Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Political Science, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Marilyn J. Young, Florida State University, College of Arts & Sciences, Interdisciplinary Program in the Humanities. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 24, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains v, 115 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2007. / Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 109 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Notre thèse intitulée L'altérité et la vulnérabilité dans les romans de Nella Larsen est consacrée aux concepts d'altérité, de vulnérabilité et d'appartenance dans Quicksand and Passing. Ce travail s'articule autour de la question de l'identité des femmes noires et métisses. Puisque nous nous sommes proposé de considérer la place de Nella Larsen en tant que femme et auteur dans le contexte de l’émancipation des femmes Afro-Américaines en partant de sa place dans la Harlem Renaissance, une partie de notre étude examinera les tenants et les aboutissants de ce mouvement identitaire et culturel. Nous tenterons de cerner la spécificité de la voix de Larsen dans ce mouvement ainsi que son apport à la fois au niveau de l’imaginaire littéraire et des stratégies narratives que l’auteure utilise dans ces œuvres pour définir ce qui les caractérise. Nous nous sommes par ailleurs proposé de dégager ce qui fait la voix distinctive des réalisations de Nella Larsen en examinant son traitement du concept de passing, à la fois « passer » et « passer pour ». Cela a permis de situer les romans de Nella Larsen dans leur contexte et de montrer l'altérité et la marginalisation que les Afro-Américains ont traversées pendant la Renaissance de Harlem. En effet, Larsen démontre que même si les années 1920 étaient censées être une ère d'émancipation pour les personnes de couleur, elles souffraient encore de nombreuses discriminations. Analyser les concepts de race, de dépassement et de vulnérabilité dans les fictions de Nella Larsen a permis de prouver que même si l'altérité des protagonistes est confrontée à de nombreuses difficultés qui semblent l’éradiquer ; elle ne disparaît jamais et reste présente dans chaque personnage. Aussi, La soumission des romans à une approche pluridisciplinaire a permis d'examiner les causes et les conséquences de l'altérité dans les œuvres de fiction et d'analyser le concept sous toutes ses formes, qu'il soit racial ou sexuel. Cette thèse a également montré que les romans de Larsen vont à l'encontre du système totalitaire qui a de très mauvais effets sur « l’autre ». En effet, au lieu d'éliminer l'altérité, ce système l'accentue encore plus et « l’autre » se sent plus rejeté et marginalisé que jamais. / Otherness and Vulnerability in Nella Larsen’s Novels is devoted to the study of the concepts of alterity, vulnerability and belonging in Quicksand and Passing. Revolving around the questions of identity for black and mixed-race women, the study starts with a historical perspective of "otherness" in Nella Larsen’s novels while considering the marginalization that African-Americans went through during the Harlem Renaissance. Indeed, Larsen demonstrates that even if the 1920s were supposed to be an era of emancipation for colored people, they still suffered from many discriminations. Analyzing the concepts of race, passing, and vulnerability in Nella Larsen’s fictions leads us to prove that even if the protagonists’ otherness is confronted to many hardships that seem to eradicate it, it never fades away and remains present in each character. Submitting the novels to a multi-disciplinary approach has enabled us to examine the causes and consequences of otherness in the works of fiction and to analyze the concept under several forms. This thesis eventually shows that Larsen’s novels go counter the principle of totalitarianism as a system, be it social, political or linguistic in which "otherness" stands as the only possible way to establish one's identity.

This dissertation investigates the process of forced eviction (i.e., gentrification) and its influence on Harlem culture. The study quantifies four (4) significant factors involved in the influencing of a paradigm shift. The study explicitly examines the historical and traditional cultures of Harlemites' when framed in the theoretical context of unmet human needs. In this study, unmet human needs in association with theoretical constructs have demonstrated strong correlations in relation to altering attitudes that affect complex thought and human behavior. This study reports the empirical results and the investigated associations of theoretical constructs as they pertain to the various hypotheses outlined in this dissertation. Analytical measurements used in this study include both descriptive and inferential statistics. The sample population was 300 and six (6) statistical tools are used to examine and analyze the data. This study will show that correlations and regression results suggest unmet human needs shape the observation on the preconceptions of culture and the findings are conclusive. Psychological characteristics moderately influence culture and congruent with Maslow's and Burton's human needs theories. The researcher postulates that the theoretical models used in the study and working hypotheses in this exposition can be used in guiding impending research.

