The Spectacle Of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans In Postbellum Fiction, Afrin Zeenat

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Orphan iconography has always been deployed in American literature and culture, but nineteenth-century American literature, fiction in particular, abounds in orphans, both real and imaginary. The orphan’s amphibious nature is hailed and demonized as the epitome of individualism and unbridled freedom, and also as the location of society’s anxiety. This complicated and conflicted construction of orphans animates the Social and cultural realm in postbellum America, foregrounding issues of class, race, and gender.

Origins Of An Unmarked Georgia Cemetery Using Ancient Dna Analysis, Andrew T. Ozga, Raúl Y. Tito, Brian M. Kemp, Hugh Matternes, Alexandra Obregon-Tito, Leslie Neal, Cecil M. Lewis, Jr.

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Determining the origins of those buried within undocumented cemeteries is of incredible importance to historical archaeologists and in many cases, the nearby communities. In the case of Avondale Burial Place, a cemetery in Bibb County, Georgia, in use from 1820 to 1950, all written documentation of those interred within it has been lost. Osteological and archaeological evidence alone could not describe, with confidence, the ancestral origins of the 101 individuals buried there. In the present study, we utilize ancient DNA extraction methods to investigate the origins of Avondale Burial Place through the use of well-preserved skeletal fragments from 20 individuals …

Errant Memory In African American Literature Of The Long Nineteenth Century, Tristan Alexander Striker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I trace the complex black literary trope of errant memory through American and African American literature. Authors of African descent are constantly subjected to what I call Africanity, or the paratextual historicizing elements provided by white interlocutors that seek to impose specific caricatures and stereotypes on them and their works to force them into the American historical narrative that depends on their dehumanized and commodified status. These caricatures and stereotypes are rooted in an Africa imagined by these white interlocutors, one that does not match any reality. Authors of African descent transcend this paratextual Africanity through what …

Performing (Non)Profit, Race, And American Identity In The Nation's Capital: Arena Stage, 1950-2010, Donatella Galella

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Theatre socially reproduces and contests economic, racial, and national hierarchies. There is a dearth of scholarship on U.S. regional theatre because of middlebrow anxiety and yet, for that very reason, regional theatre demands attention as a fitting example of the site of struggle over different forms of capital. Located in Washington, D.C., Arena Stage is the ideal case study for both the invention of viable non-profit theatre and the negotiation of race and national identity in the United States. Arguably the closest institution the U.S. has to a national theatre, the company was the first regional theatre to send a …

Privilege In Haiti: Travails In Color Of The First Bourgeois Nation-State In The Americas, Philippe-Richard Marius

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Who are the elites in the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere? Do Haiti's elites constitute themselves in a Blackness vs. Whiteness/Mulattoness opposition? Through the investigation of these questions, the central thesis of this ethnography emerges as the material unity in privilege of Haiti's colorist fragments. Noirisme, a fundamentalist strain of Haitian black nationalism that reached hegemony in the dictatorship of François Duvalier in the 1960s, is in marked retreat in contemporary Haiti. Its lingering influence nonetheless continues to foster a black qua black sociality among privileged black nationalists. Mulatto nationalism as political project and public discourse lapsed into …

What Condoms Can't Cover: Do Structural Factors Predispose Black, African American, And Latina/O Adults In Harlem And The South Bronx To Engaging In Hiv Sex Risk Behaviors?, Fabienne Snowden

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

More than thirty years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Black, African American, and Latina/o communities continue to demonstrate the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the US, accounting for 64% of all new infections and 58% of all AIDS diagnoses in 2009. Despite the longevity of this public health crisis, individually-based behavioral change approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention continue to be the most widely used and funded methods of combating HIV risk in Black, African American and Latina/o communities. These methods have been proven to lower the risk of HIV transmission, but HIV incidence in the US remains high at approximately 50, 000 …

Narratives Of Interiority: Black Lives In The U.S. Capital, 1919 - 1942, Paula C. Austin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation constructs an urban, social and intellectual history of poor and working class African Americans in the interwar period in Washington, D.C. Although the advent of social history shifted scholarly emphasis onto the "ninety-nine percent," many scholars have framed black history as the story of either the educated, uplifted and accomplished elite, or of a culturally depressed monolithic urban mass in need of the alleviation of structural obstacles to advancement. A history of the poor and working class as individuals with both ideas and subjectivity has often been difficult simply because there are limited archival sources.

