of Cambodian American Ethnic Organizations: Strategies, Motivations, And Impacts, Simin Tan, Wen Chen

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

Since several large-scale migrations to the U.S. in the 1970s, Cambodian Americans have established a number of ethnic organizations aimed at intervening in the political landscape of their homeland. These organizations span from subversive groups seeking to overthrow the Cambodian government through armed insurgency to reformist groups advocating for human rights improvements and peaceful political transformation. The refugee experiences of first-generation Cambodian Americans have served as a key motivator for their involvement in transnational politics, while the degree of social integration shapes the extent to which different generational cohorts engage in these political activities. In addition, both the Cambodian government’s …

Imposter Syndrome And Degree Completion Among Marginalized Graduate Students, Ryan A. Finner

2025 Symposium

Imposter Syndrome is a mindset that troubles many graduate students across various countries, degree programs, ethnicities, sexualities and genders. The term Imposter Syndrome refers to the feeling of being a fraud, despite achieving success and the persistent fear of being exposed as unqualified or undeserving. While this phenomenon affects many, it can appear much worse in marginalized populations, this is due to the lack of resources, support and representation of minorities in professional and higher education environments. This research focuses on marginalized graduate students and aims to figure out what key factors are leading to incomplete or delayed degree completion. …

Intersectional Realities, Multi-Dimensional Films: Reading Julie Dash's Illusions As An Activist Text, Amelia Morrison

University Honors Theses

This paper reads Julie Dash's 1982 film Illusions as an activist text, which challenges dominant cinematic and historical narratives through its Black feminist perspective. It explores the cinematic and narrative devices that Dash uses--including the weaving of fantasy and history, the strategic use of period aesthetics, and masking--to expose and subvert the mechanisms of white supremacist and patriarchal hegemony within Hollywood. Drawing on intersectional feminist theory from scholars like Kimberlé Crenshaw, Patricia Hill Collins, and bell hooks, alongside cinematic theory, this analysis demonstrates how Illusions critiques the historical erasure of people of color from United States cinema and history. By …

Black And Autistic In Neo-Nationalist America, Timotheus Gordon Jr

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

In "Black and Autistic in a Neo-Nationalist America," Timotheus “T.J.” Gordon, Jr. explores the intersectional challenges faced by Black autistic individuals in a socio-political climate marked by rising neo-nationalism. Drawing on personal experiences and historical contexts, Gordon navigates the metaphorical tightrope of double consciousness, as articulated by W.E.B. DuBois, to highlight the precarious existence of those who do not conform to monolithic identities. The essay critiques the melting pot analogy of American culture, advocating instead for a pluralistic society that recognizes and values diverse identities. Through a blend of autobiographical narrative and scholarly analysis, Gordon underscores the systemic marginalization of …

Jotographía // Fagtography: On Amor Propio Radical // Radical Self-Love, Jonathan Erick Guzman

Masters Theses

“Jotographía // Fagtography: On Amor Propio Radical // Radical Self-Love” is an interdisciplinary thesis that explores the intersections of queer Chicanx identity, photography, and performance as technologies of survival and self-construction. I construct a speculative archive of Chicanx queer experience through my tripartite personas: Barbí, Luke, and myself—collectively, the Guzman Triplets.

Through these embodied avatars, I embrace rasquachismo, camp, Catholic iconography, and hybrid photographic processes—including Polaroids, AI-manipulated imagery, anthotypes, and installation—to investigate visibility, fragmentation, and ancestral memory. Rooted in Gloria Anzaldúa’s frameworks of la herida abierta and nepantla, José Esteban Muñoz’s concepts of disidentification and queer futurity, and bell …