abstract: "Culture talk" figures prominently in the discussions of and about Muslims, both locally and globally. Culture, in these discussions, is considered to be the underlying cause of gender and generational divides giving rise to an alleged "identity crisis." Culture also presumably conceals and contaminates "pure/true Islam." Culture serves as the scaffold on which all that divides Muslim American immigrants and converts is built; furthermore, the fear of a Muslim cultural takeover underpins the "Islamization of America" narrative. This dissertation engages these generational and "immigrant"-"indigenous" fissures and the current narratives that dominate Muslim and public spheres. It does so through the perspectives of the offspring of converts and immigrants. As the children and grandchildren of immigrants and converts come of age, and distant as they are from historical processes and experiences that shaped the parents' generations while having shared a socialization process as both Muslim and American, what role do they play in the current chapter of Islam in post-9/11 America? Will the younger generation be able to cross the divides, mend the fissures, and play a pivotal role in an "American Muslim community"? Examining how younger generations of both backgrounds view each other and their respective roles in forging an American Muslim belonging, agenda and discourse is a timely and much needed inquiry. This project aims to contribute by shedding more light on the identities, perspectives and roles of these younger generations through the four dominant narratives of identity crisis, pure/true Islam vs. Cultural Islam, the Islamization of America, and creation of an American Muslim community/identity/culture. These narratives are both part of public discourse and themes generated from interviews, a questionnaire\survey, and personal observation. This ethnographic study examines how American born and/or raised offspring of both converts to Islam and immigrant Muslims in the Phoenix and Chicago metropolitan areas define self and community, how they negotiate fissures and fault lines (ethnicity, race, class, gender, and religious interpretation) within their communities, and how their faith informs daily life and envisions a future. I utilize participant observation, interviews, and surveys and examine digital, visual and published media to answer these questions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2013

abstract: The purpose of this project is to investigate the political aesthetics of Delilah Montoya's photographic landscape image, Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, Arizona (2004), an image drawn from a larger photo-documentary project by Montoya and Orlando Lara titled, Sed: Trail of Thirst (2004). This thesis employs Jacques Rancière's concept of the aesthetic regime to identify how Desire Lines functions as a political work of art, or what Rancière would consider "aesthetic art." This thesis shows that the political qualities of Desire Lines's work contrast with the aesthetic regime of art and systems in the U.S. nation state that have attempted to erase an indigenous presence. Thomás Ybarra-Frausto's and Amalia Mesa-Bains' definitions of Rasquachismo, as well as Gloria Anzalúda's concept of Nepantla, are used to assist in identifying the specific politics of Montoya's work. The first portion of this thesis investigates the image's political aesthetic within the context of the politics of art, and the second portion addresses the image's political qualities within the framework of the politics of the everyday life. This thesis shows that Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, Arizona reveals a Chicana/o aesthetic that challenges the dominant paradigm of postmodernism; furthermore, viewing the content of the image through the concept of Nepantla allows for a political reading which highlights the work's capacity to challenge the Eurocentric view of land in the U.S. Southwest. Desire Lines, Baboquivari Peak, Arizona is an indigenously oriented photograph, one which blurs the lines of the politics of art and the everyday and has the power to reconfigure our understanding of the U.S borderland as an indigenous palace of perseverance exemplifying the will to overcome. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Art History 2014

<p> Research consistently indicates that less affluent students across the country are often deprived of the necessary academic preparation and college guidance needed to successfully select, attend, and graduate from a postsecondary institution (Louie, 2017). Independent schools across America have historically served affluent, White students; however, many independent schools now strive to attract more diverse student populations. One such subgroup in independent school&rsquo;s communities are students of color. Students of color who enter a traditionally White independent school often find unexpected struggles while acclimating to the independent school environment (Ohikuare, 2013) including developing social capital (Putnam, 2017) and establishing meaningful relationships with students and staff members at these schools. Weiss (2014) refers to these students as being as &ldquo;doubly disadvantaged&rdquo;; students of color fortunate to gain acceptance to elite private schools who can still find themselves at the bottom of the opportunity structure without the proper support and guidance. This qualitative study will explore the experiences and perceptions of students who are involved with the A Better Chance (ABC) Program during their college preparation process at a select independent boarding and day schools in the Mid-Atlantic region. Methods of data collection included detailed interviews with sixteen students across fourteen schools from the Mid-Atlantic region currently involved with the A Better Chance program. The study will also compare and contrast the information regarding participant's high school-to-college (HStoC) guidance process versus the high school to college guidance provided by A Better Chance.</p><p>

