Department of Gender and Race Studies

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Cultural coverture: an examination of the impact of early American marriage laws on contemporary American women
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Steib, Summer Allison; Pierman, Carol J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Under the system of coverture a married woman's civil identity was covered by her husband's civil identity and she was viewed to be civilly dead. The system of coverture originated in Europe and was part of the English Common Law system. When settlers first colonized what would eventually become the United States, they adopted English Common Law and with it the system of coverture. Through the system of coverture, married women in the United States had no independent civil identity and they were excluded from the rights and obligations of citizenship. For over two hundred years, activists worked to challenge and change the system of coverture and the cultural attitudes and assumptions that were reflected through coverture. Though legal coverture ended in the closing decades of the twentieth century, the cultural attitudes and assumptions on which coverture was based are still impacting women and limiting their full freedom and agency. This thesis examines the historical foundations of marriage laws/coverture in Colonial America and traces their progression from laws to the cultural practices that women in contemporary America must navigate and negotiate in their lives.
As many hours as it takes!: women, labor, and craft in the book arts
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Brock-Reed, Amy Michelle; Pierman, Carol J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The growing field of Book Arts is in a state of change as it struggles to relate to the art world while being cast into the category of "craft." The majority of book artists are female and their experiences are integral in understanding how the field fits within the arts. In addition, it is difficult to support one's self on making books alone and most book artists are forced to find other job opportunities. In addition to a brief history of bookmaking and women bookbinders, and a literature review, this study features a pilot study of 7 women book artists from the organization Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts (ILSSA). The interviews look at the ways the women support themselves financially, how they view their art in relation to being a woman, and how they view the field of book arts as individuals. Just as women are continually defined and redefined, considered weak because of their size, and unimportant because of their historic place in society, the artists' book encompasses contradictions and is fighting to be recognized by the greater arts community.
Living incubators: arguing for pregnant women's autonomy and bodily integrity in an age of ever-increasing reproductive technology
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) DeMaeyer, Meanie Jo; Purvis, Jennifer; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
In this thesis I evaluate the medicalization of birthing bodies through the use of reproductive technologies. This thesis argues that the best solution for ensuring the bodily integrity and autonomy of pregnant and birthing people is through midwife-assisted births. Midwifery provides a compelling opportunity to subvert and challenge the medical-industrial complex and its invasive reproductive technologies, which extend beyond the hospital to promote socio-political and cultural ideologies surrounding the bodies of pregnant women and other pregnant subjects. I argue that elements of a do-it-yourself (DIY) feminist consciousness present in the practice of midwifery makes midwives uniquely positioned to encourage and sustain ethical embodied communities. Within these communities pregnant and birthing people are provided opportunities for autonomy, and, thus, midwives and the choice to employ them play a vital role in the establishment of reproductive justice for all.
Interventions in woman as spectacle: the political economy of desire in late capitalist societies
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Cunningham, Scarlett; Pierman, Carol J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
How do we discuss female sexual empowerment as feminists in this third wave political moment given the multiplicity of female sexual desires and the multiplicity of women's identities? To what degree can women make spectacles out of themselves and such a project be read as transgressive? This thesis examines debates surrounding feminist visions of female sexualities. The project questions the concept of desire as a self producing entity resistant to social critique in late capitalist contexts and examines how desire has replaced labor as commodity in late capitalist societies. It shifts the discussion on desire away from conceptions of it as autonomous performance and towards materialist feminist understandings of desire as materially produced. Must desire be historicized in the third wave political moment? Besides addressing these questions, this thesis attempts to radically divorce desire, lust, and pleasure from biological, ahistorical, free-standing conceptualizations and view them as historically and culturally constructed rather than as natural, trans-cultural phenomena. This thesis is a nexus of conversations between materialist feminists and poststructuralist feminists to better understand critiques of western sex radical movements as well as the tension regarding where the economic and the discursive belong in politics of revolt. This thesis attempts to reclaim a radical sense of sexual ethics in feminism. To this end, this project engages feminist discussions concerning sexual freedom and sexual justice.
