Mixed Race Studies

Rewriting of the past and paradigm of the feminine in “The Quadroons of New Orleans” by Sidonie de La Houssaye

Pennsylvania State University
2008
231 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3336040
ISBN: 9780549923022

Christian Hommel

Les Quarteronnes de la Nouvelle-Orléans is a novel written by a Creole women of the white francophone aristocracy, and appeard as a serial in a Louisianan newspaper from 1894 to 1898. The action is set in a mythical immoral New Orleans of the early 19th century, and tells the story of multiple characters who belong to different social spheres, yet each linked in some way to quadroons. The Quadroons of New Orleans draws upon different literary genres and traditions, both French and English, to tell stories of love and seduction, but distinguishes itself from other romance novels by the progressive attention the novel gives to the condition of women. Stereotypical tales of seduction give way to complex tales of friendship, personal conflicts and love where quadroons and white heroines alike become less typified, hence permitting the gradual deconstruction of the categories, social class and race assigned to the characters at the start of the novel. In my dissertation, I analyse the substitution of a phallocentric point of view (male gaze) for a gynocentric one (female gaze), through the theoretical framework of narratology and semiotics. The adoption of a gynocentric point of view can be seen everywhere, in the narration of the narrator, but also in the numerous dialogues of the female characters. Women stand out and speak out. My analysis is not limited to the story but also considers the agency of the character of the quadroon (her use of power, knowledge, desire, etc.) and how that shifts throughout the novel. My dissertation concludes by suggesting that those shifts in agency serve as a critique of a male-run society and the moral disorder produced by it. Despite the idealized representation of a past and world that never existed, the character of the quadroon allowed Sidonie de La Houssaye to give birth to a female narrator and characters unimaginable in a novel with only white characters.

Purchase the dissertation here.

Ciphering Nations: Performing Identity in Brazil and the Caribbean
 
University of Minnesota
June 2011
197 pages

Naomi Pueo Wood, Assistant Professor of Spanish
The Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

This dissertation explores the interaction of theories of hybridity, mestizaje, mestiçagem and popular culture representations of national identity in Cuba, Brazil, and Puerto Rico throughout the 20th century. I examine a series of cultural products, including performance, film, and literature, and argue that using the four elements of Hip Hop culture—deejay, emcee, break, graffiti—as a lens for reading draws out the intra- American dialogues and foregrounds the Africanist aesthetic as it informs the formation of national identity in the Americas.

Hip Hop, rather than focus solely on its characteristic hybridity, calls attention to race and to a legacy of fighting racism. Instead of hiding behind miscegenation and aspirations of romanticized hybridity and mixing, it blatantly points out oppressions and introduces them into popular culture through its four components—thus reaching audiences through multiple modalities. Tropes of mestizaje or branqueamento—racial mixing/whitening—depoliticize blackness through official refusal to cite cultural contributions and emphasize instead a whitened blending. Hip Hop points blatantly to persistent social inequalities. Diverse and divergent in their political histories, the geographic and nationally bound sites that form the foci of this study are bound by their contentious relationships to the United States, an emphasis on the Africanist aesthetic, and a rich history of intertextual exchanges. Rather than look at individual nation formation and marginalized bodies’ performances of subversion, this study highlights the common tropes that link these nations and bodies and that privilege an alternative way of constructing history and understanding present day transnational bodies.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Abstract
• Introduction: De-Ciphering
• Chapter 1: Ciphered Nations
• Chapter 2: Defining Nation from the Outside-In: Las Krudas and Célia Cruz
• Chapter 3: Brasileiras no Palco: Brazilian Women on Stage
• Chapter 4: Breaking Time: Sirena Selena and Fe en disfraz
• Conclusions: Re-Freaking
• Works Cited:

Read the entire dissertation here.

