EdD, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Education : Urban Educational Leadership

The purpose of this study is to gain insight in order to better understand the reasons contributing to the underrepresentation of African American male educators as perceived by African American male educators via their personal narratives. This qualitative study examines the perspectives of African American male educators' perceptions toward the underrepresentation of African American male K-12 public school educators. Semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with eight African American male educators who are currently or were formerly K-12 public school educators were conducted to capture their voice and allow them to share their understandings and experiences regarding the representation of African American males throughout the field of K-12 public education. This study identified three major themes as a result of the interviews with the participants: 1) Reasons contributing to the lack of African American male educators 2) Perspectives that describe the potential benefits of an increased representation of African American male educators and 3) Effective methods to increase the representation of African American male educators. Findings from the study suggests that having African American male educators would help debunk the stereotypes associated with African American males in both public education and society, that African American males are choosing careers other then education, that African American males are having trouble graduating from high school, and that teacher recruitment does not focus on African American educators. Findings from the study also indicate that the increased representation of competent, caring, and committed African American male educators will have a tremendously positive impact not only the academic success of students, but also positively impact their perceptions of themselves and how they are perceived within society. Implications from the findings of the study are presented as strategies that may increase the representation of Afric (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, African-American and African Studies

This dissertation lays the ontological and epistemological groundwork for an Africanist and diasporic orientation to contemporary theatrical dance performance. It develops a theoretical lexicon with which to understand and analyze such dance along with Africana embodied creative practices. Evidence is drawn from ethnographic engagements with contemporary Africana dancers, close readings of key works in Africana and Dance Studies, as well as the author's own praxis, experiences and insights as an artist-scholar. The thesis is also a work of scholarly criticism, mobilizing Africanist and Africana theories and concepts, emphasizing the cosmological and spiritual orientations of transnational African studies, to critique the hegemony of a historical Western discourse about the body that desacralizes its substance, rationalizes its expression, and racializes its exterior. In this manner, this dissertation advocates for an embodied approach to Africana Studies and demonstrates possible methodological approaches for such an

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2015, Art History

As a public figure and a famous LIFE magazine photographer, Eliot Elisofon participated in the mainstream appreciation and discussion of African art more than many scholars. He publicized African art in magazine articles, exhibitions, books, lectures, films, television documentaries, and much more during his career. Elisofon exposed a wider population to unknown art forms, peoples, and cultures. By putting this content into the mass media, he was ahead of his time. Through stimulating interest in African art, he contributed to its transformation from natural history artifact to fine art. The occasional flaws of his promotion tactics reveal some of the perceptual difficulties encountered during the formation of the field of African art history. This examination of Elisofon's life's work delineates his unique place in African art history by assessing his contributions to the study and appreciation of African art. It is a field of study that defined a large part of his life, and his affiliated activities give us a window into the history of reception of African art in America from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. Elisofon was fascinated with Africa and African art, and he wanted to convey this interest to the widest audience possible. While he never earned a degree in art history, his photographs of African art and words on this topic influenced generations. Elisofon brought the public along on his journey for knowledge about African art and Africa, initiating public consideration of what most people regarded as a foreign and intimidating topic. His projects embody the varied perceptions of the time. As Elisofon first discovered African art, he appreciated it because of its influence on modern European art. Later he began to discuss its aesthetic value independent of modern art, and its meaning for Africans. He participated in the debate over how much information should be presented to the public about these objects without getting in the way of appreciation (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Science, Miami University, 2004, Family and Child Studies

The purpose of this study was to determine the academic, monetary and familial,values of single African American mothers in poverty. Four focus groups explored the values and attitudes of low-income single mothers. The key findings from this research indicated that these low-income, African American, single mothers' value systems were similar to that of mainstream America, however, there were very specific obstacles to overcome in order to accurately implement those values. A discussion of the findings are presented including important implications for what are revealed about low-income,African American, single, mothers' values and attitudes. Limitations of the study are discussed, and implications for additional research are addressed.

