Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Dana M. Britton / Historically, relationships between police and residents in minority communities have often been contentious. However most of the literature on race, place, and policing has focused on the policing of Blacks and their interactions with the police in urban settings. Building on this work, this study aims to capture similar processes of racialized policing as they occur in the suburbs. This project expands our understanding by exploring policing as it is carried out in a marginalized Black enclave located in a predominately white middle class suburb. Specifically, I focus on Meacham Park, which is a segregated enclave annexed to the nearby white community of Kirkwood, Missouri. Drawing on interviews with thirty African-American residents of Meacham Park, I explore how residents experience policing and their attitudes toward the police. The interviews reveal a contentious history of relations between residents and the police, and I discuss respondents’ accounts of specific experiences with police surveillance, harassment, and (in some cases) misconduct. However, though many respondents reported extremely negative attitudes toward the police, the great majority also reported at least some positive interactions and experiences. This study extends research on the policing of minority communities into a segregated suburban context and offers implications for improving relations between the police and minority communities.

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies / Charles Griffin / The year 2015 provided a hotbed of discussion about trans* identities. Caitlyn Jenner’s public announcement of her identity as transgender shortly followed by Rachel Dolezal unveiling as a woman with Caucasian heritage. Using publically accessible interviews such as the Diane Sawyer interview with Bruce Jenner, both of Matt Lauer’s conversations with Dolezal and Jenner, Melissa Harris-Perry’s interview with Dolezal, as well as two Vanity Fair stories provide a space for a closer examination of how trans* identities are negotiated in a conversational setting. Using Hecht’s (1993) communication theory of identity to investigate how the four proposed frames (personal, enactment, relationship, and communal) operate under the lens of trans* identities in flux. This thesis aims to explore the kinds of linguist framing motifs used by both an exemplar of the transgender community and an individual treading the barrier between Caucasian and black identities, ultimately leading to a discussion about how language confines personal and socially structure identity and identification. The implications of this identity work tangles with the reliance on personal experience as an expression of identity and its persuasive power to impact discourse. The linguistic tropes that confine identity expression inherently impact a community of individuals struggling to navigate trans* identity acceptance in a larger sphere.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to create a believable, multiple dimension character portrayal of Jack Lawson in David Mamet’s Race. Documentation of the process will include: an explanation of the acting technique and analysis used to create the backstory and portrayal of the character; insight into the background and beliefs of playwright, David Mamet; and a personal review of my growth and performance.

The objective of this study was to determine whether programs in DeKalb County, Georgia, provided services that were relevant for successful resettlement of refugee women. Moreover, the principal goal of this study was to learn about the views of the women as to the barriers they faced and what factors were helping them achieve self-sufficiency. A comparative analysis was conducted on three of the largest refugee ethnic groups in DeKalb County: Vietnamese, Somalis and Bosnians. Using the theory of adaptation, the researcher investigated resettlement agencies and their role in assisting the refugee women in resettlement. The study examined the relationship among the services provided, the nutritional health status of refugee women served and the ability of the women to become functionally self-sufficient. The conclusion drawn from the data collected consisting of structured questionnaires suggested that there was a need for more services especially designed for refugee women.

Interracial contact in South Africa continues to be fraught with tension. Many investigators have used the contact hypothesis to explore the relationship between contact and prejudice in South African samples, which has revealed the highly complex character of interracial contact. With much of the research on interracial contact being quantitative in nature and comparatively little qualitative work being done, few studies have looked at perceptions of interracial contact and none can be found which have used Q-methodology as the method of investigation. The aim of the study was to uncover groups of people who have similar perceptions about interracial contact in South Africa through the factor analytic process inherent in Q-methodology. Q-methodology is a comprehensive way of looking at people’s views, attitudes, opinions and beliefs on a topic and has both qualitative as well as quantitative dimensions, making it unique method which can shed a different kind of insight into the subjectivities of interracial contact compared to traditional research methods. Q-methodology is explained in some detail and supported as the best approach for exploring perceptions of interracial contact in South Africa given the country’s history of racial segregation and complexity of intergroup dynamics. The study used a non-probability, volunteer sample of 55 undergraduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand. A centroid factor analysis was performed on the data followed by a varimax rotation, which yielded four groups (“factors”) of people with similar patterns of subjectivities on the topic of interracial contact in South Africa. The groups were labelled the experientialists, ethnocentrists, segregationists, and integrationists based on their distinct patterns of perceptions of interracial contact in South Africa.