Intimate encounters, Racial Frontiers: Stateless GI babies in South Korea and the United States, 1953-1965

University of Minnesota
June 2010
239 pages

Bongsoo Park

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

This dissertation explores the policy implications of statelessness by examining G.I. babies, born of non-marital sexual relations between U.S. soldiers in South Korea and Korean women between 1953 and 1965. Using English and Korean language documents about adoption and immigration of stateless GI babies, my work shows that statelessness reveals a racially exclusionary vision of national belonging that shaped citizenship policies of both nations. The GI babies’ presence challenged the myth of racial purity and confounded racial categories in both nations. The dissertation seeks to elucidate some limits of Cold War racial liberalism informed by humanitarian concerns for abandoned Korean war orphans but helped maintain racially exclusionary strategies on citizenship conferral that made the children stateless.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1. Ties That Bind: Making of the Origin of Korean Race
• 2. Technologies of Imperial Rule: The Nationality Act of 1940 in the Age of American Expansionism
• 3. Pitied But Not Entitled: Redemptive Adoption and Limits of Cold War Liberalism
• 4. Making of a National Hero: Alchemy of Race, Blood, and Memory
• Epilogue
• Bibliography

Read the entire dissertation here.

One ‘Speck’ of Imperfection—Invisible blackness and the one-drop rule: An interdisciplinary approach to examining Plessy v. Ferguson and Jane Doe v. State of Louisiana

Indiana University
2008
371 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3315914
ISBN: 9780549675372

Erica Faye Cooper

Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy

By 1920 virtually every state legislature had adopted “one-drop” laws. These laws were important because they served as the means for determining racial identity in the United States throughout the 20th century. In the past, scholars focus on either the social or legal history of the one-drop rule. Despite the exhaustive social and legal historical accounts, I argue that the “history” of the one-drop rule is incomplete without a rhetorical history. My findings suggest that a rhetorical history of the one-drop rule is vital because it explores how the doctrine emerged in legal and social discourse. In addition, a rhetorical history also uncovers the persuasive strategies used by rhetors to reinforce racist ideology.

In this dissertation, I found that the one-drop rule occupied a significant role in judicial rhetoric through the persuasive strategies of judicial actors—court justices and lawyers. I revealed that their language choices created a pseudo “racial” reality that was characterized by a rigid black-white racial binary. This “false” reality functioned persuasively to obscure the racial diversity that actually existed in the United States during specific moments in time. Using Critical Race Theory from legal studies and McGee’s notion of the “ideograph” from critical rhetorical theory, I examined the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and the Court of Appeals’ holding in Jane Doe v. State of Louisiana (1985). My findings show that such terms as “white,” “black,” and the “one-drop rule” were used by lawyers and court justices in disputes involving racial identity and legal rights beginning in 1896. In both cases, the one-drop ideograph dominated discussions regarding who was “black” or “white.” Based on its ideographic relationship with the one-drop rule, “black” was defined to include mixed and unmixed blacks as well as whites. Within this ideographic analysis, I describe how the notion of invisible blackness was rhetorically constructed from the language used by the court. The one-drop rule continues to influence legislation and social attitudes.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1
  • Introduction to Problem
  • Justifying for Research and Statement of Purpose
  • Research Questions, Methods, and Overview
    • Methods: Case Analysis
    • Preview of Chapters
• Chapter 2
  • Socio-Cultural history
  • Definition of the one-drop rule
    • Rationales for why the one-drop rule emerge
    • The One-Drop Rule Today
    • Summary
  • Legal History
    • Emergence of the Color Line in the law
    • Summary
  • Prior Analyses of the Plessy and Phipps decisions
  • Conclusion
• Chapter 3
  • The Coming
    • Social Context: Racial Identity in Post-Bellum Louisiana
    • Legal Context
    • Introduction to Plessy
    • Summary
  • The ideographs
    • Plessy and Ferguson Briefs
    • Supreme Court Response
  • Rhetorical Implications
• Chapter 4
  • The Coming
    • Socio-Cultural Context
    • Summary of the Socio-Legal Context
    • Who is Suzy Phipps?
  • The ideographs
    • Phipps Briefs
    • The Judicial Responses
    • Summary
  • Rhetorical Implications
• Chapter 5
  • Summary and Findings
  • Implications
  • Conclusions
• Cases and Legislative Acts
• References
• Vitae