BA, Kent State University, 2012, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Music is a global phenomenon. It exists in every culture on the planet in a myriad of forms. But music is more than just a human hobby. It is a cultural magnifying glass. It is through music that the stories of a people; their history and philosophies, are displayed. It is through this performance that a culture can be understood. Without a peoples' stories, their past is incomplete and often misunderstood. The American Blues: Men, Myths, and Motifs explores Southern African-American life after Reconstruction predominantly through primary sources that are often overlooked, such as W. C. Handy and John Lomax, along with the Blues musicians themselves. The South, from the lumber mills of Eastern Texas to the cotton fields of Mississippi, a new American culture had emerged; a nascent world on display. Their music was dominated by Rhythm and Blues, a style with origins in both Africa and Europe. It is from the Blues that the frugally documented African-American South can be understood. This thesis uses the lyrics, biographies, and interviews of some of the greatest storytellers, and African-American oral historians called griots like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, and Robert Johnson, in an attempt to understand the culture of the people and places these musicians sang and spoke about. The American Blues delves into the lives of musicians, the histories of their enslaved kin, and the music that both showcased their past, as well as their mythologies and philosophies. Through this research of folklore, lyrics, and histories the early American South can truly be seen.

Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.), Franklin University, 2021, Business Administration

The accounting profession is one of the most under-represented industries in hiring, retaining, and promoting minorities (Ross et al., 2014). The lack of representation of African Americans in the accounting profession has been reported for decades (Harris et al., 2020). Using a quantitative approach, this research study's data reflected how the African American population affiliated with and identified to the field of accounting. This research study investigated participant perspectives on influences that hinder African Americans from entering the accounting profession. This research analyzed African American student opinions and attitudes towards student success, retention, wrap-around services (i.e., mentoring, tutoring, counseling, transportation, and other non-instructional services), and degree completion at Columbus State Community College, Columbus, Ohio. Existing literature indicated that accounting is not an active choice for many African Americans due to college readiness, peer expectations (Harris et al., 2020), family values/influences, and a general lack of understanding of the accounting field (Green et al., 2017). This research answered why African Americans are under-represented in the accounting profession by gaining insight from the perspective of current African American students pursuing an accounting associate degree and entering the accounting profession. Results indicated that a student's gender is associated with their persistence and progression towards a degree in accounting. Student interaction with faculty and with peers were also associated with a students' persistence and progression. Family influence and interactions, and student family backgrounds and upbringings proved to influence students striving to earn an associate degree in accounting. Lastly, African Americans' geographical background characteristics were associated with student success, sense of retention, and degree completion.

MFIS, Kent State University, 2020, College of the Arts / School of Fashion

Afrofuturism is a cultural and aesthetic movement within the African Diaspora that draws on the present and historical experiences of Black people and reimagines a future filtered through a Black cultural lens. There has been a growing number of fashion creatives and enthusiasts throughout the African Diaspora who are adopting this aesthetic in order to celebrate Black culture and identity. However, the role of Africa in Afrofuturism continues to be debated as many believe the term to be inherently centered on Black American experiences and cultures and not necessarily on the African experience. The purpose of this research is to explore the connection between Afrofuturism, fashion, and cultural identity in the African Diaspora. A qualitative approach using interviews and an arts-based creative online collage exercise was used to uncover the role and signification of cultural identity in the Afrofuturistic expressions of West Africans in Africa, West Africans living in America (Diasporic Africans) and African Americans. Because fashion has been likened to a form of symbolic language, this study also aims to uncover the “codes” involved in each group's communication of their cultural identities. Through the data gathered, a 3- look capsule collection was created to represent a visual summary of the views of each group on Afrofuturistic fashion expressions.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Music