"Narratives of Interiority" …

33rd Annual African American Commencement, 2015, San Jose State University, Associated Students

African American Commencement

33rd Annual African American Commencement

"Black Grad: Striving Today to Create a Better Tomorrow." The 2015 African American Commencement ceremony was held on Friday, May 22, 2015 in the Student Union Ballroom at San Jose State University.

Broad Shoulders, Hidden Voices: The Legacy Of Integration At New Orleans' Benjamin Franklin High School, Graham S. Cooper

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to insert the voices of students into the historical discussion of public school integration in New Orleans. While history tends to ignore the memories of children that experienced integration firsthand, this paper argues that those memories can alter our understanding of that history. In 1963, Benjamin Franklin High School was the first public high school in New Orleans to integrate. Black students knowingly made sacrifices to transfer to Ben Franklin, as they were socially and politically conscious teenagers. Black students formed alliances with some white teachers and students to help combat the racist environment that still dominated …

"I'M Rich Bitch:" Black Class Performance And The New Nouveau Riche, Nykia Hannah

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

With its multitude of sub-genres, larger than life personalities, and fifteen minutes of fame offerings, reality television has quickly changed the face and economics of television culture. This research examines the disruption of traditional roles of race and class in reality television. Interdisciplinary in content and methodology, this study uses Real Housewives of Atlanta to identify the ways in which various representations of blackness challenge hegemonic understandings of what it means to be black in the United States. Focusing on the fluidity of identity, "I'm Rich Bitch" highlights the role that popular culture plays in redetermining populist perceptions of blackness.

Ua12/2/1 Graduation Guide, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special graduation edition of the College Heights Herald:

• Ransdell, Gary. Letter to Class of 2015
• Taylor, Nicki. Letter to Class of 2015 – Student Government Association
• Rogers, Shelby. College Heights Herald News Editor
• Havel, Catherine. Spirit Masters
• Patel, Dharmesh. International Student Diplomat
• Beal, Josh. Talisman

Ua12/2/1 Stress Busters, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special finals week addition of the College Heights Herald.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 90, No. 53, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Rogers, Shelby. Administrators Start Filling $7.7 Million Gap – Budget
• Rogers, Shelby. New Building for College of Business on Horizon
• Ponder, Abby. Students Unwind at Valleypalooza – Housing & Residence Life
• Ponder, Abby. WKU Owensboro Campus Becomes Small-Scale Main Campus
• Pettway, Shantel. Building Maintenance Headline Summer Construction Projects – Facilities Management
• Marsupial Awards
• Profumo, Morgan. Finals Are Finally Here But Stay Calm
• Wagner, Nick. Tobacco Worker Struggles to Support Family – Santiago Garcia, Migrant Workers
• Henderson, Andrew & Trey Crumbie. Paper Cranes to Wish Good Luck on Finals – …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 90, No. 52, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Crumbie, Trey. WKU 2016 Fiscal Budget to Be Reallocated
• Voorhees, Jessica. Full Stocked: Food Pantry Helps Advance Food Security
• Wright, Samantha. New Director Coming to Gender & Women’s Studies – Kristi Branham
• Harney, Lashana. President-Elect Hopes to Continue Successes in Student Government Association – Jay Richey
• Editorial Cartoon The Paw Print Makes the Master
• Together for a Better Future: Semester Accomplishments Positively Reflect on University – Parking, Insurance, Confucius Center, Racism
• French, Jackson. Avengers: Age of Ultron Is Boundless & Relentlessly Fun – Movie Review
• Pace Setter Photo Spread …

Life History Theory And School-Age Pregnancy: Review And Application, Anna Rozman

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States currently holds one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the developed world, but many Americans, including policy makers, view adolescent childbearing as a societal problem that stems from negligence, promiscuity, and poor decision making. This project seeks to frame the institution of school-age motherhood through the lens of Life History Theory, which posits that early reproduction is an adaptation in the face of harsh conditions and high extrinsic mortality rates. This assertion is supported by evidence that adolescent childbearing has been the norm for most of human history, and continues to be practiced in natural fertility …