INTRODUCTION TO THE INVISIBLITY OF BLACKNESS: THE ONE DROP RULE AS A RHETORICAL CONSTRUCT

In the 1990s, a popular figure, Tiger Woods, attempted to claim an intermediate racial status by embracing his mixed race lineage. Woods, whose mother is Thai and whose father is Native American, African American, Caucasian, and Chinese, publicly refused the label of black. Woods created the term, “Cablinasian” to reflect his Caucasian, Native American, black, and Asian ancestry. Although many supported his attempts to embrace a multi-racial heritage, the doctrine known as the “one-drop-rule” shaped public opinion on the subject of his racial identity. The one-drop rule, also known as the rule of hypo-descent, recognizes a person as “black” if she possesses any trace of African ancestry.

After winning a Master’s Tournament, fellow golfer Fuzzy Zoeller’s responses to Tiger Woods reflected one-drop reasoning and racist thinking. Zoeller stated, “he hoped that Woods would not request that dinner consist of ‘fried chicken and black-eye peas’.” Zoeller assumes that because Woods’s father is partly “black” Woods must also be black. In this one-drop argument, the presence of other “blood lines” is irrelevant. Zoeller’s statement also supported a stereotype of black people, suggesting that all members of a group behavior the same. The stereotype is also racist because of the image of blacks eating fried chicken and/or watermelon supported white supremacist beliefs.3 Despite Woods’ attempt to embrace his ethnic and racially diverse heritage, some people continued to define him as black. In essence, this example illustrates how the doctrine known as the “one-drop rule” shapes contemporary public thought on matters involving race.

Although the one-drop rule has been studied by scholars in various disciplines, none have focused on how the one-drop rule operates rhetorically. Instead, scholars have traced its history or commented on how it influenced the formation of racial identity in the United States. In this dissertation, I offer a different perspective to understanding the significance of the one-drop rule by analyzing how this doctrine operates rhetorically in legal discourse. Through a rhetorical history of the doctrine I show how the one-drop rule becomes legally sanctioned through rhetorical commitments of court justices. I argue that one-drop reasoning serves as a persuasive strategy, used by court justices, operating as rhetors, in 1896 and 1985, to promote a commitment to racism.

Using, McGee’s theory of the ideograph, from Critical Rhetorical Theory, and Critical Race Theory, from legal studies, I reveal how race (Negro, mixed race, and white) is an integral component of legal discourse. Through this analysis I explore the relationship between racial identity, rhetoric, and power in legal discourse. The manner in which race is rhetorically defined in legal discourse highlights the racist nature of traditional legal theory and contributes to a racial hierarchy that is enforced through the law. Taking a critical rhetorical and legal approach, I believe, provides useful information to the on-going discussion of racial identity and the one-drop rule in rhetorical and legal studies…

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Sewing Ourselves Together: Clothing, Decorative Arts and the Expression of Métis and Half Breed Identity

University of Manitoba
2004
450 pages

Sherry Farrell Racette, Professor of Native Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies
University of Manitoba

A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

When I was a university student, I worked at a summer education program in The Pas in northern Manitoba. There I met three women from the Manitoba Métis Federation who had obtained a grant to teach people who worked with their children. Tired of requests to come into classrooms to teach children beadwork, they had decided that the best use of their time and skills was to “teach the teachers” with the expectation that beadwork would be incorporated into the curriculum. The women seemed to take special care that I learned what they had to teach. Maybe it was because I was the only aboriginal woman in the workshop; maybe it was because I was interested. Kathleen Delaronde, a traditional artist of the highest caliber, was one of those women. I got to know her and her family and during another northern summer, I stayed at their home and learned at her kitchen table. Nobody in my family did beadwork but I felt an immediate connection with beads and leather.

Although beadwork and traditional arts were new to me, sewing clothes and making decorative objects for the home were not. Both my parents had been poor as children and took tremendous pleasure in dressing well. My grandmother always dressed up to go to town, and tortured my uncles by dressing them in little matching suits and hats. One summer while we were visiting my grandmother in Quebec, she sat me down at her treadle sewing machine and helped me sew a dress for my doll. At home I started sewing by helping my mother who was always making something. My job was to rip her mistakes while she forged ahead and to do hand sewing which she still loathes. In addition to what she had learned from my grandmother, my mother had taken a tailoring course that was offered by the Singer sewing machine company, and she sent me off to take a similar course when I was a teenager. Now she helps me when I embark on projects that involve sewing. For an art exhibit, Dolls for Big Girls, I merged what I knew about Métis and First Nations history and traditional arts and clothing. While I made little moccasins, my mother dressed the old woman for a piece entitled Flight based on her memories of clothing worn by my great-grandmother, Annie Poison King.