Creole bodies and intersecting lives and oppressions: an intertextual dialogue between Kate Chopin and Alice Dunbar-Nelson
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Watts, Rachel; Fulton, DoVeanna S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Differing and contentious definitions of the term "Creole" have tried to produce rigid boundaries defining who to include and who to exclude within a "highly-contested identity space" (Stouck 272) by historians, writers, scholars, and even within Creole communities based on hegemonic dichotomous "either/or" structures. Moreover, these differing attempts at forming exclusive definitions have only revealed Creole to be a category that resists and complicates dichotomous structures. This project compares the nineteenth century Creole short stories of Kate Chopin and Alice Dunbar-Nelson to show how these boundaries are complicated and fissured by the ambiguities of race, gender roles, and female sexuality embodied by the colorful characters portrayed in their fiction. Through their stories, both writers interrogate the social inequalities of gender, race, class, and feminine sexuality, as it existed in the South, specifically in Louisiana. Their stories are more than social commentaries; by centering Creole subjects, they also challenge and disrupt normative standards of proper roles and markings of gender, race, and class. Chopin and Dunbar-Nelson are both identified as "women" who lived in the same region, but this shared identity does not mean shared lived experiences: the constructed categories of race, class, and sexuality greatly affect and cause individuals to experience oppression in different ways. An intertextual dialogue between these two writers illustrates how they each create different texts of race and human experiences within a common Creole community. Because of such hegemonic control of what is published, read, and studied, only certain voices are heard, while others are silenced, therefore, forming a narrow, one-sided commentary of lived experiences--an incomplete picture. To study Chopin while ignoring the work of Dunbar-Nelson only offers one side to a subject whose multiplicity of meanings foster considerable academic debate. Only by placing the stories of these two different authors, one widely anthologized and one not, side by side to see how they interact or contrast with each other, can we then attempt to formulate answers and thus gain a clearer, more whole, picture of the oppression and privilege structures of domination have on women's lives.
Gender, sex, and race in the gamespace of live action role play
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Tudor, Lena Danielle; Pierman, Carol J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This thesis explores identity, gender, sexuality, and race within live action role play, a game format designed in an impromptu theatre style. My goal was to assess the ways in which sexism, racism, and hypersexuality pervade contemporary forms of entertainment, and to imagine ways in which gamespaces can be re-imagined to be more inclusive. Using participant observation, I investigated the experience of live action role play and documented my followings in field notes. I discussed my observations in relation to experts on the subjects of identity, play, gamer theory, feminist theory, and critical race theory. I contend in this thesis that games, including live action role play games, are not free from societal oppression, but that interactive games such as live action role play can offer creative ways in which to negotiate and navigate social oppression.
A critical examination of gender, race, and sexuality in introductory clinical psychology textbooks
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Payne, Kristen Lynn; Allen, Rebecca S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Clinical psychology is a field that aims to understand behavior and to use this understanding to aid individuals and society in a multitude of ways. Many psychologists use their training to help patients who seek help with emotional, behavioral, or other types of mental health issues. Because psychologists can have a significant impact on individual's lives and society as a whole, analysis of the training psychologists receive is critical to ensure that appropriate material is being integrated into that training. The present study is an examination of the five top selling introductory psychology textbooks as of 2008. These textbooks are used in upper level undergraduate and beginning graduate classrooms. The study's aim was to examine the content of these textbooks for information related to gender, race, and sexuality. The findings suggest that although the field of psychology has continued to report that multicultural sensitivity is essential to effective treatment of diverse individuals, introductory psychology textbooks do not have sufficient and accurate information in any of these areas. All of the books examined were authored by males, contained a higher proportion of photographs of white males than white females and ethnic minority males and females, contained traditionally gendered descriptions of males and females, reported little information on sexuality or race, had no information on possible reasons for reported sex differences, and contained gendered examples of psychopathology. The significance of these findings and suggestions for improving the multicultural content of psychology textbooks are discussed.
