Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, EDU Policy and Leadership

This study assesses the historical and educational implications of a ‘griotic' methodology that was employed by free African Americans in the antebellum North. This griotic methodology involved a textual production of history by and for African Americans that was derived from a West African oral/performance basis of history. The study therefore examines how a distinctive approach of history production developed among free African Americans from the late 1700s through the 1830s as they appropriated, engaged and/or countered prevailing European American discourses. Most important to the study is how these early intellectuals sought to vindicate, historicize and liberate themselves through re-presenting the idea of ‘Africa' as the metaphorical source and destiny of their race. Educational implications of this griotic methodology are subsequently highlighted in the study as it is applied as pedagogy in a post-secondary classroom to empower African African students. In order to establish an endogenous prism through which to examine this distinctive African American methodology, this study integrates a number of qualitative and historiographical components: an intellectual autobiography of the author who is an African American male educator; oral histories of African and African American history professors; and assessments of recent African American scholarship that focus on early African identity politics in the Americas. From these analyses, the author delineates and employs a ‘griotic' framework that involves a dialogue between the present and past, to chart how a West African oral/performance basis of history ascended into the textual productions of Olaudah Equiano, John Marrant, Peter Williams Jr., William Hamilton, Jacob Oson, David Walker and Maria Stewart. The historical usage of this ‘griotic' methodology is then emphasized within these works as a liberatory praxis by which early free Africans empowered their identity politics. While this African American appr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Antoinette Errante Ph.D. (Advisor); Leslie Alexander Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ousman Kobo Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; African History; African Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Education; Education History; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Ethnic Studies; History; Multicultural Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Comparative Studies

My dissertation explores the narratives of incarceration that have emerged in the pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial eras in Kenya. Rather than embark on the almost impossible task of examining all forms of prison narratives, this study concentrates mainly on the fiction and non-fiction writing of prisoners of conscience or political prisoners. Political repression has been a recurrent motif in Kenya since pre-colonial but particularly in the colonial and postcolonial times. Victims of state terror have consistently added to the long list of the literature of prison that invites scholarly investigation. Focusing on memory, truth telling, the I-pronoun, and trauma, the study analyzes the relationship between self-exploration and narration of confinement. I show that oral narratives inaugurated the narrativization of incarceration in Kenya during the pre-colonial era and continued to serve as the oxygen ventilating written prison narratives in succeeding periods. In this regard I argue that there are Kenyan oral texts that exemplify what may be termed oral prison narratives. The study identifies the connection between written and oral tales of incarceration by unearthing the extent to which oral tales are variously appropriated to capture incarceration as individual or collective lived experience whether in a literal or symbolic sense. The study is based on the assumption that there is a relationship between narrating one's prison experience and the process of self-exploration or self-discovery. Also, the study assumes that there is a relationship between the prison context and the text; and that the prisoner's individual experience may embody the collective experience of those in same or similar circumstances and may go beyond the prison walls, encompassing the lived experience of those outside prison as well, especially in times of pervasive political intolerance and repression. Although my method is fundamentally literary-critical, the study spans across a wi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nina Berman (Committee Chair); Adeeko Adeleke (Other); Maurice Stevens (Other) Subjects: African Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Theatre

This study identifies and analyzes the factors that controlled the production and determined the success or failure of African American original screenplays and stage plays adapted into films in the United States of America during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Until we understand how economics and race intersect to create the vicious cycle of the perceived failure of African American films, the current system will ensure the continuous devaluing of African Americans and their work in the film industry. This dissertation documents data from 1,716 African American feature films and other films featuring African Americans. This data is analyzed in the context of the investment criteria used by Hollywood executives. The criteria are investigated in the context of cultural politics in order to identify the intersections of economics and race to better explore the crisis that African Americans face in the film industry. Each chapter and section answers specific questions related to the economic and cultural performance of original screenplays and stage plays adapted into film. Each chapter and section answers the following questions: What factors controlled the production of African American films from 1980 to 2000? What roles did African Americans play in the process? How do these factors affect the cultural and economic outcome of the film? This study provides a new approach to analyzing African American films.