When I began my journey into traditional arts, my mother brought me a birch bark basket that belonged to my grandmother, Helen King Hanbury. Disappointed that, in a fit of creativity, my grandmother had painted it with green boat paint, I put the basket aside. I didn’t open it until shortly after my grandmother died. One day I found myself sitting on the edge of my bed with the basket in my lap. When I took off the lid, I found moccasin patterns, a piece of embroidery, assorted odds and ends, and a handmade needle case with a simple flower embroidered on the cover. I realized that I had unknowingly picked up a needle to an aesthetic tradition that my grandmother had put down. Since that time I have taken opportunities to learn from elder artists, such as the late Margaret McAuley of Cumberland House, and struggled on by myself. I have also thought a great deal about what it means when we wrap ourselves up and present ourselves to the world in a certain way and what it means when we stop. This study is an extension of the journey that began when Kathleen Delaronde helped me pick up the needle. It has been done with the greatest respect for the women who have taught me and the artists from long ago, who I am sure have been standing beside me guiding my research.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• PREFACE: Picking Up the Needle
  • Acknowledgements
  • Glossary
  • Abbreviations
• CHAPTER ONE: Métis and Half Breed Clothing and Decorative Arts
• CHAPTER TWO: Métis, Half Breed and Mixed Blood: Identifying Self and Group
• CHAPTER THREE: The Métis Space of New Possibilities: Elements of Hybrid Style
• CHAPTER FOUR: “After the Half Breed Fashion”: Reconstructing 19th Century Métis and Half Breed Dress
• CHAPTER FIVE: Tent Pegs: Material Evidence
• CHAPTER SIX: Spirit and Function: Symbolic Aspects of Occupational Dress
• CHAPTER SEVEN: Clothing in Action: the Expressive Properties Of Dress
• CHAPTER EIGHT: Sewing for a Living: the Commodification of Women’s Artistic Production
• CHAPTER NINE: Artists, Making and Meaning
• CHAPTER TEN: Half Breed, but not Métis: Lakota and Dakota Mixed Bloods
• CHAPTER ELEVEN: Final Thoughts and Conclusions
  • Sewing Ourselves Together
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• PLATE GALLERY

Read the entire dissertation here.

Amalgamations, New and Old: The Stratification of America’s Mixed Black/White Population

University of California, Berkeley
2004
184 pages

Aaron Olaf Gullickson, Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Oregon

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology and Demography

This research focuses explicitly on the life chances of biracial black/whites. I contrast the “new” biracials, those born to interracial couples in the post Civil Rights era, to the “old” biracials, the lighter-skinned descendants of the original mulatto elite. Both groups have occupied privileged positions relative to monoracial blacks within educational and occupational institutions. For the old biracials, this privilege derives both from the inherited advantages of the mulatto elite and from the independent signi cance of skin tone within the black community.

I show that the skin tone privileges of lighter-skinned blacks declined for cohorts coming of age during and after the Civil Rights era. This decline marked the end of a system of stratification that characterized the black population for over a century. Furthermore, it seems to suggest that the new biracial advantage over monoracial blacks in educational outcomes is not the result of a skin tone hierarchy within the black population.

These new biracials differ from the old in that they have access to intimate white relatives within their family networks. On the one hand, the new biracial advantage could potentially result from race-based resources, such as access to the cultural and physical resources of their white parent. On the other hand, the new biracial advantage may result from class-based resources, primarily the selection of highly-educated parents into interracial unions.

I show that the new biracial advantage over monoracial blacks in educational outcomes can be largely explained by their relatively privileged family backgrounds. These advantages, and not biraciality itself, result in higher grades and lower grade retention, although they do not explain differences in standardized test scores. Thus, in order to understand the new biracial advantage, we must understand the dynamics of union formation in the immediately prior generation.

