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This dissertation positions Germaine Acogny’s Modern African Dance Technique (“the Technique”) as a mode of knowledge that reveals insight into nationalism, Négritude, modernism and perspectives on modernity during the early years of Senegal’s independence. By investigating the Technique in relationship to its historical context, this study aims to identify how cultural and political values, which comprise the Technique’s embodied knowledge, are evident in its aesthetic design and philosophical underpinnings. A hybrid methodological approach is employed that merges theoretical analysis with autoethnography. Fieldwork in Senegal, archival research, interviews and embodied practice informed this study. A new theoretical frame, Wòrándá, is introduced that contributes to existing theories on embodiment in African and Diasporic dance techniques and performance. The findings of this dissertation conclude that the Technique sits at the junction of African and Euro-American cultural templates, which coalesce in the production of a codified movement technique that both embodies and confronts constructivist influences. Correlations are suggested between the Technique, Africentric perspectives and cultural nationalism. The Technique also fulfills Léopold Sedar Senghor’s vision of métissage (cultural blending) and cultural progress. Each of these ideological influences underscores the Technique’s significance as a modernist intervention on the genre of neo-traditional African concert dance, as its progenitor seeks to challenge dominant expectations of the African body in dance. / Dance

Flexion and extension arm actions have been studied with regard to whether and in what way(s) they are associated with attitudes. In this paper, I report the results of three experiments in which I investigated the valence of the attitude objects, the meaningfulness of the attitude objects, and the repetition of the arm action as factors that might influence the relation between flexion and extension arm actions and attitudes. In Experiment 1, I tested the influence of flexion and extension on attitude formation with novel, meaningless, but valenced, stimuli (Chinese characters). I predicted an Action x Stimulus Valence interaction such that both arm flexion and arm extension would result in higher pleasantness ratings of Chinese characters, when they were paired with positive and negative stimuli, respectively. Rather than the hypothesized interaction, I observed only a main effect for Stimulus Valence: positive characters were rated as more pleasant than were negative characters. In Experiment 2, I tested the influence of flexion and extension on attitude change with familiar, meaningful, valenced stimuli (foods). I predicted a main effect for Action, such that arm flexion would result in higher pleasantness ratings than would arm extension, regardless of Stimulus Valence, I also predicted a main effect of Stimulus Valence, such that positive foods would be rated as more pleasant than negative foods. Again, I observed only a main effect for Stimulus Valence in the predicted direction. In Experiment 3, I examined the influence of arm actions on attitudes over time using novel, meaningful, valenced stimuli (faces). I predicted that attitudes, as measured by an IAT, would be less biased for participants who repeatedly practiced responding to negative stimuli with a flexing action, compared to those of participants who repeatedly practiced responding to negative stimuli with an extending action. This prediction was weakly supported. / Psychology

This thesis examines the embodiment and disembodiment of Middle Eastern women in Suheir Hammad’s Breaking Poems (2008) and Solmaz Sharif’s Look (2016) to better understand how war, diasporicity, violence, and intimacy affect the socio-political subjection of Middle Eastern women in the United States. Through analyzing poetry, this thesis posits that Middle Eastern women’s subjection to racism and sexism as diasporic subjects in the United States leads to their disembodiment, resulting in feelings of displacement, loss, and uncertainty regarding their identities, which parallels the disembodiment they experience in the Middle East as a result of war. The Introduction Chapter answers why this thesis focuses on diasporic Middle Eastern women and the poetry of Suheir Hammad and Solmaz Sharif. Chapter One provides a theoretical framework of the major themes discussed throughout the thesis, such as embodiment, disembodiment, precarity, and double consciousness. Chapter Two discusses Suheir Hammad’s Breaking Poems with an emphasis on a hyper-individualized account of disembodiment. Chapter Three addresses Solmaz Sharif’s Look, focusing on poetry’s movement between different geographical spaces and time frames to present a wide range of disembodiment(s) experienced by not only Solmaz Sharif, but also by other Middle Eastern subjects. The Conclusion Chapter demonstrates that the theme of embodiment and disembodiment supports Hammad and Sharif’s efforts to give voice to the silenced experiences of diasporic Middle Eastern women. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)