<p> The purpose of this case study was to investigate the experiences of first-year African American males who participated in a Living Learning Community (LLC) while attending a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), to understand how, if at all, the program had any impact on the participants&rsquo; retention. The conceptual framework for this study was derived from the student integration model (Tinto, 1993). </p><p> Research was conducted on the campus of a mid-sized HBCU located in the southeastern region of the United States. Over a period of four weeks, data were collected from students participating in the LLC. Data collection methods included 12 in-depth interviews, 12 residence hall observations, 4 classroom observations, and information from reports obtained from the institution. Themes and subject categories from the interviews and observations were determined using a combination of In Vivo (Creswell, 2013; Saldana, 2013) and open coding (Corbin &amp; Strauss, 2007). </p><p> Findings from the case study showed students in the LLC perceived they experienced and/or received several academic benefits associated with their participation, such as knowledge and use of academic support services including academic advising, tutorial services, and supplemental instruction. The students also perceived they experienced more social connectivity with their fellow LLC members and participated in more social events compared to those not in the LLC. Additionally, the participants commented the program made it easier for them to make friends, which facilitated a smoother transition to college. Students also directly associated their LLC participation with increasing their likelihood of being retained. </p><p> Based on these findings, a foundation for understanding how LLCs on HBCU campuses can positively impact first-year African American males will be established. The conclusions drawn from the study will advise higher education practitioners on methods to enhance outcomes for African American male students on HBCU campuses using LLC programming.</p>

<p> This thesis examines the public perception of the Ray Rice and Janay Rice intimate partner violence (IPV) incident that occurred on February 19, 2014. This event became the source of thousands of tweets, revealing a representation of public response to IPV through the lens of sports, African American celebrities and gender. Exploring public response through social media, this thesis analyzed a sample of 332 tweets at two time periods, one centering around the NFL announcement of a two-day suspension of Ray Rice and the other later announcement regarding the announced indefinite suspension of Ray Rice. The thesis includes a qualitative investigation of tweet contents to examine public sentiment regarding IPV victimization and accountability during the two time periods. This study expands on research on IPV and social work through being one of the first research projects to integrate an analysis of gender, violence and social media.</p>

<p> This qualitative study examines the critical methods and approaches brought fourth by late nineteenth-century African American women educators Anna Julia Cooper and Frances E. W. Harper in their task of imparting skills for the regeneration of the Black race. Too few people have explored the ways in which their work speaks to the importance of culturally relevant education. Fewer have argued on the relevance of their writings, philosophies, and approaches to present-day educational deficiencies in higher education settings. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore Cooper and Harper's written work and extract themes that may speak to the importance of culturally relevant education. Second, this study sought to offer a critical examination of the possible contributions that Cooper and Harper can make to the pedagogical model of teaching African American students.</p><p> The following published works written by Cooper and Harper were used in this study: "The Colored People in America" (Harper, 1854), "Duty to Dependent Races" (Harper, 1891), "The Intellectual Progress of the Colored Women in the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation: A Response to Fannie Barrier Williams" (Cooper, 1893), and "On Education" (Cooper, 1930s). A close analysis of each text was performed, and patterns and emerging themes were extracted. The data was then coded and reasonable conclusions were drawn about their written work.</p><p> Five key themes emerged from Cooper and Harper's written work: commitment to faith, commitment to freedom, commitment to sacrifice, commitment to resistance and struggle, and commitment to the future &ndash; all of which were characterized under the overarching concept of tradition. The written data demonstrated clear evidence of thought and practice grounded in African culture and tradition. The findings for this study reveal a number of significant ways that the pedagogies of Cooper and Harper can contribute to the pedagogical model of teaching African American student populations in their pursuit of academic success and achievement. </p>

<p> The visualization of recent episodes regarding apparently unjustifiable deaths of minorities, caused by police and federal law enforcement agencies, has been amplified through today&rsquo;s social media and television networks. Such events may seem to imply that issues concerning racial inequalities in America are getting worse. However, we do not know whether such indications are factual; whether this is a recent phenomenon, whether racial inequality is escalating relative to earlier decades, or whether it is better in certain regions of the nation compared to others. </p><p> We have built a semantic engine for the purpose of querying statistics on various metropolitan areas, based on a database of individual deaths. Separately, we have built a database of demographic data on poverty, income, education attainment, and crime statistics for the top 25 most populous metropolitan areas. These data will ultimately be combined with government data to evaluate this hypothesis, and provide a tool for predictive analytics. In this thesis, we will provide preliminary results in that direction.</p><p> The methodology in our research consisted of multiple steps. We initially described our requirements and drew data from numerous datasets, which contained information on the 23 highest populated Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States. After all of the required data was obtained we decomposed the Metropolitan Statistical Area records into domain components and created an Ontology/Taxonomy via Prot&eacute;g&eacute; to determine an hierarchy level of nouns towards identifying significant keywords throughout the datasets to use as search queries. Next, we used a Semantic Web implementation accompanied with Python programming language, and FuXi to build and instantiate a vocabulary. The Ontology was then parsed for the entered search query and returned corresponding results providing a semantically organized and relevant output in RDF/XML format.</p>