Committee: Stratos Constantinidis (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2023, International and Comparative Politics

The politics of LGBTQ+ inclusion has undergone significant transformations worldwide, reflecting evolving societal attitudes, advancements in human rights, and the increasing global recognition of LGBTQ+ rights. However, the politics of LGBTQ+ inclusion in Africa presents a diverse and intricate landscape, characterized by variations in attitudes, legal frameworks, and societal acceptance across the continent. This study explores the complex and evolving dynamics of Anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Africa, with some countries making strides towards LGBTQ+ inclusion by repealing colonial-era legislation, while others have become more repressive. Notably, countries such as Angola, Cape Verde, Lesotho, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, and Seychelles have amended their laws to promote LGBTQ+ tolerance, while Mauritania, Uganda, Nigeria, and Somalia still enforce severe penalties, including the death penalty, for same-sex relationships. Understanding the impact of these laws on development is crucial, particularly in their intersection with foreign aid, migration patterns, and a state's overall image and development trajectory. Through a quantitative analysis using a cross-sectional time series generalized linear model from 2001 to 2020, this study examines the relationship between the adoption of anti-LGBTQ+ laws and foreign aid, as well as migration.

Committee: Liam Anderson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Carlos E. Costa Ph.D. (Committee Member); Vaughn Shannon Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Comparative; Gender Studies; International Law; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Political Science

Dominant parties are very common around the world, particularly in developing countries. Much research has focused on how they can be problematic for democratic development, as well as some works dedicated to understanding how they lose their grasp on power. However, there is not as much scholarship devoted to analyzing varieties of partisan dominance. This dissertation proposes a framework that separates dominance into three modes: electoral dominance, organizational dominance, and social dominance. Three chapters comprise the investigation. In the first, I conceptualize these three modes of dominance and build a measurement for each of them focusing on dominant parties in Sub-Saharan Africa since 1960 until now. This measurement is constructed with several variables taken from the V-Dem and V-Party projects, arriving at a classification for each dominant party in the region per electoral cycle. In the second, I utilize the classification as subsidy to understand the association between different varieties of partisan dominance and political stability, by leveraging data from the ACLED project, as well as public opinion surveys from the Afrobarometer. In the final chapter, I select three dominant parties from Southern Africa for detailed case studies, to further explore how all three modes of partisan dominance interact with political stability.

Committee: Marcus Kurtz (Advisor); Jan Pierskalla (Committee Member); Amanda Robinson (Committee Member) Subjects: African Studies; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, History

This dissertation focuses on the development of the Lost Cause mythology in North Carolina between the 1880s to the 1920s. The Lost Cause is a racist and inaccurate view of the Civil War years promoted by Neo-Confederate Southerners. This dissertation argues that the Lost Cause developed primarily through the efforts of Neo-Confederate organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy. These individuals built a compound-public space that united grassroots movements with official governmental figures to promote the Lost Cause mythology. The formation of this compound-public space and its impact on the Lost Cause provided the necessary cultural support for the development of a Democratic-backed white supremacist campaign in North Carolina in 1898 conducted to reduce the political power of Republicans and African Americans, and to re-establish Democratic hegemony. This dissertation explores the ways in which Neo-Confederates constructed the compound-public space including: the role of politics, gender, religion, education, the media, and Confederate monuments with the express goal of increasing the political power of the Democratic Party.

