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Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies

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Ursinus College

Articles 1 - 18 of 18

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Unchallenged Myth: Abolish The Family And Structure, Julian Barocas Apr 2023

Unchallenged Myth: Abolish The Family And Structure, Julian Barocas

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

There are aspects of society we are taught not to question: government, education, capitalism. These are portrayed as immutable truths that, if presented with a gap in their logical system, are dependent on sidestepping them, referring to the aforementioned immutability, and relying on the status quo to keep their position as societal structures. Sophie Lewis’s most recent case for phasing out the nuclear family structure, Abolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care, demonstrates how the family is another one of these seemingly universal concepts. The unacknowledged reality of the family is historically one a tool of control rather than …

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Persistence In The North Pacific: The Makah People And Their Fight To Protect Their Cultural Heritage, Jeff Cocci Apr 2022

Persistence In The North Pacific: The Makah People And Their Fight To Protect Their Cultural Heritage, Jeff Cocci

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

In the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of North America a whale swims blissfully unaware of its own significance. It is a Gray Whale; scientists would call it Eschrichtius robustus and at nearly forty feet long, it is large enough that it does not have to worry about sharks or other carnivorous animals. Yet there are those that are brave enough to hunt the whale. They are the Makah People of the Olympian Peninsula, in upper Washington state. By doing so, they place themselves at the center of a complex ethical debate amongst activists, scientists, and the general public. …

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Just Mercy: Mass Incarceration And The Death Penalty, Sophie Auerbach Apr 2021

Just Mercy: Mass Incarceration And The Death Penalty, Sophie Auerbach

Politics and International Relations Presentations

My poster will examine criticisms by Bryan Stevenson in his book Just Mercy. Stevenson points to problems in the U.S. Prison and Justice systems, including mass incarceration, racial bias and sentencing, unfair convictions, and why the use of the death penalty is an unjust and impractical form of punishment that should be abolished. My poster will summarize many of these problems, as well as examine supporting evidence and evaluate different proposals for criminal justice reform.

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Reverence And Reliance: Informing An Environmental Ethic, Malik Geraci Jan 2021

Reverence And Reliance: Informing An Environmental Ethic, Malik Geraci

Charles Rice Post-Graduate Research Fellowship

This research fellowship studies the relationship between introduced religious identity and traditional cultural identity within indigenous communities as it relates to environmental conservation practices in Peru.

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Black Women’S Wellbeing: The Intersections Of Race, Immigrant Status, And Mental Health Among African Diasporan Women In Houston, Texas, Sianneh Vesslee Jul 2019

Black Women’S Wellbeing: The Intersections Of Race, Immigrant Status, And Mental Health Among African Diasporan Women In Houston, Texas, Sianneh Vesslee

African American and Africana Studies Summer Fellows

My central research question is: how has white supremacy impacted African Diaspora women’s mental health, access to mental healthcare, and identities as mental health patients in the United States as discernible in advertisements and state policies for psychological wellness? More specifically, I will investigate whether and/or how white supremacy shapes the ways in which advertising and state policies for mental healthcare address the particular needs of black women who immigrate to Houston, Texas from Lagos, Nigeria and Coahuila, Mexico. I choose those geographies because Houston is a U.S. city with one of the highest populations of black immigrants from Nigeria …

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Effects Of Social Media On Self-Image Of Emerging Adults, Floyd M. Curry Jr. Jul 2019

Effects Of Social Media On Self-Image Of Emerging Adults, Floyd M. Curry Jr.

Psychology Summer Fellows

This project extends previous research on social media and self-image and focuses on the developmental phase of emerging adulthood. We measured individuals’ reports of feeling of being in the emerging adult developmental period, their self-concept clarity and ethnic identity, and their use of social media for self-presentation and comparison with others. An online questionnaire was administered to participants who were in the age group of emerging adulthood (18-25 years). Results indicate that those who were in strong agreement that this was a time of experimentation and that this was a time of feeling “in-between” had greater clarity about their self-concept; …

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Who Wins And Who Loses? How Gentrification Caused By Public Transportation Is Felt Differently Across Race, Rosina Shipman Jul 2018

Who Wins And Who Loses? How Gentrification Caused By Public Transportation Is Felt Differently Across Race, Rosina Shipman