Thesis advisor: Michael Malec / My motivation for this research study comes from my own experience with and observations of body image issues among female students on the Boston College campus, as well as my observations of and research into the homogenization of beauty in the high-end fashion industry. Through various social institutions, namely high-end fashion media, our society supports an extremely narrow definition of beauty for women (read: White and thin/ultra-thin). There is an overwhelming lack of representation of women of color and women who do not fall in line with the thin body standard. I aim to contribute where there are holes in the conversation regarding diversity and exclusionary practices in the high-end fashion industry. Chiefly, I seek to contribute to an understanding of how fashion industry producers might continue to engage in the homogenization of beauty while evading liability with intermittent diversification effort. I conduct a content analysis of 11 issues (past and contemporary) of the high-end fashion magazine, U.S. Vogue. The units of measurement for my data collection are images, articles, and text produced by Vogue, as well as featured advertisements produced by other industry players. My data consists of recorded frequencies and two major codes (Race and Body Type) with various sub codes. I ultimately conclude that: (1) despite our society’s supposed increased sensitivity to diversity and diversification effort, we have made little progress on this front in the fashion industry (especially body type representation); and (2) U.S. Vogue does in fact continue to engage in racial exclusion while concealing its liability via the practice of racial capitalism. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: Deborah Piatelli / This study serves to contribute to the growing literature on the effectiveness of diversity trainings. Previous studies on diversity training have produced inconclusive results for diversity training goals, evaluation techniques, and success. These studies rely largely on quantitative methods and large data sets looking at representation, biases, and economics. This study examines the impact of diversity trainings from a different lens. Specifically, in a society that increasingly adheres to a post-racial ideology, diversity trainings can serve as a tool to deconstruct the basis for racial power and privilege and expose the persistence of racism in the workplace. This qualitative, inductive study allows diversity trainers and managers to discuss in-depth their views on diversity and diversity training. Diversity trainers delineated five diversity training models, all of which discuss power and privilege in different ways or not at all. The presence and nature of this discussion becomes a product of a diversity trainer’s personal beliefs and the culture of the organization where training will occur. Manager interviews showed that individual differences in racial awareness entering the training can mediate how managers respond and react to diversity training material. The combination of the training model, organizational culture, and individual racial awareness combine to determine whether or not individual and institutional change around racial power and privilege will occur. Overall, power and privilege is not a common feature of diversity trainings, however diversity training can be used to further this discussion and fight against racism. A model is proposed that presents a way for diversity trainers to combine diversity training models to promote organizational goals, as well as counter post-racial ideology to create critically inclusive and egalitarian workplaces. Moreover, suggestions are made for researchers to better evaluate diversity trainings in the future, so as to truly determine the extent to which diversity training can be used to further organizational goals. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology.

M.A.(Media Studies), Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / This research will critically analyse “conscious” hip-hop music and the way in which it contests media and mainstream ideas in the media. Conscious hip-hop refers to rap music that critically engages with hegemonic discourses and popular culture. It is framed and named in this manner by both the performers/ artists themselves as well as by leading hip-hop scholars within South Africa and globally. This research uses the music of Godessa and Brasse Vannie Kaap to interrogate representations of Black identities and gender in society.

The aim of this research study is to assess the ability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TpB) to explain people’s intentions to interact interracially on a social level. It aims to understand the influence of students’ attitudes, perceptions of social norms and efficacy on these intentions. A questionnaire survey was administered to 226 students (37% White, 31% Black African, 27% Asian and 4% Coloured). The questionnaire was based on the standard format of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). The TpB model explained 35% of the variability in intention, providing support for its predictive power. The attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control components of the model had good predictive ability demonstrating the usefulness of the model as a means to explain and predict intention to mix interracially. The results indicated that attitudes to mixing was the most powerful predictor of intention to mix inter-racially followed by perceived ability to effect this behaviour. Perception of social norms, while also statistically significant, was the least important factor. The findings suggest that the major obstacles to inter-racial interaction are intergroup attitudes and perceived inability to make such contacts.

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