I show that this this pattern of interracial union formation can be most accurately described as one of lower-class black isolation. While traditional models of interracial union formation are all plausibly supported by the data, the most accurate model focuses on the exclusion of blacks with a high school degree or less from interracial unions, regardless of their potential partner’s education. This results holds in both marital and non-marital unions and points to the possibility of greater isolation for lower class blacks as interracial unions increase and to a generational bifurcation of the black class structure directly tied to issues of racial identity.

Contents

• List of Figures
• List of Table
• 1 Understanding Race in America, Understanding Race Mixing in America
  • 1.1 The Race Concep
  • 1.2 New and Old
  • 1.3 The Life Chances of Mixed Race Individuals
    • 1.3.1 The mulatto vanguard or the black elite?
    • 1.3.2 Eve and the new biracials
  • 1.4 Outline of this study
• 2 The Demise of the Mulatto Legacy
  • 2.1 The Skin Tone Legacy
  • 2.2 Colorism
  • 2.3 The Rise and Fall of the Skin Tone Hierarchy
    • 2.3.1 Trends across cohorts
    • 2.3.2 Formal multivariate models
  • 2.4 The Unremarked Demise
• 3 The New Biracials
  • 3.1 The K-12 Racial Hierarchy
    • 3.1.1 The Biracial Advantage
    • 3.1.2 Understanding the Racial Hierarchy
  • 3.2 Understanding the Biracial Advantage over Blacks
    • 3.2.1 Data
    • 3.2.2 Measures
    • 3.2.3 Models
    • 3.2.4 Analysis
  • 3.3 The Uncertain Position
• 4 Back a Generation
  • 4.1 The Selectivity of Interracial Unions
    • 4.1.1 Theories of Interracial Marriage
    • 4.1.2 Interracial Unions outside of Marriage
  • 4.2 Models
  • 4.3 Data
  • 4.4 Understanding Black Selectivity
    • 4.4.1 Interracial Marriage
    • 4.4.2 Interracial Cohabitation
  • 4.5 The Unnoticed Isolation
• 5 Tommorrow
  • 5.1 The Story So Far
  • 5.2 Possibilities
  • 5.3 Directions
  • 5.4 A Final Note
• A Supplemental Tables
• B Genealogical Data
• C Sensitivity Analysis
• Bibliography

List of Figures

• 1.1 Stylistic depiction of interracial sexual contact across United States history
• 1.2 Race and skin tone strati cation
• 2.1 Skin tone differences relative to light-skinned blacks in years of education across birth cohorts, National Survey of Black Americans
• 2.2 Skin tone differences in occupational attainment (Duncan SEI) relative to light-skinned blacks across birth cohorts, National Survey of Black Americans
• 2.3 Skin tone differences relative to light-skinned blacks in spousal years of education across marital cohorts, National Survey of Black Americans
• 2.4 BIC’ statistic for educational attainment threshold models based on year of threshold
• 2.5 Predicted effect of skin tone on educational attainment (highest grade completed) across birth cohorts, based on fourth-degree polynomial models
• 2.6 BIC’ statistic for occupational attainment threshold models based on year of threshold
• 2.7 Predicted effect of skin tone on occupational attainment (Duncan SEI scores) across birth cohorts, based on fourth-degree polynomial models
• 2.8 BIC’ statistic for spousal attainment threshold models based on year of threshold
• 2.9 Predicted effect of skin tone on spousal years of education across marriage cohorts, based on fourth-degree polynomial models
• 3.1 Logit effect of race on probability of having ever been held back across nested models, Panel Study of Income Dynamics 1995
• 3.2 Logit effect of race on probability of having ever been held back across nested models, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997
• 3.3 Effect of race on grades in 8th grade across nested models, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997
• 3.4 Effect of race on CAT-ASVAB scores across nested models, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997
• 4.1 Spousal educational distributions by race, race of spouse, and sex, Census 1990
• 4.2 Stylized depiction of racial intermarriage patterns
• 4.3 Parameterizations for models of interracial educational partnering
• 4.4 Parameters from models of interracial educational partnering for married and cohabiting unions
• 5.1 Possible scenarios for the future, based on two dimensions of change
• B.1 Strength of interracial sexual contact in Herskovits sample, based on different assumptions
• C.1 Comparison of parameters from log-linear models with different age groups
• C.2 Comparison of parameters from log-linear models with marriages of various durations

