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This thesis centers around my autoethnographic performance 900 Gallons; it explores the importance of re-membering oppressive family histories and white supremacist legacies in particular. First, I explore the theoretical frame that whiteness studies offers this project, considering the ways in which performance can disrupt hegemonic whiteness, with specific attention to white invisibility, cultural appropriation and supremacy. Next, I discuss the project’s primary methodologies: performance autoethnography and queer genealogy. Performance autoethnography, I argue, illuminates the discursive potential of privileging both critical distance and critical intimacy. Queer genealogy foregrounds the importance of historiographical descent as well as dissent. Together, these methods reveal the resistant possibilities of embodied scholarship. Finally, I investigate the risks and possibilities of re-performing oppressive histories, arguing that when these narratives are performed with a critical difference, they can create radical possibilities. The Appendix includes the complete 900 Gallons script, as it was performed at the University of Texas on November 3 and 4, 2011. / text

This body of work endeavours to interrogate mainstream media and popular culture [mis]representations of racialized persons, in addition to the negative impact such imageries have on identity formation processes - principally amongst populations of young men and women of African descent. While this work focuses on North American contexts, this examination is applicable to all peoples in the African Diaspora. I intend to uncover the learning possibilities for racialized youth, by introducing an educational model that prepares students to critique various forms of media, as well as teaching and encouraging them to create their own realities through the use of a critical form of media education in multiple level classrooms, starting with those in the Toronto District School Board. The ultimate goal of this project is to propel racialized students to move away from the [mis]educative effects of the media, toward beginning to define themselves on their own terms.

Thesis advisor: Andrew F. Miller / This qualitative case study of a single district explored how Latinx educational leaders made sense of their practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and our nation’s recent racial reckoning. The district in this study claimed a commitment to anti-racist practice through their mission, vision, and public commitment. To respond to the research question, a culturally responsive leadership conceptual framework from Khalifa et al. (2016) and Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth theory adapted from critical race theory was used. Who is in front of students matters—their identification with teachers and school leaders can have a significant impact on their outcomes (Ladson Billings, 2021; Tatum, 2017). In Massachusetts, Latinx students make up over 21% of the population, yet only 3% of educators identify as Latinx (NCES, 2018). To respond to the research question, qualitative methodology was used to collect data through six semi-structured interviews of educational leaders who identified as Latinx. The participants in the study held a variety of impactful yet non-traditional leadership roles within their schools and district. Findings revealed two important distinctions in the analysis of the data: (a) the challenges Latinx leaders face in their practice compares to national trends; and (b) participants were leading from classrooms and across the organization beyond traditional leadership roles. Furthermore, all participants had a clear understanding of the equity-centered initiatives and efforts put forth by the district to promote the district’s anti-racist commitment. This provided commonality in language across all six interview participants when making sense of their practice within the context of their work in the district. Nonetheless, incongruencies persist in how these educators perceived the impact of their leadership practice—specifically during the last two years—which exposes a disconnect between the district’s stated commitment to equity and the participants’ understanding of their practice. Additionally, a critical finding suggested that each interview participant identified strongly with their diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds as assets to supporting students. Understanding the experiences of these Latinx educational leaders—namely their challenges, biases, and microaggressions—can help develop culturally responsive schools and districts and build educators’ skill sets around supporting Latinx students. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Andrew Miller / This qualitative case study explored anti-racist educational leadership during a time of crisis, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic and our nation’s recent racial reckoning, within a Massachusetts school district. The study used Critical Race Theory as its theoretical framework and Community Cultural Wealth as its conceptual framework. This study examined the experiences and perceptions of Black educational leaders and the associated outcomes of leveraging community cultural wealth for communities of color. Data were collected through interviews, a focus group, a survey, and a review of documents. Findings revealed an experience of racism for Black educational leaders consistent with research that asserts that Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) leaders face racist challenges (Frank et al, 2019). Findings also present the perception of an opportunity in this historical moment for anti-racist work at the individual and system levels through increased attention to racism across the country, specifically anti-Blackness. Black educational leadership in the district experienced a decrease in daily microaggressions. In pursuit of anti-racist work, Black educational leaders leveraged social and resistant capital to sustain them in the field. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

