Social Justice Commons^™

Border Fascism And The Fascistization Of Society, Nicholas P. De Genova

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

The massive destruction and social dislocation wrought by capitalist crisis has culminated, historically, in the brutal cataclysms of fascism and other forms of authoritarian rule. Today, across the globe, we are confronted with the aggressive advance and entrenchment of a variety of such authoritarian political projects. Anxious discourses about ascendant fascism have become perfectly mainstream. These developments command our acute attention and critical analysis. This essay addresses these dire questions and the conceptual vexations surrounding the concept of fascism, particularly as it has been elaborated in various Marxist analyses.  Specifically, much of the debate around fascism as an analytical category …

An Exploration Of The Psychological Impacts Of Code-Switching, Cristina Culler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of four Black American adults who have frequently engaged in code-switching. Historically, code-switching has been perceived as a necessary skill that helps marginalized folx adopt the norms and practices of the dominant culture. As a result, code-switching has become a routine practice specifically for Black Americans who often occupy white spaces. Since code-switching has been perceived as a skill, the oppressive origins of code-switching often go unnoticed. Therefore, this dissertation examines code-switching through a critical lens that deems this practice a product of racist ideologies that prioritize whiteness. Through …

Promises Fulfilled: 114-Year-Old Alelia Murphy’S Life Of Faith And Resilience, Jacqueline B. Koonce

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Alelia Murphy was the oldest living person in the United States, turning 114 in July 2019 until her death in November 2019. She and her family credit her longevity to her faith in God. This premise is explored through her words as she stated she had not seen everyone she needed to see and compared that statement to Simeon from the Bible who did not die until he saw the Messiah. Alelia Murphy also had not seen everything. She was seeing the relative success of her much admired, former President Barack Obama, and she had just met me, her great …

Objects In The Sunset, Iskander Guetta

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

This research explores everyday design practices in the Maghreb shaped by economic, political, and ecological struggles amid transnational debates on decolonizing design. To do so, it looks at objects in, through and with the sunset. Taking المغرب — the place where the sun sets — as a conceptual lens, Objects in the Sunset illuminates the savoir-faire born from dispossession, scarcity, and epistemic violence. Working across different scales of the built environment — infrastructures, spaces, objects, and materials — it shifts design away from Eurocentric conceptions: from rationalization to resourcefulness, homogeneity to heterogeneity, optimization to adaptation, disposability to repair, and universal …

Just City And Racialized Media: How A Non-Profit Provokes Policy And Fights Criminal Injustices, Isabella L. Wollfarth

LSU Master's Theses

This study explored the intersection of racialized media narratives, nonprofits, and penal policy through a case study of Just City, a nonprofit criminal justice organization located in Shelby County, Tennessee. Through the lens of Just City, this study explored how nonprofits resist racialized media narratives regarding crime and how in turn this contributes to penal policy reforms. This is accomplished using a thematic analysis to draw larger conclusions from coding Just City’s Instagram and through extensive interviews with Just City staff and local Shelby County and Tennessee politicians. These methods are guided by framing theory, an ideological framework that explains …

System Disparities: Racial Criminalization And The Risk Of Coerced And False Confessions In Youth, Cynthia J. Najdowski

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Black youth may be even more vulnerable than other youth to admitting to crimes they did not commit in the context of police interrogations. In support, analysis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations indicates that 65% of people who were wrongfully convicted on the basis of false confessions they gave when under 18 years old are Black, whereas only 14% of the U.S. population is Black. In this chapter, I seek to understand the overrepresentation of Black youth in samples of juvenile false confessors by examining the cultural stereotype about Black criminality in relation to both investigators and …

Critical Feminist Editorial Praxis: My Tenure As The First Journal Editor Of Color Of Communication Monographs, Srivi Ramasubramanian

Media Studies - All Scholarship

In this essay I theorize about Critical Feminist Editorial Praxis, which envisions journal editing as a site for scholar-activism. I use the term activism because to counter the hegemonic whiteness and coloniality of Communication knowledge requires active efforts to go against the taken-for-granted processes and practices. Journal editing is a significant location for interventions because this is often where we learn what is considered cutting-edge scholarship within our discipline. This significance is especially clear when the journal in question is a flagship publication of a leading professional organization. As I end my tenure as the first editor of color of …

Women, Race, Recovery: How Some Of History’S Most Impactful Thinkers Reflect On Their Own Healing, Karol Cooper

Gatherings

With examples from influential women of color feminists, the essay points to some obstacles in the way to developing a true practice of recovery for women of color academics whose research brings them in continual contact with histories and enactments of harm against women and people of color. As women of color in higher education, articulating our health and healing needs in our own terms would help us clear a path to promoting ourselves as whole and healthy persons, in addition to promoting us along a career path. The essay collects reflections on health struggles from famous women of color …

