This study used a national sample of substance abuse treatment centers to analyze predictors of drug treatment completion among a sample of black women compared to white women, white men, and black men. Data are drawn from the Treatment Episode Data Set - Discharges (TEDS-D) 2006, which is representative of treatment programs in 42 states and the District of Columbia. The sample consisted of black (n= 356,701) and whites (n=926,216). Results indicated that race, gender, and level of education (social class variable) all had statistically significant associations with drug treatment completion. That is, when compared to all the other respondents in the study, (i.e., black men, white women, and white males) black women were less likely to complete drug treatment. This study also found that blacks were underrepresented in drug treatment programs when compared to whites. This disparity is even more prevalent for black women. Overall, analyzing group differences in treatment outcomes and sociodemographic characteristics, black women appeared to be socioeconomically worse off than black men, white women, and white men. In fact, black women had significantly lower rates of employment and were almost twice as likely to report that their income source was from public assistance. Black women were less likely to be married, employed full-time, and were significantly more likely to report using cocaine or crack at the time of admission and indicate that cocaine or crack was their problem drug. Finally, when compared to other groups, black women were less educated, had lower drug treatment completion outcomes, were more likely to receive public assistance, and have lower employment rates. Again, these findings are not surprising and are consistent with a multitude of literature on drug treatment outcomes. / Ph. D.

As female performers of son, the members of Orquesta Anacaona are in dialogue with gendered discourses about the masculinity of son and with feminist discourses about music as a space of resistance to masculine domination simply by existing. Son performance and son scholarship are a “paradoxical space” for the members of Anacaona: their performance of “masculine” music on “masculine” instruments was an act of transgression, while some responses to the group (scholarly and otherwise) reinforce patriarchal structures that devalue women. I examine references to race and gender in Cuban music through son and through portrayals of the mulata in popular theater, both of which are relevant to identities claimed and enacted by Orquesta Anacaona. Using Orquesta Anacaona as a case study, I point out the ways in which narratives of music in Cuba have subordinated women, especially women of color, as well as ways in which Cuban women have resisted oppression through musical performance. In light of the constant presence of women in Cuban music, as well as inconsistently complete scholarship on gender and sexuality in Cuban music, I conclude that a great deal of work can be done on gender in Cuban music and that future scholarship should continue to push toward a third-wave feminist perspective. / text

This thesis examines the ancestor figure in African American women writers’ neoslave narratives. Drawing on black feminist, critical race and whiteness studies and trauma theory, the thesis closely reads neo-slave narratives by Margaret Walker, Octavia Butler, Gayl Jones, Toni Morrison and Phyllis Alesia Perry. The thesis aims to reconsider the ancestor figure by extending the definition of the ancestor as predecessor to include additional figurative and literal means used to invoke the ancestral past of enslavement. The thesis argues that the diverse ancestral figures in these novels demonstrate the prevailing effects of slavery on contemporary subjects, attest to the difficulties of historicising past oppressions and challenge post-racial discourses. Chapter 1 analyses Margaret Walker’s historical novel Jubilee (1966), identifying it as an important prerequisite for subsequent neo-slave narratives. The chapter aims to offer a new reading of the novel by situating it within a black feminist ideological framework. Taking into account the novel’s social and political context, the chapter suggests that the ancestral figures or elderly members of the slave community function as means of resistance, access to personal and collective history and contribute to the self-constitution of the protagonist. The chapter concludes by suggesting that Walker’s novel fulfils a politically engaged function of inscribing the black female subject into discussions on the legacy of slavery and drawing attention to the particularity of black women’s experiences. Chapter 2 examines Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1978), featuring a contemporary black woman’s return to the antebellum past and her discovery of a white slaveholding ancestor. The chapter introduces the term “displacement” to explore the transformative effects of shifting positionalities and destabilisation of contemporary frames of reference. The chapter suggests that the novel challenges idealised portrayals of a slave community and expresses scepticism regarding its own premise of fictionally reimagining slavery. With its inconclusive ending, Kindred ultimately illustrates how whiteness and dominant versions of history prevail in the seemingly progressive present. Chapter 3 discusses Gayl Jones’ Corregidora (1975) and its subversion of the matrilineal model of tradition by reading the maternal ancestor’s narrative as oppressive, limiting and psychologically burdening. The chapter introduces the term “ancestral subtext” in order to identify the ways in which ancestral narratives of enslavement serve as subtexts to the descendants’ lives and constrict their subjectivities. The chapter argues that the ancestral subtexts frame contemporary practices, inform the notion of selfhood and attest to the reproduction of past violence in the present. Chapter 4 deals with Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) and Phyllis Alesia Perry’s Stigmata (1998) exploring complex ancestral figures as survivors of the Middle Passage and their connection to Africa as an affective site of identity reclamation. The chapter identifies the role the quilt, the skill of quilting and their metaphorical potential as symbolic means of communicating ancestral trauma and conveying multivoiced “ancestral articulations”. The chapter suggests that the project of healing and recovering the self in relation to ancestral enslavement are premised on re-connecting with African cultural contexts and an intergenerational exchange of the culturally specific skill of quilting.

