Topic

Title:  Transforming Women of Color.

Topic: The transformation of women of color through the liminal phase.

Theory:

My paper will focus on the theory of Liminality in accordance to liminality defined by Victor Turner.  In his research, Turner describes liminality as a period in which one lives in opposing realities. The realities that I will use in my paper, will be that of women identifying as a person of color while attempting to thrive in an opposing society.  It is in his research paper “Liminality and Communitas,”  That Turner further defines those in the liminal stage  as being “neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony” (1969: 95). I will expand his theory of liminality by attributing it to how women of color use this liminal phase to secure a better socio economic status. I will also incorporate the theory of double bind described by Gegory Bateson. In his theory, Bateson defines double bind as an error in communication when an individual receives two opposing messages. The two opposing messages received by women of color that I will expand on will be; pressures from their kin groups to maintain their culture identity and pressures from society to transform into an identity that is normalized by a collective social consciousness.

Elevator Pitch:

            The purpose of my research paper will be to assess the issues and effects of liminality in women of color; while also incorporating other theories. Historically, women of color have had to face many hardships, as a result of being not only women, but also of color; because of this, they have also been ascribed to a low socioeconomic status. It is in my paper that I will grasp a better understanding of how women of color are able to raise their socio-economic status through a period of liminality. I will also explore how women of color are able to maintain or abandon their identity of belonging to a distinctive cultural group while desiring to be a member in an opposing culture. In the attempt to fit into society standards, the liminal phase can either positive or negative.  My paper will examine the effects of liminality in women of color, the importance of liminality, how it is maintained and supported.

                                                                 

References/ Bibliography:

1.      Comas-Diaz, Lillian and Greene, Beverly

                        2013 Psychological Health of Women of Color: Intersections, Challenges, and                         Opportunities: Praeger Press

2.      Gabe, Jonathan and Warner, Joanne

                        2004 Risk and Liminality in Mental Heal Social Work Health, Risk& Society 6(4)                               387-399

3.      Jospeh, Gloria I. and Lewis, Jill

                        1999 Common Differences: Conflicts in Black and White Feminist Perspectives:                                  South End Press

4.      Mendible, Myra

                        2009 From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture:                                   University of Texas Press

5.      Rubenstein, Jeffrey

                        1992 Purim, Liminality, and Communitas. AJS Review,17(2):247-277

6.      Turner, Victor

                        1969 Liminality and Communitas. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure                            94-113, 125:30

Creole Racial Identity: The creation and denotation of racial identity regarding the Louisiana creole

Creole Racial Identity: The creation and denotation of racial identity regarding the Louisiana creole

Bibliography:

Chaplin, Joyce E.

2006. Creoles in British America: From Denial to Acceptance. In Creolization: History, Ethnography, Theory. Stewart, Charles ed. pg 46-66. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press       

Dawdy, Shannon Lee

2000. Understanding Cultural Change Through the Vernacular: Creolization in Louisiana. Historical Archaeology 34(3): 107-123.

Jolivette, Andrew J.

2007    Including Native Identity in the Creole of Color Movement: Ethnic Renewal and Cultural Revival within a Black-Indian Population. In Louisiana Creoles: Cultural Recovery and Mixed-race Native American Identity. Pg 11-27. Lanham, MD: The Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Loomba, Ania

1998    Colonialism-Postcolonialism. London: Routledge

Mosadomi, Fehintola

2000    The Origin of Louisiana Creole. In Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana’s Free People of Color. Kein, Sybil, ed. Pg 223-243. Lousiana State University Press.  

Zackodnik, Teresa C.

2004    Fixing the Color Line: The Mulatta, American Courts, and the Racial Imaginary. In                 Mulatta and the Politics of Race. pg 3-42. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Elevator Pitch:
Although the term creole applies to many different cultures, the Louisiana creole carried definitive racial implications from it's very creation.  The historical and modern identities of the creole demonstrate the transformation of this term from negative to positive connotations. This brings into question who exactly can be labeled and identify with the term creole in Louisiana, as well as what it actually means to be creole.

Theory:

I will be utilizing the postcolonial theory as a basis for my research, as the development of creole culture is directly related to colonialism.  I will take much of my approach from Ania Loomba and her book “Colonialism-Postcolonialism”, in which she explains how colonialism created the identities of many different cultures through merging other cultures together, which resulted in the emergence and formation of postcolonial cultures. This will help to demonstrate how the creole culture was created, as well as the new racial identification which compose(d) the creole was created. 