Politics Summer Fellows

When does a public good become harmful? And who does it harm? To tackle these questions I take a detailed look at how public transportation affects housing prices. Public transportation is a common good utilized by people of all different socioeconomic levels, but scholars have found that the presence of a new public transportation stop can be a catalyst for gentrification, raising housing prices and displacing previous residents. While this positive relationship between housing prices and public transportation is well documented, there is a lack of literature on how gentrification, caused by public transportation, affects neighborhood-housing prices across race. In …

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The Effects Of Abuse For African Americans Using Critical Autobiographical Analysis, Shelby Carmichael Jul 2018

The Effects Of Abuse For African Americans Using Critical Autobiographical Analysis, Shelby Carmichael

Psychology Summer Fellows

This analysis looks into the effects of sexual and physical abuse on the social outcomes and behavior of black children into adulthood. Incorporating current research findings on the effects of abuse on childhood development, an autobiographical analysis is conducted through the lens of critical theory to see the direct impact abuse has on an individual’s behavior and their social outcomes. Specifically this analysis will investigate the factors of socio-economic background, race, culture, community response to admitting abuse, access to therapeutic resources, externalized behavior, internalized behavior, and adulthood outcomes for African American abuse victims. This research contributes to the sparse literature …

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Understanding The American Subaltern: An Exploration Of Complex Literary Characters Through Socio-Cultural Lenses, Sophie Gioffre Jul 2018

Understanding The American Subaltern: An Exploration Of Complex Literary Characters Through Socio-Cultural Lenses, Sophie Gioffre

English Summer Fellows

This project involves the analysis of three novels — Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Ann Petry’s The Street, and Toni Morrison’s Sula — featuring main characters who are forced to navigate realistic socio-economic environments rooted in racist, sexist, and classist systems of oppression in the United States of America. Through the process of completing close-readings of the novels, conducting extensive secondary research on historical contexts, and examining other scholarly criticisms and interpretations of these novels, I develop new insights into the main characters’ plights. To transfer this conceptual understanding into a more personal and empathetic …

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What It Means To "Take A Knee", Shayna Kushner Oct 2017

What It Means To "Take A Knee", Shayna Kushner

CIE Essay Writing Contest

No abstract provided.

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Investigating Female Indigenous Leadership In Latin America, Roseangela G. Hartford Jul 2017

Investigating Female Indigenous Leadership In Latin America, Roseangela G. Hartford

Spanish Summer Fellows

This project investigates gender constructs and the complex assigned gender roles in settings of female indigenous leadership in Latin America. It examines two distinct indigenous communities, including the BriBri society in Yorkín, Costa Rica and the Maya peoples in Santa Anita, Guatemala that demonstrate the circumstantial spectrum in which women can obtain leadership roles and what actors directly influence this process. Each case study explores the fluidity of gender identities in which concepts of masculinity often guide female empowerment and liberation. With Costa Rica abolishing their military in 1948 and Guatemala experiencing a 36-year civil war (1960-1996) and a major …

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Talk About Race In The Undergraduate Classroom: A Discourse Analysis, Leighnah L. Perkins Jul 2016

Talk About Race In The Undergraduate Classroom: A Discourse Analysis, Leighnah L. Perkins

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

As researchers have noted, many people are afraid to talk about race (Alexander, 2010; Miller & Harris, 2005). Given the race-related events and tragedies occurring in the U.S. today, people need to find ways to move past this fear in order to work together to solve societal problems. Harris (2003) suggested that the undergraduate classroom is a key place to engage in discussions about race. This research project examined the ways that college students talk about race and race-related problems in the classroom. The data collected for this project included observations and audio recordings of three sections of a seminar …

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Statistical Plight Of Black Women, Kimberly-Joy M. Walters Jul 2016

Statistical Plight Of Black Women, Kimberly-Joy M. Walters

Sociology Summer Fellows

The purpose of this research is to examine how television shows and their portrayals of professional Black women impact the interpretation of marriage rates by race and perpetuate ideologies about the angry, unlovable Black woman. Using a content analysis of cable and network television shows with Black professional women as lead characters, this study connects an analysis of the characters’ lived experiences to normative expectations of Black women in relationships to call into question the prevailing narrative that Black women are in part personally responsible for their statistical plight. I will closely study how the two stereotypes, the Jezebel and …

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Reparations For Racism: Why The Persistence Of Institutional Racism In America Demands More Than Equal Opportunity For Black Citizens, Alexander Lowe Jan 2016

Reparations For Racism: Why The Persistence Of Institutional Racism In America Demands More Than Equal Opportunity For Black Citizens, Alexander Lowe

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

No abstract provided.