Anxiety disorders are often associated with fear related to living in a society whose members may attach negative and degrading terms to mental health conditions. Although anxiety disorders are more prevalent among African Americans, treatment-seeking behavior rates are lower in the African American community. Cultural and social perceptions of mental health care's effectiveness and accessibility can act as barriers to treatment seeking by African American men diagnosed with anxiety disorders. A multiple case study approach was used in this qualitative study to investigate how African American men cope with the disorders and whether they hold integrated, gender-distinct beliefs about the cultural and social effects that may contribute to delays in treatment-seeking behaviors. The health belief model was used in conjunction with the theory of planned behavior as the conceptual framework for understanding the data. Purposive sampling of African American men diagnosed with anxiety disorders was used to recruit 5 study participants. In-depth interviews were conducted and recorded on a digital recorder. Results and findings from content analysis support the premise that medication nonadherence, along with the themes developed in this studyâ??â??social isolation, inner nervousness, thoughts and feeling about medication, past trauma and violence, alternative ways of coping, and lack of trust in the treatment systemâ??â??make a plausible argument for why African American men do not seek treatment for anxiety disorders. This study contributes to social change by informing community workers and agencies about reasons for African American men not seeking treatment, and the need for increased awareness, community outreach programs, and more universal cognitive testing of anxiety disorders for this population.

<p> This study examined interpersonal relationships among youth from different ethnic communities. The purpose of this study was to examine interpersonal relationships among youth from different ethnic communities in Kenya, especially the vulnerable population of individuals with disabilities, and the ways interpersonal relationships between youth from different ethnic communities change as a result of ethnic conflict. This study utilized survey methodology to gain a better understanding of interpersonal relationships between youth from different ethnic communities and individuals with disabilities. The sample of the survey comprised 42 participants between the ages of 18 and 35 who were in Kenya during the postelection conflict of 2007 and 2008. This study found that some participants experienced strain in their friendships with individuals from different ethnic communities, particularly those that were fighting against one another. Both participation in and harmful action against individuals with disabilities were also reported. However, the experience of youth with disabilities was not dissimilar to that of their nondisabled peers. This study has the capacity to lead to additional studies with a larger sample size within and outside of Kenya, and to break apart key findings into individual studies.</p><p>

<p> With a considerable focus to increase America&rsquo;s degree completion rates amongst our diverse population, higher education policymakers and researchers have examined the college access, persistence, and completion rates of first-generation students. However, minimal research has addressed the heterogeneous student population through a gendered or intersectional lens. To provide nuance to first-generation scholarship and identity development, the dissertation employed a narrative inquiry approach to examine the meanings five first-generation women made as they understood their intersecting identities within unique institutional contexts. Findings from the study are the following: the women defined themselves as individuals with multiple identities and not solely on their first-generation status; the saliency with which individuals associated with a first-generation identity varied; an initial identity conflict regarding first-generation status catapulted the women&rsquo;s understanding of other social dimensions and allowed them to transition from processing each identity in isolation to an intersectional conception of self; identity development was an evolving process with the saliency of social dimensions fluctuating based on temporal and situational contexts; and some women were not adequately challenged to reflect on their gender identity. The conclusions from the study will add to the knowledge base not only on first-generation students, but undergraduate women&rsquo;s <i>advantaged</i> experiences, and identity intersectionality within higher education.</p><p>

