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I examine Sojourner Truth and Janelle Monáe’s identity performances to identify some strategies and tactics Black women use to transgress externally defined myths of Black womanhood. I propose that both of these women use their identity as a liberation technology - a spiritual, emotional, physical, and/or intellectual tool constructed and/or wielded by Africana agents. They wield their identity, like an instrument, and use it to emancipate Africana people from the physical and metaphoric chains that restrict them from reproducing their cultural imperatives. I argue that both Truth and Monáe consciously fashion complex narratives of revolutionary Black womanhood as a way to disseminate their identities in ways that “destroy the societal expectations” of Black womanhood and empowers women to reclaim their ability to imagine self-defined Black womanhoods. I analyze the performance texts of Truth and Monáe using Afrofuturism, a theoretical perspective concerned with Africana agents’ speculation of their futures and the functionality of Africana agents’ technologies. Its foundational assumption is the pantechnological perspective, a theory that assumes “everything can be interpreted as a type of technology.” When examining Africana agency using an Afrofuturism perspective, the researcher should examine the devices, techniques, and processes – externally or intra-culturally generated – that have the potential to influence Africana social development. / African American Studies

Through the development of entertainment culture, African American actors, athletes and musicians increasingly were publicly recognized. In the mainstream press, Black celebrities were often faced with the same snubs and prejudices as ordinary Black citizens, who suffered persecution under Jim Crow legislation that denied African Americans their basic civil rights. In the Black press, however, these celebrities received great attention, and as visible and popular members of the Black community they played a decisive yet often unwitting and tenuous role in representing African American identity collectively. Charles M. Payne and Adam Green use the term "critical citizenship" to describe the way in which African Americans during this period conceptualized their identities as American citizens. Though Payne and Green discussed critical citizenship in terms of activism, this project broadens the term to include considerations of community-building and race pride as well. Conceptualizing critical citizenship for the black community was an important part of the overall mission of the Black press. Black press entertainment journalism, which used celebrities as both "constellations" and companions in the fight for civil rights, emerged against the battle against Jim Crowism and came to embody the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance. The purpose of this project is to trace how celebrity reporting in the black press developed over time, distinct from yet contemporaneous with the development of yellow journalism in the mainstream press, and to understand how black journalists and editors conceptualized the idea of "celebrity" as it related to their overall construction of critical citizenship. The evidence in support of this project was collected from an inductive reading of the entertainment-related content of the following black press newspapers over the time period 1895-1935: Baltimore Afro-American, Chicago Defender, New York Age, New York Amsterdam News, Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, Cleveland Gazette, Kansas City/Topeka Plaindealer, Savannah Tribune, and Atlanta Daily World. In addition, the entertainment content of Black press magazines The Crisis, The Messenger, The Opportunity and The Negro World was included. / Media & Communication

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors that contributed to the job satisfaction of African American counselors (AAC). Although there are a variety of job satisfaction studies regarding mental health professionals, a literature review indicated research related to the job satisfaction of AACs was negligible. Knowing the factors that contribute to minorities' occupational satisfaction is especially important for mental health organizations because the information helps managers recruit and retain AACs. Subjects were 182 currently employed AACs who were members of American Counseling Association (ACA). A modified version of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and a Data Information Form (DIF) were used to collect data. The following research questions were studied: What were the aggregate levels of job satisfaction expressed by African American Counselors? Which of the 20 subscales on the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) were rated as being important to AACs' job satisfaction? Which select demographic variables contributed significantly to the job satisfaction of AACs? It was determined that 87% of participants in this study were satisfied or very satisfied with their current job. Only 13% of subjects indicated they were dissatisfied. Subjects were satisfied with 19 of 20 job facets. Social service was the only facet subjects indicated they were very satisfied with, and advancement was the only facet subjects indicated they were dissatisfied with on their current job. An analysis of demographic variables revealed two significant associations: subjects who were not planning to leave their profession within the next 5 years were satisfied with their job, and subjects who indicated sexism did not affect their job were more satisfied with their current position. Overall, the results from this research indicated AACs were satisfied in their current position. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to identify questions from the Annual Freshman Survey (AFS) that may predict academic success, in the form of six-year graduation, for African American students at a predominately White institution. Previous research has reported the relevance of non-cognitive variables in predicting college grades, persistence, and graduation. This study extends that literature by focusing on variables from the AFS that may be used as non-cognitive predictors, specifically related to eight variables established in previous literature. The study used existing data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program AFS. The Academic Assessment Office at the selected institution provided data for the sample consisting of 249 African American students, who enrolled in the fall of 1992, 1993, and 1994. Out of the variables analyzed, only one proved statistically significant. Contrary to expectation, students who indicated a high intellectual self-confidence at matriculation were less likely to graduate within six years than those who did not. No other variables were significant predictors of graduation. The results of this study suggest that the AFS items are not good predictors for African American graduation. / Master of Arts