The purpose of this study was to explore the facilitators and barriers to six black women's progress toward the principalship through a multiple case study approach. This study focused on the following questions: (1) What are the perceived facilitators to black women's progress toward the principalship? (2) What experiences contribute to the career advancement of black women in educational administration? (3) What environmental factors contribute to the career advancement of black women in educational administration? (4) What role, if any, do mentors play in obtaining positions in educational administration? (5) What are the work-related experiences of black female principals before they gained entry into the principalship? (6) What have been the barriers to black women's progress toward the principalship? / The conceptual framework for this study was based on Estler's (1975) Women's Place Model. A basic tenet to this model is that the major challenge to successful occupational advancement for women lies in attitudes of their promoters, usually men, toward women in education. This model may explain the current status quo of women in educational administration. / The methodological approach selected to conduct this study was naturalistic inquiry which allowed the researcher to work in the natural setting of schools. Six black female principals representing two North Florida counties were purposefully selected to participate in this study. The researcher employed qualitative methods designed to gather information pertinent to the research questions proposed: participant-observation, interviewing, audio-recording, triangulation procedures, and general qualitative case study methods. All observations and interviews contributed to the analysis of the qualitative data and consequent emerging themes. / The data included verbatim translation of the interviews, and "member checks" by the participants to assure accuracy of the final information selected for inclusion in the study. The researcher analyzed the data for themes or common threads that emerged which may have impact on administrators, principals, policymakers and practitioners interested in further examination of this topic. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-02, Section: A, page: 0388. / Major Professor: Judith L. Irvin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study was a rhetorical analysis of two black Louisiana newspapers during the Civil War and Reconstruction era, L'Union and the New Orleans Tribune. / L'Union, a French-English publication, emerged in 1862 as the first black owned newspaper in the South. The paper was founded in New Orleans by a group of free blacks of Creole heritage (African, French and Spanish) who wanted to agitate for equal rights. Mounting negative pressure from its adversaries caused the paper to discontinue on July 19, 1864. / Two days later, one of L'Union's owners, Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez, purchased the stock and the equipment of L'Union and started the New Orleans Tribune. The Tribune became the Louisiana Republican Party's organ in the South, and in October, 1864, it became the first black owned daily in the United States. Conflict among staff members and problems with the Louisiana Republican party contributed to the paper's suspension in March, 1870. / This dissertation answers insofar as possible the following research questions pertinent to L'Union and the New Orleans Tribune. (1) What issues did L'Union and the Tribune cover most frequently in their editorials? (2) What arguments did L'Union and the Tribune advance in support of their positions on these issues? (3) How were the rhetorical proofs of logos, pathos, and ethos (both artistic and nonartistic) used to support the arguments? (4) What was the philosophical basis of the L'Union-Tribune movement? / The investigation revealed that Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez provided the rationale for the political thrust of the two newspapers. As a result of his philosophy, L'Union's argued for emancipation, employment and fair treatment of black troops, and suffrage. The Tribune argued for suffrage, opposed the "free" labor system, and promoted the Freedmen's Aid Association. / Although some of L'Union's arguments for black suffrage were similar to those of the Tribune, each newspaper had a unique argument for each policy that it supported. While both newspapers used all three types of proof (logos, pathos, ethos) to support their arguments, L'Union's arguments were less diverse than those of the New Orleans Tribune and its editorials relied more on emotional rather than logical proof. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-01, Section: A, page: 0012. / Major Professor: Thomas King. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

The dual purpose of this study was to identify a corpus of books which portrayed reading and writing while featuring African American characters in home, neighborhood, and other non-school community settings and to determine if differences existed in such portrayals by African American and non-African American authors and illustrators. / Twenty books were identified as relevant to the study. The text and illustrations of each book were analyzed according to two literacy portrayal categories which were further defined by six sub-categories and various category indicators and indicator exemplars. The two literacy portrayal categories were literacy displays and literacy events. / Both descriptive and statistical analyses were performed on the data. Descriptive analysis yielded the following findings: (1) The African American racial group offered the majority of literacy portrayals. (2) Within the African American racial group, African American illustrators offered almost three times as many literacy portrayals as African American authors. (3) The literacy displays category was portrayed far more frequently than the literacy events category. (4) When literacy events were portrayed, reading literacy events outnumbered writing literacy events. (5) Negative literacy portrayals were minimal. Statistical analysis determined that the African American racial group portrayed significantly more literacy displays and literacy events. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1167. / Major Professor: F. William Summers. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

