(Unrelated), a series of language-based works made up of chalkboard drawings, dictionary erasures and accumulations of text, highlights the inability of language to fully capture notions of modern racial identity. Rather, in (Unrelated), definitions are hidden, revealed, allowed and humored, but rarely settled. It is natural to seek delineation between oneself and all else, but it is a particularly persistent urge for those who engage in the pursuit of racial clarity. In To Be Real, an essay which heavily influenced this body of work, Danzy Senna writes: “Growing up mixed in the racial battlefield of Boston, I yearned for something just out of my reach- an ‘authentic’ identity to make me real. Everyone but me, it seemed at the time, fit into a neat cultural box, had a label to call their own.”[1] (Unrelated) quietly explodes the “neat cultural box.” [1] Senna, Danzy. "To Be Real," To Be Real: Telling The Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism, ed. Rebecca Walker (New York: Anchor, 1995) 6.

This project examines the popular belief that integration of Aboriginal content will ensure Aboriginal student success in schools in Saskatchewan. Given that a high percentage of the teaching population is white identified, it is important that the author, along with these teachers, understand the continuing significance of race and how it continues to matter in education despite the notion that Canada, as well as schools, are race neutral. The primary goal of this project is to provide a race analysis of education using Critical Race theory as a theoretical framework, problematizing the emphasis on Aboriginal culture in dominant educational discourse. Secondly, this project examines the potential of anti racist pedagogy (accompanied by a knowledge base in CRT) to provide professional development for white teachers to assist us in meeting the needs of not only Aboriginal students but non-Aboriginal students as well.

Paul Bonnetain (1858-1899) is a French author whose work has been largely forgotten. While the literary merit of much of his output is another matter, this thesis will show that the value of Bonnetains work is of considerable historical significance as a record of the ways in which the apparently contradictory notions of republican universalism and racial hierarchy were combined to form the French mission civilisatrice. The focus will be on Bonnetains two books gleaned from his time spent in Indochina as a correspondent for Le Figaro during 1884-1885, the compiled journalism of Au Tonkin (1884) and the Naturalist colonial novel LOpium. Both books exemplify the historical interest of Bonnetains work, which lies in its Naturalist quest for scientifically accurate literature and in its belief in the phenomenon of racial degeneration. This belief is coupled with a strongly implied materialist adherence to polygenism the belief that human races represent different species with distinct origins. However, these aspects of his work are brought into even greater relief by their juxtaposition with Bonnetains strongly leftist, anti-clerical, and materialist republican universalism. This thesis describes how his enthusiasm for miscegenation and métissage, as expressed in Au Tonkin and LOpium, allowed him to maintain a belief in racial hierarchy while also enthusiastically subscribing to republican universalism. In this way, métissage served as a framework in which these two seemingly contradictory positions could be held together.

This thesis utilizes a series of seven logistic regression models to examine the predictors of the likelihood of adoption among U.S. women based on the National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle 6. The individual characteristics that have been found most influential in determining adoption behavior in past studies were examined, including age at the time of the interview, parity, fecundity status, and socioeconomic status. A special focus was placed upon the relationship between the race and ethnicity of a woman and her adoption behavior, which has received limited attention in the adoption literature. The results of this analysis suggest that the main determinants of adoption are undergoing change. While findings on the relationship between a woman’s age and her likelihood of adoption are consistent with past research, the relationships of parity, marital status, fecundity status and socioeconomic status with adoption behavior each exhibit surprising developments. Additionally, the results of this analysis reveal that race and ethnicity are important variables in terms of the adoption behavior of U.S. women. The implications of these results, as well as the need for more comprehensive adoption data, are also discussed.

Social comparison theory offers a useful conceptual framework to understand how mainstream American sociocultural values of appearance may shape the development of body image disturbance and eating disorders. Some experimental research demonstrates that women report significantly greater increases in negative affect and body image disturbance and decreases in self-esteem after viewing thin models than after viewing inanimate objects, normal-weight models, and overweight women. The main goal of this study was to investigate whether the effects of viewing thin models are influenced by the ethnicity of the observer and/or the ethnic and racial similarity of the model to the observer. In addition, the study tested the extent to which social comparison tendency, trait appearance evaluation, ethnic identity, and racial identity may moderate these effects. In study 1, women rated the race, attractiveness, and thinness of a group of ethnically diverse models. Study 2 assessed affect, self-esteem, and body image in Euro-American (n = 105), African-American (n = 91), and Latina (n = 111) women before and after viewing ethnically self-similar models, self-different models, or control images. Results indicated that ethnic similarity between model and participants influenced affect such that increased social comparison tendency in Latina participants predicted increased negative affect after viewing Latina models. Additionally, the type of media images viewed and proposed moderators influenced affect and body image. As predicted, positive appearance evaluation was more strongly associated with positive feelings about one’s weight after viewing models and, in African-American and Latina women, increased idealization of Whiteness was associated with decreased positive feelings regarding one’s weight after viewing White models. Unexpectedly, increased social comparison tendency was associated with increased positive affect after viewing African-American models whereas increased social comparison tendency was associated with less positive affect after viewing Latina models. Finally, independent of media exposure, African-American women reported higher appearance-based self-esteem and body image than Euro-American and Latina women and increased social comparison tendency, decreased positive appearance evaluation, decreased ethnic identity, and increased racial identity idealizing Whiteness were each associated with undesirable levels of self-esteem and body image. Clinical implications and directions for future research are provided.

