Using queer and Afrofuturist frameworks, this Black feminist qualitative study explored queer Black pre-and in-service teachers' cultural and intersectional practices as they navigated traditional heteronormative educational spaces. This research study relied on counternarratives and storytelling and drew from Afrofuturism to understand the use of their lived experiences to counter monolithic queer narratives. The queer Black teachers in this study examined and negotiated how their Blackness and queerness showed up in teacher preparation programs (TPP) and K-12 classrooms. Moreover, they eventually refused to hide or censure their authentic selves. An analysis of the narratives and counternarratives showed that queer Black teachers drew from ancestral traditions to create queer Afrofuturist spaces in TPPs and educational places. Furthermore, due to their queer Black intersectional approaches, their classrooms, assignments, curriculum, and pedagogy disrupted normative teaching practices. Implications, recommendations, and future research are discussed.

This study explored media discourse of gender violence against Black women in Black contemporary films. Four Tyler Perry films were examined using a novel, qualitative and analytical framework: Black Feminist Discourse Analysis. Discourses that were studied include, but were not limited to: portrayals of gender violence and victims, character dispositions and interactions, stereotypes, relationship dynamics as well as portrayals of race, gender, sexuality and religion. The use of new and existing controlling images based on systems of race, gender, sexuality and religion were revealed in a transitional and systemic model. Common themes across the films are provided. This research closes with concluding assertions grounded by existing literature and the current study’s findings, as well as recommendations for future film writing and production and implications for social work.

While Black women have etched a place for themselves as leaders within colleges and universities, few have advanced to the most senior levels of postsecondary administration and they remain underrepresented in those type of roles (Gamble & Turner, 2015; Jackson & Harris, 2007; West, 2015). Scholarly research has explored Black women’s experiences as institutional leaders (Davis & Maldonado, 2015; Smith & Crawford, 2007; Waring, 2003); yet the phenomenon of executive-level higher education administration, specifically as it relates to Black women’s perspectives, is not well known (Enke, 2014; Jean-Marie, Williams, & Sherman, 2009). Moreover, research that directs attention to Black women’s unique leadership experiences as executive-level leaders within a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) is scarce (Gamble & Turner, 2015; Mosley, 1980; West, 2015). This transcendental phenomenological study examined the perceptions of Black women’s leadership experiences in their roles as executive-level higher education administrators at a PWI and strategies they used to cope with their experiences. Black Feminist Theory, which centers the narratives of Black women and explores how intersecting oppressions impact their everyday lives, was used to frame the study. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews and a review of relevant documents were used to collect the voices of four Black women executive-level leaders. Data collected were analyzed using Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological method of analysis and synthesized to reveal an essence of the experience of an executive-level higher education administrator at a PWI from the Black woman’s vantage point. Results indicated the meaning ascribed to the experience of being an executive-level higher education administrator were rooted in: Knowing Who You Are, Developing as a Leader, Engaging in the Rules of the Game, Building Relationships, and Navigating Bias and Conflict. Further, Finding Strength through Spirituality, Relying on Family and Friends, Pursuing Enjoyable Activities emerged as strategies used to manage the phenomenon. This study offers a unique view into Black women’s lived experiences and their perspective on leading at a PWI as an executive-level higher education administrator. Findings contribute to building transformative change at colleges and universities by providing insight and knowledge about the experiences of Black women in higher education administration.

While the number of African American women filling executive level positions in Fortune 500 companies in America has improved, there is still a need for significant improvements in increasing their access to corporate chief executive officer (CEO) positions. African American women occupy only 11.7% of the board seats, and their representation as CEOs has steadily declined. Throughout the history of Fortune 500 companies, there have been only 14 African American men with CEO titles. As of January 2017, there are no African American women CEOs. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences and perceptions of 15 African American women who aspire to be chief executive officers in corporate America. The experiences and perceptions of these women were examined to understand why there is a limited number of African American women CEOs despite their increase in executive level roles. The responses from 15 African American revealed that the increased numbers of these women in the executive leadership level resulted from diversity initiatives that made it possible for these women to return to school, and provided a context in which organizational leaders could recognize their talent. The organizations' use of diversity initiatives contributed to practices that legally allow them to minimize the number of minorities they hire at the executive level. The theoretical framework included elements from critical theory, critical race theory, and black feminist theory. The increased representation of these women at the executive level contributes to positive social change because the information adds to the existing literature on the lack of African American women CEOs in corporate America and may provide knowledge that will guide other women pursuing this role.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to give voice to the experiences of African American female pastors of African American churches and their perceptions of gender and equity as it pertains to their role in the pastorate. This phenomenological study identified the lived experiences of each participant through her personal narrative, which reflects her path from birth to present. Participants’ experiences as a senior pastor provided a personal historical path of the journey of female pastors for a span of four decades. This dissertation shares the challenges, barriers, and support to female pastors. This study examined personal characteristics, acts of leadership, and acts of negotiating the system within the African American church. The participants’ ages ranged from 40-70+. The findings of this study indicated that there has been a slow change in the acceptance of female pastors. Female pastors have been a part of our culture since biblical times, but resistance is still present.

