About the Undergraduate Research Symposium
The
Africana
Research
Center’s
(ARC)
Undergraduate Research Exhibition (URE) recognizes
and
celebrates
the
scholarly
development
of
undergraduate students who have written research
papers on issues pertaining to some aspect of the
African Diaspora. Faculty nominate student papers,
Undergraduate
Research
and with student permission, these papers are
evaluated by a group of judges using a refereed
process.
After the URE scholars are selected, Penn State
administrators, faculty, students, friends, and family
are invited to attend a presentation luncheon to
celebrate
the
students’
accomplishments.
URE
scholars will provide poster presentations of their
research paper. To mark the occasion, an award
Exhibition
and/or certificate of scholarship are presented to
each student.
The top three (1st/2nd/3rd prize)
winners will receive generous conference/research
travel awards and are invited to submit their
abstracts and attend the 31st Annual National
Conference
Saturday, October 1, 2016
10:30 a.m.—1:30 p.m.
The Nittany Lion Inn
Faculty Staff Club Room
on
Undergraduate
Research (NCUR)
hosted by the University of Memphis on April 6-8,
2017.
Visit
http://www.cur.org/ncur_2017/
more information.
for
Program
10:30-11:00 a.m.
REGISTRATION
Nittany Lion Inn, Faculty Staff Club Room
11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
RESEARCH EXHIBITION
12:00-1:00 p.m.
LUNCHEON
12:30-1:00 p.m.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
William J. Dewey, Ph.D.
1:00-1:30 p.m.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2016 ARC SCHOLARS
#1
Emma Behr
[email protected]
Department of Political Science
College of the Liberal Arts
Nominated by Crystal Sanders, Ph.D.
Hurricane Katrina Victims: Citizens or Aliens?
This poster seeks to raise awareness and to provide some evidence in support of the fact that African Americans have been
and continue to be regarded and prioritized as second-class citizens in the United States. The poster references one example of
such evidence; the damaging and lasting effects of the 2005
Hurricane Katrina on the people and city of New Orleans as well
as the racialized response (before, during, and after the hurricane) of the United States federal government and media. The
poster uses various sources including books, documentaries, and
online news articles and reports.
Africana Research Center
2016 Undergraduate Research Exhibition
#2
#3
Elizabeth Catchmark
Trevor Dennehy
[email protected]
Departments of English, Philosophy, African American Studies,
and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
College of the Liberal Arts
Nominated by Megan Fung, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Division of Undergraduate Studies
Nominated by Jack Selzer, Ph.D.
Kindred Spirits: Reading Interracial Love Relationships
Through Embodied White Supremacy
My poster examines the ways the interracial love relationship at
the heart of Octavia Butler’s Kindred is transformed through the
events of the novel, by positioning the characters’ bodies as
historical texts on which the United States’ racial legacy is inscribed. At the chronological beginning of the text, Dana, the
black protagonist, and Kevin, her white partner, are read as
historical texts by those around them, who recognize the US
legacy of interracial violence and respond to their romance with
suspicion and fetishization. Despite this response, the couple
steadfastly ignores the influence of race and gender on their
capacity to love each other, until they are ripped from their
idyllic life when Dana is involuntarily returned to the Antebellum South and experiences life as a slave. Both she and Kevin
are irreparably damaged by their time in the past, bearing
physical and psychological scars that force them to examine
how white supremacy manifests in their relationship.
Segregation at Rocky Springs Park
Rocky Springs Park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was a popular
recreational spot locally in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s. The park
was seemingly unsegregated, except for the swimming pool. In
1948, two African American men named Edward A. Hudson and
M.W. Richardson, Jr., were denied entrance into the pool. The
two men sued the owners of the park, James and Joseph Figari,
for their violation of the Pennsylvania Act of Assembly of 1939 in
preventing the men from swimming. The Figaris claimed that
allowing African Americans in the pool would cause the white
majority to consider the waters tainted. Regardless of their defense, the Figaris lost the lawsuit and were mandated to not segregate their park. This incident, however, was just a precursor to
much of the fervor of racial tensions surrounding the swimming
pool. In 1960, when the civil rights movement began gaining
more support, two African American women named Lisa Smith
and Emory Coleman were also refused entrance to the pool. In
order to test if their lack of admittance was racially motivated,
they, with the help of their lawyer, developed the sandwich test,
This experiment involved a Caucasian entering the pool without
pause, then a black person, who was denied, and then another
white person admitted to swim. This gave the women evidence
for their lawsuit, gaining the attention of the local chapter of the
NAACP, who called for a boycott of the park. In the summer of
1963, the group organized protests at the park, where blacks
continued to be denied access. These demonstrations led to
damaging press for the park, which caused fewer people to attend each year. The park was permanently closed in 1966. This
incident is evidence of racial struggles that existed all around the
country, and their importance to those involved.
