Pan Africanism is strategy that emerges through a history of surviving oppression, methodology to understand thought and action, and theory that tests findings against sociopolitical context. History, methodology and theory are used to develop the historical trajectory that responds to invasion, slavery, colonization and neocolonialism in Belize. As such, three manuscripts are offered to outline the historical narrative of Belizean Pan Africanism, autoethnographic insights for the study of Pan Africanism, and the sociopolitical context that contemporary Pan Africanism in Belize rises out of. Kurt Young defines Pan-Africanism as: "a fusing of affirmations of African identity with libratory efforts at the level of the masses (2009:7). The study and practice of Pan Africanism should therefore aligned in objectives and strategy to interrupt oppressive conditions that impact communities within the African Diaspora. This project, therefore, operationalizes scholar-activism in history, method and theory to outline strategic action and collective subversion as Pan Africanist Praxis in Belize. / Doctor of Philosophy / White Colonizers invaded the shores of Africa, dislocating a people from their legacy and heritage. However, a strategy was formed to create a new legacy and heritage that broke the bondage of White supremacy that trapped Black bodies. From the enslaved that ran to forge a new path for their people, to those that shed blood for freedom, Pan Africanism has been a strategy that has incorporated thoughts of freedom into escape plans. This study builds a historical timeline for Pan Africanism in Belize, methodology for the study of Pan Africanism and an academic exploration of contemporary Pan Africanism in Belize. Pan Africanism as history, method and contemporary theory add to the body of knowledge by inserting Belize at the center of Pan Africanist theory and practice. The study and practice of Pan Africanism is aligned in objectives and strategy to interrupt historical and contemporary conditions that impact communities within the African Diaspora. This project, therefore, operationalizes scholar-activism in history, method and theory to outline strategic action and collective subversion as Pan-Africanist Praxis in Belize.

In 1968, Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander, professor of English at Jackson State College, founded a Black Studies Institute in Jackson, Mississippi. This study is an intellectual, institutional and social movement history that utilizes archival research and textual analysis of Alexander’s writings, poetry, and work as teacher and director of the Institute in the context of the Black Campus Movement (BCM) and Black Freedom Struggle. It pushes the boundaries of historiographical scholarship on BCM that overshadows the epistemological and aesthetic politics of women faculty-activists who ushered forth racialized and gendered analysis as well as developed the foundations of Black Studies.

This study examines the historical-geographic development of agriculture in Philadelphia in order to better understand the city’s contemporary urban agriculture movement. More specifically, the study provides historical context to the contemporary application of racial justice practices within urban farming initiatives in Philadelphia by uncovering and critically analyzing key aspects of the city’s history that have created agriculture-related injustice. Three methodological tools were used in this study: archival historical analysis, secondary source historical analysis, and scholar-activist collaboration. The period of study centers around the settler-colonial period of the city’s history but spans from the era of Lenape territorial control to the consolidation of the modern city in 1854. Three historical-geographic antecedents to contemporary racial justice practices within urban agriculture were uncovered and examined through this research: the settler-colonial terra nullius myth, the patriarchalization of food and land systems, and the urban-rural plantation complex. The results of this study highlight the many layers of intersectional food and land injustice within which that today’s iteration of agriculture in Philadelphia is embedded. / Geography

The purpose of this project is to investigate the often neglected research concerning the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his scholar-activism. This project is intended to look for evidence of intellectual leadership within King's writings in an effort to classify King within the Scholar-Activist paradigm in Africana Studies. Further, the aim is to examine Martin Luther King, Jr. from the critical and centered Scholar-Activist paradigm of Africana Studies based on an analysis of his writings to determine whether his works should be included in or excluded from the canon of Africana Studies. Molefi Asante, Maulana Karenga, and Terry Kershaw, three of the most respected scholars in the field of Africana Studies, seemingly ascribe differing levels of status to King's accomplishments and value within African American history (Asante, 1990; Karenga, 2002). Such a debate grounds this project. Does King measure up to the Scholar-Activist paradigm? Whether he does or does not, should the paradigm be expanded and redefined to include King, or is it acceptable as is? King's six book length writings demonstrate a consistency of themes, which include eight major foci: (1) Economic Justice; (2) Racial Equality/Integration; (3) Existentialism; (4) Social Activism/Service; (5) Theology/Activism; (6) Revolution/Leadership; (7) Black Ideology/Liberation/Black Theology; and (8) Anti-Militarism/Anti-Poverty. This author concludes that diversity of methodological approaches within Africana Studies is normal and that King's writings should be considered for inclusion into its canons. King meets all of Terry Kershaw's requirements for inclusion in the scholar-activist paradigm. / Master of Science

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) emphasizes the word "community" for building economic development, citizen participations, and revitalization of facilities and services in urban and rural areas. Resident Councils are one way to develop and build community among residents of public housing. This is a study of a resident council's role of community building. Despite HUD stressing community building in public housing and investing money and policies around it, there are some resident councils that are not fulfilling the expectations of HUD. The purpose of this research is to describe and explain the disjunctions between HUD's expectations for the resident council as an active agent for community building and the actual practices of the resident council. This research shows seven disjunctions stand in the way of the desired relationship between the resident council and the HUD officials: (1) emphasis on children, (2) leadership of the council, (3) perception that the resident council members are "snitches," (4) responsibilities of the resident council and HUD officials, (5) manager/managerial styles, (6) meeting dynamic, and (7) HUD structure and priorities. Focusing on the Rivertown Resident Council and building on a two year ethnographic case study of the council, I use a conceptual framework that combines critical race theory with a Scholar Activist Methodology to understand how housing policies, race, class, and the lived experiences of the resident council are apart of the disjunctions between the Rivertown Resident Council and HUD officials and what task can be taken to eliminate those disjunctions. / Ph. D.

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