In this study, I specify the reasons why racial minority undergraduate students choose to pursue higher education studies at historically White colleges/universities, despite the schools' potential for diversity controversies. Rather than looking at why students do not attend historically White institutions, I investigate what characteristics of both the educational institutions and the students contribute to students' decisions to stay at historically White institutions despite perceived hostile environments. I also examine students' experiences at historically White institutions, including attitudes toward diversity and any discrimination that they may experience. In doing so, this study adds a fresh yet central perspective to the complex issue of diversity: the opinions of students of color themselves. Doing so may lead to more positive answers and propositions for what administrations can do to increase the percentage of racial minority students. The study is a mixed-methods approach, including 17 semi-structured interviews with Latina/o students and a sample of 287 students who self-identify as racial minorities, including Latina/os, African Americans, and Asian Americans, at a historically White southern university. From these mixed-method results, the following themes were found: 1) The size of a hometown has a statistically significant effect on how often discrimination is experienced, 2) Self-identifying as Black has a statistically significant effect on how often discrimination is experienced, 3) Latina/o students choose to attend SCU because of university affordability, proximity to their home towns, and the university's academic reputation, 4) Latina/o students experience racial oppression at SCU because of the lack of campus diversity, direct racist acts toward themselves and friends, and they consider transferring to more diverse educational institutions, and 5) Latina/o students remain at SCU because they want to make a difference at the university for themselves and others, certain characteristics of the university are appealing, and because of professorial mentors.

Why study Asian American sexual politics? There is a major lack of critical analysis of Asian Americans and their issues surrounding their place in the United States as racialized, gendered, and sexualized bodies. There are three key elements to my methodological approach for this project: standpoint epistemology, extended case method, and narrative analysis. In my research, fifty-five Asian American respondents detail how Asian American masculinity and femininity are constructed and how they operate in a racial hierarchy. These accounts will explicitly illuminate the gendered and sexualized racism faced by Asian Americans. The male respondents share experiences that highlight how "racial castration" occurs in the socialization of Asian American men. Asian American women are met with an exotification and Orientalization as sexual bodies. This gendering and sexualizing process plays a specific role in maintaining the racial status quo. There are short and long term consequences from the gendered and sexualized racist treatment. The intersected racial and gender identities of the respondents affect their self-image and self-esteem. For the women, femininity has been shaped specifically by their racial identity. "Orientalization" as a colonial concept plays a role in these racialized and gendered stereotypes of Asian American Women. The gendered and sexualized racialization process and "racial castration" has impacted Asian American men in a different way than their female counterparts. Violence is a prevalent theme in their gendered and racial formation. Asian American men begin as targets of violence and sometimes become perpetrators. I also analyze how romantic and sexual partners are chosen and examine the dynamics of Asian American intraracial and interracial relationships. While Asian American "success" as "model minorities" is challenging white supremacy, gender and sexuality become "regulating" forces to maintain both the racial and gendered order. Finally, I offer and discuss the resistance strategies against gender and racial hierarchy utilized by my respondents. Asian Americans must be creative in measures that they take for group and individual survival. Respondents resist in intimately personal ways against ideologies. / PDf file replaced 8-28-2012 at request of the Thesis Office.