Casar Public Lecture: The Fierce Battle For The 2024 Us Presidency: Race, Gender, And The Power Of Identity Politics, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

In light of the upcoming 2024 US Elections, we hosted this lecture on SUNDAY OCTOBER 27TH - 1-2 pm titled: "The Fierce Battle for the 2024 US Presidency: Race, Gender, and the Power of Identity Politics." Speakers: CASAR guest speaker Dr. Sherri McFarland - moderated by CASAR Assistant to Director and Adjunct Faculty Yasmeen El-Ghazaly. Dr. Sherri Lynn McFarland's academic and professional careers demonstrate her passionate desire to contribute to the economic, social, and political progress of African and Middle Eastern North African (MENA) countries and their diasporic communities. Her keen interest in the people of these regions led her …

Adopting Stuart Hall’S “Race, The Floating Signifier” As A Conceptual Framework Within Aquatic Research And Education, Kurt J. Cordice

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

During his 1997 lecture at Goldsmiths College in London, Stuart Hall, renowned for his contributions to sociology and cultural studies, offered his argument that the concept of race functions as a Floating Signifier. In this essay, Stuart Hall’s Race, the Floating Signifier is presented as a strong conceptual framework to support more accurate and effective positioning of race as an important consideration within aquatic research and education. Evidence from a range of disciplines, including historical research, is presented to establish both the importance and challenge of race within aquatic research and education. This evidence is also used to demonstrate …

An Examination Of How The Ethno-Racial Socialization Process Influences Women Of Color’S Engagement With Mental Health Treatment, Kairys M. Grasty

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Women of Color (WOC) are uniquely deterred from engaging with traditional mental healthcare services due to the generational harm that has been wrought to Communities of Color when accessing support in generations’ past and present (Godoy-Ruiz et al., 2015). Thus, to protect WOC from further marginalization, parents and caregivers disseminate messages to WOC about their gender and racial identity during the ethno-racial socialization (ERS) process. While this process is intended to be protective, an unintended consequence is that it can socialize WOC to be distrustful of others and reluctant to engage with mental health services to support their mental health. …

There Is No Finish Line: The Ramps Framework – An Evolving Model For Working With Racial Identities In Sport And Performance Psychology, Dylan Vas

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

The field of sport psychology has persisted in its calls for action on increasing cultural competence, being more inclusive of underrepresented identities, and progressing towards social justice (AASP, 2024b; Bejar et al., 2022; Fisher et al., 2003; Martens et al., 2000; Quartiroli, et al., 2023; Ryba et al, 2013; Ryba et al., 2024). This work attempts to contribute to these calls by providing attention on racial identity – including the proposal of an actionable and novel model, The Racial Identity Model of Psychology in Sport (RAMPS) Framework. The proposed model incorporates publications from sport psychology, clinical psychology, and social justice …

Racial Differences In Global Satisfaction At A Predominantly White Regional Comprehensive University, Philip B. Mason, Michelle Petrie

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

In the face of tightening state funding and increased reliance on tuition and growing enrollment, regional comprehensive universities continue to focus on the retention of students. Underserved students continue to represent areas of growth in college enrollment at regional comprehensive universities; yet these students are often at the highest risk of attrition. Overall institutional satisfaction is among the most useful indicators of student persistence, but research demonstrates that students of color report lower levels of overall satisfaction than their white counterparts. Scholarship on college student persistence documents several variables that predict higher retention, progression, and graduation rates among students. Research …

Invisible Intersections: Race, Adhd, And The Role Of Disciplinary Actions In Academic Outcomes, Miles Feller

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

Race is a marginalized identity linked to significant achievement gaps for Black and Latino students in the USA (de Bray et al., 2019). These students experience higher rates of exclusionary school discipline (ESD) than White and Asian peers (Aud et al., 2010; de Bray et al., 2019), with suspensions correlating to lower academic performance (Del Toro & Wang, 2022; Wang et al., 2023; Owens & Hinshaw, 2016). Additionally, developmental disabilities like ADHD intersect with these issues; despite narrowing racial disparities in diagnoses (Cénat et al., 2022; Fairman et al., 2020), access to treatment remains uneven (Baglivio et al., 2017; Coker …

Spirometry: For The Winds In Us, Kendall Allison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Spirometers are devices used to measure lung capacity. This capstone is a creative study of what restores our breathing aptitude as a response to the suffocating and alienating consequences of whiteness for people racialized as white. The project is a sequence of lyric essays. The first lyric essay frames whiteness as a condition of exile and examines the cultural and emotional currents that shore it up. I use exile as a frame to emphasize the intensity of the spiritual and cultural alienation that people racialized as white experience. I also contextualize the dis-ease of suicide in my own lineage, and …

‘Casar Public Lecture: 100 Days Of Trump: America, The Middle East, And Beyond’, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

The entire world is literally getting new updates about Trump's internal & external policies almost everyday now....can you imagine that we are still yet to reach 100 days?? USAID cuts, Chinese and Canadian Tariffs, DEI revokes, Gaza War, Ukraine War, the case of Iran, National Economic Emergency in the US, ICE arrests in the US & so much more to discuss.....Trump's policies impact the US as well as everywhere in the world, but what are the repercussions so far?

