African American Studies Commons^™

Seminole Culture Club

Eartha M. M. White Textual Material

Booklet: Seminole Culture Club, Eartha White, club historian for years 1946-47. She also served as Hostess at the October 1946 meeting. Date: 1946-47

National Sociological Society Membership Card

Eartha M. M. White Textual Material

Card: Miss Eartha M. M. White membership card for the National Sociological Society. Undated.

The Battle Is Not Ours!: The Impact Of Racial Battle Fatigue On The Career Trajectory Of Black Women Administrators At Predominantly White Institutions, Tonishea M. Jackson

Dissertations

This qualitative narrative inquiry examines the impact of Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) on the career progression of Black women administrators at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). While RBF has been studied extensively among students and faculty, there has been little research exploring its influence on Black women leaders who navigate both racial and gendered power structures in organizations where they are often underrepresented and unsupported. Grounded in the theoretical framework of Intersectionality, this study explores one primary research question: What is the relationship between RBF and the career paths of Black women administrators at PWIs, including the stages in their careers …

Counter-Hegemony In The Captive State: Recasting Katrina’S Carceral Legacy Through Conjuncture, Joseph S. Muratore

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis traces the historical development and contemporary manifestations of carceral power in Louisiana, arguing that racialized systems of control—from slavery and convict leasing to mass incarceration—have been sustained through shifting alliances of political and economic elites. Using The Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) and its exhibit Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration as a foundational timeline, this study demonstrates how Bourbonism forged a regional bloc that institutionalized racial domination through incarceration and labor exploitation, later reconstituted through neoliberal policies of abandonment, privatization, and militarization. I chose to focus on Hurricane Katrina because its aftermath reflects many …

Feelings That Drive, Kayla M. Jackson

LSU Master's Theses

Feelings That Drive is an interdisciplinary, multimodal thesis that blends poetry, personal narrative, lyrical essays, and spiritual reflection to explore the complex intersections of Black identity, memory, trauma, resilience, and healing in the contemporary American South. Framed in five thematic sections—Worn, Anxiousness, Desperation, Hopeful, and Restored—the work traverses emotional and geographic landscapes, most notably the author’s home in New Orleans, to trace the cumulative effects of racialized trauma, familial rupture, and spiritual seeking. Through nonlinear storytelling and form-breaking verse, the thesis confronts experiences such as anti-Blackness in institutional spaces, gendered violence, economic precarity, generational silence, and the haunting …

A Seat At The Schoolhouse Table: Reimagining Education Through Afrofuturist And Womanist Theory, Natasha M. Capers

Student Theses

“A Seat at the Schoolhouse Table: Reimagining Education Through Afrofuturist and Womanist Theory” critically examines how curriculum, even when well-intentioned, can perpetuate harm by excluding the lived experiences of marginalized communities—especially Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQIA+ students. Using a real middle school immigration assignment given to the author's son as a case study, this capstone deconstructs the structural biases embedded in curriculum design and proposes a radical reimagining through the liberatory lenses of Afrofuturism and Womanism. Blending scholarly inquiry, personal narrative, and community-based interviews, this project offers a restructured assignment that centers joy, identity, and speculative storytelling as tools for educational …

Advancing Equity In Financial Aid For Black Students: A Document Analysis Study Of Student Equity Plans In California Community Colleges, Edwina Williams

Dissertations

This study examined how California Community Colleges (CCCs) constructed financial aid discourse in Student Equity Plans (SEPs) and assessed whether these strategies mitigated or perpetuated racial disparities for Black students. Previous scholarship identified racial inequities in financial aid systems and explored how equity planning documents addressed race; yet, the influence of institutional discourse on financial aid access remained underexamined. This study contributed to the literature by applying critical race hermeneutics (CRH) to examine how SEPs outlined financial aid strategies, with particular attention to the framing of work–study opportunities and the extent to which the SEP intended to employ race-conscious approaches. …

Becoming A Beloved Community: A Restorative Reckoning For A Radical Conversion To Transform Discourse In Higher Education, Latasha Tomay Varlack-Butler

Dissertations

This dissertation critically examines the misappropriation of Restorative Justice Discourse (RJD) within three predominantly white institutions (PWIs), analyzing 59 institutional documents through Critical Discourse Analysis, Relational Critical Discourse Analysis, and Rhetorical Criticism (Fairclough, 1995; Vaandering, 2021; van Dijk, 2008). Tribal Colleges and Universities and South African institutions have emerged as exemplars of authentic RJD, countering co-optation within PWIs. The findings demonstrate that RJD as applied in PWIs is framed in ways that attenuate its transformative potential, perpetuating color-evasiveness (Bonilla-Silva, 2017) and obscuring the intersectional experiences of Black, Indigenous, and disabled communities (Crenshaw, 1991; Million, 2009).