This dissertation aims to explore and describe, in ethnographic terms, some of the principal formal and non-formal environments in which jazz music is learned today. By elucidating the broad aesthetic, stylistic, and social landscapes of present-day jazz pedagogy, it seeks to encourage the revitalization and reorientation of jazz education, and of the cultural spaces in which it takes place. Although formal learning environments have increasingly supported the activities of the jazz community, I argue that this development has also entailed a number of problems, notably a renewal of racial tensions spurred on by 1) the under-representation of non-white students and faculty, especially black Americans; 2) the widespread adoption of 'color-blind' methodologies in formal music-learning environments, which serve to perpetuate ambivalence or apathy in the addressing of racial problems; 3) a failure adequately to address cultural studies related to the black heritage of jazz music; and 4) the perpetuation of a narrow vision of jazz music that privileges certain jazz styles, neglects others, and fails to acknowledge the representative intersections between jazz and related forms of black music. The study seeks to answer two main questions: What is the nature of the twenty-first-century learning environment? Moreover, how do cultural and racial dynamics affect the ways in which jazz is taught and understood in formal and non-formal settings? My proposition is that teaching jazz as a part of a broad spectrum of black musical styles and cultural traditions, which I shall call the black musical continuum, provides solutions for the dearth of cultural competency and narrow vision of jazz found in many learning environments. Through a continuum theory, I seek to provide a framework for viewing, teaching, learning, and performing jazz that situates it within the larger socio-cultural context of black American music. I argue that such a reorientation toward African-American cu (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2014, African-American and African Studies

This thesis examines the complex sociocultural dynamics that surround the concept of jazz theory from two broad perspectives: formalized or academic jazz theory, which emerged as a result of the formal institutionalization of jazz in the academy, and organic or intrinsic jazz theory, which first arose from African American music-making practices. This dichotomy does not suggest that the majority of jazz community members exist at the extremes of either of these two poles. Contrarily, most musicians tend to occupy the grey area somewhere in between. The aim of this study was to shed light on the complex and elusive intersection between formalized and organic approaches to jazz theory. Through an analysis of informal, formal, and virtual (internet-based) jazz music-learning environments, the results offer a thick description of the way in which notions of "jazz theory" affected the social lives of musicians, fostered racialized jazz identities, defined community boundaries, and influenced music-making practices. The paper includes a variety of case studies, such as Miles Davis' experience studying music at Julliard, an analysis of the first methodological theory books published for jazz students and educators, online forums where jazz students discuss music theory, and ethnographic data related to modern day jazz theory that I collected from nonacademic and academic jazz learning environments. Two theory-related books examined included George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept and David Baker's Jazz Pedagogy: A Comprehensive Method of Jazz Education for Teacher and Student. In both, the cultural contexts in which the works were created and how many students and educators misinterpreted or omitted elements that reflect the tabooed subject of race were considered. The study also relied on original ethnographic content collected during a field study at a Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshop, a racially charged debate between two Aebersold camp attendees, a meeting wi (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2013, African Studies (International Studies)

The research focuses on Ghana, as a case study to investigate the history of education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It claims that African education (Ghanaian education in particular) has had a long history of colonization that the post-independence period has not yet been able to subvert. Ghanaian education is still under Western dominance, leading many scholars to denounce the mere "copy paste" and "mimicry" of Western curricula in Ghanaian schools. This research advocates a decolonization of African education in order to align African education with the African context and challenges. This research advocates a decolonization of African education in order to align African education with the African context and challenges. This research is based on secondary data analysis to gauge the evolution of Ghanaian education from pre-colonial to post-colonial and the efforts towards decolonization. The research reaches the conclusion that, despite the domination of Ghanaian education by Western models and the negligence of African/Ghanaian indigenous knowledge, the Government of Ghana displays much devotion to adapting education to national needs. The significance of indigenous knowledge is also acknowledged; but it has much more prominence in Basic school than in Secondary school.

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2007, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

There is an expanding body of literature on the retention of students in higher education through programmatic efforts, but there is limited research on African-American students' perceptions of the impact of retention programs and services at predominantly White institutions. Programs and services are created by administrators, faculty and staff on college and university campuses for the purpose of increasing the retention of African-American students and a diverse student body, but many are based on the professionals' perceptions of students' needs. Rarely are programs and services created through dialogue from the student population that will be served or by what I call “listening to the voices” of the students. The premise of this qualitative study is to ascertain if African-American students find retention programs and services beneficial to their persistence on their respective campuses. This study explores the experiences of African-American junior and senior, traditional-aged, full-time, undergraduate students with a grade point average of 3.0 or below exclusively at four predominantly White institutions in Pennsylvania. The experiences of African-American students are different from other groups, including White males, white females and other minority groups. The use of focus groups permits dialogue that enables a researcher to be able to hear first-hand from African-American students giving voice to their personal feelings of the impact of retention programs and services at predominantly White institutions.