This research looks at the ethnographies Mules and Men (1935) and Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938) by Zora Neale Hurston focusing on representations of Time and the anthropologist’s body. Hurston was an African-American anthropologist, folklorist, and novelist who conducted research particularly between the end of the 1920s and the mid-1930s. At first, her fieldwork and writings dealt with African-American communities in Florida and Hoodoo practice in Louisiana, but she consequently expanded her field of anthropological interests to Jamaica and Haiti, which she visited between 1936 and 1937. The temporal and bodily factors in Hurston’s works are taken into consideration as coordinates of differentiation between the ethnographer and the objects of her research. In her ethnographies, the representation of the anthropologist’s body is analysed as an attempt at reducing temporal distance in ethnographical writings paralleled by the performative experience of fieldwork exemplified by Hurston’s storytelling: body, voice, and the dialogic representation of fieldwork relationships do not guarantee a portrayal of the anthropological subject on more egalitarian terms, but cast light on the influence of the anthropologist both in the practice and writing of ethnography. These elements are analysed in reference to the visualistic tradition of American anthropology as ways of organising difference and ascribing the anthropological ‘Others’ to a temporal frame characterised by bodily and cultural features perceived as ‘primitive’ and, therefore, distant from modernity. Representations and definitions of ‘primitiveness’ and ‘modernity’ not only shaped both twentieth-century American anthropology and the modernist arts (Harlem Renaissance), but also were pivotal for the creation of a modern African-American identity in its relation to African history and other black people involved in the African diaspora. In the same years in which Hurston visited Jamaica and Haiti, another African-American woman anthropologist and dancer, Katherine Dunham, conducted fieldwork in the Caribbean and started to look at it as a source of inspiration for the emerging African-American dance as recorded in her ethnographical and autobiographical account Island Possessed (1969). Therefore, Hurston’s and Dunham’s representations of Haiti are examined as points of intersection for the different discourses which both widened and complicated their understanding of what being ‘African’ and ‘American’ could mean.

Amas Repertory Theatre was founded in 1969 by Rosetta LeNoire, an African American actress who pursued a mission of developing original musicals while practicing interracial casting. The company's most successful show was Bubbling Brown Sugar (1975). Throughout Amas's history LeNoire's complicated perspective on what constituted discrimination sometimes caused her casting choices to be questioned. LeNoire believed in a colorblind theatre and society, however, as the decades passed, her colorblind perspective was challenged by neo-conservative philosophy which states that in a colorblind society no particular group should receive any more privilege than another. This definition of colorblind is used to justify conservative efforts to eliminate affirmative action and undermine race conscious legislation. In the late 1990s, at her retirement, LeNoire, who always believed that color did not matter, turned her theatre over to white leadership, who still operate Amas today. At that point, Amas changed from a company that had, from its founding, been considered to be a black theatre to one that is now white. As the history of Amas unfolds, my study examines the complex politics surrounding the concept of colorblindness. Efforts by Actors' Equity to promote interracial or, as it is often called, nontraditional casting are also investigated as well as the conservative backlash against race conscious policies, particularly during and after the administration of Ronald Reagan. In the present day Amas practices a multicultural mission, however, as my dissertation examines the company's programming decisions as well as its perspective on race, Amas is revealed to be an example of how white operated theatres, even if unintentionally, through the agency of white power and privilege, are affected by the same institutional racism that permeates American society. My dissertation then challenges Amas and other theatres to take responsibility for staying fully aware of the racially charged issues and tensions that exist in America today. When theatre professionals seek out and are committed to engaging in open dialogue on race they are in a stronger position to make knowledgeable decisions regarding the representation of race on stage.

This thesis aims to investigate the black church and black community in James Baldwin¡¦s first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain. Particularly, it probes how and why the religion, namely Christianity, casts a loaded shadow for African Americans. I argue that Baldwin, on the one hand, vigorously illustrates a bodily pious black community by bombarding us with heaps of biblical texts and church songs; on the other hand, he serenely indicts a spiritually hollow black church by narrating a blues-like comically sad tone. I discuss Baldwin¡¦s relentless wrestle with God in Chapter One. I suggest reading Go Tell It on the Mountain together with Baldwin¡¦s essay, The Fire Next Time, to flesh out the weighty issue of religion in the text. Since black community and black church generally symbolizes each other in the early history of Africa American lives, I make a detour to explore the emergence and development of the Black Church in Chapter Two. It is also an attempt to explain how the white God in the U.S.A. becomes black and how and why black community eventually accepts the then indifferent God to be their own. In Chapter Three, I look into the importance (and impotence) of the epitome of black community¡XHarlem¡Xin terms of its geographical location, position, and structure within the capitalist metropolis, New York. This chapter travels with John Grimes, the protagonist, to see the white man¡¦s world and to investigate the impossibility and oxymoron of ¡§black flâneur.¡¨ Then I discuss in Chapter Four the performing arts of the Black Church, as well as the secular music outside of the Black Church. Baldwin intelligently borrows God¡¦s spear and shield¡Xthe language in the Bible and the music played inside (and later outside) the Black Church¡Xas his writing tool to tell a gospel-like parable. At last, I would conclude that GTIM serves as a parable of the secular world for Baldwin has sung a blues gospel to the world.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 267-310). Also available on the Internet.

This thesis looks to expand on the ways in which urban design can influence and foster the development of street culture. Gentrification has resulted in the deterioration of many cities that were well known for their rich and vibrant street culture. In particular, Harlem, New York City has experienced decay in its tradition of having a strong and lively street presence. With its busiest street lined with numerous vacant lots, W 125th St in Harlem is the ideal testing ground for a project that breathes life into a dying street culture. Museums have the ability to spark urban regeneration and vitality. Taking cues from examples of successful museums, this project breaks free of the building envelope to create spaces that encourage and promote street culture activities. With a program that is heavily based in street and popular culture, a new cultural center provides support for this urban regeneration project.