Racial and ethnic minorities in the United States have higher rates of hypertension than European Americans. In this ethnographic study, 30 Nigerian immigrant health care workers with hypertension described their self-efficacy management of the disease to ascertain the relationship between health-related hardiness, individual attitudes on compliance, and medication adherence self-efficacy. Using a mixed methods designs comprised of survey tools and focus-group questionnaires, the research questions were focused on understanding attitudes and health practices within Nigerian culture that support self-efficacy management. The theoretical framework for this study is the social learning theory and the social cognitive theory postulated by Bandura. Content analysis of the focus group transcript revealed that all participants agreed that culture directly influences their self-efficacy practices. Interview responses generated 4 major themes in which the study participants expressed positive attitude towards adopted values including culture practices, faith, enculturation, and fear of medication effects. Cross tabulations of data from the survey tools showed no relationship between self-care management, attitude, and medication adherence. Factor analysis of the Health Related Hardiness (HRH) scale identified 6 constructs with a cumulative variance of 64.9%. Implication for positive social change include culturally specific health intervention programs that focus on the impact of culture on hypertension self-efficacy practices and self-care management.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2005. / 1 electronic text (247 p.) : digital, PDF file. Title from title screen. Benjamin Baez, committee chair; Asa G. Hilliard, III, Philo A. Hutcheson, Patricia L. Gregg, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Apr. 10, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-247).

The focus of this research is in the area of African American male superintendents and their leadership in diverse settings. The research approach adopted in this dissertation used semi-structured interviews with five African American male superintendents that consisted of three main issues: (1) personal; (2) leadership quality/effectiveness and (3) impact on student academic performance. The findings from this research provide evidence that: superintendents believed they gained their focus on education by having strong parental influences; each superintendent believed that their involvement in sports helped them to sharpen their leadership skills at an early age; they believed in having systems in place to monitor and track the performance of their district; being visible in the community has helped to garner support from all stakeholders; and being educated during the civil rights era taught the superintendents a lot about equity issues. The main conclusions drawn from this research were that superintendent efficacy, professional development and a goal toward academic success for all students were the components demonstrated by these district leaders. This research recommends that superintendents have professional development to strengthen strong people skills, create mentorships and shadow-mentoring programs for both African American male superintendent candidates and practicing African American male superintendents new to the job or new to their district, emphasize diversity in leadership, investigate superintendency preparation programs at the university level to address racial issues, and research studies should be more specific on the office of the superintendency.

In recent years, film, art, new media, and music video works created by black makers have demonstrated an increasingly “post-black” impulse. The term “post-black” was originally coined in response to innovative practices and works created by a generation of black artists who were shaped by hip-hop culture and Afro-modernist thinking. I use the term as a theoretical tool to discuss what lies beyond the racial character of a work, image, or body. Using a post-black theoretical methodology I examine a range of works by black filmmakers Kathleen Collins Prettyman and Lee Daniels, visual artists Wangechi Mutu and Jean-Michel Basquiat, new media artist Nettrice Gaskins, and music video works of hip-hop artists and performer Erykah Badu. I discuss how black artists and filmmakers have moved through Darby English’s notion of “black representational space” as a sphere where bodies and works are beholden to specific historical and aesthetic expectations and limitations. I posit that black representational space has been challenged by what I describe as “metaphysical space” where bodies produce a new set of possibilities as procreative, fluid, liberated, and otherworldly forces. These bodies are neither positive nor negative; instead they occupy the in-between spaces between life and death, time and space, digital and analog, interiority and exteriority, vulnerability and empowerment. Post-black visual culture displays the capacities of black bodies as creative forces that shape how we see and experience visual culture. My methodology employs textual analysis of visual objects that articulate a post-black impulse, paying close attention to how these works compel viewers to see other dimensions of experience. In three chapters I draw from theoretical work in race and visuality, affect theory, phenomenology, and interiority from the likes of Charles Johnson, Frantz Fanon, Elena del Río, Sara Ahmed, Saidiya Hartman, and Elizabeth Alexander. This study aims to create an interdisciplinary analysis that charts new directions for exploring and re-imaging black bodies as subjects and objects of endless knowledge and creative potential.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Committee on Human Development, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.