Committee: Joan Cashin (Advisor); John Brooke (Advisor); Stephanie Shaw (Committee Member); Paula Baker (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Black History; Education History; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Journalism; Mass Media; Modern History; Religion; Religious History; Teacher Education; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This dissertation examines the careers of African American members of Congress from the election of Oscar DePriest, the first African American elected in the 20th Century in 1928, through the early years of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1973. It examines the interactions with and contributions of Black members of Congress to the broader Civil Rights and Black Power movements during this period and their relationship with electoral politics. It shows how Black members both played fundamental roles in passing major pieces of Civil Rights legislation during this period and how without their work and input these laws would have been weaker. Simultaneously, it shows how the demands and realities of electoral politics constrained the scope of Black members' legislative efforts, but also how these members actively took steps to advance partisan political goals at the expense of activists because they believed that their work was the best and sometimes only legitimate form of Black activism. Building upon scholarship in both history and Political Science, it contributes to our understanding of the scope of Black political power in the United States prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the impact it had. Simultaneously, it compliments the literature on the Civil Rights and Black Power eras that focus on grassroots movements as the main agents of change by showing how the connections between many Black activists and Black Congressmen helped passed landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but also how Black members came to distance themselves from those activists as they failed to monopolize Black political action around themselves to the detriment of both their own political agenda and that of activists.

Committee: David Stebenne (Advisor); Bart Elmore (Committee Member); Hasan Jeffries (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; History; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Music

This dissertation explores the relationship between music, ethnicity, and violence in Gambella, a region in western Ethiopia that borders South Sudan. Ethnic identity in Ethiopia and South Sudan has become increasingly politicized in recent decades and is cited as a cause of protests and conflicts in both countries. The multi-ethnic region of Gambella particularly struggles with ethnic tensions and cycles of violence, especially between the two majority ethnic groups in the region, the Anywaa and Nuer. The present study focuses on these two ethnic groups, exploring how local music-making and interpretive frameworks of listening reflect, shape, and produce Anywaa and Nuer ethnicity in the context of the Ethio-South Sudanese border. As scholars now recognize, ethnicity is not a self-evident category but is socially constructed, produced in encounters with perceived Others. Ethnic differences also tend to arise under circumstances of inequality, as ethnicity is a mode of identification by which marginalized social groups can organize themselves and vie for recognition, political representation, and access to resources. Gambella is one of the most underdeveloped and neglected regions of Ethiopia, and its populations are the targets of cultural denigration in Ethiopia's national imaginary. The marginalization of peoples has played a role in the rise of politicized ethnicity in Gambella. Cycles of state-sponsored and ethnically-based violence on both sides of the border further sharpen ethnic divisions, a heightened need to defend the ethnic Self against threatening Others. Communities on the Ethio-South Sudanese border utilize music to define a cultural identity and history, cultivate a shared ethnic consciousness, and delimit ethnic boundaries. In Ethiopia, traditional musical styles are frequently linked with ethno-cultural identities, and song lyrics overtly or covertly appeal to ethnic identification and affiliation. In Gambella and South Sudan, music-making (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ryan Skinner (Advisor) Subjects: African Studies; Music

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, American Culture Studies

Hair straightening and the usage of hair extensions, particularly chemical relaxing and `Brazilian' weaves are common and, in many cases, preferable over natural Afro-textured hair among African women in both the continent and the diaspora. The practice, which has been extensively studied from the African American perspective, is largely explained as (1) a result of internalized racism and self-hate and (2) simply stylization, versatility, and choice. However, even though diasporic and continental Africans share similar hairstyling practices, their historical and cultural situations are not the same. This study looks at Ghanaian women's hair culture from a whiteness-decentered approach. The goal of the study was to research African women's hair norms from continental African women's perspective and find out whether their hair culture could be explained as a result of internalized racism and self-hate or stylization. The study interviewed thirty women. It asks why do they relax their hair and wear hair extensions: whether they are pursuing `white beauty', or they have other reasons why they alter their hair. It found out that Ghanaian women do not relax their hair and wear hair extensions as a result of `mental slavery,' and they do not hate their hair, or perceive white women's appearance iconic. It also found that hairstyling among Ghanaian women is not simply for stylization; there are specific reasons why they relax their hair and wear weaves. These reasons include the attachment of privileges and benefits to straight hair and stereotypes and consequences to coily hair in Ghanaian society. Contrary to earlier studies that explain African women's negative relationship with their hair as a result of colonialism and Euro-American influence on the continent, the study found out that negative attitudes displayed toward hairstyles like (dread)locks in many African societies stem from pre-colonial traditional cultural norms.