Grounded in decolonial praxis (Smith, …

Respectability, Code-Switching, And Expression: Examining The Experience Of Black Expressive Arts Therapists Through A Sociolinguistic Lens, Darrien Bush

Expressive Therapies Theses

This literature review explores how the linguistic phenomenon of code-switching can be applied to expressive arts and expressive arts therapy to describe the experience of Black expressive therapists. The review outlines the evolution of the term, reasons why individuals switch codes, and how this affects their experience. The understanding of code-switching is then examined in expressive arts and the expressive arts therapy field. A history and understanding of code-switching in Black communities is also explored, connecting Black experiences of code-switching and expressive arts therapy programs. A discussion suggests that culturally relevant practices are implicitly discouraged due to dominant expectations. Future …

“How Can We Sing In A Strange Land?” The Pastoral Musician As A Master Griot/Griotte, Dollie Howell

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

The writer of Psalm 137 asks a question that poignantly resonates with the experiences of enslaved Africans who were taken captive, exiled from their homelands, and told to forget their languages, worship practices, and tribal traditions. Their dehumanization was intensified by expectations that “required a song and . . . mirth.” The question was “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” In response to this question of engaging in song as a community while in a strange land of deep and persistent systemic suffering, enslaved African-descended people founded a unique tradition within Christianity that responded to …

Matthew Kinnard, Matthew A. Kinnard M.S., Ph.D.

We Are NIH Oral History Project

No abstract provided.

Reimagining Law Enforcement Communication With The Black Deaf Community, Jeanelle Francis

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Law enforcement’s relationship with the Deaf community, particularly the African American/Black Deaf population, has historically been tense, leading to wrongful arrests, police brutality, and even fatalities. This capstone project examines the barriers to effective interaction between law enforcement and the Deaf community, specifically in first-encounter situations, highlighting the Black Deaf experience. Past research has addressed the language barriers that Deaf individuals face in situations such as traffic stops and legal proceedings. However, it rarely examines the specific experiences of Deaf Black/African American families impacted by police-induced trauma caused by an unfair power dynamic. This project is an exploratory study to …

Langston Hughes And The “Afro-American Narrative” Tradition, Paul Haynes

Theses and Dissertations

After introducing Langston Hughes and defining Robert B. Stepto’s “Afro-American narrative” tradition, Chapter One presents a biography of Hughes from his birth in 1902 until he came under the patronage of Charlotte Osgood Mason in 1927. Chapter One also addresses the aesthetic expectations of the Harlem Renaissance and the extent to which Hughes either met or failed to meet those expectations. Chapter Two presents a reading of Not without Laughter as an integrated narrative, addressing how Hughes’s authenticating strategies and Mason’s authenticating devices evenly control the novel. Chapter Three presents a reading of Hughes’s short-story cycle, The Ways of White …

Alternative Worlds: John Maddox Iv’S Fractal Families In New Millennium Narratives Of Afro-Puerto Rican Women, Roberta Hurtado

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Interlude 3: Untitled By Wifredo Lam, Mey-Yen Moriuchi

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

“El Chino Se Considera Blanco Y Basta”: Racialización, Negritud Y Agencia En Apuntes Históricos De Los Chinos En Cuba De Antonio Chuffat Latour, Sebastián Díaz Martínez

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

Apuntes históricos de los chinos en Cuba (1927) del escritor afro-chino-cubano Antonio Chuffat Latour es un caso privilegiado para analizar los imaginarios asociados raciales entre poblaciones afrocubanas y sino-cubanas frente a las discursos sobre la nación en la Cuba republicana. Si bien en el caso puntual de Chuffat ha sido contextualizado como un activo integrante de movimientos afrocubanos (Yun, 2008), es bastante limitada la presencia o importancia acordada a lo negro dentro de su obra. Aunque esta tiene como objetivo la recopilación de distintas fuentes sobre la experiencia china en Cuba, las interacciones y relaciones de mestizaje cultural entre ambas …

Full Issue, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Author Bios, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Palara Editors

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Between Thirst And Hunger: Food And Afro- Chinese Entanglements In Monkey Hunting, Chloe Huh Prudente

