Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 22, 2007). Directed by Ulrich Reitzug and Joanne Chesley; submitted to the School of Education. Includes bibliographical references (p. 220-242).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 1985. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 186-189).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Duquesne University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p.144-156) and index.

The thesis focuses on the interchanges which took place during the interwar period between the American and the French black communities. It explores the role of national and transnational frames of reference in the definition of the New Negro movement during the 1920s as well as in its reception by French black intellectuals during the 1930s. Black internationalism during the interwar period can be seen as a circuit of interconnections which resulted in multifaceted and shifting identifications encompassing national and transnational affiliations as well as, sometimes, a cosmopolitan sense of belonging. My work explores the difficulties and successes that the writers under consideration encountered at the time in their attempts to communicate with fellow black people across socio-cultural boundaries. Although, during the interwar period, the perspective shifted from a preeminence of local paradigms to an emphasis on diasporic views of the black race, the national and the transnational, understood as sites of social positioning, cultural self-definition, and political agency, remained inextricably intermingled. All the examples presented in the thesis show that literature, often understood as a national category, does not exist in a vacuum. It is constantly formed and informed through transnational exchanges. The American Harlem Renaissance depended on external sources of inspiration to come to existence. Not restricted to the United States, it then spread across territorialized borders and, in turn, affected the French black community, becoming a major influence in the emergence of Négritude. The thesis successively explores five defining instances of black internationalism: René Maran's Batouala (1921), Alain Locke's The New Negro (1925), black Parisian newspapers from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s, Claude McKay's Banjo (1928), and the early theorization of Négritude. Through the use of Glissant's notion of detour, theorized in Le Discours antillais (1981), this thesis frames 'black internationalism' as a shifting web of negotiations expanding between national and transnational spaces.

There has been a lack of inclusion of LGBTQ people of color within the psychological literature. It is important to attend to a number of diverse demographic variables in order to begin to understand a particular group's experience. The unique intersection of demographic variables or identities shapes a person's experience. Thus, the current study was designed to understand the experiences of those who are not typically represented within the literature. Specifically targeted were individuals who had some African American background and were both sexual and gender minorities. The focus of the current study was on life experiences and strengths due to researchers historically focusing on disadvantages of minority groups. This study was a qualitative investigation conducted in order to identify the strengths and influencing factors of strengths of those with multiple minority statuses. Twelve individuals that were at least in part African American and a sexual and gender (or gender identity) minority were interviewed in person. During the interview process participants discussed some of the challenges they faced, the support systems they had, and the various strengths they demonstrated throughout their lives. A grounded theory approach was utilized to analyze the data. The core phenomenon of this study, referred to as the storyline, revolved around participants' development and utilization of strengths, which included the working through various challenges and accessing support within their contexts. Consistent with past research, the development of strengths was impacted by sociocultural/societal factors, community, religion/spirituality, interpersonal relationships, life events, and intrapersonal concerns. Unique strengths included participants' tendency toward intrapersonal growth, perseverance, connections with others, activation of inner coping strategies, and activism.

The purpose of this thesis is to elucidate the effects of language ideologies on African-American students' feelings of acceptance and identity in the classroom. For African-American students, the use of African American English is valued for its cultural inclusivity yet is shunned for its lack of linguistic capital in educational settings. This creates an antimony which furthers alienates the home dialect, often African-American English (AAE) from the dominant code, Standard American English (SAE). For this study, 18 African-American students, ages 12-13 were interviewed. Respondents were given a mixed response questionnaire administered in an interview format. The responses were then analyzed using basic statistical analysis. Statistical Power to detect effects was very limited due to small sample size. The results suggest that students valued the use of African American English for personal and home settings but did not find it appropriate for use in school when addressing the teacher. Implications suggest that educators should be ardent about developing an ethno-linguistic culture in the classroom. Teachers and administrators should work to affirm students' home language, where language learning begins, and use this linguistic knowledge in order to propel students forward academically.

AN ABSTRACT ON THE THESIS OF TOMMIE LEE WILLIAMS, for the Master of Arts Degree in APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES, presented on NOVEMBER, 5, 2013 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: AFRICAN AMERICAN IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION ON FACEBOOK MAJOR PROFESSORS: Dr. Laura Halliday and Dr. Janet Fuller In contrast to early utopian theories about life on the internet, research revealed that the internet does not exist in a gender, class and racial vacuum (Kendall, 1998, Zhao et al, 2005). Identity issues that exist in the real world are mirrored in online presentations (Turkle, 1995). A previous study on Ethno Racial displays on Facebook examined whether different ethnic and racial groups used different identity strategies to construct their online identities on the Facebook social media network. The findings from that study and others were instrumental in the development of this research. The study conducted Face book profile page analyses for over 150 students from five distinct ethnic groups, African American, Vietnamese, White American, Hispanics and Indian. Their methodology included a coding system and instrument that revealed that the five ethnic racial groups did employ different strategies in the construction of their profile page identities. The object of this study is to exclusively study African American identity construction on Facebook. The goal of the study is to add to scholarship and body of research in this area. The research involves analyzing the Facebook profile of twenty former employees of a southwestern call center that closed the same year Facebook was founded. The employees vowed to keep in touch with each other through the new social network. A decision to employ a multiple methodology approach to the study was primarily driven by the small sample size and complicated nature of the information. A quantitative study was conducted first followed by a qualitative case study of the individual profile pages of four of the subject. The choice of the case studies selected was driven by results of the quantitative analysis which revealed outlier categories and cases. The findings from the two studies were then calculated, analyzed and reported. The early report of the quantitative study revealed that in comparative analysis that there were no significant differences between the two independent variables labeled Ethnicgroup White and Ethnic group African American. The secondary report from another statistical analysis discovered differences as a result of outliers in the data. The identified outliers were used to choose the subjects for the qualitative study. The results from the qualitative case study revealed that the African Americans in the study used different identity construction strategies. The strategies, however, did not show congruence on racial or ethnic lines. The data suggested the subjects chose identities that adhered to established socio-cultural archetypes rather than exclusively afro centric models. Triangulation of the data also suggested support for the original quantitative report of no significance.