Committee: Timothy Messer-Kruse PhD (Advisor); Apollos Nwauwa PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; African History; African Literature; African Studies; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Cultural Anthropology; Ethnic Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Womens Studies

Master of Arts in History, Cleveland State University, 2018, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

White nationalism has played a critical role in shaping United States politics for over 150 years. Since the Reconstruction era, whites have fought to maintain their power and superiority over minorities. They influenced U.S. politics by attempting, and in some cases succeeding, to prevent minorities from voting. Moreover, politicians began to help them. This became most evident in the 2016 U.S. presidential election when Republican Donald J. Trump appealed to racist white voters, gained their support, and won the election. Those voters, who united as the Alt-Right, supported Trump because he appealed to them by playing on their fear of becoming a minority in their country. This thesis traces white nationalism back to Reconstruction. It analyzes the memberships of separate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Confederates, and Citizens' Councils to show how and why those various groups united as the Alt-Right to support Trump in the 2016 election. This study examines the writings of various white nationalists, including their Twitter accounts, to identify their goals and how they spread their ideology. This work also analyzes race as a political concept and identity by investigating how politicians appealed these groups. Ultimately, this thesis illustrates the presence and significance of white nationalism in United States politics and how it culminated in Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Committee: Thomas Humphrey Ph.D (Advisor); Robert Shelton Ph.D (Committee Member); Karen Sotiropoulos Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; History; Modern History

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, American Culture Studies

This study examines the community-based political work of the pionero generation of Puerto Rican migrants to New York City from their collective naturalization under the Jones Act in 1917 to 1948, when political changes on the island changed migration flows to North America. Through discourse analysis of media narratives in black, white mainstream, and Spanish-language newspapers, as well as an examination of histories of Puerto Rican and allied activism in Harlem, I analyze how Puerto Ricans of this era utilized and articulated their own citizenship- both as a formal legal status and as a broader sense of belonging. By viewing this political work through the perspectives of a range of Harlem political actors, I offer new insights as to how the overlapping and interconnected multicultural communities in Harlem contributed to New York's status (in the words of historian Juan Flores) as a "diaspora city." I argue that as Puerto Ricans came to constitute a greater social force in the city, dominant narratives within their discursive and political work shifted from a search for recognition by the rest of society to a demand for empowerment from the bottom up and emanating from the Puerto Rican community outward, leading to a diasporic consciousness which encompassed both the quotidian problems of life in the diaspora and the political and economic issues of the island. A localized process of community-building bound diaspora Puerto Ricans more closely together and re-constituted internal social connections, supported an analysis of social problems shared with other Latinx people and African Americans, and utilized ideological solidarities to encourage coalitional politics as a means for mutual empowerment. In drawing Puerto Ricans into a broad and rich history of Harlem, I consider the insights of a range of neighborhood individuals and groups, including African American and West Indian (im)migrants, allied white populations such as progressive Italians and pacif (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susana Peña Dr. (Advisor); Lara Lengel Dr. (Other); Vibha Bhalla Dr. (Committee Member); Nicole Jackson Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Ethnic Studies; Hispanic American Studies; Hispanic Americans; History; Latin American History; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Political Science

