African American Studies Commons^™

Self-Executed Dramaturgy : A Journey With Miss Ida B. Wells., Sidney Michelle Edwards

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents my experience with the production of Miss Ida B. Wells by Endesha Ida Mae Holland. I used self-executed dramaturgy to enrich my process as an actor and create multiple vocally and physically dynamic historical characters. Throughout this document, I explore how my personal acting process and development as an artist are heavily influenced by the practices of the Alexander Technique. I discuss the unique challenges that I faced with scoliosis and vocal trauma and how I used the training I received during my graduate career to address those challenges. My personal account details the specific methods by …

Historicizing Muslim American Literature: Studies On Literature By African American And South Asian American Muslim Writers, Wawan Eko Yulianto

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In response to the challenge of understanding Muslim Americans in a way that highlights their integral role in the United States through literature, this research starts with two questions: 1) how should we read Muslim American literature in relation to the lived experiences of Islam in America? and 2) how does Muslim American literature contribute to the more mainstream American literature.

To answer those questions, this research takes as its foundations the theories by Stuart Hall and Satya Mohanty on, firstly, the evolving nature of diaspora identity and on the epistemic status of identity. Following Hall’s argument that every expression …

Racial Peeves: The Exploitation Of Microaggressions, Olivia Gabrielle Ellis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Racial Peeves: The Exploitation of Microaggressions documents my personal experience of dealing with microaggressions throughout my life, as well as the history of these racial issues. This thesis also documents the creation of my Senior BFA Exhibition of the same title inspired by 1970s Blaxploitation posters.

Black Islamic Evangelization In The American South, Chester Warren Cornell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Broadly speaking, my research focus is on African American religion, with particular interest in the various manifestations of black Islam in the United States. I am particularly interested in the question “Has religion served as an opiate or stimulant for black political protest?” And my research attempts to answer it by chronicling the experiences of black Muslims in southern prisons. My dissertation builds on Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010). Alexander argues that African Americans were not over-represented in America’s prisons in the 1970s, but with President Reagan’s War on …

An Intersectional Feminist Perspective Of Emmett Till In Young Adult Literature, Claire Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emmett Till’s murder inspired many novelists, poets, and artists. Recently, Till has inspired several feminist young adult novelists who are introducing his case in an intersectional way to a new generation of readers. The works that I have studied are A Wreath for Emmett Till (2003) by Marilyn Nelson, The Hunger Games Trilogy (2008-2010) by Suzanne Collins, and Midnight without a Moon (2017) by Linda Jackson. By examining how the authors employ a feminist perspective, readers can understand how they are striving for a more inclusive, intersectional feminist movement. This is significant because the publishing industry, specifically for Young Adult …

Urban Geography, Gentrification, And Memory Of The Black Panther Party: An Essay In Photographs, Mikayla A. Kraus

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This creative project is a magazine which focuses on and highlights the politics and contributions of the Black Panther Party to the Black Liberation Movement in Oakland. The magazine is titled “Black Panther” as a homage to the Panthers’ newspaper that published 537 issues during the time they were active. Divided into five sections, the magazine includes the political profiles of Panther leaders in Oakland, a walking photo tour of significant and historical sites related to the Black Panther chapter in Oakland, a dissection of the anti-imperialist and Black Marxist theories practiced by the Panthers, a highlight of the Panthers’ …

Perceptions Of African American College Students In San Francisco Bay Area Community Colleges On Their Developmental Training To Participate In Civic Engagement During High School, Melvin Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

The democratic practice of representative government in the United States is supposed to represent and protect its citizens. Since the United States abolished legalized slavery with the 13th Amendment in 1865, individual states have made many attempts to impede the civil rights and voting rights of African American citizens. Several pieces of legislation were designed to protect citizens, such as the Civil Rights act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In addition to overt legislated actions to thwart voting rights, the 26th Amendment of 1971 afforded citizens at least 18-years old the right to vote. Studies, however, …

Insurgent Knowledge: The Poetics And Pedagogy Of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, And Adrienne Rich In The Era Of Open Admissions, Danica B. Savonick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Insurgent Knowledge analyzes the reciprocal relations between teaching and literature in the work of Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, and Adrienne Rich, all of whom taught in the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) educational opportunity program at the City University of New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Drawing on archival research and analysis of their published work, I show how feminist aesthetics have shaped U.S. education (especially student-centered pedagogical practices) and how classroom encounters with students had a lasting impact on our postwar literary landscape and theories of difference. My project demonstrates how, …

