Contemporary Canadian literature and drama that features racial hybridity represents the racially hybrid soma text as a unique form of embodiment and pays particular attention to the power of the racialized gaze. The soma text is the central concept I have developed in order to identify, address, and interrogate the signifying qualities of the racially hybrid body. Throughout my dissertation, I use the concept of the body as a text in order to draw attention to the different visual "readings" that are stimulated by this form of embodiment. In each chapter, I identify the centrality of racially hybrid embodiment and investigate the power of the racialized gaze involved in the interpellation of these racially hybrid bodies. I have chosen to divide my study into discrete chapters and to use specific texts to illuminate my central concepts and to identify the strategies that can be used to express agency over the process of interpellation. In Chapter One I explain my methodology, define the terminology and outline the theories that are central to my analysis. In Chapter Two, I consider the experiences of mixed race people expressing agency by self-defining in the genre of autobiography. In Chapter Three, I explore the notion of racial drag as represented in fiction. In Chapter Four, I consider the ways in which the performative aspects of racial hybridity are represented by theatrical means and through performance. My analysis of the soma text and racialized gaze in these three genres offers critical terms that can be used to analyze representations of racial hybridity. By framing my analysis by way of the construction of the autobiographical voice I suggest that insight into the narrative uses of racial hybridity can be deepened and informed by a thorough analysis of the representation of the lived experience of racial hybridity in a given context. My crossgeneric and crossracial methodology implicitly asserts the importance of the inclusion of different types of racial hybridity in order to understand the power of the racially hybrid body as a signifier in contemporary Canadian literature and drama. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

The Melungeons are a group of indeterminable origin living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia. This thesis describes characteristics of these tri-racial isolates and gives theories as to their mysterious origins. Being darker skinned, the Melungeons were pushed into more mountainous regions by European colonists in the early 1700’s. While multiple hypotheses exist as to the origin of the Melungeon people, there is no single theory that is accepted by all scholars. Dr. Brent Kennedy’s The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People, served as a catalyst for my Melungeon research. Kennedy is my cousin, and his book provided facts behind the family stories I recalled from childhood. It also linked me to other famous Melungeons such as Brandy Jack Mullins and Mahala Mullins. Although there are an abundance of stories and facts about my Melungeon heritage, there is also much history that has been lost. This thesis traces my Melungeon roots, following the family stories of N.B. Kennedy, Brandy Jack Mullins, Mahala Mullins, and Kenneth Kennedy. In order to fully understand these people and their stories, I not only researched their history, but I also visited the areas where they lived and died. In this manner, I was able to gain a better understanding my own family as well as the history of the Melungeons. A person’s past is pieced together through oral history, written records, fading pictures, and personal artifacts. Along with these methods, we as writers and researchers add a bit of our own thought and imagination to fill in the gaps of a person’s life. In this manner, personal mythology is created. This thesis ends with an example of one fictionalized story from my family surrounding the death of my uncle, Kenneth Kennedy.