Motherhood on the inside: exploring the challenges facing incarcerated women at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Unnasch, Emily Ann; Cooper, Brittney; Johnson, Ida M.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
In this thesis, I argue that the criminal justice system is deeply entrenched in racist and classist perceptions that make incarcerated women especially vulnerable to policies and ideologies that regularly involve the denial of their reproductive and parental rights. With shifting public policies and sentencing reform in reaction to the "war on drugs," women, the poor, and people of color have disproportionately become caught in the net of the criminal justice system. The subtle fusion of the war on drugs with the fetal protection movement has furthermore positioned pregnant women and mothers quite precariously within the criminal justice system, and Alabama's own chemical endangerment law provides a useful case study for exploring this topic. This thesis highlights the unique challenges facing women in correctional institutions, focusing on women's reproductive rights and claims to motherhood in particular. An elaboration of the history of Alabama's Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women helps to reveal these broader issues. In this thesis, I argue that motherhood can provide a means for incarcerated women to strategize resistance and claim agency from the space of the prison, suggesting that programs such as the Montgomery-based organization Aid to Inmate Mothers help meet the specific needs of incarcerated women that are otherwise neglected by the prison system. I use data that I collected from fifteen interviews conducted with inmate mothers at Tutwiler Prison, drawing on the experiences of these women to make an argument about the nature of incarceration for women and the potential for motherhood to be an empowering identity.
Feminisms and fluidity: from breasted existence to breasted resistance in feminist theory and activism
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Sullivan, Maigen; Purvis, Jennifer; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Dominant phallocentric norms call on bodies to fit rigid, static molds that do not allow for any flux or fluidity. It is necessary to note that these standards are a fallacy and that no bodies adhere to such strict structures. However, women's bodies are especially seen as going, and in fact do go, against these standards for what constitutes a proper body. When discussing the ways in which women's bodies act as sites of resistance against heteromasculine norms, their genitalia are often at the center of the conversation. However, we can take the discourse surrounding the fluidity of female genitalia and move it to a higher region--breasts. In Feminisms and Fluidity: From Breasted Existence to Breasted Resistance in Feminist Theory and Activism, I use the language and discourse typically reserved for women's genitalia in relation to breasts by looking at them as fluid sites of control and resistance. I discuss the physicality of breasts as being fluid in that breasts shift their shape with age and movement. I examine the way in which women's breasts are fluid in that they have the potentiality to produce fluids--breast milk. Finally, I expand our understanding of bodily limitations by examining both S/M and Crip Theory as ways to expand the margins of the body.
