African American Studies Commons^™

The Flow Of (Re)Memory In African American And Nubian Egyptian Literature: Morrison, Oddoul, And Mukhtar, Bushra Hashem

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to define the term rememory, which Toni Morrison coins in her novel Beloved, and explore its interplay with water imagery in the novel and in two Nubian short stories, namely Haggag Oddoul’s “The River People” and Yahya Mukhtar’s “The Nile Bride.” The three narratives have core common features: they centralize water bodies as key sites of events, they depend heavily on the retelling of history and mythology, and they are told predominantly from the perspective of women. How do the writers weave rememory, history, and mythology to produce these narratives? Are they attempting to …

Dignity, Respect, And Freedom, Lindsey Abercrombie

Anthós

This paper looks at Irene Redfield, a character from Nella Larsen's Passing, analyzing how dignity is prioritized above all else in her life. Viewing Irene through the lenses of race, sexuality, and class, this paper delves into the intricacies of Irene's mind, attempting to contextualize her by her overt and repressed desires. Passing is a nuanced novel with complicated characters. Many scholars have attempted to understand the symbolism Larsen has imbued the novel with, producing insightful works to challenge the reader's initial perceptions of the novel and the characters. Through taking a deep-dive into Irene's mind, readers can become …

2nd Funk Symposium: Selected Proceedings, 2021, Sharon Davis Gratto

Content Presented at the First and Second Dayton Funk Symposia

This is a printed proceedings of symposium presentations by authors who elected to submit them. They are available free for download, but printed volumes are available for $6 plus tax and shipping.

Ephemeral Elsewheres: Locating Narratives Of Resignation, Resistance, And Refusal In The Poetry Of Black Cuban And Black Brazilian Women, Aidan Keys

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

This essay dissects the language of Latin American revolution and nationalism to locate the body of the black woman and the appropriation of her image. In two seemingly incommensurable radical movements—the Cuban Revolution (1952-1959) and the Brazilian Unified Black Movement (1978-)—the contributions of Black women are unevenly recognized. Reading the poetry of cubanas Nancy Morejón and Georgina Herrera and brasileiras Sônia Fátima and Esmeralda Ribeiro, this essay claims that in both contexts, the Black woman is marginalized to a geographic “elsewhere.” Expanding on this term, coined by scholar Carol Boyce Davies, this essay further identifies temporal and ephemeral “elsewheres.” The …

An Exodus Of Black Excellence: Black School Leaders And Their Search For Home, Nickolas H. B. Dawkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the racialized experiences of Black public-school principals who have served in and prematurely exited the school principal position. By implementing a phenomenological and qualitative approach this study seeks to understand the lived experiences of Black school principals that have resigned from an educational organization and/or principal position in American public schools. The study examines historical factors that contribute to Black school principals leaving educational spaces and utilizes online surveys, multiple rounds of one-on-one interviews, and coding to analyze and identify forces at play in the racialized experiences of Black school principals who exit their positions. Findings suggest …

Cora Ann Westmoreland, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Cora Westmoreland.

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African Americans Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

Sandra Clements, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Sandra Clements.

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African American Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

In Their Own Words: Examining The Educational Experiences, Expectations, And Values Of Oregon Low-Income, Single Black Mothers, Reiko Mia Williams

Dissertations and Theses

The long-standing achievement gap between African-American students in grades k-12 and their White counterparts has inspired many educational leaders and policy makers to seek a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the various factors affecting the well-being of Black students. The conversation has historically focused on deficits and dysfunction while ignoring strengths and resiliencies. The research in this study investigates inaccuracies regarding Black families in order to change the conversation from one of deficits to a strength-based lens. In spite of the inequities that exist for Black families with regards to housing, employment, and health, Black parents remain committed to ensuring …