Speakers: From AUC: Dr. Sean Lee, Assistant Professor, Political Science Department - Amb. Dr.Alaa El-Hadidi , CASAR Adjunct Professor.

The panel …

Moving The Goalposts: American Sports Coverage In Newspapers And The Construction Of Gender, Race And Sexuality In The Olympics In 1928, 1932, 1936., Jacob Havers

All Theses

This thesis takes an in-depth look at the media coverage of women in the Olympics in 1928, 1932 and 1936. Specifically following the track athletes Kinue Hitomi, Louise Stokes, Tidye Pickett and Mildred “Babe” Didrikson the thesis explores how by being athletic women they had their identities as feminine figures heavily questioned and scrutinized in newspapers at the global level. The harshest of these critics was often the American media, who held strict standards of race, gender and sexuality in the late 1920s-mid 1930s. They sought to uphold these standards at the global scale, and the American media’s interrogation of …

Role-Ing While Bipoc: Understanding The Experiences Of Table Top Role Playing Game Players Of Color, Jordan K. Posey

Dissertations

In 2015, controversy surrounded the interactive computer game Mission US: Flight to Freedom. The game was unveiled as an accessible way to teach about American chattel slavery by mixing elements normally associated with roleplaying games (RPGs), Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs), and social studies curriculum. The conversations surrounding the game exemplify the complicated history of RPGS/TTRPGs and the limitations of gamification in educational settings. This qualitative study aimed to analyze aspects of gaming culture through a critical race lens by documenting the experiences of Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TTRPG) players identifying as Black, Indigenous, and a Person of Color (BIPOC). Using a …

The Invisible Default: Examining Representation In Digital Collections, Kaylee P. Alexander, Dorothy Terry, Jasmine Kirby, Rachel Jane Wittmann, Anna Neatrour

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

This mixed-method study investigates the representation of race and ethnicity within the J. Willard Marriott Digital Library at the University of Utah. The digital collections analyzed in this study come from the Marriott Library’s Special Collections, which represent only a fraction of the library’s physical material (less than 1 percent), albeit those most public facing. Using a team-based approach with librarians from various disciplines and areas of expertise, this project yielded dynamic analysis and conversation combined with heavy contemplation. These investigations are informed by contemporary efforts in librarianship focused on inclusive cataloging, reparative metadata, and addressing archival silences. By employing …

Gender, Age, Class And Racial Stereotypes, And Power Relations In Television Ads: 2011-13 Vs 2021-22, Thomas D. Clark, Julie Stewart

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This article demonstrates how faculty and DEI experts can use resources included in this paper to highlight how a range of stereotypes are created and reinforced in television ads, and it identifies several topics for future analysis. To understand how depictions of gender, class, age, and race intersect in 8 television ads featuring the relationship between the race of individuals depicted in romantic and platonic relationships this article examines 4 pairs of commercials from 2011-2013 and 2021-2022. Drawing on concepts of intercategorical complexity, it describes product, setting, characters and relationships to help gain a deeper understanding of how various stereotypes …

Visuality Of Race In Popular Culture: Teaching Racial Histories And Iconography In Media, Joni Boyd Acuff, Amelia M. Kraehe

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The repetition of racist imagery from historical to contemporary popular culture is indicative of a lack of visual culture education among artists, designers, and other creative cultural producers working today. This paper addresses the dearth of resources for teaching visual codes and conventions of racial iconography that are recycled in popular media and contribute to the fabrication of racial differences, maintenance of racial hierarchies, and normalization of white supremacist ideology. Inspired by Critical Race Theory in art and visual culture education, the essay proposes teaching tactics and sites/sights that can support students in developing visual understandings of race in popular …

Afrosurrealism, Aristotle, And Racial Presence In Netflix’S Luke Cage, Angela D. Mack

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This essay examines Netflix’s Luke Cage as a rhetorical reading of racial embodiment and productions of the cultural identity of Blackness and People of Color, and the tensions they produce to help audiences understand the current climatic flux between racial hostility and American idealism. With only two seasons in the small-screen version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Cheo Hodari Coker’s adaptation of the 1970s Blaxploitation Power Man comic foregrounded the recent wave of superhero narratives that expanded minority/gender representation from both major comic houses (MCU and DC Extended Universe [DCEU]). This examination employs the lens of Afrosurrealism, a conceptual …