Fannie Lou Hamer, Dorothy Height and Viola Liuzzo: not just a dream, initiators for equality
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Barnett, Jennifer Michelle; Fulton, DoVeanna S.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This thesis uses the standpoint theory and lived experiences method, introduced by Patricia Hill Collins and Sandra Harding, to examine the lives of three women who were active in fighting for freedom, equality, and a more democratic society for all citizens. It is argued that these women were concurrently combating issues associated with sexism, racism, classism, and disabilities in order to create a more fair society. My research indicates their motives for publicly fighting racism stem from their childhoods, a strong sense of social justice, and the desire to create a safer world. They envisioned a world where nobody feared for their lives simply for casting a ballot or dining at a lunch counter. The first chapter briefly discusses the history of the Civil Rights Movement and actions taken when systematic forms of redress do not create results. The chapter also discusses gender roles, coalition building, the need for allies and their roles, as well as race, class, and gender politics. The discussion of using structural violence, systematic oppression, accusations of mental instability, and disabilities are also introduced; showing how they all intersected during instances of political and social turbulence. The chapter presents the concept as whiteness as property, a concept researched and introduced by Cheryl I. Harris, and how bodies are racialized. The second chapter acknowledges the work of Dorothy Height. Height used her education, class standing, and knowledge to fight for equality for Black people within society and politics. Facing sexism and racism, Height instigated many of the most well-known marches and platforms for equality among races. Sharing the stage with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Height in some ways accepted oppressions of sexism, but rallied against racism. The third chapter recognizes Viola Liuzzo, wife and mother to five children, from Detroit, Michigan. Liuzzo came south to challenge the violence and mistreatment accompanying the struggle for civil rights. Using her voice, dedication, and car to transport marchers, Liuzzo would become noted as the only white woman to lose her life in the Civil Rights Movement. The discussion surrounding Liuzzo will include how bodies are racialized and discredited when white women joined the ranks with Black freedom fighters. The fourth chapter discusses the role that Fannie Lou Hamer had toward empowering Black and poor white people. Hamer had a vision of a more just and democratic society. Facing racism, sexism, classism, and disability issues, Hamer used her experiences and rhetorical talent to break societal barriers. Becoming a victim of structural violence herself, she told her story in order to protect others. The fifth chapter conceptualizes why I chose to bring these three women together for discussion. The chapter discusses common experiences and ideas these women shared and draws conclusions about their similar motivations. Another major aspect discussed in this chapter is how these women crossed class, geographical, and race lines to work toward a common goal. This research suggests that all three women were aware of the dangers they faced when crossing these boundaries, but did it anyway for a need much greater than their own.
The other collectives of the left: reading Black left feminisms in sites of transatlantic cultural praxis
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Gardner, Tia Simone; Shoaff, Jennifer L.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Paul Gilroy writes, "It would appear that there are large questions raised about the direction and character of Black culture and art if we take the powerful effects of even temporary experiences of exile, relocation, and displacement into account" (Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic, 18). Transnationality and citizenship are tangled discourses, acted out in real time, on real people, effecting not only the exiled, relocated, and displaced as individuals, but the communal relations they leave, enter, and/or produce. In this research, grounded in issues of collective cultural praxis, I examine the relationship between lived experience, mechanizations of power, and how collectivity -in the formation of community action groups and artists collectives. I argue that in this way cultural production is instrumental in the transgressing of the real and imaged borders of race, nation, gender, and class. I look at the cultural work of Afro-Caribbean, and American exile, Claudia Jones, American Lorraine Hansberry, and Black artist collectives working in and between the U.S. and U.K. My central argument is that by looking at the work of Black radicals, specifically Black left feminists and their strategic use of collaborative cultural practice, we can deepen our understanding of the strategic use of cultural in bringing about social change. I also argue for a rethinking of the histories and representations of Black radicalism, and the re-imagining of the Black radical subject. This new historicization of the Black radicalism - which is inclusive of leftist feminisms, transnational subjectivity, cultural workers and artists - pushes us toward a radical revision of cultural and identity politics.
Can't take my soul: exploring and illuminating the spirituality and spiritual activism within British hip-hop
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Epps, Alisha Gayle; Shoaff, Jennifer L.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Hip-hop is a transnational musical genre that has historically affected the lives of marginalized youth in powerful ways across the "Black Atlantic." By using a womanist framework of analysis, this thesis illuminates the ways in which three British hip-hop MC's-Akala, Logic, and Lowkey-employ their music to enact spiritual activism. I explore how their music explicitly and implicitly centers on spirituality and seeks to break down the barriers necessary for spiritual awareness and growth through the awakening and/or transformation of consciousness.