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This autoethnographic study was inspired by my own lived experiences with mathematics and mathematics education as a Black female. My study uses my voice to share my own history and my experiences of mathematics education. It was first inspired by my mother and later by my primary and secondary school teachers. My autoethnography is situated within the South African context of continued unequal education provisioning along economic and racial lines. My autoethnography takes cognisance of my own context of being born a Black woman in a South African Black township. Therefore, Black feminist theory was deemed a relevant theory for the study. I personally conducted this study in order to tell my story to others who might find themselves in similar situations. The study is approached from a qualitative perspective and uses autoethnography as the methodology. My mother, father, peers, and primary and secondary school teachers are used as the contributors in this study. I have made use of self-interview, personal memory, archival records and critical conversations to collect data. Through my autoethnography, I hope to fill the gap in the underrepresentation of Black females in mathematics. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Humanities Education / MEd / Unrestricted

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In this study I aim to use my body as a tool to derive themes for use in performance making and to underpin this in theory. I focus on aspects of Tadashi Suzuki (1986) actor training (referred to as Suzuki training), free writing and the body. I use black feminism, cognitive neuroscience and body theory to account for my lived body, which I then use in performance. Practice and theory informed each other in a cyclical manner in accordance with Practice as Research as a methodology. Therefore, elements that emerged from my practice determined the theory included in the study, as practice was considered a way of knowing. I work to establish a relationship between race, subjugation and some of the multiple implications thereof on the body in the urban context: I draw on limited notions of culture and the body to interrogate how these can materialise in performance. The study also addresses aspects of the performing body to support why I derive value in Suzuki (1986) training as one psychophysical actor training tool. I theoretically discuss this technique as developing expressive abilities in young performers. The primary purpose of this research is to create work that is rooted in the tradition of devising. My research moves between the physical body and the body in performance in a South African context as I worked to conceptually account for the body in both instances. Although limited, this research includes theories that account for the performing body engaged in somatic foot-based practices where these interact with my practice. I further discuss the devising process I undertook with a cast, as a performance maker, my findings and reflection on this process.

This thesis focuses on the use of feminist humor as a method of coalition building among African American women. It is motivated by the central question: what are the ways in which comedic performances may act as both a rebellious counter to dominant views of women of color in the United States and a way to articulate feminist ideologies? More specifically, I am interested in how African American women utilize comedy to articulate specific standpoints and build solidarity. As comedy is often used to persuade and perhaps bond audiences, it is important to continue research in the rhetoric of humor—especially that which takes into account comedy that challenges hegemonic systems and builds cohesion among oppressed groups. I wish to address ways in which theories of humor may work to include not only feminist modes comedy, but performances that also address the intersections of oppressions—including race, class, sexuality, etc. I will be examining the 2001 film The Queens of Comedy starring standup comedians Laura Hayes, Adele Givens, Sommore, and Mo’Nique. A follow-up on the 2000 movie and live standup tour The Original Kings of Comedy, the film depicts the four women’s comedic routines at the Orpheum Theatre in front of a predominately Black and predominately female audience. I argue that the Queens’ use of humor acts as a method to articulate intersections of oppression from a Black female perspective. This creates a specific counterpublic space, defies dominant views of Black American women and fosters cohesion among sympathetic audiences. The first chapter works towards a theory of feminist humor—one that builds off of current comedy research by integrating radical feminist thought (mostly that of Black feminisms). Chapter two identifies anti-feminist dimensions of the Queens’ performances in order to understand unsuccessful (and perhaps harmful) methods of rhetorical humor. Chapter three closely examines dimensions of the Queens’ performances that articulate Black feminist thought and how those performances encourage coalition building among Black women. Chapter four will draw critical implications and address concerns for those interested in humor as a method of encouraging social stability and change. / text

Prior to the fall of 2011, only eight African American female playwrights had ever been produced on Broadway. In this context, the 2011-2012 Broadway season made theatre history when it featured the work of three black women playwrights: Stick Fly by Lydia Diamond, The Mountaintop by Katori Hall and an adaptation of The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess by Suzan-Lori Parks. This project, which focuses on Diamond’s Stick Fly and Hall’s The Mountaintop as Broadway debuts of new plays, seeks to situate these works within a post-black aesthetic that rejects narrow and limiting constructions of blackness. This project also recognizes the significance of Diamond and Hall as female African American playwrights whose texts allow for complex representations of black womanhood, and proposes that the relationship between post-blackness and black feminism is fluid and permeable, allowing us to better understand both the meanings of blackness and the experiences of black women. / text

This is a critical discourse analysis research project that examines the print and television advertisements of Merck & Co.’s Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine GARDASIL®. There are three commercial campaigns identified for this project: “Make the Connection/ Charm4Life,” “Tell Someone,” and “One Less/ I Choose.” Two print and two television commercials per campaign are analyzed. I used black feminist and girls studies theoretical frameworks to address how representations of race, class, “girl power,” and the cooptation of feminist language are both expressed and utilized in the marketing as a method to target consumers. I conclude with “parody/ protest” advertisements of the vaccine featuring young women demonstrating a critical consumer voice towards the marketing of the vaccine. As a result, I found that the PSAs used fear-driven messages about HPV’s link to cervical cancer beginning a year before the FDA’s approval of GARDASIL® in order to market and sell its product.