Prior research in political behavior illustrates that individuals rely upon group identities in political decision-making. People who are highly identified with a particular group are likely to make choices in line with that group's interest. Despite advancements in the literature, we still know considerably little about how identification with a certain group transforms into a salient political identification. Additionally, the existing literature does not provide or explain the mechanism that facilitates this transition? My argument is that political context significantly shapes not only the salience of the political attachment, but also the strength of that attachment. I use experimental methods to establish the malleability of political attachment to a group. In particular, I focus on Black Americans as the main test case due to the strong empirical evidence that demonstrates that their Black political attachment with the racial group, or linked fate, is fundamental to explaining political decisions and behavior. In my first study (Chapter 2), I test the contextual effects of racialized political discourse by varying explicit racial messages about which segments of the Black community are defined as a part of the broader “Black” interest. I find that Blacks that are not chronically included or excluded in political discourse—moveable Blacks—show significant increases in their linked fate when their interests are being framed as the major interest for the group. In the second study (Chapter 3), I argue that Blacks rely upon their political attachment with the racial group when they are exposed to a political context in which there is a conflict between their simple self-interest and the group-interest as a means to manage the cognitive dissonance. I conduct an experiment in which personal incentives are only received by opting out of the expected group norm of behavior. I find that Blacks respond with increases in their expressions of linked fate. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ismail White (Committee Co-Chair); Corrine McConnaughy (Committee Co-Chair); Thomas Nelson (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, History

This study examines how a seemingly disparate population of rural migrants was able to incorporate itself into the political process and elevate community concerns to the center of political discourse after the Civil War. Too often scholars pay little attention to the local concerns and historical processes that determined not only how former slaves conducted themselves in the political arena, but also how their goals and aspirations changed over time. Surrounded by majority slaveholding counties in the Mid-South, Memphis provides an opportunity to study the grassroots political mobilization of former slaves. Beginning with an examination of the wartime migrations of enslaved men and women in the Mississippi River Valley to Memphis, Tennessee, this study identifies the cooperative strategies black migrants utilized to express their freedom, forge new bonds of fellowship, and establish a sense of community in their new surroundings. In order to understand how the concerns of former slaves became a matter of public interest, I trace the movements and daily interactions of members of social networks within black neighborhoods to demonstrate how socialization and civic life influenced the contours of popular politics. While black political leaders focused on civil rights and the transformation of the social order, former slaves used politics to experience freedom and express their desire for self-determination in ways that demonstrated their level of attachment to their community. By focusing upon these social and spatially based networks, this study seeks to broaden our historical understanding of the connection between civic life and political participation in an urban setting. An examination of former slaves' cooperative associations reveals a variety of personal connections that transcended material conditions and long-term or migrant status. African American residential activities, leisure interests, and personal familiarity established a feeling of connectedness i (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephanie J. Shaw PhD (Advisor); Kenneth W. Goings PhD (Advisor); Stephen G. Hall PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American History; Black History; History; Minority and Ethnic Groups

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Political Science

There is very little empirical research completed on the connection of rap music to ideology. Similarly, extensive research on rap and gender or Black Nationalist ideology and gender is also lacking. Research on rap music focuses on various aspects of rap qualitatively and quantitatively. These studies have included topics as wide as rap as a form of information exchange, the psychological effects of rap on perceptions of women, and the effects of rap on propensity for violent behavior. However, the quantitative research on the affects of rap on political attitude formation or acceptance is very limited.This dissertation broadens the current research by considering the impact of political rap music on the acceptance and support of Black Nationalist ideology. This dissertation examines if political rap has an impact on the support of Black Nationalism while exploring the differences of this acceptance between gender and other demographic characteristics. This study utilizes a multi-method approach combining experimental research and survey data. Using data from the 1993-1994 National Black Politics Study, the findings demonstrate a relationship between exposure to rap and support of Black Nationalist ideology. Specifically, these results display that those who listen to rap have a higher significant relationship with Black Nationalist than those who do not listen to rap. Overall, there exist relationships between support of Black Nationalist sentiment age, listening to rap, and gender. Experiments demonstrate causal relationships between political rap music and the formation of Black Nationalist attitudes. Specifically, Chapter Four details that listening to political rap lead to increased support of Black Nationalism compared to listening to pop music, mainstream rap or listening to no music at all. The study also includes content analysis that illustrates specific nationalist messages that displayed in political rap lyrics. This research expands the knowledge of p (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. William E. Nelson, Jr PhD (Committee Chair); Dr. Harwood McClerking PhD (Committee Member); Dr. Thomas E. Nelson PhD (Committee Member); Dr. Wendy G. Smooth PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Behaviorial Sciences; Experiments; Mass Media; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Music; Political Science; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Political Science