#4
#5
Cherish Harper
Linda S. Kao
[email protected]
African Studies Program
College of the Liberal Arts
Nominated by Clemente Abrokwaa, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Department of Art History
College of Arts and Architecture
Nominated by William J. Dewey, Ph.D.
Institutional Racism
Tambú and Cultural Identity: Performative Folk Art of
the African Diaspora in Curaçao
Generally speaking, institutions have the power to proliferate
and maintain racist practices that result in the subjugation of a
minority group; and race has the power to dictate social positions within a given institution. Institutional racism is defined
as a practice or mobilization of race, which subordinates certain
racial groups while absolving individual culpability. While participation in institutional racism is active, this participation is not
always recognized. Unfortunately, beneficiaries of institutional
racism are often blind to it. This essay aims to highlight the
historical and contemporary processes through which institutional racism is practiced in educational settings by drawing
comparisons between racist practices in the United States and
South Africa during the 1950s-specifically the system of apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States. Although during this time, the histories of these countries seem to
move in opposite directions with the Brown vs. Board of Ed decision and implementation of the Bantu Education Act this essay will illuminate several similarities between 1950s South
Africa and the United States. Furthermore, this essay aims to
evaluate the relationship between institutions and racism in
order to better understand the mechanisms through which racism is sustained and proliferated throughout the United States.
Curaçao is a small Caribbean island-state whose participation in
the 17th and 18th century transatlantic slave trade resulted in
a multiracial society where approximately 80% of the population has African ancestry. The enslaved diasporic community,
similar to those in other new world European colonies, improvised a distinctive creole culture from the collective memories
of their African homes. Elements of this culture persist today,
although until recently their expression was discouraged, if not
forbidden, by the colonial Dutch rulers. Suppressed and undervalued, Afro-Caribbean culture has not been well studied.
However, within the past two decades, this trend is being reversed by Curaçaoans themselves, championing recognition
and reinterpretation of their African heritage. The performative
music and dance art, known as Tambú, is one cultural element
emerging from the shadows of secrecy to achieve new public
status. Using a broad investigative approach, the research presented here draws on the work of earlier Curaçaoan, Dutch and
American scholars in the fields of music performance, cultural
anthropology, history, religion, comparative literature and art.
It also uses contemporary reports and analyses. The conclusions demonstrate that Tambú has played a fundamental role in
the oral transmission of Afro-Curaçaoan social history, including
the preservation of African linguistic roots, enactment of social
rituals such as the Seú harvest festival, and observance of African funerary rites. More significant is the finding that not only
are historical performative forms being uncovered and preserved, but Tambú is evolving to reflect current technological,
fashion and social realities. Rather than remaining a static relic,
Tambú still fulfills its original role as a medium of coded expression, the voice of a once enslaved marginalized people, seeking
social justice. Accompanying their growing pride in self, and
community awareness, has been greater political agency.
Tambú is thus a touchstone of Afro-Curaçaoan cultural identity
with social and political impact.
#6
#7
Janelle Kelly
Keely Londino
[email protected]
Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
College of the Liberal Arts
Nominated by Jill Wood, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Department of Biology
Eberly College of Science
Nominated by Jack Selzer, Ph.D.
Being Black and Male In America: Racialized Violence
Against Black Males in U.S. Society
Rhetorical Analysis of Malcolm X’s “The Black
In this poster, I examine the ways in which law enforcement
police and enact violence against black males. Specifically regarding the unfortunate killings of unarmed black boys and
men, I use various feminist theories to unravel the conundrum
that is being male, while simultaneously being a person of color, in U.S. society. Firstly, I begin with discussing the concept
of masculinity, a concept created within a heteronormative
frame, known as the “invisible norm.” Through this, heteronormative perspectives--there are men and women; there is no in
between--are privileged. Anything that falls outside of the margins is deemed deviant. Society praises masculinity and the
enactment of masculine traits, but praise is reserved for a small
portion of men: heterosexual, white (also an invisible norm),
Christian men. The intersection of whiteness and masculinity is
constantly converged with a heroic image in U.S. society. Undoubtedly, the bombardment of two normalized concepts
means men who fall outside of the frame immediately understand that their masculinity is not welcome. The use of examples involving stereotypes developed from slavery further my
explanation. Embedding the notion that black masculinity was
“unmanageable” into society resulted in a unanimous decision
to police black men. While the harmful tactics used back then
are no longer encouraged, policing still happens in subtle ways,
i.e. white policemen killing black men in the name of justice.