The Stigmatization of Race and Diseases: How America's view on Epidemics have targeted immigrants and racialized minorities

1. Title: The Stigmatization of Race and Diseases: How America's view on Epidemics have targeted
immigrants and racialized minorities

2. Bibliography 

Castro, Arachu and Farmer, Paul 

            2005 Understanding and Addressing AIDS- Related Stigma: From Anthropological Theory                 to Clinical Practice in Haiti. American Journal of Public Heath 95(1): 53-59

Farmer, Paul 

             1996 Social Inequalities and Emerging Infectious Diseases. Emerging Infectious Disease                    2 (4):259-269

Farmer, Paul 

             2006 AIDS & ACCUSTATION: Hati and the Geography of Blame. California: University                  of California Press

Farmer, Paul 

             1999 Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. California: University of California                  Press 

Ifedi, Rosarie I 

             Situating Our Racialized Beings in the Race Talk in the U.S: African-born Blacks, Our                                 Racializationand Some Implications for Education. Woodring College of Education; Journal of                      Educational Controversy.                                                         http://www.wce.wwu.edu/Resources/CEP/eJournal/v005n002/a003.shtml, 

           Accessed November 7^th, 2014 

Seay, Laura and Yi Dionne, Kim

             The long and ugly tradition of treating Africa as a dirty, diseased place. The Washington                       Post:August 25

3. Elevator Pitch

      With the recent media being placed on the Ebola outbreak in West African Countries, the  stigmatization of immigrants entering the United States and some who have already been in the country before the outbreak has caused the disease to become an issue about race instead of health. This stigmatization of diseases in race has occurred before with immigrant populations in the past. For my research presentation I would like to show how  stigmatizing diseases among racial groups has happened multiple times with epidemics causing many to get sick in the United States and how it has created a stigma among racial groups. I will be using much of Paul Farmers publications to compare how AIDS in Haiti caused a racialized stigma among black communities in the United States. Also past epidemics with Irish Immigrants with Tuberculosis, Asian Immigrants and the plague, and  I will compare it to the Ebola outbreak and how even in the past this disease has racialized and stigmatized African immigrants and black communities.

4. Theory


The theories I will be using in my presentation will come from Sociologist Erving Goffman. The social theory between stigma and disease. This theory was found in an article written by Paul Farmer in his own theory of the Stigma of AIDS in Hati."Goffman defined stigma as the identification that a social group creates of a person ( of group of people ) based on some physical, behavioral, or social trait perceived as being divergent from group norms. This  socially constructed identification lays groundwork for subsequent disqualification of membership from a group in which that person was originally included". (Paul 54) I also would like to incorporate the anthropological theories of Clifford Geertz and his study on symbols and meaning in cultures to explain how diseases are viewed in the racialized culture of America where looking at a person of color stigmatizes them for being a conduit of a disease they are less likely to contract. Where it is the study of socioeconomic levels that leave people more susceptible than the color of their skin.
While conducting further research I would like add that I will be including the anthropological theory of Structural Violence to explain how Africa has been racialized and stigmatized.

Research Topic

1. Title: Off to the Races: How Sports Have Shaped our Views of Race

2. References:

Burdsey, Daniel, ed.

2011 Race, Ethnicity and Football: Persisting Debates and Emergent Issues. New York: Routledge.

Carrington, Ben

2010 Race, Sport and Politics: The Sporting Black Diaspora. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Hoberman, John

1997 Darwin’s Athletes: How Sport has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Long, Jonathan, and Spracklen Karl, eds.

2011 Sport and Challenges to Racism. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Shropshire, Kenneth L.

1996 In Black and White: Race and Sports in America. New York: New York University Press.

3. Elevator Pitch: It is now widely accepted by anthropologists and biologists that there are no physical differences between races. However, heavy segregation is still present in some sports, even at a professional level. This segregation continues to fuel beliefs among the public that certain races are naturally better at some sports than others. The purpose of my research is to examine the causes of this continued segregation and identify the driving factors that influence the public’s perceived differences of professional athletes.

4. The theoretical position that is guiding my thinking is Critical Race Theory, which first appeared in American law schools during the 1980’s. Critical Race Theory focuses on examining race, law, and power as they are reflected in society and culture. An element of this theory is that it seeks to challenge ideas about color blindness, race neutrality, and equal opportunity. I will use this aspect and other aspects of Critical Race Theory to take a more in-depth approach to examining how athletes, managers, coaches and recruiters are affected by, and continue to perpetuate, the racialization of sport. Major advocates for this theory include Derrick Bell, one of the founders of Critical Race Theory, and Kevin Hylton, author of ‘“Race” and Sport: Critical Race Theory.’

Colorism

Title: The Evolution and perpetuation within colorist ideologies that pertain to African Americans. 

Elevator Pitch:

An examination of the social structure, ideas and interactions from slavery to the present in an attempt to analyze the evolution of colorism in the African America culture. By analyzing social interactions we will be able to see how these ideologies have hurt individuals self identification and hindered progression of the African American culture economically, politically and socially. 

Theory:

The main theory that will be used in this analysis will be that of Bourdieu's habitus. By looking at behaviors in the sense of habitus we will be able to see how these ideas have survived over years and see the affect that it has on relationships. The use of this theory will place emphasis on the idea of hierarchies and show how status was a key influence on many individuals perpetuated behaviors. 