The principal purpose of this research is to explain and to analyze the policy preferences of Black and White state legislators in the Ohio General Assembly. In particular, the study seeks to understand whether or not Black state legislators advocate a distinctive policy agenda through an analysis of their policy preferences and bill sponsorship patterns. Essentially, one of the central objectives of the study is to determine the extent to which legislators' perceptions of their policy preferences actually correspond with their legislative behavior (i.e., bill sponsorship patterns). In addition to understanding the impact of race upon legislative preferences, I also analyze additional factors (e.g., institutional features, district characteristics, etc.) which potentially influence legislators' policy preferences and legislative behavior. The data for this inquiry derive from personal interviews with members of the Ohio legislature conducted in the early to late 1990's and legislative bills introduced in the 1998-1999 session. The analyses of these data suggest that Black state legislators exhibit distinctive agenda setting behavior measured in terms of their policy priorities and bill sponsorship patterns in comparison to White state legislators. Black legislators are significantly more likely to prioritize race-based policy issues relative to White state legislators. In addition, the findings indicate that Black legislators support policy priorities which are generally consistent with traditional legislative decisionmaking. Hence, Black legislators balance “dual representational roles” as both race representatives and responsible legislators. The results also suggest that the policy priorities of legislators parallel their bill sponsorship activity. Black legislators are proportionately more likely to sponsor Black interest (i.e., racial justice) legislation than White state legislators. The evidence also indicates that the majority of bill proposals (i.e., both B (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: William Nelson, Jr. (Advisor) Subjects: Political Science, General

BA, Oberlin College, 2011, African American Studies

Through a methodological framework consisting of historical analysis, pop culture analysis, and hip-hop feminist theory, this paper will explore the complex intersections of race, gender, and agency in contemporary hip-hop and adult entertainment. The first section, "Look Back at Me: Jezebel, the Black Lady and Constructions of Black Female Sexuality Identity", will consist of a historical overview of images of Black women constructed since enslavement into the late 20th century and highlight the links between these stereotypes and the sexualized images that exist of Black female identity in contemporary hip-hop. The politics of respectability will also be discussed and how the concept aided in the construction of the dominant Black female sexual scripts. The second section, "Mic Check: The Rise of Women in Hip-hop", will examine the evolution of women in hip-hop from the mid-1980's to the present, analyzing how the rise in popularity of hip-hop music has affected the portrayal of Black women's bodies in the sexual marketplace. The third section, "Hip-Hop Pornography" will speak to the influence of visual culture in rap music and how it has created intersections between hip-hop and the adult entertainment industry. It will examine ways Black women who participate in these industries view their images and how they exercise and conceptualize agency while dealing with the hyper-masculinity inherent in their fields. The fourth and final section of my paper will present my conclusions and plans for further research. In sum, Black women are challenging stereotypes through the mediums of hip-hop and adult entertainment that have been subjugating their sexuality for decades. To a certain extent, this freedom is liberating because they are embracing a pro-sex framework and breaking deeply engrained silences that have been present surrounding Black female sexuality. Conversely, there are ways that these 'erotic revolutionaries', to borrow a term from Shayne Lee, re-entren (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Caroline Jackson-Smith (Advisor); Pamela Brooks (Committee Member); Renee Romano (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black History; Black Studies; Ethnic Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Mass Media; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Womens Studies