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Treasure Hunt Without A Map: Archival Research At The University Of Pennsylvania, Meghan Strong Jan 2015

Treasure Hunt Without A Map: Archival Research At The University Of Pennsylvania, Meghan Strong

English Independent Study Projects

Under the supervision of Meredith Goldsmith in the English Department, I spent this semester developing archival research projects for lower level students in the humanities. My project corresponded with the aims of the Council for Undergraduate Research, which works to develop undergraduate research skills throughout the disciplines. The Kislak Center is a nearby resource that has the potential to provide students with opportunities to develop crucial research skills while discovering little pieces of history that are hidden away in the archives. The final exercises presented here focus on the subjects of Walt Whitman, Marian Anderson, and Michel de Montaigne.

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Gathering, Buying, And Growing Sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia Sericea): Urbanization And Social Networking In The Sweetgrass Basket-Making Industry Of Lowcountry South Carolina, Patrick T. Hurley, Brian Grabbatin, Cari Goetcheus, Angela Halfacre Jan 2013

Gathering, Buying, And Growing Sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia Sericea): Urbanization And Social Networking In The Sweetgrass Basket-Making Industry Of Lowcountry South Carolina, Patrick T. Hurley, Brian Grabbatin, Cari Goetcheus, Angela Halfacre

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Despite the visibility of natural resource use and access for indigenous and rural peoples elsewhere, less attention is paid to the ways that development patterns interrupt nontimber forest products (NTFPs) and gathering practices by people living in urbanizing landscapes of the United States. Using a case study from Lowcountry South Carolina, we examine how urbanization has altered the political-ecological relationships that characterize gathering practices in greater Mt. Pleasant, a rapidly urbanizing area within the Charleston-North Charleston Metropolitan area. We draw on grounded visualization—an analytical method that integrates qualitative and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data—to examine the ways that residential and …

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Resistant Place Identities In Rural Charleston County, South Carolina: Cultural, Environmental, And Racial Politics In The Sewee To Santee Area, Cassandra Y. Johnson, Angela C. Halfacre, Patrick T. Hurley Jul 2009

Resistant Place Identities In Rural Charleston County, South Carolina: Cultural, Environmental, And Racial Politics In The Sewee To Santee Area, Cassandra Y. Johnson, Angela C. Halfacre, Patrick T. Hurley

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The cultural and political implications of landscape change and urban growth in the western U.S. are well-documented. However, comparatively little scholarship has examined the effects of urbanization on sense of place in the southern U.S. We contribute to the literature on competing place meanings with a case study from the rural “Sewee to Santee” region of northern Charleston County, SC. Our research highlights conflicting cultural, environmental, and racial politics and their roles in struggles over place meanings. Using focus groups, interviews with elected officials, and participant observation, we document initial African American resistance and eventual compliance with the prevailing anti-sprawl …

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Finding A "Disappearing" Nontimber Forest Resource: Using Grounded Visualization To Explore Urbanization Impacts On Sweetgrass Basketmaking In Greater Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Patrick T. Hurley, Angela C. Halfacre, Norm S. Levine, Marianne K. Burke Nov 2008

Finding A "Disappearing" Nontimber Forest Resource: Using Grounded Visualization To Explore Urbanization Impacts On Sweetgrass Basketmaking In Greater Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, Patrick T. Hurley, Angela C. Halfacre, Norm S. Levine, Marianne K. Burke

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Despite growing interest in urbanization and its social and ecological impacts on formerly rural areas, empirical research remains limited. Extant studies largely focus either on issues of social exclusion and enclosure or ecological change. This article uses the case of sweetgrass basketmaking in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, to explore the implications of urbanization, including gentrification, for the distribution and accessibility of sweetgrass, an economically important nontimber forest product (NTFP) for historically African American communities, in this rapidly growing area. We explore the usefulness of grounded visualization for research efforts that are examining the existence of "fringe ecologies" associated with NTFP. …

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