Middle school is discursively positioned as a problem to be solved, largely because middle school students are fixed with a gaze that produces them as at-risk, and in need of advice, guidance, and role models to ensure a healthy and productive adult future. Middle school students, as “early adolescents,” are positioned as youth at a particular stage of development that has fundamental needs, linked to assumptions about their bodily, cognitive, and emotional development. Middle school teachers come to embody the hopes and fears positioned on and through middle school students, and are discursively produced themselves as “bodies of knowledge” who are said to know the bodily needs of middle school students—in turn, positioned to all be rooted in the “nature” of their development. This study seeks to trace and open up the “rhizomatic assemblage” of “middle school,” particularly as it makes certain practices, knowledges, and discourses (un)available or (im)possible to “middle school teachers.” It does so by exploring through a qualitative study of three independent school middle school teachers, along with the auto-biographical “sketches” of the author, ways in which particular bodies come to know and be known as “middle school teachers.” As the bulk of the data was being collected in the 2019–2020 school year, the global COVID-19 pandemic and racial reckoning in the United States that emerged from the murder of George Floyd both provided important new contexts to explore in terms of implications for intersectional, embodied experiences of “middle school” after March 2020. Consequently, the study explores discursive shifts and (in)stabilities across pre-pandemic and “early” pandemic contexts, particularly in remote teaching and calls to embrace and embody anti-racist practice as middle school educators. It is hoped that the exploration of discourses, discursive practices, and embodiment of “middle school” open up space and possibility in middle schools, for middle school teachers and students alike.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social and Psychological Research. July 2019 / The psychosocial condition and socioeconomic position of black employees in the South African workplace remain unchanged in spite of the advent of democracy in 1994. The black employee’s racial experience in the workplace is indicative of the normative experience of blackness in contemporary South African society that is in agreement with the everyday familiarity of socioeconomic disadvantage and psychosocial subjugation that affects the overall existential experience of blackness. As such, hostile racial interactions in the workplace reflect that the socioeconomic and psychosocial changes expected post-apartheid are materialising at seemingly substandard rates. The current investigation utilised a phenomenological approach to the broader critical psychology of race the interpretive research paradigm and semi-structured interviews to direct thematic data analysis techniques that informed the study conclusions. The participant group consisted of eight tertiary educated black employees, one male and seven females, with an age range of 21 to 27 years, with workplace experience ranging from two weeks to four years. The results of this investigation significantly shows the inefficiency of the democratic redress policy in the facilitation of workplace diversification, and its ineptitude in expediting psychosocial and socioeconomic inclusion, integration and participation such that the existential black employee’s experience of racial identity in the post-apartheid South African workplace is not adversarial. The findings of this investigation suggest that the instances of on-going racism in the workplace are the result of an institutional socioeconomic investment in racial inequality that facilitates hostile racial interactions in the workplace. / NG (2020)

Thesis advisor: Sara Moorman / Thesis advisor: Eve Spangler / This research project explores the narratives of how and when young Black people came to understand their race, as well as the implications of it. In order to expand upon the existing studies regarding racial realization and provide specific stories of such instances, qualitative interviews with nine Black people (ages 18-22) were conducted. The upbringings of these young Black people were analyzed in depth in order to provide insight to different types of racial socialization. It was found that both colorblind upbringings and non-colorblind upbringings that center individuals rather than systems of oppression are not helpful in the racial identity formation of young Black people. They both result in the perpetuation of the idea that racially marginalized people should modify their behavior. Additionally, this project exposes some of the reasons why racial realization is often a jarring experience for Black people in America, and in turn, expose some of the ways it can be less so. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