Brother Outsider: Queered Belonging And Kinships In African American Men’S Literature, 1953-1971, Debarati Biswas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Brother Outsider: Queered Belonging and Kinships in African American Men’s Literature, 1953-1971 builds on the work of women-of-color feminists since the late 1960s and queer-of-color critique in the works of José Esteban Muñoz, Robert Reid-Pharr, Roderic Ferguson, and Nadia Ellis, in order to chronicle the emergence of a queer tradition in mid twentieth century African American men’s literature. Through literary analysis and archival research on marginal figures of African American culture during this period, this dissertation proposes that the black pulp novels of Chester Himes, Robert Deane Pharr, Clarence Cooper Jr., and Iceberg Slim perform a queer critique of and …

Tracing Dominican Attitudes Towards Race: A Historical Analysis, Marcos Polonia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The common misconception is that all Dominicans are racist – that Dominicans live in a Fanonesque reality where we believe we are white, but we clearly inhabit black bodies. These attitudes permeate Dominican society from the highest echelons of power to the everyday experiences of Dominicans on the street. The notion that Dominicans are racist is widespread among Latinos and African-Americans as well. Recently, global attention was focused on the Dominican Republic as the country changed its constitution in order to prevent Dominicans of Haitian descent from becoming Dominican citizens. But, where do these notions of race come from? This …

Progressive Commemoration: Public Statues Of Historical Women In Urban American Cities, Melanie D. Chin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Women who made notable accomplishments are underrepresented in commemoration. Some American cities have brought women to the forefront of becoming visible through commemoration in statues. This thesis compares the commemoration of historical women in four different American cities. Stakeholders hold the key to implementing and changing public policy to increase the visibility of women and people of color in public monuments. Cities which lack representation of women and people of color may learn from and follow the efforts of a leading city to achieve lasting and effective change in representing those who historically been underrepresented.

Black Business As Activism: Ebony Magazine And The Civil Rights Movement, Seon Britton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the fight for justice, equality, and true liberation, African American organizations and institutions have often acted as a voice for the African American community at large focusing on common issues and concerns. With the civil rights movement being broadcast across the world, there was no better time for African American community and civil rights organizations to take a role within the movement in combatting the oppression, racism, and discrimination of white supremacy. Often left out of this history of the civil rights movement is an analysis of black-owned private businesses, also giving shape to the African American community. Black …

The Tuskegee Revolt: Student Activism, Black Power, And The Legacy Of Booker T. Washington, Brian P. Jones

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“The Tuskegee Revolt: Student Activism, Black Power, and the Legacy of Booker T. Washington” is a historical study of a student movement that challenged prevailing educational and political ideas in the nation’s most ideologically important historically black university. The late 1960s student movement at Tuskegee Institute played a significant off-campus role in shaping local, regional, and national social movements and politics. In the process, these Tuskegee students turned their attention back on-campus, and attempted to radically revise their school’s educational framework. Founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, Tuskegee Institute represents the origin of a particular (and recurring) political-educational-paradigm for …

Nomads Of The Body, Exiles Of The Mind: Twentieth Century Transnational African American Mexican Art And Literature, Anahi A. Douglas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the migration of African Americans from the U.S. to Mexico; however, these paths extend well beyond the North American continent and intersect with a much larger migration: the African Diaspora. The journeys of Langston Hughes, Audre Lorde, Willard Motley, and Elizabeth Catlett to Mexico illustrate an intricate web of rhizomatic connections spanning the Black Atlantic, the Caribbean Ocean, the Mississippi River and the Rio Grande. This dissertation examines the history of African American migration to Mexico during the twentieth century a well-documented, yet understudied area of research. These migrations offer an opportunity to reevaluate canon formation, Border …

The Communal "I": Exclusion And Belonging In American Autobiography, Melissa Coss Aquino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Communal “I” in American autobiography emerges as an aesthetic response to the pressure of using “the master’s tools” to write from a community on the margins to disclose identity in the conflicts of exclusion and belonging. In this case “the master’s tools” to refer to several distinct elements the communal “I” is tasked with navigating: the use of what we have come to identify as standard English, the form and function of European autobiography as a celebration of individual exceptionalism, and the contradictory pressures on these autobiographies to both elevate and protect the communities in question from further marginalization. …

Perceptions Of Barriers To Leadership Appointment And Promotion Of African American Female Commissioned Officers In The United States Military, Beverly Henderson Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

The U.S. military is perceived by many to be the example of workplace meritocracy, but historical studies have shown that the perceptions of African American female commissioned officers run counter to that belief. The military has as its goal the movement from a diverse fighting force to one that is totally inclusive of all members. The purpose of this study was to gather insights into whether the military has moved toward full integration from the viewpoint of the demographic that has shown the least confidence in the accomplishment of that task.