Hypervisible (In)Visibility: Black Amerasians, Angelica J. Allen

Africana Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"In this essay, I foreground the experiences of Black Amerasians in the Philippines. Drawing upon interviews from a larger ethnographic study, I explore how analysis of this community’s lived experiences unsettles singular conceptualizations of Filipinx American identity and reveals the transnational dimensions of anti-Blackness. Through this analysis, we can begin to explore the possibilities for cross-disciplinary dialogue between Black studies—namely, the indispensable insights of Black feminist theory—and Filipinx American studies, forging new political alliances as we consider timely issues that are relevant to both fields. I begin with a brief account of Filipinx Amerasian history, followed by an analysis of …

Monica Whiting-Hogans, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Whiting-Hogans is proud of community service like a Bronx health fair where they provided free mammograms for those without insurance, fixing up playgrounds, providing hospitalized sexual assault victims with new clothes and undergarments, and visiting seniors at St. Luke’s Hospital. She speaks to moments when members of the sorority have even come together to help her personally. Today, she wishes younger members would remember the ideals of manners and respect more, following in the decorum of a “sisterhood.” Whiting-Hogans acknowledges the setbacks of the pandemic but encourages young people to get engaged.

LINK TO VIDEO INTERVIEW: http://cdm17265.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/baahp/id/77

A New Politics Of Black Regality: Zora Neale Hurston And Alice Walker’S Monarchical Method, William Martin

Beyond the Margins: A Journal of Graduate Literary Scholarship

Literary critics conducting a comparative study of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple diligently tend to the relationship between the two women, particularly at an intertextual level. This paper sheds light on an important third member of this relationship: Black women readers. An articulation of Black regality, which involves the incorporation of monarchical symbols and titles in characterizations of Black people, provides these readers with political tools poised to liberate Black women from hegemonic male authority and control. Examining the significance of adornment for the self exclusively to combat invisibility, the power …

The Souls Of Black Women: Reimagining Futurities Beyond The Veil, Kevin A. Blanks

Beyond the Margins: A Journal of Graduate Literary Scholarship

Now more than ever, communities of color are rendered more vulnerable to state violence and unjust policing; and a global pandemic has exacerbated the ways that the marginalized, the poor, and the disabled are devastated more disproportionately into precarious spaces. Thus, this anti-black world isn’t sustainable for us, and futurity has always felt elusive and just out of reach for marginalized bodies. This world-making project seeks to reimagine an alternative world, an otherwise, an elsewhere where life can be breathed back into our bodies, where we can be whole and free. Through an examination of DuBois’ Souls of Black Folk …

Blacks In The History Of The Bethel Churches (Methodist) Of Charleston, South Carolina, David Myers

Methodist Books

This book is a study of the Black members of the various Bethel Methodist Churches in Charleston, SC, based on the records of those churches and on published histories of those churches.

North Of The Grid: The Black Experience Of 17th -19th Century Rural New York City, Stephanie E. Barnes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States, transatlantic slavery was a racial project and template for race-making which created a country that relied on institutions that were organized and performed through social stratification. Today, the nation still operates on systemically racist institutions that have benefited whites while disadvantaging ‘others.’ The narratives presented in American history are rooted in whiteness and benefit the white community while marginalizing nonwhites. Over two hundred years of slavery history in this country has been purposely manipulated and left out. My research focuses on using an historical archaeological framework to research and share the lives of free and enslaved …

Law Library Blog (June 2022): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

How Marlon T. Riggs Queered The Documentary Form, Anthony M. Sweeney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Marlon T. Riggs’s documentary films and their paratextual elements are rooted in his intersectional identities as a Black and gay man. His activist goal of Black gay liberation was based on what he saw as deeply engrained internal and external racist and homophobic societal structures that subjugated Black queers. In this thesis, I place research from Black cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, and film studies in conversation with one another to show how Riggs’s filmography is an example of queer form. In doing so, I attempt to redefine the focus of the scholarship on Riggs from an avant-garde filmmaker …

Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Songbook, Keith A. Dames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Billie Holiday was a singer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and composer in the fields of music, black culture and more specifically the genre of jazz. The primary focus of this study is Billie Holiday’s discography, music, and compositions as treated in relation to the black culture of production. This study will explore a secondary content analysis of Billie Holiday’s music, musicianship, musicality and compositional skills within the American jazz mainstream, broader jazz audience and world at large. This project will take an analytical look at the structure and form of the compositions of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday is credited with composing …

After The Renaissance: Art And Harlem In The 1960s, Maya Harakawa

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For almost a century, Harlem has carried a symbolic weight that transcends the physical confines of upper Manhattan. In 1925, the philosopher and critic Alain Locke dubbed Harlem a “mecca,” a spiritual home that attracted people of African descent from around the world. Locke dubbed the cultural movement he chronicled in Harlem a “renaissance”—a term that describes both the “rebirth” of Black people as modern subjects and the resulting artistic effluence. In so doing, he cemented the neighborhood’s indelible connection to racial progress and artistic experimentation. Even as Harlem’s reputation has oscillated between the twined discourses of “mecca” and “ghetto,” …

21st Century Identity Politics And Social Protest: How The Dynamics Of Race And Gender Influence Black Women's Decision To Run For Congress, An Exploratory Study, Susan J. Telingator

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

While women represent half the world’s population, they are underrepresented globally in government (UN Women, accessed February 27, 2022). In the United States, women’s representation is particularly low and women of color face greater levels of exclusion than white women (Reflective Democracy Campaign, 2018). During the 2018 mid-term elections there was a significant increase in the number of women running for office of all races, particularly Black women (CAWP, 2019). Black women have historically held less than 5% of elected executive offices, including Congress and state legislatures (CAWP, 2018d), even though they comprise 13.1% of the total U.S. population (CAWP, …

Anna Belle King, Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Anna Belle King.

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African American Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

'My Name Is Peaches': Black Women's Affect In The Blues Biomyth, Taylor C. Scott

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For this project, I am interested in the study of nuanced self-representations of Black rage that appear within African American literary traditions, specifically the blues aesthetic, wherein artists narrativize a wide spectrum of intelligent and specific emotion--not just melancholy. Blues narratives in which Black people self-represent are in direct opposition to flattened narratives of certain affective modes such as anger as a useless, backwards, pathologized, and flat feeling that appear within dominant U.S. and global iconographies. What I see in the blues aesthetic is the capacity for a multichromatic approach to studying rage and Black authorship in America. By using …

A Literature Review On Decolonization Of The Expressive Arts In Order To Help Facilitate Racial Healing Within The Black Community, Kateri Collins

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature review will analyze the racial disparities in the current Euro-centric expressive therapy modalities and will examine the additional needs to allow for these modalities to facilitate healing within the Black community and recommend adjustments accordingly. When conducting my research and coming up with my research question I came to the conclusion that my proposed question is: What are the racial disparities within the expressive arts due to them being Euro-centric and where are the areas that need adjustments to be culturally competent?

The anti-racist efforts of deconstructing all Euro-centric modalities are crucial for the field of expressive arts …

Epistemic Injustice, Endometriosis And Dance/ Movement Therapy: An Autoethnographic Investigation, Kevana West

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

As the field of dance/ movement therapy evolves to meet the demands of a rapidly changing social landscape, it is imperative that clinicians think critically about the degree to which our work is steeped in oppressive frameworks and ideologies. This investigation uses testimony to explore epistemic injustice as it relates to the author’s experience of living with endometriosis and the pursuit of professional licensure. Considering the limited amount of research on the condition, along with the perceived absence of literature within the field of dance/ movement therapy, further study is warranted. The experimentation phase of this research incorporated the use …

"Nothing But The Son Of A Black Woman": Anti-Blackness, Gender Dynamics, And Muslim Communities Of Memphis, Zari Muhammad