List of Tables

• 2.1 Sample size and years for waves of the National Survey of Black Americans and the General Social Survey, 1982
• 2.2 Fit of threshold models and year of best- tting threshold compared to models without cohort change
• 2.3 Threshold models predicting educational attainment (total number of grades completed)
• 2.4 Polynomial models predicting occupational prestige (Duncan SEI Score)
• 3.1 Cross-classi cation of biological parents’ race in two surveys
• 3.2 Outcome measures by race
• 3.3 Variables by race, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997
• 3.4 Variables by race, Panel Study of Income Dynamics
• 3.5 The relative position of biracials
• 3.6 Structure of the nested models
• 3.7 Race effects, gross and net
• 4.1 Union type distribution of new parents by race of parents
• 4.2 Proportion of black partners in each union type who have more than a high school education by sex and race of partner
• 4.3 Sample size of data sets
• 4.4 Fit of different interracial union formation models to marriages from the 1980, 1990 and 2000 U.S. Censuses
• 4.5 Important parameters from log-linear models, 1980
• 4.6 Important parameters from log-linear models, 1990
• 4.7 Important parameters from log-linear models, 2000
• 4.8 Comparison of isolation model to an alternative educational propensity model
• 4.9 Comparison between gender symmetry and BM/WF only models
• 4.10 Fit of models comparing interracial union formation between marital and cohabiting unions
• A.1 Polynomial models predicting educational attainment (years of schooling)
• A.2 Polynomial models predicting spouse’s years of schooling
• A.3 Models predicting whether respondent has ever been held back, Panel Study of Income Dynamics
• A.4 Models predicting whether the respondent has ever been held back, NLSY97
• A.5 Models predicting grades in 8th grade, NLSY97
• A.6 Models predicting CAT-ASVAB test scores, NLSY97
• A.7 Proportion of black partners in each union type who have a college degree by sex and race of partner
• A.8 Proportion of black partners in each union type who have more a high school diploma by sex and race of partner
• B.1 Possible Genealogies in the Herskovits Sample

Read the entire dissertation here.

Stuck at the border of the reserve: Self-identity and authentic identity amongst mixed race First Nations women

University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
January 2010
330 pages
Publication Number: AAT NR64501
ISBN: 9780494645017

Jaime Mishibinijima Miller

A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

The lowered self-esteem of First Nations people is evident in the disparities in health that exist in comparison with the rest of the Canadian population. High risk behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, and poor decisions relating to health and wellness are the outcome of decades of negative perceptions of self brought on by the lateral violence of colonialism. This research demonstrates how different determinants of First Nations identity (legal and policy based, social and culturally based definitions, and the self-identification ideology) interplay and influence a sense of authenticity which informs self-worth and the ability to realize health and wellness for twelve First Nations women on Manitoulin Island. First Nations identity is multi-layered and for women who only have one First Nations parent, and who often have Bill C-31 Indian status, identity becomes complicated and painful. Using life histories, the research participants demonstrate that an authentic identity is difficult to navigate because of the stigmatization they feel by non First Nations people for being a First Nations woman, and also the lateral violence they experience in their communities for being “bi-racial”, not growing up on their reserve, not knowing language and culture, and often having either Bill C-31 Indian status or no status at all. The medicine wheel is used to explore this topic and a Nanabush story provides the context to understand it.

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Cultural identities of people of “mixed” backgrounds: racial, ethnic and national meanings in negotiation

McGill University, Montreal
2005

Sahira Iqbal

A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree ofMasters of Arts in Culture and Values in Education.