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)

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)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2008, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1915, Graduate School

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2008, Graduate School

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch New England: Marriage and Family Therapy

The current study uses a strengths-based framework to identify the process of marriage satisfaction among 1 same-sex African American married couple and 5 heterosexual African American married couples. Six themes emerged through qualitative analysis demonstrating that marriage satisfaction is a co-constructed experience created between couples through a series of interactions cultivating healthy conditions that strengthen relationship functioning and promote well-being. Based on the results the experience of marriage satisfaction is formed by the organizing concepts of connection, intentionality, purpose, sentiments of peace, authentic communication, and well-being. Results are discussed in association with existing research, as well as, Self-Determination, and Relationship Motivation Theories.

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2021, History

On May 23, 1866, two African American children in Christian County, Kentucky, were taken from their parents and apprenticed to a white planter, Elijah Simmons. The two children, Fannie, age eight, and Robert, age four, were expected to serve Simmons for the next thirteen and fourteen years respectively. Fannie was disabled. Denoted in her apprenticeship paper as “deaf and dumb,” the Simmonses did not have to provide for her the way they would a non-disabled child, meaning that they did not have to pay her or provide her with anything upon her release from servitude. Although her story seems in some ways unique, Fannie's case is actually noteworthy because she was so typical. Thousands of children were placed in apprenticeships that served to enslave them. This thesis explores the often-forgotten subject of Reconstruction and Black labor in a border state. Fannie serves as a reminder that the work of freedom was far from over after the Civil War, and for many freedpeople was just beginning.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2021, Mass Communication (Communication)

This study examines Southern African masculinities in the digital age of #MenAreTrash and #AmINext? This study is a multi-sited digital ethnography which focuses on Twitter and YouTube as field sites. A cyber-womanist framework is used to explore social activism on digital media platforms. The hashtags #MenAreTrash and #AmINext? are concurrent social media campaigns created by women in South Africa to create awareness about gender-based violence. Thus, this study investigates the conceptualization of GBV as articulated by various womxn and men on Twitter and YouTube. The discourse on YouTube includes the documentary film The People vs. Patriarchy and select episodes of The Big Debate. The methodology includes a Thematic Analysis of the audiovisual data and the hashtags related to gender disparities, violence, and femicide. Women are collectively creating a space on social networking sites to critique societal norms and cis-heteronormative cultures. Twitter gives agency to women across Southern Africa as they participate in discussions that center on politics, socio-economic disparities, and violence. This project argues that #MenAreTrash and #AmINext? campaigns as discussed on Twitter and YouTube are resistant measures set as counter-narratives to the normative patriarchal system set in place in South Africa.

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

This dissertation explores Chinese interpretations of the African American Freedom Struggle between 1920 and 1989. A small but growing body of literature has analyzed revolutionary China's position as a source of inspiration for Black radicals during the Cold War. Building on this literature, this study seeks to uncover the Chinese perspective on Sino-African American engagement. It argues that between 1949 and 1976, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and ordinary Chinese citizens imagined a version of the African American Freedom Struggle that stressed revolutionary violence to reinforce the central tenets of China's own Communist Revolution and to serve as proof of the PRC's global leadership. African Americans did not shape this ideology; however, they did contribute to it. Following the conclusion of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Chinese scholars and CCP members then distanced themselves from interpretations of the African American Freedom Struggle that had promoted revolutionary violence in favor of interpretations that better fit China's renewed emphasis on globalism and economic development. This project utilizes published English and Chinese-language sources as well as unpublished archival sources from the People's Republic of China and the United States.