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

Cristina García’s third novel, Monkey Hunting (2003), is a sweeping multigenerational family saga that surveys the history of Asian and African diasporas in the Americas and the impact of coerced, racialized labor and migrations. The scrumptious medley of foods in Monkey Hunting portrays its characters’ delight and dissatisfaction in their displacements. Food’s primary function remains as a vital source of nourishment, providing essential sustenance to the body. Food provides pleasure through sensory experiences that delight the palate and evoke emotions and memories associated with home and family. In many religions and spiritual systems, food takes a vital place in rituals …

Interlude 2: Tropic By Wifredo Lam, Mey-Yen Moriuchi

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

A Cultural Pluralistic Reading On The Afro- And Chinese-Cuban Communities In Memorias De Una Cubanita Que Nació Con El Siglo (1964), Francisco Chen-López

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

This article deploys the cultural pluralism theory, which focuses on how minoritized groups integrate while preserving their cultural identities instead of assimilating into the dominant culture. In her memoir, Renée Méndez Capote describes how Black and Chinese people coexisted in twentieth-century Cuba while maintaining their own cultural identities and were in the process of integrating into the definition of the cubanidad. Via this theoretical framework, this research provides a different approach to studying the literary representation of Afro-Asian relationships in Cuba, aiming to contribute to the constantly growing field of Afro-Asian studies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Interlude 1: The Eternal Presence By Wifredo Lam, Mey-Yen Moriuchi

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

The Chinese-Afro-Cuban Diaspora And Its Many Faces, Wiliam Luis

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

“Afro-Brazilian Nei Lopes’S Poetnics (2014)”, John Maddox Iv

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Debbie Lee-Distefano, Luisa Marcela Ossa

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

No abstract provided.

Sundown In Indiana: A Midwest Story Of Racism, Exclusion, And Memory, Kelsey A. Snyder

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Sundown towns were a prominent aspect of the northern life from the early 1900s till in some places till the 1970s but they have been lost to history. These towns have been silenced and erased not just from the history books but from public memory. Indiana is my home state and the three towns that will be discussed have all had an impact on my personal development especially in understanding race. Decatur and Huntington places I have called home, both have been classified as sundown towns. The third, Marion was the location of the one the last known lynchings in …

Capturing The Intersection Of Black-American, Muslim Males And Education: Exploring Their Attitudes, Perceptions, And Lived Experiences Within An Islamic Consciousness, Kirk A. Talib-Deen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation explored the lived realities of Black-American, Muslim males and their attitudes, perceptions, histories, and endurances toward higher learning in America. It attempted to join and contribute to the more significant, historical, and extant conversations and literature on Black-American males and education, as well as their successes and failures. This dissertation adds to the dearth of literature on the intersection of Black-American, Muslim males, and education, and using jazz as an epistemological way of navigating and organizing the content, the research works to uncover, locate, and define an Islamic consciousness. While negating racist histories concomitant with the American narrative …

Invasion As A Structure: Carceral Capitalism, Necropolitics, And The Persistence Of Settler-Colonialism, Ethan Peacock

Honors College Theses

In the United States, settler-colonialism is often dismissed as a "bad chapter" of the past, an embarrassing episode of the nation's history, considered irrelevant to contemporary socio-political discussions. In contrast, while ongoing, Canada's reconciliation efforts remain performative, failing to address underlying colonial power structures. This project argues that settler-colonialism is not merely a historical phenomenon but a pervasive socio-political and cultural structure shaping the contemporary world. Capitalism depends on racialized and gendered hierarchies, continually produced through dispossession, marginalization, and exploitation. The prison-industrial complex (PIC) exemplifies this dynamic by industrializing dehumanization and weaponizing state violence against marginalized communities through mass incarceration, …

Empoderamiento De Mujeres Negras En Cuba: Descolonialidad En La Agencia De Sus Vidas. Encuentros Entre La Interseccionalidad Y La Perspectiva Epistemológica Compleja, Elvira Edwards Vázquez

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

En el presente trabajo se estudia el tema del empoderamiento de las mujeres negras en Cuba desde una perspectiva transdisciplinar. Para ello, se establece un diálogo de saberes diversos provenientes de la Psicología, la Sociología, la Filosofía, la Teoría de la comunicación, la Historia, los Estudios culturales y el Pensamiento complejo. Esto permite una mirada a la agencia de vida y al empoderamiento, desde un posicionamiento descolonial, en medio de las transformaciones que se suceden en el país. El resultado más importante es el intercambio entre las perspectivas epistemológicas interseccionalidad y complejidad. Este orienta nuevas prácticas para docentes, investigadores y …