This qualitative study aims to describe and understand the cultural identities of people of “mixed” backgrounds whose mother comes from one racial, ethnic or national background and whose father comes from another background. In-depth, individual interviews were conducted with nine people of “mixed” backgrounds in order to understand the meanings that particular racial, ethnic or national labels have for them and how those meanings are constructed. My analysis is shaped by the works of Hall (1996, 2003), Taylor (1989, 1992) and Bourdieu (1986, 1990) among others. The participants claimed multiple labels in ambivalent ways. They spoke about what they know or do not know about the culture, connections to people and places, languages and customs, physical features and values. They take on various positionings depending on the discourses that are available and the meanings that they negotiate in their daily encounters. I conclude with the implications the findings may have for policymakers, identity politics and educators and with future research directions.

Read the entire thesis here.

Le métissage dans l’œuvre indochinoise de Marguerite Duras

McGill University, Montreal
2006
106 pages

Elisabeth Desaulniers

Mémoire soumis à l’Université McGill en vue de l’obtention du grade de Maître ès arts (MA) en langue et littérature françaises

This dissertation focuses on the issue of hybridity in Marguerite Duras’ corpus of Indochinese texts, as well as on the meeting of identities in the colonial realm. In order to identify the problematics of colonial coexistence, we will address the themes of the encounter between the Orient and the Occident, the use of hybrid discourse and the role of memory in the process of rewriting. Edward Said’s Orientalism theory as well as Homi Bhabha’s concept of ambivalence in colonial discourse will serve as the basis for the analysis of the Indochinese cycle. Far from being a totalizing experience, hybridity will reveal itself as being a harrowing dichotomy.

Read the entire thesis (in French) here.

A critical ethnography of biracial elementary teachers: Biracial identity development and its effect on teaching practices and racism prevention

Alliant International University, San Diego
2010
480 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3428767
ISBN: 9781124269009

Jon E. Kingsbury

A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the Hufstedler School of Education Alliant International University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education

The purpose of this qualitative inquiry was to develop a critical ethnographic methodology to examine the experiences that led a select group of elementary teachers to self-identify as biracial. Additionally, through the use of critical systems analysis, this inquiry explored the perspectives of the informants with regard to racism at the classroom and the greater school or district levels. In order to collect data, in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted with two self-identified biracial elementary teachers from the southern California area. These interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. This inquiry sought to create an interview structure that would ensure a critical ethnographic approach to data generation that resulted in the development of the Figure Eight Interview Model, wherein the research process is dominated by two distinct research settings. The first is where the researcher and the informant are working collaboratively during the actual interviews. The second setting is where the researcher and the informant are working independently, using grounded theory to critically analyze the data transcribed from the previous interview. The analyses were then discussed at the next interview, where thematic categories were developed. These two settings were repeated three times, with each interview building on the previous and becoming more focused. Using system and social integration levels of critical systems analysis, themes were uncovered in order to develop theory for addressing, reducing, and ultimately preventing racism in classrooms and schools. These themes, along with the Figure Eight Interview Model, can be refined and expanded through further research done by professional development planners, multicultural educators, and qualitative researchers.

