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This dissertation examines four novels that specifically and deliberately focus on the perspectives of people of color in the United States in order to explore a gap in the conversations surrounding representation of the Vietnam War. Opening the canon to include more diverse perspectives of the Vietnam War acknowledges how predominantly white representation of the war effaces the experiences of the many soldiers of color, who often fought and died in disproportionately greater numbers than white soldiers, and attempts to redress such erasure. These novels include Arthur R. Flowers's De Mojo Blues, which focuses on African American soldiers’ experience and highlights intra-racial conflicts and Lan Cao's Monkey Bridge, an exploration of Vietnamese American women living as refugees in the United States. Additionally, Alfredo Véa's Gods Go Begging and Linda Hogan's People of the Whale go beyond the Chicano and Native American identities of their respective protagonists by including a diverse range of voices and re-imagining boundaries associated with racial and national identities. Responding to the myth of American exceptionalism, the novels illuminate how the war perpetuated long-standing systems of oppression and interrogate oppositions between self and other, individual and community, and past and present that war often sustains. As such these novels emerge as critical interventions in discourses of race and nation by highlighting and creating space for difference. Ultimately, these novels provide a vision of hope by imagining a world that embraces the complexities of cross-cultural community rather than merely superficial melting pot diversity. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / English / PhD; / Dissertation;

This research focuses on a rural Iowa meatpacking community and the ways diverse residents negotiate belonging in this context. People with various lengths of local residence, racial/ethnic identities, social classes, language proficiencies, and education levels all reside together in Meatville and many engage in face-to-face daily interactions with one another. I argue that the combination of rurality and low-wage industrial employment influences how residents manage belonging and social participation even as they engage in activities that appear unrelated to meatpacking. Identities connected to industrial work extend beyond the factory into the social relationships among community members, including those who are not plant employees. Paradoxically, economic development in the form of a meatpacking plant challenged residents' ability to see themselves as a "community" with shared experiences, values, and identities. The rural context presents a unique sense of place as well as practical challenges and opportunities for belonging. My fieldwork combines observations in the domains of school, families and households, and public events to explore how interpersonal and institutional mechanisms affect inclusion or exclusion.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2009. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-204).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2009. / Abstract. Typescript. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-204).

No description available.

Thesis (D.Min.)--Asbury Theological Seminary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-174).

This thesis seeks to make visible the presence and voices of minority ethnic households in rural communities by addressing the ‘place blindness’ in research on ethnicity / ‘race’, and the ethnicity / ‘race’ blindness in rural literature. The overall aim of this thesis is to develop an understanding of the lived experiences and perspectives of minority ethnic households and individuals in parts of rural Scotland, and the Highlands and Islands in particular. The emphasis is on exploring the contingent, flexible and changing interaction between ethnicity / ‘race’ and rurality. This is achieved by drawing on four separately commissioned studies which were undertaken between 1998 and 2004, and were re-analysed for the purposes of this thesis. Within the context of these studies, the thesis examines the ways in which the social and spatial demography of rural minority ethnic households, and particular conceptualisations of rural have been mobilised to shape ideas and practices about belonging in parts of rural Scotland. In particular, the studies explore the ways in which minority ethnic households, parents/carers and young people across the four studies have felt they have been ‘invisible’ in relation to policy and service delivery issues, and developed strategies to overcome their marginalisation. The thesis concludes that the relationships, experiences and practices based on ethnicity / ‘race’ have to be understood as being grounded in specific spatial, national, local, historical and material contexts which are dynamic. It stresses the need to move away from binary accounts portraying minority ethnic groups as always ‘passive victims’, and the ‘host’ communities as invariably ‘perpetrators’ of racism, by recognising the importance of taking into account the cross-cutting nature of individual identities and experiences, deconstructing ‘white’ and recognising the countervailing forces of constraints and agency within this context.

Inappropriate behavior among students has long been a point of great concern and contention for public schools in the United States. Our national school discipline rates have reached an all-time high. As suspension and expulsion rates continue to grow at schools across the country, so do racial disparities. Over the past 4 decades, the K, "12 suspension rates have doubled for White students but tripled for Black students. In Arlington County Public Schools (ACPS), inappropriate student behavior that may result in suspension is classified as either "zero-tolerance" (for which the student must be suspended) or "nonzero-tolerance" (for which the school administrator can choose between suspension and other forms of discipline). Suspension is assumed to be one of the more severe forms of discipline. This study analyzes the impact that student ethnicity had on suspensions in ACPS during school years 2006 to 2011. The results indicate that Hispanic and Black students are suspended more than White and Asian students. However, when the administrator has the option to suspend, results suggest that Blacks and Whites are given the benefit of the doubt but Hispanics are not. Possible causes of the relationship between ethnicity and inappropriate behavior are provided. Reasoning for school administrators' possible leniency with Blacks and their possible lack of leniency with Hispanics is also provided. Areas of future study are recommended. / Ed. D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-119).