This qualitative study involved 12 participants: active duty, retired, …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 93, No. 39, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Henderson, Andrew & Nicole Ziege. Fearing for My Life – Andi Dahmer, Harassment
• Deletter, Emily. Kelly Burch Institute Established to Aid Student Success
• Chamber of Conflict – Student Government Association
• Hormell, David. Maintaining a Spirit of Objectivity in American Politics
• Leboeuf, Hannah. Song & Dance – Greek Week
• Yaacoub, Sarah. Right on Cue – Cue Time Cocktails & Billiards
• Kizer, Drake. Local Art Studio Makes Antique Items New Again – Resurrection Shop
• Moore, Noah. ENACTUS Brings Students Skills in Entrepreneurship
• Sisler, Julie. Winemakers to Speak …

Dr. Adolph's Title Iii Blog, Jessie Adolph

Title III Professional Development Reports

The 2018 College Language Association (CLA) entitled “Native Sons/Daughters and Immigrants in the Black Metropolis” centered on interdisciplinary scholarship in the humanities. The convention highlights the future of language arts in the world of academia. Several professors and graduate students across the country presented papers on topics like hip-hop, global warming, technology, and study abroad programming. Without question, the new-age scholars are committed to preparing today’s students to become global citizens. Additionally, the experts presented innovative pedagogy to make literature more engaging for our learners.

My paper entitled “The Seeds Hatched” centered on hip-hop’s lyricism demonstrating the effects of intergenerational …

Black Male Persistence In Spite Of Facing Stereotypes In College: A Phenomenological Exploration, Taylor Benjamin Hardy Boyd M.Ed., Donald Mitchell Jr., Ph.D.

Executives, Administrators, & Staff Publications

Stereotypes often create threatening environments for Black males on college campuses. This study sought to break the deficit narrative surrounding Black males in college by highlighting how they persisted despite facing stereotypes. Six participants were included in this study. Through interviews and naturalistic observations, we explored how participants articulated their experiences with stereotypes, how they dealt with those experiences, how the experiences shaped future endeavors, and how they used strategies to dispel stereotypes and persist through threatening experiences. Findings suggest (a) the participants dealt with internalized feelings due to stereotypes; (b) stereotypes were reinforced in various ways; and, (c) they …

Black Male Persistence In Spite Of Facing Stereotypes In College: A Phenomenological Exploration, Taylor Benjamin Hardy Boyd, Donald Mitchell Jr.

The Qualitative Report

Stereotypes often create threatening environments for Black males on college campuses. This study sought to break the deficit narrative surrounding Black males in college by highlighting how they persisted despite facing stereotypes. Six participants were included in this study. Through interviews and naturalistic observations, we explored how participants articulated their experiences with stereotypes, how they dealt with those experiences, how the experiences shaped future endeavors, and how they used strategies to dispel stereotypes and persist through threatening experiences. Findings suggest (a) the participants dealt with internalized feelings due to stereotypes; (b) stereotypes were reinforced in various ways; and, (c) they …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 93, No. 38, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Henderson, Andrew. Timothy Caboni Announces $16 Million in Cuts
• Ziege, Nicole. Dissolved – University College
• Deletter, Emily. First of Three Candidates for Provost Visit WKU - Jeffery Osgood
• Eiler, Olivia. Woman Reports Burglary, Assault in Bowling Green
• Editorial Cartoon re: Kern Alexander & College Heights Herald
• Save Student Newsrooms – Editorial Independence
• Dimeo, Chris. San Juan Smokehouse: A Plate Where Two Worlds Meet
• Leonard, Nicole. The Rise of Identity Politics in Society
• Eaton, Tyler. WKU Athletes Make Up 5 Percent of C-USA Honor Roll
• Stahl, …

North Omaha Makes Political History, Preston Love Jr.

Black Studies Faculty Publications

“North Omaha, Vote like Crazy”
April 14th will go down in the long and rich history of North Omaha as a significant event albeit political for our community.

Over 250 community members of all political persuasions, cultures, and races joined together Saturday, April 14th at the MCC Culinary Arts building for a four-hour intense but relaxed first ever North Omaha Political Convention.

A Sumitography: A Listing Of Postage Stamps Celebrating Contributions To Civil And Human Rights By Martin Luther King Jr. And Associates, Lillie R. Jenkins

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

This "sumitography" (from Latin "sumit" means postage stamp) is a listing of postage stamps celebrating contributions to civil right and human rights by Martin Luther King Jr. and associates. In addition to USA postage stamps, this listing includes stamps from other nations, including Cuba, Ghana, Sweden, Turks & Caicos Islands, and others. Also included are postage stamps honoring King associates--in the struggle for civil and human rights, Mohandas K. Gandi, Rosa Partks, A. Philp Randolph, and Malcolm X.