Table of Contents

• LIST OF FIGURES
• 1 . INTRODUCTION
  • Purpose of the Study
  • Significance of the Study
  • Assumptions of the Study
  • Delimitations of the Study
  • My View of Humanity and Racism
• 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
  • Racial Identity Development
    • Introduction
    • Monoracial Identity Models
    • Biracial Identity Models
    • Racial Identity Development and Teachers
    • Comments on Review of Racial Identity Models
  • Teachers’ Biographies
    • Perspectives on Teachers’ Biographies
    • Development of Teachers’ Biographies
    • Purpose and Value of Teachers’ Biographies
  • Multicultural Education
    • History and Development of Multicultural Education
    • Definitions and Goals
    • Teachers’ Role in Multicultural Education
  • Conclusions From the Review of the Literature
  • Research Questions in Light of the Literature Review
• 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
  • Research Paradigms
  • Critical Ethnography
    • Sociohistorical Development
    • Conceptual and Philosophical Framework
    • Feminist Methodology
    • Critical Theory
  • Research Design of the Study
    • In-Depth Phenomenological Interviewing
    • Sampling Strategy
    • Selection of Informants
    • Content and Conduct of the Interviews
    • Data Analysis
    • Carspecken’s Stages for Critical Research
    • Data Generation and Data Management
    • My Role as Researcher
    • Trustworthiness
• 4. ASSESSING THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
  • Procedural Aspects of the Study
    • Number of Informants
    • Commitment of Time
    • Use of Instruments
    • Components of the Data Analysis
    • Summary of Procedural Aspects
  • Theoretical Concerns Within Critical Ethnography
    • Empowerment
    • Contextualization of Data
    • Romanticism
    • Validity/Trustworthiness
    • Summary of Theoretical Concerns
  • Criteria Within the Figure Eight Interview Model
    • The First Interview
    • The Second Interview
    • The Third Interview
    • Summary
• 5. MY ANALYSIS AND RESPONSES TO THE STUDY
  • The Research Questions
    • Research Question 1
    • Research Question 2
    • Research Question 3
    • Research Question 4
    • Research Question 5
  • My Summary of Our Study
    • Assessment of the Methodology
• 6. INFORMANTS’ RESPONSES TO OUR STUDY
  • Opening Comments/General Discussion
  • Time and Reflection Process I
  • Number of Participants
  • Length of Interviews
  • API Scores
  • Time and Reflection Process II
  • Role of Family
  • Self-identification Statements
  • Sociohistorical Context
  • Theoretical Elements
  • Empowerment of Informants
  • Time and Reflection Process III
  • Asian Pacific Islanders Educators Association
  • Their Mothers’ Influence
  • Weddings and Extended Families
  • Their Mothers as “Victims”
  • My Error in Identifying a Relationship
  • Regional Cultural Differences
  • Changes in Biracial Demographics
  • Their Physical Ambiguity
  • The Use of the Word “Threat”
  • School and Community Cultures
  • “Addressing” Versus “Reducing and Preventing”
  • Institutional Racism
  • San Diego’s Blueprint for Success
  • Changes in the American Culture
  • Truthfulness in My Re-Presentation
  • Stages of Biracial Identity Development
  • Closing Comments
  • Analysis of Informants’ Responses
    • Research Process
    • Critical REID Factors
    • Their Mothers’ Influence
    • Empowerment
    • Institutional Racism
    • Sociohistorical Contextualization
    • Hierarchy of Racism
  • Summary
• 7. SUMMARY CHAPTER
  • Research Findings
  • Research Questions
  • Possible Shortcomings
    • Focus of Study
    • Peer Debriefers
  • Figure Eight Interview Model
    • Theoretical Foundations
    • Figure Eight Interview Model’s Effectiveness
    • Summary: Figure Eight Interview Model
  • Critical Ethnography
    • Empowerment
    • Data Contextualization
    • Catalytic Validity
    • Validity/Trustworthiness
    • Summary
  • Ethical Implications of an Organic Inquiry
  • Developmental Biracial REID Model
  • Implications and Applications for Practice
    • Professional Educators
    • Qualitative Researchers
  • Personal Reflections
• REFERENCES CITED
• APPENDICES
  • A. SELF-IDENTIFICATION OF RACIAL IDENTITY STATEMENT
  • B. FAMILY HERITAGE WORKSHEET (FIGURE B1)
  • C. WRITTEN CONSENT FORM
  • D. SUGGESTIONS FOR REFLECTIVE JOURNAL WRITING
  • E. PERSONAL HISTORY OF IDENTITY WORKSHEET (FIGURE E1)
  • F. SUGGESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS OF TRANSCRIPTS
  • G. SUGGESTIONS FOR COMMENTS ON INTERVIEWER’S ANALYSIS
  • H. CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS HANDOUT
  • I. POEM: “I AM INVISIBLE”
  • J. INFORMANTS’ REFERENCE SHEET

List of Figures

1. Racial/ethnic identity development models
2. Moments of ethnography
3. Conceptual Figure Eight Interview Model
4. Procedural Figure Eight Interview Model
5. List of established interview questions
6. Five stages for critical qualitative research
7. Interpretation of Carspecken’s (1996) research design
8. Summary of responses to research questions
9. Biracial identity development continuum

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