This dissertation examines inequality in school funding in North Carolina from 1964 to 1997. It highlights local, county and state decisions about the distribution of educational funds, and shows that public officials have created and maintained school funding mechanisms that exacerbated inequalities between racial groups to preserve White capital and advantage White communities. Discriminatory taxation schemes, district-line gerrymandering and voter suppression ensured White control of school boards and boards of county commissioners, which presided over school budgets, resulting in uneven revenue distribution. I analyze these mechanisms as instances of theft—theft of civil rights and financial resources—within a tradition of kleptocracy in the state.I first focus on four case studies, including two rural and two urban and suburban counties, where I examine the correlation between financial inequities and racial segregation through quantitative and qualitative analysis. I ask how historical actors have addressed educational inequalities over time, and how local governments, courts and legislatures responded to these intertwined challenges. This study investigates the discrepancy between the legacies of Jim Crow in school finance and racially neutral arguments in education reform and school finance litigation. All four case-study counties became involved in the 1994 Leandro v. State lawsuit, which challenged the state’s school funding formula. The urban-rural plaintiff coalition highlighted contradictions in arguments about the root causes of resource inequalities in public schools. The Leandro case did not address racial discrimination, and I question and historicize this silence.

The objective of the study was to examine the association between lifetime arrest and marijuana-related first arrest with past-year suicide ideation among Black and White people. We used data from Wave-IV (2008–2009; N = 5114) of the publicly available National Adolescent Health Study (Add Health) data. A total of 4313 Non-Hispanic Black and White participants were selected for this study. Logistic regression was used to assess whether lifetime arrest and marijuana-related arrests were associated with past year suicide. Overall, 28.8% of the sample reported lifetime arrest, 6.3% reported lifetime suicide ideation, and 3.7% reported marijuana-related arrest. A significantly higher percentage of Black people (32.3%) in comparison to White people (27.4%) reported lifetime arrest (χ2 = 9.91; p < 0.001; df = 1). Among Black people, lifetime arrest (AOR = 2.98; 95% CI, 1.66–5.35; p < 0.001) and marijuana-related arrest (AOR = 4.09; 95% CI, 1.47–11.35; p < 0.001) were both associated with lifetime suicide ideation. Given the rate of death by suicide among Black people has been rising for two decades, further efforts are needed to educate and inform key stakeholders including law enforcement and policymakers regarding racial disparities in arrests, which may contribute to reducing risk for death by suicide among Black people.

Frances has recently survived a near-fatal car accident, and a period of convalescence in which she was cared for by her eccentric mother. Now, with the help of her friend, Jane, she’s landed a job at an AIDS Service Organization where she has the opportunity to slowly come back to life. Touching on themes of female friendship, marriage, and intimacy through technology, and with undertones of capitalism, racism, and patriarchy, We Are Not Supposed to Be Happy is a love story in every direction.

Thesis advisor: Daniel J. Daily / Thesis advisor: James Keenan / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

This thesis is devoted to the problem of exclusion that Roma population is subject of in Czech republic. This exclusion is studied through "helping professions" - professional intervening actors that help Roma to overcome the exclusion. Results used in this text come from two ethnographic research projects realized between 2008-2013. The text contains mixed approach, inductive ethnographic, stemming from my extensive research data and deductive or theory-driven. Methodologically the research belongs to the broad area of qualitative approach to social research, especially cognitive anthropological, psychoanalytical and that of individual psychology. First theoretical part, using mainly concepts of cognitive anthropology and distibutive theory of culture is focused on the theoretical question of the concept of culture and how it can be used for the "Roma culture" concept in relationship with the question of "majority". The second part consists mainly of a reinterpretation of the question of exclusion and Roma culture from the point of view of the concept of distantiation and expands it into Frantz Fanon inspired theory of confrontation. Third part is predominatly empirical and ethnograpical and consists of an inquiry into cognitive models of the help from exclusion as observed in helping professions....