With that said, the normalization of whiteness and history of
the treatment of black men in slavery plays a significant role in
the justification of violence towards black men today. Precisely,
some find it difficult to empathize or sympathize with black
men when, historically, black men were perceived as less than
heroic. The convergence of whiteness and masculinity with heroism insinuates that any opposing view is against the core values found in U.S. society.
Revolution”
What message did Malcolm X have for his listeners when he
addressed his all-black and primarily Christian audience on
June 12, 1963? Speaking at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York, Malcolm had two intentions; first, he sought to
introduce, and consequently convert, those present to his own
Nation of Islam; second, he wanted to propose the concept of
separatism as the only true path to ending the racial inequality
that was plaguing the United States during the time of his
speech. He spoke within one day of two significant events regarding civil rights occurred, events which complicated the task
before him. First, on June 11, President John Kennedy delivered his Civil Rights Address, proposing legislation meant to
end racial segregation. Then, in the early morning of Malcolm’s
speech, Medgar Evers was murdered in Jackson, Mississippi,
striking even more fear and frustration into the black community. How could Malcolm succeed in presenting a radical solution
for racial discrimination to an audience accustomed to the nonviolent teachings of leaders like Martin Luther King? To achieve
his goals in “The Black Revolution,” Malcolm X employed several rhetorical strategies. He utilized a tactic of extended metaphor, equating the white community of America with bloodthirsty wolves that have been a danger to the black population,
illustrated as lost, innocent sheep. This metaphor provides the
listener with familiar images to associate with the situation,
shedding more light on the severity of the situation. Malcolm
also established credibility for himself and his religion by
demonstrating his own extensive biblical knowledge and speaking comprehensively about the Nation’s earthly leader, the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Finally, Malcolm employs several
instances of subtle criticism directed at leaders like King to dissuade his listeners from a vision of a desegregated world
through nonviolence and peace, rather than through separation
and assertiveness.
#8
#9
Sarah McKenna
Cheryl Stephens
[email protected]
Department of History
College of the Liberal Arts
Nominated by Jack Selzer, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Department of History
College of the Liberal Arts
Nominated by Crystal Sanders, Ph.D.
A Memorial for Change: Roy Wilkins Speaking in
Remembrance of Rev. George W. Lee
The Arts and Activism: Visual Expression in the Civil
Rights Movement
On May 22, 1955, Roy Wilkins, the newly appointed executive
secretary of the NAACP, spoke to an African American crowd in
a church in Belzoni, Mississippi at the funeral of Reverend
George W. Lee. Lee, a civil rights activist in Belzoni, was working to register African American voters when he was murdered
at gunpoint two weeks before. Wilkins understood that Lee’s
mourners would be terrified to continue his work out of the fear
of being murdered, but at the same time, he knew that continuing activism was necessary to gain civil rights in the community. How could Wilkins achieve his goal of encouraging these
mourners to continue to fight for civil rights? Wilkins utilized
many reasons why his audience should keep up the fight. First,
he cited reasons to remain active: blacks were American citizens, their voices were crucial in Mississippi’s government, and
integration would benefit both blacks and whites. Second, he
pushed the idea of overcoming white resistance in Mississippi
by following the example of other southern states. Third, he
attempted to persuade his audience to take action in the fight
by joining the NAACP and registering to vote. An examination
of Wilkins’s speech and the events that followed will reveal how
he was able to influence civil rights activism during a time of
violence, intimidation, and change in the United States.