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

The Nation of Islam (NOI) is largely responsible for the growth of Islam in America during the 20th century. However, they are often isolated from their Muslim counterparts, being framed as an “inauthentic” Islamic school of thought by Sunni Muslim communities. This is due in part to the different practices of Islam, but also a result of American systemic anti-Blackness. Furthermore, Black Muslim women face numerous problems in the NOI , as the internal gender dynamics are based on white nuclear family systems that lead to further gendered ostracization within these same communities. This is exemplified in Memphis, Tennessee, where …

On The Use And Abuse Of Violence For Life: Affect, Witnessing, And Protest, Harrison Maurice Lucas

Theses - ALL

Following the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020 by police officer Derek Chauvin, a protest began in the city of Minneapolis that resulted in the burning down of the third precinct police building, the looting of a local Target, and the destruction of over one hundred buildings in the area. But despite this violence, the Minneapolis uprising sparked a wave of protests that spread to over sixty countries on every continent of the globe. Why was Floyd's murder so politically mobilizing? And why did this protest inspire so many others? To answer these questions, I treat the video …

How Shall We Be Known: The Problem And Art Of Representing Blackness, London Ladd

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the problem of representing the identities, experiences, and ideasof people of African descent in the United States. It proceeds from the premise that this problem, which can shape everyday personal experiences, has also been critical to African American cultural production. This thesis examines these phenomena in two ways. First, it explores how African American writers grappled with the challenge of representing Black people collectively at various historical moments. Then negotiate the challenges I faced as an artist creating visual representations of multiple themes and facets of the writers' lives, identities, and ideas. Together, the two parts of …

The Question Of The Purpose Of Anti-Miscegenation Laws, Tyler Dean

Merge

Using The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, along with additional scholarly research and legal documentation for context, explores the ramifications and reasonings behind the creation and enforcement of anti-miscegenation laws. The primary individuals focused on suggest that anti-miscegenation laws were enacted for reasons outside of marriage's status as a union between two individuals. Social status, property inheritance, and even voting rights were denied to African Americans via the vehicle of anti-miscegenation laws. Just as other antebellum laws served to advance the agendas of the time, anti-miscegenation laws were no different. And the specific stories elaborated on …

Do You See What I See? Experiences And Socialization Of African American Male Doctoral Students At A Pwi, Victor Vinson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Abstract

This qualitative study will use an anti-deficit approach aimed to examine the classroom experiences and socialization experiences of African American male doctoral students in a higher education doctoral program at a Predominately White Institution (PWI). The understanding of these classroom and socialization experiences is critical to the ways and means that African American males employ to persist through doctoral programs, striving to reach the mountaintop: attainment of a Philosophy of Doctorate degree. The guiding research questions are 1) How do African American male doctoral students’ classroom experiences influence their persistence in doctoral programs? and 2) What socialization experience(s) influence …

Yvonne Marie Smith, Mark Naison

Oral Histories

Smith attended James Monroe High School, which is now several academies. Leo Weiss was the principal. His determination encouraged most of her peers to finish high school. Prior to the fires and Bronx burning and the drug epidemic, it was a close knit community. You couldn't do anything that another adult stepping in to remind children that they were children. They reminded Smith to be careful. That was the kind of community it was. People looked out for each other. Her family attended Trinity Episcopal. The 1970s Bronx fires destroyed her building, and the city took a long time to …

By Her Hands: An Analysis Of The Hidden Labor Of Black Women At The Hugh Craft House Site In Holly Springs, Mykayla Williamson

Honors Theses

This project unearths the hidden labor of Black women by analyzing architectural remains, artifacts, and primary and secondary documentary evidence surrounding the urban antebellum Hugh Craft House site in Holly Springs, Mississippi. This project considers the gap in theorizing the hidden labor of Black women in the seldom-researched setting of urban slavery. It also draws on household and Black feminist archaeology theories to uncover the hidden labor in the domestic spheres that the enslaved women were actively shaping. Research methods included watching clips of Behind the Big House tour interpretations; taking a Craft House tour in Holly Springs; looking at …