168 p., Explores Caribbean literature that contests the privileging of nation and diaspora community models, and instead presents the spontaneous and productive formation of communities through praxis. Conceptualizing community through this lens challenges systemic emphases on unity, shared history, and shared identity, while it simultaneously incorporates difference at its very foundation. The author draws on Caribbean and postcolonial theory, subaltern studies historiography, and feminist theory in my analysis of Caryl Phillips's The Atlantic Sound , Erna Brodber's Louisiana, Zee Edgell's Beka Lamb , and Maryse Condé's I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem.
271 p., Uses W.E.B. Du Bois' reference to the worlds 'within and without the veil' as the narrative setting for presenting the case of an African-Bahamian urban cemetery in use from the early 18th century to the early 20th century. The author argues that people of African descent lived what Du Bois termed a 'double consciousness.' Thus, the ways in which they shaped and changed this cemetery landscape reflect the complexities of their lives. Since the material expressions of this cemetery landscape represent the cultural perspectives of the affiliated communities so changes in its maintenance constitute archaeologically visible evidence of this process. Evidence in this study includes analysis of human remains; the cultural preference for cemetery space near water; certain trees planted as a living grave site memorial; butchered animal remains as evidence of food offerings; and placement of personal dishes on top of graves.
189 p., A study of cultural resource management initiatives and the extent to which archaeological surveys and excavations include or exclude African Caribbean contemporary and historic communities, throughout these processes. Data were collected through archival research, interviews and surveys and analyzed qualitatively to examine the degree to which stakeholders, particularly those who have been historically marginalized, have been incorporated into these processes.
214 p., This ethnographic case study was designed to explore with a sample of urban school administrators their responsiveness to the cultural and educational needs of English-speaking Caribbean immigrant students. The goal is to describe and interpret the culture of Enwood High School through administrators' beliefs, values, actions, assumptions, and cultural artifacts in order to develop a better understanding of their responsiveness to the cultural and educational needs of English-speaking Caribbean immigrant students that will ultimately help to improve their learning outcome.
305 p., Examines how social inequalities, in combination with identified social risk factors, contribute to disparities in the incidence of schizophrenia among individuals of African-Caribbean descent in England. It addresses the psychiatric epidemiological puzzle that indicates African-Caribbbeans in England have significantly greater rates of schizophrenia than the general British population. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork with patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, their relatives, and community members in North London, the researcher argued that specific social changes and historical forces interlink to create a toxic environment characterized by negative expressed emotions and social defeat to affect African-Caribbeans' mental health.
151 p., Black ethnic groups are often grouped together under global headings, ignoring the variations that may lead to different manifestations and expressions of depressive symptoms. Identifying intrapersonal, cultural and environmental pathways to successful mental health functioning among Black ethnic minority groups and subgroups is pivotal to the provision of culturally relevant mental health services. Methods. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of variables that have been previously mentioned in the literature, such as cultural resources, psychosocial variables, neighborhood characteristics and perceived discrimination, on the levels of depression among Afro-Caribbean and African American and between Afro-Caribbean Blacks.
176 p., Colleges and universities continue to add diversity and internationalization as major components of their strategic planning efforts. Students from various racial, ethnic and national backgrounds are expected to live and work together in an intellectual environment while bringing with them various views of race and culture that are maintained through varying myths and misconceptions. This study looked at the technical and cultural definitions of what it means to be 'Black' in the U.S. and the stereotypes of being classified within that racial category for college students from Africa and the Caribbean.
251 p., Argues that there is a difference between biological essentialism and racial authenticity. Essentialism is reactionary, whereas racial authenticity is thoughtful, constructed and aimed at countering common beliefs. Once authenticity is positioned as a means to an end and not an end itself, authenticity can be used as a way of reading social situations, questioning how authentic arguments are used in culture, and understanding why their use is sometimes necessary. Also, using authenticity as a way of reading social situations takes the focus off of the authentic representation of race and places attention on American society by examining how the authentic representation works in dialogue with other arguments about race. This study uses the Harlem Renaissance as a backdrop to view how Afro-Caribbeans inserted themselves into African American discourses on race. The dark skinned immigrants blended in visually, but were far removed from many of the formative racial experiences of their American peers. These people may have come to align with African Americans and fight white racism, but they were in fact taking up new identity positions and learning to perform forms of blackness on the fly. The works that are examined in the various chapters of this dissertation show Black writers as critical agents of change who work hard to balance their own personal needs with the needs of their race and position themselves within a racist society.
321 p., Locates contemporary articulations of afrofeminismo in manifold modes of cultural production including literature, music, visual displays of the body, and digital media. Examines the development of afrofeminismo in relation to colonial sexual violence in sugar-based economies to explain how colonial dynamics inflect ideologies of blanqueamiento/embranquecimento (racial whitening) and pseudo-scientific racial determinism. In this context, the author addresses representations of the mujer negra (black woman) and the mulata (mulatto woman) in Caribbean and Brazilian cultural discourse.
233 p., The experiences of Black females have received little attention in Canadian research on education. As a result, little is known about how Black females experience schooling, and even less is known about the specific challenges they face on account of their gender and its interconnection with race, class, immigrant status and other aspects of their identity. In this dissertation, I examine the schooling experiences of a group of young, Black, females of Caribbean descent. Through the use of anti-racism feminism and immigrant integration theories, the author looks at the relationship between their experiences of school and their understanding of their identity. Argues that the young women's negotiation of schooling is intimately linked to their understanding of their identity - an understanding that is filtered through race and gendered lenses, and is a product of their status as Canadian children of immigrant, Caribbean parents, living in a multicultural society.