The Theology And Agency Of Love As The Substance Of Kingian Non-Violent Philosophy And Activism., Matthew Quainoo

Senior Honors Projects

The theology of Love focuses on King’s understanding of God as love:

A Research Abstract (Project Summary)

Problem: Almost 50 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., controversy continues to swirl around the motivational forces that inspired the nonviolence approach employed by King in his fight for equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. Some scholars argue that Kings was inspired by such advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha Shakyamuni. Others believe that Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence was an expression of the Christian theology of God …

The Role Of Stress: Low Birth Weight And Preterm Birth For African American Women, Tionna Latrice Jenkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This population-based study evaluates the impact that psychoSocial stress has on adverse birth outcomes of low birth weight (LBW) and pre-term birth (PTB) among African American mothers in Arkansas. The relationship between adverse birth outcomes in African American women and stress in comparison to non-Hispanic Caucasian women data was evaluated from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) quantitative survey. Data from 2005 through 2010 was reviewed to show the impact that psychoSocial stress has on adverse birth outcomes. The study sample was comprised of 14,196 participants.

Ethnic group status is the key maternal-level independent variable in this study. Of …

"Cause I'M Young And I'M Black And My Hat's Real Low": Race, Hip-Hop, And Transformations In The Nba During The Late 1990s And Early 2000s, Christine Debord

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Race and racial tensions have long been pressing concerns in professional athletics in the United States. Issues of race have been of particular importance to the National Basketball Association (NBA) since African Americans compromise 77 percent of the league's players. As such, this work examines the ways in which the media and the NBA responded to and managed the new generation of black players during the late 1990s and early 2000s while marketing to primarily white audiences. This time period is important in that it was unapologetically coined the 'thug era' by sports media and basketball fans alike, and the …

Experiences Of African American Female First Generation College Students, Ashley Green

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenology study was to gain a better understanding of the experiences of African American, female, first generation college students attending a large, predominantly White research university and to understand what motivates them. The major research question guiding this study was: How do African American, female, first generation college students (in good academic standing) describe their college experience? The researcher asked the participants to discuss their challenges, how they responded to challenges, sources of motivation, and factors that contributed to their success in college.

Through individual, face to face, interviews with 10 African American, female, FGC …

Documenting Ferguson: Capturing History As It Happens, Sonya Rooney, Jennifer Kirmer

WashU Libraries Presentations

This poster chronicles a novel archive project—the Documenting Ferguson Project at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). Our poster highlighted our steps in the documentation and preservation of materials created in the course of and surrounding events in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting death of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. WUSTL created a committee, consisting of University Archives and other library staff, faculty, and additional university staff, to coordinate the efforts to capture the history as it happened. The Documenting Ferguson Project Team was called together in August 2014, soon after the death of Michael Brown and the first …

Agency And Afro-Pessimism: Richard Wright And Ayi Kwei Armah, Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah

Honors Scholar Theses

Various scholars in Ethnic Studies have made the claim that people of color in the United States have constituted a colony within. That is to say, by virtue of the effects of institutional racism racialized bodies in the United States have experienced a form of colonialism unique to the American context. Examining the connections between forms of subjectivity in the United States and in Africa, this paper attempts to extend the concepts “social life” and “social death” to the literature of continental Africa. Through a close reading of Ayi Kwei Armah’s “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born,” and Richard …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 90, No. 51, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Harney, Lashana. The Elephants in the Room – Politicians, Hal Heiner, James Comer, Matt Bevin
• Harney, Lahsana. A Look Back: Ransdell Hall Turns 4 Years Old
• Rogers, Shelby. Swimming Team Attorney, Gold Medalist Speak About Suspension – Brian Lowder, Hazing, Claire Donahue
• Ponder, Abby. WKU Elizabethtown / Fort Knox Campus Offers Military, Nontraditional Students Opportunities
• Profumo, Morgan. Truth Be Told: The Difference Between a Perfect Relationship or a Masked Dictatorship
• Parker, Jacob. A Tentative Student Syllabus for Fall 2015 Professors
• Lafser, Erica. Adjusting to Autism – Robert Dietle, Samuel …