Thesis (DPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 1994. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This is an empirical, qualitative study of racially-mixed urban churches (congregations) as social institutions, which includes a practical-theological perspective. Research was motivated by the rareness of mixed congregations, compared to the profusion of homogenous congregations. My purpose was to uncover social factors which support the formation, maintenance, and functioning of mixed congregations. A New Testament section is included because of the normative value that these texts hold for contemporary Christians and church structures. My theoretical base is informed by history, theology, biblical studies, sociology, and anthropology. The development of relevant aspects in these fields are sketched. Special attention is given to assimilation, pluralism, and multi-culturalism as forms of inter-ethnic interaction based on structure and culture. My methodological base incorporates congregational studies and social-scientific literary analysis. The historical development of both is sketched by means of an overview of relevant literature. The general qualitative analytical social and literary techniques that I apply are indicated, including participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, structured questionnaires, and document-analysis. A social history of South African congregations shows that the ideal of mixed congregations existed since the start, but was gradually repressed by several factors. Some studies of mixed congregations are discussed, and various mixed US and South African congregations are outlined. Three contemporary Johannesburg congregations are introduced, including Johweto, an independent charismatic church in the black city of Soweto; St. Francis Xavier, a Roman Catholic church on the borders of coloured and white suburbs in western Johannesburg; and Central Methodist Mission, an inner-city Protestant church. The Johannesburg congregations are idiographically and empirically analysed in terms of their context, identity, process, and programme. Social factors contributing to their ethnic mix are indicated. The insights from the contemporary research are applied to early Christian congregations in a social scientific reconstruction of the social world of appropriate New Testament texts. The purpose is to discover the role of ethnicity in their composition and functioning, and to show whether ethnically-mixed congregations were normative. I suggest a theory concerning the effects of ethno-cultural factors on the structures and functioning of Pauline congregations between AD 30 and 70. I conclude with a summary of the theoretical and practical implications of the study's results, and an evaluation of goals and methods. Practical strategies are suggested for dealing with commonly indicated difficulties in the formation of mixed congregations. A theory of the influence of social factors on formation is supplied, and a dynamic model of formation constructed. I posit three types of mixed churches according to the processes by which they are formed: contextual, inclusive, or intentional. These are evaluated as formation strategies, and a two-tiered typology in terms of internal structure is also proposed. The types are illustrated with reference to congregations from the US and South Africa. Segregated and integrated congregations are evaluated in theological, social and political terms and I indicate why mixed congregations are preferable. An overall theory of the formation and functioning of mixed congregations is put forward. Assimilation is seen as a contributive cause, but modified where counter-status quo and multi-cultural strategies are employed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie is 'n empiriese en kwalitatiewe studie van ras- en etnies-gemengde kerke (gemeentes) as sosiale instellings, wat prakties-teologiese perspektiewe insluit. Navorsing is gemotiveer deur die skaarsheid van gemengde gemeentes, in vergelyking met die groot aantal gemeentes waartoe slegs een rasgroep behoort. My doelwit was om sosiale faktore te ontdek wat bydra tot die vorming, instandhouding, en funksionering van gemengde gemeentes. 'n Nuwe Testamentiese afdeling is ingesluit weens die normatiewe waarde van hierdie vroeg-Christelike tekste vir hedendaagse Christene en kerke-strukture. Die teoretiese begronding van die studie word toegelig deur die geskiedenis, teologie, bybelkunde, sosiologie, en antropologie. Ek skets die ontwikkeling van relevante aspekte binne hierdie velde. Spesiale aandag word geskenk aan assimilasie. pluralisme, en multikulturalisme as vorme van inter-etniese interaksie rondom struktuur en kultuur. My metodologiese grondslag word gevorm deur gemeentestudie en sosiaal-wetenskaplike letterkundige analise. Die historiese ontwikkeling van beide hierdie gebiede word geskets deur middel van 'n oorsig van relevante literatuur. Die oorkoepelende kwalitatiewe analitiese tegnieke wat ek aanwend word aangedui, insluitend deelnemende-waarneming, semi-gestruktureerde vraelyste, gestruktureerde vraelyste, en dokumentontleding. 'n Sosiale geskiedenis van Suid-Afrikaanse gemeentes dui aan dat die ideaal van gemengdheid van die begin gehuldig is, maar in die praktyk verdwyn het onder aanslag van sekere faktore. 'n Paar studies van gemengde gemeentes word bespreek, en bondige opsommings van verskeie gemengde gemeentes in die VSA en Suid-Afrika verskaf. Drie Johannesburgse gemeentes word bekendgestel, insluitend Johweto, 'n onafhanklike charismatiese kerk wat in die swart stad Soweto byeenkom; St Francis Xavier, 'n Rooms Katolieke kerk op die grens van bruin en wit voorstede in westelike Johannesburg; en Central Methodist Mission, 'n Protestantse kerk in die middestad. Die insigte van die kontemporere navorsing word aangewend in 'n sosiaal-wetenskaplike rekonstruksie van die sosiale wereld van toepaslike Nuwe Testament-tekste. Die doelwit is om die rol van etnisiteit in die ontstaan en funksionering van vroee Christelike gemeentes te ontdek, en om aan te dui of etnies gemengde gemeentes normatief was. Ek stel 'n teorie voor oor die gevolge van etnies-kulturele faktore vir Pauliniese gemeentes tussen 30 en 70 n.C. Ek sluit af met 'n opsomming van die teoretiese en praktiese implikasies van die navorsingsresultate, en 'n evaluasie van doelwitte en metodes. Praktiese antwoorde word aangedui op algemene vraagstukke rondom die vorming van gemengde gemeentes. 'n Teorie word voorgestel oor die invloede van sosiale faktore op die ontstaan van sulke kerke, en 'n dinamiese model van onstaansfaktore opgestel. Ek stel ook drie tipes gemengde kerke voor na aanleiding van die prosesse waardeur hulle gevorm word: kontekstueel, inklusief, of doelbewus. Die tipes word evalueer as ontstaans-strategiee, en 'n twee-vlak tipologie in terme van interne organisasie word voorgestel. Die tipes word bespreek met verwysing na voorbeelde van gemeentes in die VSA en Suid-Afrika. Homogene en gemengde gemeentes word evalueer in teologiese, sosiale, en politiese terme, en ek dui aan waarom gemengde gemeentes verkieslik is. 'n Oorkoepelende teorie oor die ontstaan en funksionering van gemengde gemeentes word ter tafel gebring. Assimilasie word gesien as bydraende faktor, wat aan bande gele word tot die mate waartoe anti-status quo en multikulturele strategiee aangewend word binne 'n gemengde kerk.