Black gay male identities and their place within the social hierarchy are organized by interlocking systems of race, sexuality, gender and class. This produces the social marginality of black gay men in seemingly neutral ways. Prominent features of this systemic oppression are stock stories of black gay life that construct black gay men as pathological, dangerous, conflicted, inauthentically black, emasculated, and heretical within public and academic discourses. In order to better understand these dynamics and add to the empirical literature on race/sexuality intersections, fifty-two men identifying themselves as black/African American and as having relationships with other men, participated in semi-structured one-on-one interviews which explored their accounts of the structural arrangements, social interactions, and cultural meaning systems that defined the experience of being both black and gay in America. These interviews revealed that black gay men construct rich and complex counter narratives which not only expose the complex structural arrangements, cultural practices and racial ideologies that produce their marginality, but also remediate black gay manhood as part of the black diaspora. These narrative challenges illuminated discursive, performative and cultural practices, as well as social interactions occurring in three areas of the men‘s lives. First, were strategic uses of a hegemonic masculine form I call the "Super Black Man" (SBM) by which the men counteract the heteronormative, and hypermasculine prerequisites of respectable black masculinity, and represent themselves as racially-conscious and respectable black men. Participants also constructed narrative challenges to those cultural repertoires produced by the black church which organize the dominant scripts of black, Christian identity. These accounts were distinguished by the academic resources they utilized to re-theorize the relationship between Christian faith and the black body, confront the white racial framing and heteronormative assumptions embedded in church doctrine, and transform their outsider status within these communities. Finally participants‘ narratives also illustrate multiple dimensions by which a black racial framing organizes their experiences as black gay men, and their connection to black communities. These negotiations suggest the need to theorize race/sexuality intersections as having both structural and interpretative dimensions and to see the intersection of race and culture as complicating the manifestation of racial inequality.

Activating mutations of genes coding for two different tyrosine kinase receptor, either RET or NTRK1 (also named TRKA), as well as of RAS or BRAF gene are associated with human thyroid papillary carcinoma (PTC). RET or NTRK1 protooncogene encodes a cell-surface transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor with nerve growth factor as its lignand. Oncogenic potential of these two genes in thyrocytes results from replacement of their 5' portion by regulatory parts of other genes, leading to constitutive activation of their tyrosine kinase activity. The four reported oncogenic rearrangements of NTRK1 (TRK) are the consequences of fusion of its tyrosine kinase domain with one of the three genes (TPM3 gene, TPR gene, TFG gene). In our previous study, a PTC sample was found to express the NTRK1 tyrosine kinase domain without harboring NTRK1 rearrangement. We, therefore, assumed that there might have a novel NTRK1 rearrangement in this sample. 5¡¦RACE strategy was employed to clone the unknown 5¡¦end. Sequence of the cloned DNA fragment demonstrated that it is an aberrant transcription product containing an unspliced intron 9. In addition, the variant of NTRK1 wild type termed TRKA¢¹, which lacks exon 9, was also detected in this particular specimen. We conclude that amplification of TK domain of NTRK1 may serve as a rapid screening method for the presence of NTRK1-related transcript in PTCs. Mutations of the BRAF protein serine/threonine kinase gene have recently been identified in a variety of human cancers, especially in melanoma and papillary thyroid carcinomas. Among benign and malignant thyroid tumors, BRAF V599E mutations were reported to be restricted to papillary carcinomas. In this study, we analyzed mutations of BRAF in conjunction with our previous studies on RAS, RET rearrangement and NTRK1 rearrangement in PTCs to investigate genetic alterations in the RAS/RAF/MEK/MAPK kinase pathway. BRAF V599E mutations were detected in 49 of 105 (47%) PTCs but not in other type of thyroid tumor. There was no overlap between papillary carcinomas harboring RET rearrangement, NTRK1 rearrangement and BRAF mutations. Correlation between BRAF mutations and various clinicopathological parameters in 101 papillary carcinomas did not reveal any association with age, sex, tumor size, cervical lymph node metastasis, extrathyroidal extension, distant metastases and clinical stage. We conclude that BRAF mutations are restricted to papillary carcinomas in thyroid tumor. The overall frequencies in our study are in line with data previously reported. In Taiwan, BRAF mutation is the most prevalent oncogene in papillary thyroid carcinomas so far identified.

This dissertation develops and empirically tests a theory of political participation that posits that the local economic context moderates the effects of individuals’ socioeconomic status by influencing their prospective financial outlooks. These perceptions, in turn, affect individuals’ likelihood of engaging in various political activities. I examine the theory using indicators of economic vitality and status both for the entire population and for racial and ethnic group-specific economic conditions. This two-pronged approach allows me to assess the extent to which group-specific conditions are more salient for minority group members than are more traditional contextual (full population) measures that reflect the economic status of the entire population. Thus, such questions as whether blacks’ financial outlooks are influenced more by the visibility of black-owned businesses or by the total visibility of business activity are addressed. Hypotheses are tested using the 1992 National Election Study, the 1995 Texas Minority Survey, and economic data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, 1992 Economic Census. Results indicate that the financial perceptions of blacks and Latinos are significantly related to levels of political activity while the financial outlooks of Asians and whites are not significantly related to their political activity.