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<p>Forwarding a narrative that, in many ways, runs contrary to `official'/sanctioned accounts which designate the body of the black woman as the principal star of nineteenth-century racial science's empirical investigations and sexual exploitations, I propose instead a vision of our nation's 1800s that marks this era as the moment in American history in which Hottentot Venus turned Hot-to-trot-Penis. Remaining indebted to the works of Sander Gilman and his contemporaries, and paying special attention to the ways in which both the erotic vicissitudes and imperialist vagaries of the European empire effected a fairly fluid cross-Atlantic exchange during this time period, I locate the late 1840s and early 1850s as the seminal moment in which, through a collaboration of scientific, social, and popular texts the black male body specifically first becomes installed in this country, on the mainstages of both our early spectacular culture and the American psychic theater, as a `pornographic body': an indigenous site of sexual taboo upon and through which the dark fantasies of the Whites who had imported these bodies might be projected. Recognizing, in this mid-nineteenth century moment, what should be seen as a distinctive, while as yet unremarked, shift in both the discourse and displays offered by America's peculiar brand of ethnography as well as within our national arena--one which turns to and turns on the conception of the black male as sexual subject--my dissertation hopes to offer a better understanding of the compelling forces, both social and salacious, that might be said to account for this distinctly American, and distinctively perverse, representational refocusing.</p> / Dissertation

<p>National Crimes and Southern Horrors examines the contested meanings of the terms civilization, race, and empire in trans-Atlantic conversations during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. It argues that understanding these dialogues requires us to understand the interplay between regional and transnational definitions of these terms. It further explains both white Southern opposition to empire at the end of the nineteenth century as well as white Southern acceptance of their region as similar to European empires and imperial mission described in Rudyard Kipling's poem, "The White Man's Burden." Reading newspaper US and British articles and editorials, international periodicals, personal papers of activists and politicians in both the US South and Britain, it uncovers the dynamic definitions of race, empire, and civilization at play in the work of constructing the US South as both a part of and distinct from the imperial world. Reading conversations about Irish home rule, the gold standard, international bimetallism, British interactions with white and black Southerners, the disfranchisement of black men in the US South, the construction of Jim Crow, lynching in the US South, Turkish atrocities in Armenia, the Philippine American War and the Boer War, it reveals that to understand the transnational development of white supremacy in imperial sites in Africa, Asia, the West Indies, and the US South requires to look not only at the ways whites within each site defined their right to rule but also in the ways they looked to each other. It also argues that understanding the place of the US South within trans-Atlantic conversations about race and civilization but also regional politics and the ways that regional concerns structured and limited how people in Britain and the US South saw each other. Through comparison and conflict, the US South was an essential part in constructing global color lines, and imperial ideologies worked to prop up white Southern defenses for segregation and Jim Crow.</p> / Dissertation

<p> Research on teacher expectations has given limited attention to the voices of African American males. This study used counterstories to explore how African American male high school students described and experienced high expectations in the classroom. Through focus groups and interviews, twelve African American males shared their experiences, offered insights into how they negotiate through classroom environments with few high expectancy interactions, and made recommendations for how teachers can effectively convey high expectations. Low expectancy interactions left participants feeling intellectually inferior, antagonized, or ignored, while high expectancy interactions fostered hope, high quality work, and synergystic engagement. Findings from this study indicate the participants not only experience bias in teacher expectations, but they assume and expect teachers will generally have low expectations of them until proven otherwise. Participants described paradigms and strategies they employ to navigate these experiences in the classroom. Critical racial consciousness, resistance, resilience, and beliefs about learning were concepts used to analyze their responses. The implications for this study present a &ldquo;call to action&rdquo; requiring a shift in professional development, paradigms, pedagogy and institutional practices implemented with relentless intention to facilitate African American male success. Teacher expectation is a lever that creates opportunities and facilitates deeper learning; therefore it is imperative that researchers capture more African American male perspectives and experiences to inform teacher practice.</p>

This study examines black identity and alienation Nella Larsen's and Tsitsi Dangarembgal’s Passing and Nervous Conditions. The novels demonstrate the authors' interpretation of the conditions within their respective societies of the impact of slavery and colonization on Africana women. As a springboard in the development of these issues, Frantz Fanon's seminal works Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth and the DuBoisian notion of double consciousness were used in analyzing the attitudes and behaviors of the oppressed and oppressor of Africana women. This study was based on the premise that wherever black people are located, the issues of black identity and alienation surface in Africana women's literature. The literary ethnographic method posited by Frederique Van De Poel-Knottnerus and J. David Knottnerus, "Social Life Through Ethnography," was used in the analysis of the selected texts. The results of the research illustrate that the assimilation process causes the Africana women protagonists to be alienated within the general society as well as their own families and culture. The dissertation demonstrates that assimilating within societies brings forth a sense of alienation that results in a black identity crisis for the characters.

This study examines the images of African Americans in black-themed sitcoms and mediated messages presented here. The study was based on the premise that the images of African Americans on television sitcoms are one dimensional and comedic. A content analysis approach was used to analyze various television sitcoms. Definitions were used to determine what type of image existed using the foundation provided by Donald Bogle and Stewart Hall. The researcher found that although many of the African-American-themed sitcoms investigated represented traditional stereotypical images, there were mediated messages in these sitcoms, which offered a new and different perspective on African Americans. This suggests that African-American images on black-themed sitcoms are moving forward. Additionally, the researcher found that sitcoms depicting African-American life from a comedic point-of-view seem to be more acceptable in popular culture than those which depict life from a dramatic and/or realistic point-of-view.

This study examines social factors associated with the disproportionately higher incidence of Alzheimer's disease in the African American population. Ninety participants were selected for the study utilizing non-probability convenience sampling. The survey participants were composed of primary care givers of Alzheimer's clients. The findings of the study indicated that socio-economic factors were a significant variable in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's' disease. Respondents 65.9% reported that participation in research was not equally shared by all ethnicities. The results of the study revealed that 56.8% of respondents allowed patients to remain in the home due to support of other family members. The finding of access to health care was measured by information on medication and health care alternatives being provided to the care giver at the time of the diagnosis. Respondents (61.2%) reported no information given at the time of the diagnosis. The research findings related to stressors of caregivers of Alzheimer's patients were not found to be significant.