The novel Bifocal, a fictional young adult novel that examines the racist backlash that occurs at a high school after a male Muslim student is arrested on terrorism charges, was published in 2007 and has received wide critical acclaim for its portrayal of issues of racism. Working from an anti-racist framework, this research interviews two teachers who have used the novel in their classrooms, and considers the value and limitations of the book as an anti-racist teaching tool. Through discussions about specific themes in the novel and its overall presentation of racism, I argue that, while Bifocal presents some useful interventions, it also reflects a simplistic and individualistic perspective on racism and how racism can be addressed. I also examine the ways that Bifocal – and young adult literature in general – can be read in order to encourage more critical discussions about systems of racism and privilege.

The novel Bifocal, a fictional young adult novel that examines the racist backlash that occurs at a high school after a male Muslim student is arrested on terrorism charges, was published in 2007 and has received wide critical acclaim for its portrayal of issues of racism. Working from an anti-racist framework, this research interviews two teachers who have used the novel in their classrooms, and considers the value and limitations of the book as an anti-racist teaching tool. Through discussions about specific themes in the novel and its overall presentation of racism, I argue that, while Bifocal presents some useful interventions, it also reflects a simplistic and individualistic perspective on racism and how racism can be addressed. I also examine the ways that Bifocal – and young adult literature in general – can be read in order to encourage more critical discussions about systems of racism and privilege.

This thesis investigates why British Asians are under-represented as professional footballers proportionally to their numbers in the overall population. Fundamentally, it is both an account of how young, male, British Asian footballers interpret and explain their under-representation in the professional game, and a critical analysis of the strategies and policies employed by the anti-racist football movement to overcome this phenomenon. The central problematic is that anti-racist football organisations are often out of touch with contemporary manifestations of "Asianness" and so the ideologies that underpin their schemes and initiatives are often in direct conflict with the attitudes and aspirations of young, male, British Asian footballers themselves. Using ethnographic research methods - namely semi- structured interviews with large numbers of professional and amateur British Asian footballers, professional football coaches and members of anti-racist football organisations, together with observations of matches, training sessions and social occasions involving British Asian players - this thesis seeks to overcome the previous "silencing" of British Asian footballers. It places their oral testimonies at the centre of the analysis of exclusion. Theoretically, this thesis examines how football interacts with issues of `race', ethnicity, nation, class, locality, family, generation, religion, style and consumption to construct new articulations and experiences of "Asianness". Consequently, the analysis calls for sociological frameworks that no longer essentialise and dichotomise "South Asian" and "British" cultures but that, instead, appreciate how, in the twenty-first century, these elements are actively fused to create specifically British Asian identities and lifestyles. In this regard, this thesis provides a sensitive and timely contribution to the fields of ethnic and racial studies, football and young people.

The no borders movement has been an important site of anti-imperialist resistance, and as such it provides a valuable point of entry into problematizing the contradictions that constitute the relations of consciousness, praxis and ideology. By tracing the recent history of no borders activism in relation to the intensification of neoliberalism, and the prevalence of diffuse models of power, the analysis illustrates the ways in which critical praxis has been limited by the current milieu. Working from an anti-racist feminist perspective I utilize examples drawn from no borders activism to demonstrate the very real limits of informal and incidental learning in social movements. The analysis argues against the supplanting of consciousness with subjectivity as a way to avoid the problems associated with structuralist analysis. Instead, I have suggested that critical education for social action requires a dialectical engagement with the social relations that we live in, contest and transform.

The no borders movement has been an important site of anti-imperialist resistance, and as such it provides a valuable point of entry into problematizing the contradictions that constitute the relations of consciousness, praxis and ideology. By tracing the recent history of no borders activism in relation to the intensification of neoliberalism, and the prevalence of diffuse models of power, the analysis illustrates the ways in which critical praxis has been limited by the current milieu. Working from an anti-racist feminist perspective I utilize examples drawn from no borders activism to demonstrate the very real limits of informal and incidental learning in social movements. The analysis argues against the supplanting of consciousness with subjectivity as a way to avoid the problems associated with structuralist analysis. Instead, I have suggested that critical education for social action requires a dialectical engagement with the social relations that we live in, contest and transform.