published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This thesis starts with an overview of the historical record tied to the birth of a new nation studied by Alexis de Tocqueville and Henry Steele Commager. It singles out the works of Henry Nash Smith and Eugene D. Genovese for an understanding, respectively, of the "myth of the frontier" tied to the conquest of the American West and the "plantation myth" that sustained slavery in the American South. Both myths underlie the concept of hybridity or cross-cultural relations in America. This thesis is concerned with the representation or lack of representation of hybridity and the roles played by female characters in connection with the land in two seminal American novels and their film versions---James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, and Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind---and Alice Randall's rewriting of Mitchell's novel, The Wind Done Gone , as a point of contrast. Hybridity is represented in the mixed-race bodies of these characters.

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This interdisciplinary research paper explores story and metaphor of "trans/formative identities" as a basis for challenging normative racial and gender categories. Autoethnography is used as a method for weaving the author's own experience as a mixed-race Indigenous person with academic research and theory. The discussion is contextualized by an analysis of institutionalized colonial relationships framing Indigenous knowledge in academia and the role of Indian status in defining Indigenous identity. Six mixed-race and transgender or genderqueer people in Victoria and Vancouver. British Columbia are interviewed and the themes from their shared experiences are used as the basis for further understanding trans/formative identities. These themes are: irony; contradiction and impossibility; stories of home and family; naming and language; embodied negotiations, contextual selves, and; artistic visions.

No description available.

The present study integrated Critical Multiracial Theory (MultiCrit) and Minority Stress Theory and examined the associations between racial identity invalidation, a racial stressorunique to biracial or multiracial individuals, internalized racial oppression and self-esteem in a sample of 211 biracial Asian-White emerging adults. The study specifically explored four domains of internalized racial oppression unique to biracial individuals (internalized racial inferiority, minority identity shame, distancing from minority identity, colorism). The study also sought to examine whether racial socializations strategies unique to multiracial families(multiracial identity socialization, navigating multiple heritages socialization, preparation for monoracism socialization, and race-conscious socialization) moderated the relationship between racial identity invalidation and internalized racial oppression. Results from a path analysis indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between racial identity invalidation and minority identity shame, a significant positive relationship between internalized racial inferiority and self-esteem, and a significant negative relationship between minority identity shame and self-esteem. Minority identity shame also significantly mediated the relationship between racial identity invalidation and self-esteem. Preparation for monoracism socialization significantly moderated the relationship between racial identity invalidation and minority identity shame. Implications for future research and clinical practice with biracial Asian-White individuals are discussed.

In the U.S., Black childhood has been underimagined. The representational vocabulary of Black childhood is fraught with dehumanizing and adultifying imagery and sounds—from representations of “Topsy” and “Black Sambo” to caricatures of pickaninnies and their many (re)iterations in U.S. popular culture. Popular music is one expressive domain wherein artists and audiences alike have contested and reinforced the peculiar adultification and infantilization that have long haunted Black American life. In the years surrounding the Trump presidency, numerous Black popular music artists made childhood a primary feature of their artistic output through vocal technique, lyrical content, merchandise, music videos, social media, and more. At the precise moment when white innocence was wielded most violently and obviously on the national stage, these artists challenged the assumed goodness and whiteness of innocence and its relation to childhood, performing capacious versions of free Black childhoods to various ends. This dissertation turns to the performance of childhood as a productive domain of inquiry and focuses on four artists/groups—Tank and the Bangas, Chance the Rapper, Jamila Woods, and Noname—all of whom chart a liberatory politics of Black childhood through sound. Through the poetics and aesthetics of their work, I theorize and historicize four interrelated, childhood-adjacent concepts: nostalgia, vulnerability, innocence, and freedom. Methodologically, I attempt to turn the tables on how vulnerability has normally been rendered in ethnographies. I blend (auto)ethnography about my own experiences as a white father of a multi-racial child with critical theory to analyze live and mediated performances of popular music. I look to music as a poetic and aesthetic space with which to not only grapple with the realities faced by Black children in the United States, but also to affirm Black childhood as a space of freedom, play, possibility, and joy. Ultimately, I make two interrelated assertions: (1) foregrounding Black childhood in our social analysis urges the necessity of abolition and (2) popular music is a primary conduit through which we can imagine an abolitionist future free of police, prisons, and the carceral logics that undergird their imagined necessity.