Roger Williams University Law Review Symposium: Trauma-Informed Lawyering: Approaches To Advocating For Diverse Populations November 15, 2024, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Relationships Between Demographics In Vermont’S Court Diversion Participants, Jennifer Hill

Student Theses

As solutions to mass incarceration continue to emerge, court diversion programs and specialty courts across the United States have grown as alternative options to the traditional criminal legal system. The State of Vermont has been utilizing court diversion programs for over 50 years to address harm in their communities. Court diversion has proven to be effective in reducing recidivism, improving cost efficiency and connecting individuals to their communities. However, what has gone unexamined are the potential disparities in opportunities for diversion participation along demographic lines. This study utilized a chi-square test of independence to explore the relationships between age, gender, …

Abriendo Puertas: Exploring The Challenges To Homeownership And Housing Stability For Latinos In Massachusetts, Lorna Rivera, Phillip Granberry, Bianca Ortiz-Wythe, Michelle Borges

Gastón Institute Publications

This report speaks to the current state of housing for Latinos in the Commonwealth; and it’s not great. Areas where Latinos still face inequities are compounded in a way that directly impacts access to housing and thus, ability to build generational wealth, or at the very least housing stability. We have solutions to these issues, like rent control, transfer fees, zoning changes, and even tax credits. What we lack is enough political power to have our voices make a larger impact, as Latinos own their homes at 32.7% , this issue is directly correlated to our low homeownership rates, often …

Teacher Beliefs And Experiences Addressing Healthy Racial And Ethnic Identity Instructionally Through Social Emotional Learning, Juliana Gutierrez

Theses and Dissertations

Children and youth develop within an ecological context that includes family, peers, and broader social environments including school. Children’s understanding of their ethnic or racial group and the meaning they attribute to belonging in that group is also shaped by interactions in their school environment. Most research on school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) programs has focused on student behavioral and academic outcomes. However, as SEL spreads across U.S. K-12 schools, questions have emerged surrounding how children from diverse racial and cultural groups and unequal opportunity can benefit from universal SEL programs. Using a mixed-methods design, this study explores teachers’ understanding and …

School-To-Prison Pipeline, Samuel S. Honas, April Terry

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Kindergarten through grade 12 schools are institutions where youth go to learn, grow, and sculpt their minds for their future. For some youth, schools do not present a warm and welcoming environment, and instead, respond in ways that create negative outcomes for certain youth. Factors like bullying, poor student-to-teacher interactions, and negative parental attachment can cause youth to have problems in school. Minority youth are also more likely to get in trouble in school for the same behaviors as their white counterparts. The school-to-prison pipeline is a pathway that begins in the school system that operates under the notion of …

Conflict And Race In Literature & Law. The Case Of Americanah, Emanuela Ignatoiu Sora

Comparative Woman

In Americanah, the 2013 novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, there is a scene when one of the characters, Laura, speaks of her Ugandan classmate who did not get along with an African-American colleague. Laura is surprised as, for her, all persons of color are similar, with no understanding for their differences in background, personal stories and experiences. The novel depicts and critiques this very categorization of race, which flattens differences, conflating groups and individuals who might share very little, if anything. For a long time, law (with its stipulations, precedents and rulings) has operated in a similar manner, disengaging …

An Exploratory Study Of Anti-Black Racism In Social Media Behavior Intentions: Effects Of Political Orientation And Motivation To Control Prejudice, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Samantha A. Wilcox, Justine K. Brace, Melissa Anderson

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Considering the widespread prevalence of racist content and opinions on social media, there is a pressing need to understand how users react to such content in ways that might lead them to be drawn into echo chambers of racism, hate speech, and potentially even violence. We conducted an online study to investigate how two individual differences—political orientation and motivation to control prejudice (MCP)—may predispose people to accept anti-Black racism expressed in social media messages. Non-Black participants viewed racist and egalitarian mock social media posts and reported how likely they would be to respond favorably and/or engage in supportive social media …

The Quest For Racial Equality After The Revolution: How Black Intellectuals Envision The Struggle For Equality After Jim Crow And Apartheid, Shelby Morgan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This paper examines the ideas presented by Black public intellectuals from South Africa and the United States regarding their solutions on how to achieve real racial equality after the achievement of equality under the law. It will provide a historical comparative analysis of the two countries by examining the works of George Fredrickson, as well as some contextual background on the existence of racial disparities in the modern day. It will then present various publications by American intellectuals Ibram X. Kendi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Cornel West, and South African authors Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Songezo Zibi, and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi that discuss their …