Bibliography:

Hochshild, Jennifer and Weaver, Velsa

2007 The Skin Paradox and the American Racial Order. Pp. 643-670. Oxford University Press.

Jones, Robert U.

1964 Colorism and Communism: The Plot against the Negro. Pp. 25-38. University of Northern Iowa.

Norwood, Kimberly J

2014  Color Matters: Skin Tone Bias and the Myth of a Post-Racial America. New York and London.

Wilder, Jeffrianne 

2010 Revisting "Color Names and Color Notions": A Contemporary Examination of the Language and Attitudes of Skin Color Among Young Black Women. Pp. 184-206. Sage Publications, Inc. 

Wilder, Jeffrianne and Cain, Colleen 

2010 Teaching and Learning Color Consciousness in Black Families: Exploring Family Processes and Women's Experiences with Colorism. Pp. 577-604. Sage Publications, Inc.

Shannon Jones

Symposium Topic

Title: Negotiating Liminality: The Multiracial Experience in America

Theory: The theoretical foundation for my paper is Victor Turner’s discourse on liminality. In The Ritual Process: Structure and anti-structure, Turner asserts that the balance between the structured and the unstructured is necessary for social maintenance. In a society of defined social positions, structure is comprised of individuals whose identity and social positions are based on distinct status divisions, measured against the others within the structure. Opposite structure, is anti-structure, where individuals lack social identities, therefore everyone is equal. A component of this anti-structure is the ambiguous liminal entity, which falls between place and position. As liminal entities challenge social boundaries and classifications, they become targets of taboos and prohibitions. I apply this theory of liminality to the multiracial population in America. America’s social construction of race attempts to phenotypically, socially, and politically categorize people. This racial structure has created a population of liminal entities, who fall between the categories we have designed.

Bibliography:

Bradshaw, Carla K.

            1992 Beauty and the Beast: On Racial Ambiguity. In Racially Mixed People in America.

                        Maria Root P.P., ed. Pp 77-88. California: Sage Publications.

Brunsma, David L.,  and Daniel Delgado, and Kerry Ann Rockquemore

2013 Liminality in the Multiracial Experience: Towards a concept of identity Matrix. Identities:

            Global studies in Culture and Power 20(5): 481-502

Jones, N. A. and Bullock, J. J.

2013 Understanding Who Reported Multiple Races in the U.S. Decennial Census: Results From Census

            2000 and the 2010 Census. Family Relations, 62: 5–16. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00759.x

Rockquemore, Kerry Ann and Davis L. Brunsma

            2008 Beyond Black: Biracial Identity in America. Rowman & Littlefield: Sage Publications

Turner, Victor W.

1969  Liminality and Communitas . In The Ritual Process: Structure and anti-structure.    

Pp 95-103 Chicago:Aldine

Elevator Pitch:           I explore how the American multiracial population negotiates their racial identity in a society determined to racially categorize them.  How one’s identity is socially perceived may not correspond with how one actually identifies.  Our national history has shaped our ideologies and assumptions about race, but this generation of multiracial Americans is blurring the lines of racial identity. Will the multiracial discourse in our country have an impact on our social structure?  

Paper/Presentation tiopic

1. Title (work in progress): The Falsities behind Biological Race

2. Bibliography

Bliss, Catherine

2012. Race Decoded: The Genomic Fight for Social Justice. Proquest ebrary.      http://site.ebrary.com.libproxy.uncg.edu/lib/uncgreen/detail.action?docID=10546502 accessed November 8, 2014

Fabian, Ann

  2010. The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America’s Unburied Dead. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Fish, Jefferson M.

2002. Race and intelligence separating science from myth. e-book collection (EBSCOhost). http://site.ebrary.com/id/10477469 accessed November 8, 2014

Graves, Joseph L.

  2004. The Race Myth: Why We Still Pretend Race Still Exists in America. New York: Dutton.

Marks, Jonathan

  1995. Human biodiversity: genes, race, and history. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

3. Elevator pitch: The idea of biological race was discredited over six decades ago and began to be widely accepted by the anthropological community as a myth by the 1960's. Still over the years, before and after biological race was debunked, studies have been done in craniometry, IQ tests, and genetics to try to validate biological race. Now, even with studies such as the Human Genome Project, biological race is something still widely accepted by the general public today. How has this past believe in biological race affected the views of American people to this day? How is the myth of biological race still not widely known? 

4. Theory: Several studies were done in the past to prove race as biological. Morton studied craniometry (inaccurately) to prove biological race and other physical variations could back up the claim to biological race. These studies detrimentally hurt views on race. While more studies have been done to falsify any claims to biological race, including studies in phrenology, forensic anthropology, and genetics, many people still believe in biology proving race. In the early- to mid-20th century, anthropologists like Franz Boas and Ashley Montagu greatly influenced the then newly changing ideas about race and helped lead to the discoveries made about race today.