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Thesis advisor: Thanh V. Tran / Suicide is an escalating public health crisis for Black people in the United States, yet the majority of the suicide research in the United States is based on the European American population. The psychological impact of the centuries of persistent stress and pain Black Americans have endured in the U.S., fueled by racism since the tragic period of slavery, is well-documented. However, despite the unrelenting historical and contemporary manifestations of racism and other systems of oppression in U.S. society, Black Americans have chosen death by suicide at rates lower than White Americans. Previous research has established the complexity of suicide and revealed that there are multiple personal and societal stress factors that contribute to creating risk factors for Black suicide. Research has also established that Black Americans historically have cultivated a resistance to the desire to take their own lives, seemingly linked to religious/spiritual and cultural coping resources that have served as a protective factor against suicidal behavior. Yet, there is a lack of scholarship that explores the impact of these resources on suicide in this population. Suicidologists are calling for suicide to be examined within a multidimensional contextual framework and for there to be a shift from a deficit approach to a strengths-based approach. There is a need for greater research focus on the factors that influence suicidal behavior in Black Americans, as well as the factors that are associated with creating a shield of protection against this self-destructive behavior. Through a convergent mixed-method approach, and guided by a robust cluster of theories, with Critical Race Theory and the Afrocentric Worldview as the overarching theoretical and philosophical approaches, this dissertation aims to address the gaps in the literature by examining several research questions. The following questions are examined through quantitative research: (1) Do racial discrimination and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and racial discrimination and personal stress?; (2) Do post-incarceration status and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and post-incarceration and personal stress?; (3) Do veteran status and personal stress influence suicide attempts among Black people in the U.S., and does religion/spirituality serve as a protective factor and moderate the relationship between attempted suicide and veteran status and personal stress? The data for this study were drawn from the cross-sectional National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) III which covers April 2012-June 2013. Logistic regression was employed to analyze the data. The quantitative research explores the impact of personal and societal stressors on the mental health of Black people and the role of religion/spirituality in cultivating a healthy emotional and mental environment that insulates them from suicide. The qualitative data include interviews with three adult Black men from the researcher’s family across three generations. Through three generations of Black men from one family, this dissertation further aims to examine whether religion/spirituality is a protective factor insulating Black people in the U.S. from developing suicidal behavior as they navigate societal stress factors including racial discrimination, post-incarceration status, and veteran status and whether religion/spirituality as a protective factor is passed down intergenerationally. If so, it aims to explore whether there are any intergenerational patterns and/or differences in the utilization of religion/spirituality as a source of protection against developing suicidal behavior. Assessed together, the findings from the quantitative and the qualitative research underscore the potential impact of stress and societal stress factors on suicidal behavior among Black people. Specifically, the quantitative research shows an association between personal stress and societal stress factors including racial discrimination, post-incarceration status, veteran status, and suicide attempts. The quantitative research also underscores the complexity of the role of religion/spirituality as a protective factor, as the findings from the quantitative research show that religion/spirituality was not a buffer against suicide attempts for the participants in that study. The findings from the qualitative research reveal that religion/spirituality can serve as a buffer and illustrates religion/spirituality functioning as an extension of Afrocentric culture and serving as a protective shield enabling some Black people to resist the full psychological impact of personal and societal stressors. This dissertation provides the foundation for the broader work highlighted through this study encapsulated in the Ubuntu Relational Framework for the Study of Black Suicide, an Afrocentric framework I developed that emerged as a guide for exploring the risks and protective factors of Black suicide. The constructs of death consciousness and Divine consciousness emerged during the analysis of the qualitative research as a way of conceptualizing the influence of societal stressors and protective factors on suicidal behavior, and they are an expression of Afrocentric culture. This framework highlights the need to equally prioritize the concern of what animates Black people’s desire to live, which was illuminated through the qualitative research, along with the question of what factors make them at risk for cultivating a desire to die. It further attends to the need for social workers to address the conditions of the racist U.S. environment these factors are assessed within. This dissertation also includes my autoethnography which serves as an analytic review and critical analysis of key concepts related to the study of Black suicide. It is a resource for further grounding in the historical and contemporary context of the Black experience and the Afrocentric worldview incorporated in this work. Autoethnography is an epistemological site for exploring Divine consciousness and the role of religion/spirituality and culture passed down intergenerationally as a protective factor against suicidal behavior. It further outlines a methodology for employing spiritual and cultural resources and operationalizing spiritual resistance. Finally, this dissertation goes beyond identifying risk and protective factors for suicidal behavior in Black people. It outlines a structure for training social work clinicians and researchers in this Afrocentric framework that would expand social workers’ knowledge of African-centered social work, and a method appropriate for responding to this multidimensional mental health problem that requires a creative, culturally rich approach. The training includes a methodology for employing religious/spiritual and cultural resources that operationalizes spiritual resistance that will equip social workers for supporting Black people in developing a healthy holistic mental and social environment within an oppressive racist environment. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social work.