<p> This study interrogates the resonances of queer utopianism in Octavia Butler&rsquo;s presentation of time in Kindred in order to address the lack of existing scholarship on the novel&rsquo;s relationship with queer temporality. To conduct this interrogation, I utilize the work of queer optimists like Mu&ntilde;oz, Berlant, and Ahmed to deconstruct the text phenomenologically in conjunction with queer pessimists like Halberstam and Edelman to nuance this analysis. To prevent this analysis from being overtaken by a white gaze, I also make use of Black scholars like Morrison, Sharpe, Cooper, Gates, and Collins. In my analysis, I divide Butler&rsquo;s presentation of time into present, past, and future- whereas the present refers to the American Bicentennial and the cultural disconnect the protagonist Dana experiences in her relationship with her white husband, the past signals the pull of Antebellum era white supremacist patriarchy and Dana&rsquo;s need to engage in archival work to reconstitute the history that has been denied to her, and the future implies a nebulousness that blurs both eras together and instills the novel&rsquo;s ending with an ambiguity that lends itself to both pessimistic and optimistic readings. I emphasize how Butler positions Black temporality as a queer temporality in the novel that challenge readers&rsquo; own relationship with the dominant white patriarchal culture.</p><p>

In W. E. B. Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folk there is a story entitled “Of the Coming of John” that features two boys named John, one black from a poor family, the other white from a wealthy family. As the two are away at college each family awaits ‘of the coming of John,’ the title is also a reference to maturity because black John becomes disillusioned with race relations as he is awakened to the injustices that seemed so normal. Like black John, I too went to college far away from my hometown, developed a heightened awareness of society’s racism, and retained a desire to return home to teach youth in my community. And like black John, I want to teach by implementing a pedagogy that promotes equity for black Americans amid inequitable conditions.<div><br></div><div>The research problem addressed in this study relates to the absence of sociopolitical teaching practices in K-12 engineering education, which I argue is necessary for equitable inclusion of underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities in general, and black males in particular. Black Americans are plagued by racial inequities that transcend all domains of societal living (e.g., economics, education, health, etc.); this lamentable reality is the direct result of historical disenfranchisement of this racial group within the United States. Therefore, engineering must be taught with pertinence to the social, political, and cultural realities of the pupils. This self-study was an investigation into my story of living as a black male and studying engineering, and how my experience (along with my sociological understanding of other black males) shaped the way I taught engineering to black boys. Critical autoethnography was used to articulate the cultural and experiential knowledge that guided my instructional methods. Black Critical Theory, an offshoot of Critical Race Theory, served as one theoretical framework for this study because it centralizes the prevalence of anti-blackness as a lens to understand the experiences of black citizens. African American Male Theory is a complementary framework as it takes a broader ecological perspective to analyze the experiences of black male citizens. Taken together, these frameworks reveal the distinct features of American life negotiated by black males.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Resultantly, my life events led me to merge black racial identity, black politics, and the dynamics surrounding the education of black boys to teach K-12 engineering within a critical race pedagogical framework. I was socialized to be present and authentic among the people I want to lead and serve, hence, my devotion to community-engage scholarship. I grew tired of watching educators give-up on black students or become volatile, therefore, I spent time with the hyper-marginalized to build up the requisite resilience to avoid dysfunctional teaching and a cynical demeanor. I have felt undervalued and left-out in some classroom experiences, so I prioritize connecting with students over presenting content. I’ve witnessed engineering educators ostracize and belittle students unwilling to assimilate to its cultural norms, contrarily, I taught black boys with the goal of making engineering relatable to them, not vice versa.<br></div>

Over the years, social scientists have devoted much of their time to understanding the neighborhoods of low-income blacks. However, few studies seek to provide insight into the residential enclaves of middle class blacks. In this project, a case study of a black middle class subdivision in New Orleans, Louisiana is used to understand black middle class community building. Pontchartrain Park was established in 1954 and marketed as New Orleans' first black middle-class subdivision. This analysis of Pontchartrain Park pre and post Hurricane Katrina provides a unique context to understand the process of community building and how the black middle class responds to disaster. Specifically, I investigate how Pontchartrain Park residents use churches and neighborhood organizations to establish and maintain community solidarity over the years, the role churches and neighborhood organizations play in the rebuilding process after Hurricane Katrina and the role of racial uplift in creating and maintaining community solidarity. Multiple-data collection strategies, including in-depth interviews with current and former residents, ethnographic observation of neighborhood meetings and archival research show how original residents relied on the ideology of uplift to create and reinforce the neighborhood's respectable image. I argue that although uplift ideology served as a source of solidarity for the black middle class, it also reinforced oppression and created tension between other blacks in the city. Black middle class community building also sheds light on the changing meaning of black middle class over time. Black neighborhoods, organizations and institutions were once a necessity for original homeowners in Pontchartrain Park. Findings from the case-study, however, suggest that neighborhoods and organizations continue to play a significant role in the lives of the new black middle class despite a decline in overt racism. Finally, in-depth interviews and observations of neighborhood meetings suggest that an uplift ideology has been important in the neighborhood's recovery. I argue that uplift ideology is more than just contesting negative stereotypes through respectable behavior. This ideology also promotes self-help and racial solidarity. In the aftermath of Katrina, neighborhood churches and organizations have been instrumental in providing resources for residents who wish to return to Pontchartrain Park / acase@tulane.edu