In society, artists play a profound role in the education of the
public and provoke internal confrontation of norms that often
go unchallenged or unnoticed. During the classical phase of the
civil rights movement, artists contributed their insights and expressed important political views through their artwork(s),
which conveyed the concerns and sentiments vocalized by
those involved in the movement in ways that were easily recognizable to the viewer. Their work conveyed experiences during
the movement to individuals from various educational levels,
geographical locations, and nationalities. The artists who created works of art during the movement were from diverse racial
backgrounds and art mediums. Popular artists such as Matt
Herron, Danny Lyon, Richard Avedon, Jacob Lawrence, Norman
Rockwell, and Andy Warhol represent the spectrum of artists
who will be discussed in my analysis. Though often excluded
from the narrative of the civil rights movement, artists played a
critical role in the progress of the civil rights movement. The art
created by photographers and painters during the civil rights
movement made concepts of degradation and struggle more
tangible to white Americans, which embodied the original goals
of the NAACP during the 1920s to use fine arts as an arena to
display African American intellectual capability. During the classical phase of the movement, many white Americans viewed
civil rights as a “black issue” that did not relate to them. Their
images captured the contemporary issues that all Americans
were faced to confront and demonstrated how the struggle for
civil rights significantly affected the everyday workings of the
lives of citizens, whether they comprehended it or not. Because their works contained powerful symbolism which reflected the African American struggle against discrimination, artists
(both black and white) were able to emotionally reach a broad
audience to spread awareness, depicting it as national problem
affecting every American.
#10
Jessica Trent
#11
Seamus Wagner
[email protected]
Penn State Greater Allegheny
College of Psychology
Nominated by Margaret Signorella, Ph.D.
[email protected]
African Studies Program and Department of Political Science
College of the Liberal Arts
Nominated by Clemente Abrokwaa, Ph.D.
A Correlational Study of Attitudes Toward Trending Racial
Topics and Political Affiliation
The Arab Slave Trade in East Africa and its Impact on the
Coastal Peoples of East Africa
The purpose of this project is to assess whether there is a correlation between political affiliations and attitudes regarding current
racial issues in the United States (i.e. systemic racism, gentrification, police brutality, educational inequality). This question is currently being raised in political commentary and through public opinion polling. College students were surveyed and asked how they
feel about current racial issues and what their beliefs were politically. I hypothesize that police brutality, gentrification, and educational inequity work together to form a system that creates barriers for
underprivileged populations, particularly Blacks and people of color.
Additionally, I hypothesize positive correlations between conservative political affiliations, preferences for conservative candidates,
and a pattern of beliefs toward current racial issues indicating that
racial issues have been solved and are not a major problem in the
United States. The data revealed a coherent pattern of responses
between specific racial attitude questions and other social and political issues that relate to societal equity. The average attitude score
across the various items also predicted ideology and candidate preferences. The results support the view that racism is part of a larger
system of oppression that works against the enrichment and development of people of color and other minorities.
The intent of this poster is to further discuss the recorded history and dialogue of the less-examined East African Slave
Trade. This examination represents an in-depth review of existing literature pertaining to the topic. Slavery is known to have
existed in Africa prior to outside slave trade influences. The intent of this work was to explore changes in the nature of slavery as an informal institution, accessed by only the wealthy,
into a trade that grew and sustained global economies. The approach of the work is to examine existing literature regarding
The East African Slave Trade in order to synthesize what is
published. An outcome of this synthesis is a thorough understanding of what is recorded about The East African Slave
Trade. Findings suggest The East African Slave Trade was active from the 7th-20th centuries CE. While numbers of documented slaves sold and transported is incomplete, existing data
support that The East African Slave Trade was sustained over a
longer period of time than The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
However, the numbers of traded slaves during The East African
Slave Trade did not rival those of The Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade. Zanzibar Island, specifically Stone Town/Zanzibar City
was the most prominent port for most of the duration of The
East African Slave Trade, though many modern day ports along
Africa’s East Coast played a role as well. Research on this topic
continues through funding from The Africana Research Center
and The African Studies program at Penn State. Approval from
Penn State’s Institutional Review Board was garnered to support further data collection in Zanzibar with intent to explore
how the discussion of Slavery and Slave Trading transpires in
current cultural contexts and may vary based upon social contexts, to include cultural centers, communal settings, families,
and formal schooling environments.
#12
Stephine Wilkinson
[email protected]
Department of Sociology and Criminology
College of the Liberal Arts
Nominated by Crystal Sanders, Ph.D.