<p> The assumed achievement gap between students of color and their White counterparts continues to be a source of public concern. Educators have reacted to this difference in achievement by allocating more and more instructional time to covering instructional content through direct instruction, remediation and memorization of lower order skills without regarding the contextual factors that influence instructional delivery. Although Gay (2001) has advocated for teachers to match instruction to &ldquo;&hellip; the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them,&rdquo; still culturally responsive teaching continue to be under-used by teachers (Ware, 2006; Siwatu 2011). </p><p> This study explored the relationship of teacher sense of efficacy or future facing self-evaluations of knowing what to do and how to do it in using culturally responsive teaching practices to improve the achievement of urban grade school students of color. Through a mixed-methods design, the investigator went beyond predicting the existence of a relationship between teacher sense of efficacy in the use of culturally responsive teaching practices toward uncovering the impact of this relationship upon the reading and math achievement of urban students of color. It was discovered that universally assumed social values (McGruder, 1999: Donovan &amp; Marlatt, 1988; Nichols, 1986) or epistemology (Nichols, 1986) not only influence the teacher&rsquo;s efficacy (Bandura, 1997) in gaining knowledge of cultural responsiveness but also in knowing how to use the practices of cultural responsiveness.</p><p>

<p> This study reveals the experience of 8 Albanian women living in communities in Kosovo as survivors of large-scale trauma. The researcher used the Cultural Formation Interview (Informant Version, DSM-V, 2013) to explore the cultural perception of cause, context, support, barriers, coping strategies and help-seeking behavior for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The interviews yield colloquial descriptions of symptoms such as depression, somatic disorders, disassociation, intrusive thoughts and anxiety. The women identified cultural coping behaviors of talking about it, going to the doctor, faith, working hard and making a change in routine. The importance of the role of the husband is highlighted. They describe barriers of stigma and poverty which limit resource access. It is recommended that research be done on a model of PTSD treatment in Kosovo using community-based intervention through meaning focused coping and culture-embedded methods with culture-unique descriptors for addressing trauma-related distress and enhancing post-trauma growth. The study includes other clinical implications, limitations and suggestions for future research.</p><p>

This thesis examined how skin-tone, gender, and sexuality, within the entertainment industry, help shape the micro-level process by which racial identity is constructed in American culture. The thesis analyzed and critiqued existing ideologies of race across the Americas, with specific reference to Jamaica and the United States. Issues and questions of re-representation within American popular culture are central concerns: in particular, the ways that Black women's roles are defined and redefined through the positionality of female performance artists within the male-dominated music culture. The thesis argued then that skin-tone is fundamental to the understanding of blackness, as American society continues to view race through the lens of the popular entertainment industry. The study examined the positionality of the light-skinned/or biracial Black woman's identity is fixed sexually within the racialized context of American society. The thesis concluded that the glorification of the light-skinned/or biracial Black female recreates a socio-historical and cultural-political context that simultaneously devalues the darker-skinned Black woman.

The construction of parental involvement as it was introduced into American schools over 90 years ago marginalizes Latina/o students and families. While research exists on the positive impact of Latina/o parental involvement as well as cultural parenting practices unique to Latina/o culture that foster academic success, much remains to be learned. What teachers and administrators in K-12 and higher education settings have not yet widely considered are how Latina/o students bring with them six forms of cultural capital transmitted to them via their parents to persist in hostile environments such as predominantly White institutions (PWIs). This qualitative study addresses what can be done to accommodate and support a growing Latina/o population by amplifying student narratives on how, and under what circumstances they employ each of the six forms of capital. The findings reflect my research with 37 Latina/o college students at different types of higher education institutions (a selective all-women's college, a large co-educational University, and a community college) to examine how students: describe and interpret parental involvement, employ cultural messages regarding education, and how they utilize cultural capital to persist at these PWIs. This study has implications for policy and practice for teachers and administrators in K-12 and higher education settings. It challenges these institutions to adopt asset-based approaches that propose to work with whole Latina/o families to support the whole Latina/o student. Findings from this study also provide recommendations for how Latina/o students can take active roles in advocating for themselves in higher education.