<p> The CDC HIV Surveillance Report of 2012 purported 29% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2010 were young females, e.g. 11,413 people. African Americans accounted for 71% of this population (CDC.gov, 2014). The METALS program was a prevention program in Shreveport, Louisiana targeting girls who exhibited delinquent behaviors as defined by Mellins (2011) and was designed to educate participants on the risks, effects, and ways to avoid contracting this virus. The nine African American girls, ages 12 through 16, from METALS served as the participants in this instrumental case study. The researcher sought to: (a) gain insight into the activities and strategies within METALS that led to a change in the perception and understanding of the relationship between HIV/AIDS and risky sexual behavior and (b) to identify the activities that participants attributed to their increased awareness, as well as those recommended by participants to improve the METALS program. The study sought to gain insight into strategies improving the impact of programs designed to prevent the contraction of HIV/AIDS. Data were collected through observations, questionnaires, field notes, and interviews and analyzed through three cycles of coding. The coding process resulted in two overarching themes, i.e. the unintended benefits of the program and the effective components of the program, which encapsulated the strands: (a) interaction and influence, (b) connectivity, (c) social skill development, (d) prevention education, (e) experiential learning, and (f) social interaction and influence. The researcher synthesized the results and constructed the CARE Model to capture the effective components and unintended benefits of the METALS program.</p><p>

<p> Notable scholars including Astin, Pascarelli, Terenzini and others have pioneered studies in psychosocial issues including self-concepts related to college students&rsquo; experience and achievement factors (Astin, 1984, 1991; Pascarella &amp; Terenzini, 2005; Terenzini, Pascarella, &amp; Blimling, 1996). In recent years, there has been an increase in national attention on the identification of those factors that promote educational success and related outcomes specifically for African American college students (Cokley, 2000, 2003, M. J. Cuyjet, 1997, 2006b; Harris III, Palmer, &amp; Struve, 2011; Wood, 2012; Wood, Harris, &amp; Khalid, 2015). Some scholars have sought to learn more about the role of individual attitudes, behaviors, and self-concepts of students who are achieving academic success (Harper, 2004, 2008, 2012; F. Harris &amp; Wood, 2013; Hunter &amp; Davis, 1994; Wood, 2012). However, little research has been completed in recent years about the specific attitudes and behaviors associated with degree aspirations of African American college students (Bharmal et al., 2012; Cokley, 2000; Thomas, Smith, Marks, &amp; Crosby, 2012). Therefore, the purpose of this research study was to examine data from the 2011 CIRP National College Senior Survey to understand better and draw inferences from the relationships between specific self-concept related factors of African American college students after four years of college and their degree aspirations. </p><p> The conceptual framework for this study was based on Harper&rsquo;s Anti-Deficit Model (Harper, 2012) which suggests researchers should seek to understand degree apsirations of African American students from the viewpoint of those attributes, characteristics or assets that contribute to academic their success versus what students may lack. The study also drew upon the Holistic Identity Model (HIM) (Winkle-Wagner &amp; Locks, 2014), which was built upon the premise that students experience multiple identities simultaneously during their college years and that those identities play a significant role in the manner by which students elect to approach, engage in and aspire to higher education. Together these models provided a guide and a lens by which this study was conducted and through which the results were understood. </p><p> Findings from this quantitative study included the statistical significance and extent of the relationship of academic self-concept, habits of mind, leadership self-concept, social agency, social self-concept, and spiritual self-concept and degree aspirations. Gender-based differences that were statistically significant were reported. Results of the predictability of those self-concept-related factors regarding degree aspirations were also included. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the findings for policy, practice, and further research.</p>

<p> The obesity epidemic continues to be a major concern in the United States. The World Health Organization reported that 1.4 billion adults were either obese or overweight. African American (AA) women have the highest incidence of obesity worldwide. The obesity rate among AAs has continued to rise over the past 2 decades. The problem is that AA women prepare and consume high caloric foods that contribute to obesity. This qualitative descriptive study explored the perceptions that obese AA women have about altering how they prepare soul food to make it a healthier soul food. The empowerment model and the health belief model were used to frame this study. Data were collected using a non-probability purposeful sampling strategy. The sample for this study consisted of 4 focus groups with 6-7 obese AA women (<i> n</i> = 25) who prepare and consume high caloric soul foods and have a body mass index of 30 and above. Focus group transcripts were analyzed using a constant comparative analysis and NVivo 11 computer software. It was found that obese AA women were willing to alter their traditional soul food preparation only if it tastes good. It was also found that participants would maintain new healthier eating behaviors depending on the taste, availability of recipes to use, low cost of healthy ingredients, accessibility of the ingredients, learning how to substitute various herbs and spices, and amount of food waste. Barriers that could limit participation in an intervention designed to develop healthier eating habits were identified as ignorance and laziness, transportation issues, lack of motivation, lack of education, lack of time, no incentives, and bad reviews.</p><p>