The Financial Difficulties of Historically Black Colleges and
University
A historically black college and university is defined as “any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964,
whose principle mission was, and is the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally accredited agency or
association”. . HBCUs received funding through many white organizations such as the American Missionary Association, The Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedman, and the American Baptist Home
Mission Society just to name a few, and black religious denominations such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Beginning in
the1970s Historically Black Colleges and Universities began to face
difficulties getting proper funding and enrollment. Due to affirmative action and desegregation of schools, Black individuals were
turning away from the historically black colleges and universities
that were created for them and going to predominately white institutes, which they thought, would offer a better educational opportunity. After the desegregation of colleges many wondered if there
would be a need for black colleges anymore. In recent years there
has been a decline in enrollment at HBCUs. Many HBCUs have been
struggling financially. The reason being because of the lack of federal and state funding given to HBCUs compared to their white
counterparts. Due to the lack of funding HBCUs are forced to cut
cost and eliminate programs, which consequently make it difficult to
compete with predominately white institutes. There are many
HBCUs who are closing and at risk for losing accreditation due to
the amount of debt accumulated such as South Carolina State University and Morris Brown College. HBCUs helped to educated and
give opportunities to many people. The lack of funding to HBCUs is
just another way of inequality that African Americans face today.
When it comes to education we all should have the equal opportunity and in order to do this HBCUs need to stop being overlooked by
society and the government.
Keynote Speaker
William J. Dewey
Interim Co-Director
Africana Research Center
Associate Professor
Department of Art History
Program Head and Graduate Director
African Studies
[email protected]
In addition to serving as the interim co -director of the
Africana Research Center and director of the African
Studies Program, Dr. Dewey also teaches courses in
African and African Diaspora in the College of Arts and
Architecture.
He grew up in Zimbabwe and spent his
junior year abroad at the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
His research interests center on the arts of southern and
eastern Africa, African iron arts and iron smelting. He
has curated and written the accompanying catalogues for
exhibitions such as Africa Celebrates the Art of Living at
the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in 2006; “The
World Moves – We Follow”: Celebrating African Art
for the Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of
Tennessee in 2003; Legacies of Stone, Zimbabwe: Past
and Present at the Musée Royal de L'Afrique Centrale in
Tervuren, Belgium, in 1997; and Sleeping Beauties: The
Jerome L. Joss Collection of Headrests at UCLA’s Fowler
Museum of Cultural History in 1993. The latter exhibition
was shown at the Palmer Museum of Art in 1995. Recent
articles and chapters include “The Stone Birds of Great
Zimbabwe: An unending fascination and obsession” in
Gerald Brisch (editor), The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J.
Theodore Bent. Volume II: The African Journeys. Oxford:
Archaeopress of Oxford (2012); “Blacksmiths and Kings
and Their Work in Iron,” for the Taipei National Museum
of History’s exhibition, Fatal Beauty: Traditional Weapons
of Central Africa (2009); and “Zimbabwe” in the Berg
Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion (2010). He
recently had a Fulbright Fellowship working with the
National Museum of Swaziland, and he has served as the
president of the Arts Council of the African Studies
Association of America. He is currently working on an
exhibition titled Striking Iron! The Art of African
Blacksmiths, which he is co -curating with a team of
scholars for the Fowler Museum at UCLA. They just
received a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
(August 2015) to support it.The estimated opening for
the exhibition is 2018 and other venues planned include
the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art,
several other venues in the United States, and the Musée
du quai Branly in Paris.
Thank You
Panel of Judges
Abraham Khan
Assistant Professor of African American Studies and
Communication Arts & Sciences
Darryl Thomas
Associate Professor of African American Studies
Nan Woodruff
Professor of Modern U.S. History and African American
Studies, Interim Fellows’ Coordinator of the Africana
Research Center
URE Convenor
William J. Dewey
Interim Co-Director of ARC, Associate Professor of Art
History, Program Head and Graduate Director of African
Studies
Keynote Address
William J. Dewey
Interim Co-Director of ARC, Associate Professor of Art
History, Program Head and Graduate Director of African
Studies
The Africana Research Center wishes to thank the Penn
State faculty and undergraduate students who responded
to our appeal and volunteered their nominated papers
during the 2015-2016 academic year. They provided an
invaluable service in making the Undergraduate Research
Exhibition a success.
Unless designated otherwise,
faculty and students are from the University Park
campus.
We would also like to thank our paper
reviewers, Drs. Juli Grigsby, Aditi Malik, and Nicole Myers
Turner.
Visit us at: http://www.arc.la.psu.edu
This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State is an equal oppor tunity, affir mative
action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to
race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.
U.Ed. LBS 17-102