Don't Call King A 'Civil Rights' Leader: Toward Abolishing Poverty And War By Correcting Our Fatally Inadequate Remembering Of Mlk Jr., Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

Remembering Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—primarily as a domestic “civil rights” leader—is inadequate, and sometimes harmful. The term “civil rights” fails to embrace King’s abolitionist movements toward the global abolition of poverty and war. Moreover, King was a Baptist preacher called by God. He advanced an optimistic realism (including a “realistic pacifism”) that improves upon pessimistic-cynical versions of political realism. And King went beyond advancing “civil rights” to advancing economic justice, economic rights, and human rights. He prescribed adding a social and economic bill of rights to the US Constitution, plus full-employment supplemented by “guaranteed income,” …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 93, No. 36 [37], Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Deletter, Emily. Cuts Leave Honors College without Two Employees
• Harsh, Spencer. Fight for Food – Food Pantry
• Stahl, Matt. Kentucky Street Apartments Set Rent to Increase
• Stahl, Matt. Parking Permit Prices Could Increase Due to Budget Cuts
• Fight Night: Tensions Loom Over Upcoming Student Government Association Election
• Vogler, Emily. Editorial Cartoon re: Student Government Association
• Harsh, Spencer. Rock Climbing: A Quest Toward a Healthier Lifestyle
• Walker, Silas. Throwing Punches: Sigma Chi Fight Night
• Chisenhall, Jeremy. Football Team Dismisses Quinton Baker
• Jessie, Alec. Up to Speed …

Script For Award Recipients At The Black Student Union 50th Anniversary Gala, Ebony Azumah, Natalie Mills

Black Student Union

This is the script for award recipients at the Black Student Union 50th Anniversary Gala. April 8th, 2018.

Feminism And The Black Church: A Qualitative Analysis Of Feminism Among Black Women In A Southern Baptist Church, Brianne Alexandra Painia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Black women’s religious faith has been found to be integral to their survival (Harris-Perry 2011) in a world that many times chooses to marginalize them due to a host of factors, including their race, gender, and expressions of sexuality (Collins 1996; Morgan 2000) meaning that for black women religion is more than a simple denominational label (such as Lutheran, Catholic, or Baptist). Black women’s involvement in the Black Church has been covered from a variety of angles with researchers noting the importance of African American women to the success of many black churches (Evans 2001), the benefits such faith practice …

Development Of A Literary Dispositif: Convening Diasporan, Blues, And Cosmopolitan Lines Of Inquiry To Reveal The Cultural Dialogue Among Giuseppe Ungaretti, Langston Hughes, And Antonio D’Alfonso, Anna Ciamparella

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to create a literary dialogue among the Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, the African American author Langston Hughes, and the Quebecois writer Antonio D’Alfonso. Giuseppe Ungaretti and Langston Hughes were more or less contemporaries. Ungaretti was born in 1888 and Hughes in 1902, and both were active in modernist movements that shaped the literary history of their own countries. D’Alfonso was born in Canada about half a center after Ungaretti and Hughes. Besides significant generational differences, these three authors also underwent personal and intellectual experiences that shaped their writing in seemingly incomparable ways. While a traditional comparative approach …

From Swing King To Swing Kids: The Jazz Era Of ‘Big Band Orchestras’ In World War Ii, Katie Victoria Burnopp

Student Scholar Showcase

Known as the ‘King of Swing’, clarinetist and band leader Benny Goodman (1909-1986) threatened the Nazi cause during WWII. With intent of improving music pedagogy, the purpose of this research was to investigate swing music during World War II. The particular problems of this study were to: (1) identify how the swing music of Benny Goodman (1909-1986) influenced adolescents in the United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany; (2) explore the Nazi party view on ‘swing’ music of the era; (3) examine how the music of Charlie and his Orchestra became used as a tool for Nazi propaganda; and …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 93, No. 36, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Deletter, Emily. Pension Protest – Teachers
• Harsh, Spencer. WKU Pride Index Ranks Low - LBGTQ
• Deletter, Emily. College Heights Herald Lawsuit Back in Court
• Price, Morgan. Hilltopper Hall Construction to End in Time for Fall 2018
• Teacher Takeover - Pensions
• Coyle, Cameron. Rady Player One Embraces 1980s Style & Nostalgia
• Brown, Cameron. Easter Weekend Win – Baseball
• Heichelbech, Evan. For Life – Roger Osborne, Fans
• Chisenhall, Jeremy. Financial Concerns, Competition Pushed Michelle Clark-Heard Away
• Eaton, Tyler & Jeremy Chisenhall. Athletic Success Brings WKU More Exposure …