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Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Kakali Bhattacharya / The purpose of this narrative case study was to explore the lived experiences of four Black undergraduate collegiate women leaders in higher education in their third and fourth years of study in a predominantly White Midwestern institution. This qualitative study was conducted with purposeful and criterion-based sampling. The participants selected needed to be at least a student leader in a registered student organization at one time during their collegiate career. Narrative inquiry was used to explore the participants’ racialized, gendered, and leadership identity development prior to college and throughout the course of their collegiate careers. The participants’ narratives were organized using Bildungsroman format, or as a coming of age story. Findings indicate that although the participants identified as Black women and Black women student leaders, their racialized identity was much more salient than their gendered identity. Therefore, outside of biological markers like menstruating and becoming mothers, they were not able to articulate the development of their intersectional identity. Findings also show the participants had a certain amount of self-confidence and critical self-awareness that allowed them to succeed even when faced with racialized and gendered discrimination as individuals and within their roles as student leaders. Such obstacles contributed to their ability to just do when faced with challenges regardless of the difficulty level of the challenge. The study raises implications about the multitude of support systems that Black women and girls have upon entering college. Another implication is the amount of invisible labor that Black women as collegiate leaders do in order to support their fellow peers. Finally, this study raises implications about the deficit narratives that depict Black women’s and girls’ stories within education. Thus, this study presented a counternarrative to the traditional, negative, and stereotypical narratives that are untrue and detrimental to the racialized, gendered, and leadership development of Black women and girls within and beyond the education system.

M.A., Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, 1983

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Johannesburg, June 2016. / This dissertation will focus on spin-3/2 perturbations on N-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes, with the aim of calculating the numerical values for the quasi-normal modes (QNMs) and absorption probabilities associated with these perturbations. We begin by determining the spinor-vector eigenmodes of our particles on an (N-2)-dimensional spherical background. This allows us to separate out the angular part and radial part on our N-dimensional Schwarzschild metric. We then determine the equations of motion and e ective potential of our particles near the N-dimensional black hole. Using techniques such as the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin and Improved Asymptotic Iterative Method we determine our QNMs and absorption probabilities. We see that higher dimensional black holes emit QNMs with larger real and imaginary values, this would imply they emit higher energy particles but that these particles are highly dampened and therefore would be di cult to detect. The results of the QNMs make sense if we also consider the e ective potential surrounding our black holes with the potential function increasing with increasing number of dimensions.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-66)

The research approach governing my work is interdisciplinary, including religious history, hermeneutics, theology, and sociology of religion with an emphasis on the intersections of religion and culture. My dissertation uncovers notions of healing through an attempt to transform social and racial reality within African American Christian thought and life. Making the Wounded Whole challenges the dominant assumption that black Christianity, is governed by a primary theological focus on corporate liberation. Accordingly, it uncovers a deep concern with healing---in relation to bodily, political, spiritual, and social restoration---as a theological thrust fueling black Christian religion. I reveal this concern through an interrogation of the bio-political and socio-political significance of enslavement and its consequences. This theme of healing and identity (re)formation manifests itself within various aspects of religious life and activity---among them are ritual and worship, aesthetic presentation, Scriptural interpretation, and general resistance to racial oppression. I argue that such practices are in consequence therapeutic, in that social and political imagination is recast in ways more suitable for a healthy existence. I locate these practices as a particular style of religious life and therefore a way of understanding the nature of black Christian experience. Ultimately, this work connects these ideas to normative Christo-religious practices found within the black enslaved experience during the antebellum period.

<p>This study investigates what continuities and divergences exist among selected Black autobiographies. The selected autobiographies of slaves, creative writers, and political activists are discussed both as texts produced by individuals who are in turn products of specific societies at specific periods and as interconnected books. The project pays particular attention to the various societies that produce the autobiographies directly to identify influences of environmental and cultural differences on the texts. To foreground the network these autobiographies form, on the other hand, the study adopts a cross-cultural approach to examine the continuities and divergences in them. The texts analysed are selected from Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean. Chapter one discusses some previous studies in Black autobiographies, the comparative model for studying Black autobiographies, the choice of the term autobiography, what constitutes Black autobiographies, and the self-in-service-of-community pattern of Black autobiographies. Chapter two theorizes Blackness as one of the continuities in the texts studied and foregrounds its transformative capabilities. Since various Black societies have experienced one form of colonialism or another and are in one post-colonial stage or another, chapter three discusses the relevance of post-colonial theory to a transnational study of Black autobiographies. Chapter four discusses oral African autobiographies as parts of institutionalised autobiographical traditions in African societies and the ways in which features of orality influence the written forms of the genre. Chapter five situates slave autobiographies as counter-narratives to the colonial encounter in William Shakespeare's <i>The Tempest</i>. Along with chapter five, chapters six and seven examine the continuities in Black autobiographies in terms of Blackness, resistance, the importance of naming, community, and rewriting history in the face of racist accounts of the past, and divergences in relation to concepts of Africa, religion, gender, and language. The concluding chapter summarises the continuities and divergences earlier discussed and suggests possible future directions in the study of Black autobiographies.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-133). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR29564

Representations of Blacks have had its limitations on television. The Black sitcom has proven to be a fruitful place of analysis as it relates to the presence of Black bodies and the portrayal of Black culture. The lack of accurate depictions and the portrayal of a diverse Black culture has been a challenge for many years. The Cosby Show (1984-92) however, has been hailed for representations of Blacks as upper class, educated, and portraying a two-parent house hold. With this, an overwhelming amount of scholarly research on Black sitcoms surrounds The Cosby Show. Other shows that have a fair amount of scholarship include Amos and Andy (1951-53-) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96). As I am constantly reminded through song lyrics and social networks that my peers are still reflecting about the sitcom Martin, I am also intrigued by its lack of exploration by scholars in the field. As Martin does not portray status and wealth, or educated professionals it is my assumption that this lack of research is reflection of the presumed low significance of the show. There appears to be an obvious divergence between academic and Hollywood's coverage of the show and viewers engagement with the show. 15 years after the show has aired new episodes, many of my peers indulge as if it never left. This paper seeks to further explore the sitcom and its critiques. Through a survey I poll viewers to explore how viewer's opinions can inform future discussions about the show. My exploration of the show through song lyrics, social network posts and survey results will reveal valuable components and complicate discourse of the shows reception, ultimately contributing to the scholarship on Black sitcoms. / text

In an effort to accentuate the need for Black Psychological theory, research and methodology within the field of Africology, Africana professor Dr. DeReef Jamison argues that in order to gain a full understanding of the African American experience, Africana scholars must consider the importance of Black Psychology as it relates to their work. In his article entitled, Through the Prism of Black Psychology: A Critical review of Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Africology as seen through the Paradigmatic Lens of Black Psychology he notes that while Black Psychology is identified as a core component of Black Studies, few programs include such courses within their curricula. He further suggests that the goal within Black Psychology of examining the impact of African Americans historical experiences on their psyche speaks to the primary goal of Black Studies. Thus the empirical nature of Black Psychology utilized to understand the African American psychological experience can have tremendous implications for the field of Black studies. Through an overview of the field of Black Studies, its core curriculum, select graduate programs, and the field of Black Psychology, this paper will extend Dr. Jamison’s arguments by suggesting that African-Centered psychology specifically, needs to be central in the field of Black studies. While Black Psychology empirically addresses the African American psyche considering African-American historical experiences, it is the African Worldview analytical approach, which is central to African-Centered psychological theory and methodology and provides a culturally specific analysis, which is critical to the Black Studies intellectual pursuit. / text