Ua12/2/1 Best Of The Hill - 2015 Winners, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special awards edition of the College Heights Herald.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 90, No. 50, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Crumbie, Trey. Student Gets Hit by Car – Shawntrice Hammonds, Traffic Accidents
• Henderson, Andrew. Drag 101 – Housing & Residence Life
• Rogers, Shelby. Vice President for Alumni Relations Retiring – Kathryn Costello
• Rogers, Shelby. Gender Conference Discusses Sexuality, Identity – Housing & Residence Life, Gays, Lesbians
• Rogers, Shelby. University Handling Seven Lawsuits, Most Pending – University Attorney
• Voorhees, Jessica. Board of Regents Debate Student Athletic Fee Increase
• French, Jackson. Age of Adaline Doesn’t Live Up to Exciting Innovative Plot – Movie Review
• Lives Depend On Campus Road Safety – …

Constructing National Memory: The Problematics Of Resistance & Remembrance In The Wpa Slave Narrative Collections, Nathan A. Moore

Library Student Employees' Research

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 90, No. 49, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Rogers, Shelby. Parking, Tuition to be Key Topics at WKU Regents’ Friday Meeting
• Henderson, Andrew. GIScience Club Celebrates Earth Day – Geography & Geology, Geographic Information Science
• Rogers, Shelby. New Temporary Lot Coming to Russellville Road – Parking & Transportation Services
• Crumbie, Trey. WKU Hosting Gubernatorial Debate Next Week – Politicians
• Henderson, Andrew. Student Voice Program Concludes First Semester at WKU – Voices of Discovery
• Profumo, Morgan. Sneezing Season – Allergies
• Sproles, Katherine. Old Conditions for Animals in Logan County Human Society Unacceptable
• Dahmer, Jody. Corruption Starting in Student …

Meeting Minutes, Wku Council Of Academic Deans

Council of Academic Deans

Meeting regarding personnel issues, accreditation, retreat, American Association of State Colleges & Universities dues, faculty hiring procedures, part-time faculty benefits, equal treatment of students, fellowships and budget.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 90, No. 48, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Harney, Lashana. Election Winner Jay Richey Ready to Move Forward – Student Government Association
• Crumbie, Trey. Fond Farewell – Huda Melky, Equal Employment Opportunity
• Henderson, Andrew. Kentucky Museum Teaches Students Colonial History
• Voorhees, Jessica. Quest for Research Position Makes Headway – Faculty Senate
• Ponder, Abby. Writer & Speaker to Give Presentations on Physics – Sky Science Festival, Jeffrey Bennett
• Voorhees, Jessica. Healthcare Possibilities Aid Students in Future – Student Health Services, Insurance
• College Heights Herald Stands With Staff of University of Kentucky Newspaper After Tragedy – Jonathan Krueger, Murder …

“Servants, Obey Your Masters”: Southern Representations Of The Religious Lives Of Slaves, Lindsey K.D. Wedow

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This paper focuses on how representations of the religious lives of slaves, specifically their abilities to comprehend the Bible and flourish spiritually, became an issue that not only propelled the North and South toward the Civil War, but also perpetuated the conflict. Using original documents from the collections housed at Chicago’s Newberry Library, predominantly sermons written by proslavery ministers as well as documents published by missionary organizations, this paper explores the fierce defense of the institution of slavery mounted by proslavery Christians. Specifically, this paper’s interest is in how the representation of slaves by proslavery evangelical Christians as incapable of …

Citizenship Without Borders: Understanding Empathy And Domestic Direct Service As Powerful Approaches To Making Global Connections That Matter, Courtney Tielking

Honors College Theses

By unraveling a case study on Georgia Southern University's Alternative Break program, this research examines the relationship between empathy and globalization. Alternative Breaks are week-long trips, during University holidays, which facilitate and encourage direct service, immersion in a specific social issue, and guided reflection sessions. Four active Alternative Break participants and advisors were interviewed to outline accurately and depict their experience with culture-based Alternative Break trips. Their stories demonstrate an alternative to traveling abroad in order to achieve a sense of global citizenship. The research suggests that through empathy and direct service, one can become a global citizen without ever …