This applied anthropology study, guided by a feminist perspective and in particular, Black Feminist Thought is an outgrowth of an evaluation study of the Partnership for Peace Program (PFP) in Grenada, West Indies. The PFP is a Caribbean-specific model that was built into a sixteen-week cycle program by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UNWomen). Since 2005, the PFP has been geared towards Grenadian men, who have used violence against women to express their masculine identities. PFP focuses exclusively on rehabilitating male perpetrators with a goal to protect the human rights of women. This research evaluated the PFP program, using qualitative and quantitative methods to measure the program's impact based on the behavioral changes that male participants adopted to avoid violence against women. Furthermore, this study investigated the relationship between masculine identities and domestic violence, exploring the significance of violence actions as markers of Grenadian masculinities. The findings presented show the impact of the PFP on the lives of PFP men, the women associated with the PFP men and the PFP stakeholders. The results illustrate the socio-ecological nature of violence and the power leverages that enact gendered messages for Grenadian men and women. Those entities were used to establish some theoretical understandings about Caribbean Violence.

"Saving White Face: Lynching and Counter Hegemonic Lynching Performances," examines American lynching as hegemonic performances constitutive of discursive and material practices that reinforce a cultural fiction, white supremacy. "Lynching studies" is identified as an interdisciplinary academic project that includes lynching history, analysis and (activist) cultural production. Among other approaches, "Saving White Face" uses psychoanalysis and ethnography to unmask lynching as a site where race- and gender-based identities originate. Lynching's "materialities," such as lynching photographs and souvenirs are examined as the bases of American consumer culture, especially as they relate to football and (the) O.J. Simpson (ordeal). This work also documents the production of my Chamber Theater adaptation of Bebe Moore Campbell's 1992 novel, Your Blues Ain't Like Mine (also entitled "Saving White Face"). I also contextualize this counter hegemonic performance as a lynching drama, as well as among radical black feminist activism and blues performance. As such, lynching is identified as an emergent performance practice which not only reinforces white identity, but lynched subjectivities, as well. / text

The purpose of this life history qualitative study was to explore the Counter-Life Herstories of African American women faculty in U.S. Computing Education. Counter-Life Herstories are derived from Counterstories, life histories, and herstories as powerful social justice tools to uncover hidden truths about marginalized groups’ experiences. Through the collection of timelines, counter-life story interviews, and reflective journal writings, I co-constructed and interpreted the Counter-Life Herstories of five participants using an integrative conceptual framework that included critical race theory and Black feminist thought as interpretive frameworks, and Afrocentric feminist epistemology to govern my knowledge validation process. As an emerging African American woman scholar, with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I have a “unique angle of vision” to situate African American women’s distinctive educational experiences in the social-political context of U.S. Computing Education. In this study, I build upon limited knowledge about African American women’s experiences throughout U.S. Computing Education. My discoveries indicated unequivocally that my participants’ persistence in U.S. Computing Education was not solely based on their early positive reinforcements or strong academic preparation, but their resilience and ability to bounce back from insurmountable barriers, such as negative stereotypes and biases. This inquiry directly supports the U.S.’ national interest to diversify the Computing workforce, while revealing hidden truths about African American women’s experiences in U.S. Computing Education.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis / The goal of this thesis is to understand the relationship between the evolving representations of African American women in post-Civil Rights era films about the Transatlantic slave trade; the portraits these images present of black women and their history; and how these films approach the issues of difficult heritage and re-presenting atrocity in entertainment. Film shapes the ways in which we understand the past, leaving a lifelong impression about historical events and the groups involved. By analyzing the stories, directorial processes, and the public responses to four films of 20th and 21st centuries focused on the controversial historical topic of American chattel slavery and its representation of the most underrepresented and misunderstood victims of the Peculiar Institution, this work will argue that, when supplemented with historiography and criticism rooted in historical thinking, cinematic depictions of the past make history more accessible to the public and serve as a form of public memory, shaping the way the public thinks about our collective past.