Integration and transformation: an examination of the role of sexuality in formulating a queer/crip subjectivity for people with disabilities
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Wiggins, Meredith Joan; Purvis, Jennifer; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This thesis investigates the current cultural discourses surrounding sexuality in persons with disabilities and argues that in order to move away from existing conceptions of personhood and citizenship that are rooted in ableism and are thus possibilities only for nondisabled persons, persons with disabilities and their nondisabled allies must embrace the queer potential advocated by crip theorists, who have so usefully applied the insights of queer theorists to the field of disability studies. I will begin by interrogating the relationship of disability studies and feminist theory by examining the societal/cultural construction of normative bodies. Next, I will focus on how notions of citizenship and who constitutes "proper" or "acceptable" political actors are rooted in ideologies of ability, ideologies which are themselves often predicated on the assumption of "normal" sexual functioning, among other normative assumptions. Then I will explore the historical policing of the sexuality of disabled persons and argue that access to sexual knowledge and expression is crucial to helping disabled persons create positive self-identities and a sense of themselves as subjects. Finally, I will conduct a critical reading of these issues on the television show Glee, which exemplifies the failings of the existing cultural models of disability and sexuality but also provides examples of the power and promise of a queer crip subjectivity, and briefly compare Glee to other televisual representations of disabled sexuality.
Co-authorship in A narrative of the uncommon sufferings and surprizing deliverance of Briton Hammon, a Negro man
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2013) Warner, Erin Siobhan; McKnight, Utz Lars; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
"A Negro Man, Servant to--General Winslow" travels from Boston to Jamaica, Florida, Cuba, and London within a thirteen-year time frame. In the captivity narrative A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man, Briton Hammon experiences many hardships during his various captivities. His is a unique experience in the captivity genre, but is critiqued because of the manner in which this narrative is produced. He did not write it himself so it widely argued that this white genre can claim a black author but not the authority of that author's experience. In the book, The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B Du Bois portrays a two-sided man that has his own perspective, yet sees himself through others' eyes. He describes it as "two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body" (Du Bois). His aim is to explain the relationship between being an American and a Negro without a sole definition from the white perspective. This is my aim in my analysis of this text. This point of this research is to reclaim Hammon's authorship and therefore some of his authority. Hammon's voice constitutes the two souls and the two thoughts. I will examine the narrative in four sections: The title page and preface, the encounter with Indians, the imprisonment in Spanish Cuba, and his journey home.
Ashri and i: exploring "knowledge" through creative writing
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Rodgers-Farris, Sierra; McKnight, Utz Lars; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
A female protagonist simply identified as "She" remembers and relives acts of violence over a span of years and attempts to cope through poetry and an attachment to an imaginary `other.' Through poetry She imagines Ashri and her kidnap, abused, and descent into madness at the hands of Fin, connecting the pain of her own life with that of Ashri's. This combination of poetry and creative non-fiction is not only about the relation between men and women but also about sharing truths through the retelling of real events. This thesis focuses on the issue of how "knowledge" is created and sanctified by social and academic structures. The story shares the knowledge and the theory explains why it is important.
Dream more while you are awake: a correctional fantasy
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Kruse, Kenneth James; McKnight, Utz Lars; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Before September 2013, I had been in four prisons, none of them currently used to incarcerate people. I had visited them all as a tourist--in Argentina, Cambodia, Chile, and Vietnam--for the purpose of understanding the histories of these countries. My participation in this tragedy tourism certainly informs the reader of the incredible amount of privilege (both personal and communal--to travel internationally as a tourist, to have had the luxury of not having been to prison or jail myself or to have had a incarcerated family member/friend, of having broken the law many times but never getting caught/arrested/charged due to my social and economic positions, to travel to sites of incredible violence out of curiosity, etc.) with which I first came to teach in the prison. For the past three semesters, I have been teaching composition, creative writing, and literature at Alabama prisons. I taught for one semester at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka and for two semesters at. St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville (I am currently teaching there); both of these are maximum-security state facilities run by the Alabama Department of Corrections. Both Tutwiler and St. Clair have been in the news repeatedly over the past few years for egregious abuses of people incarcerated there. This thesis will, in an associative way, weave together disparate experiences and sources. I will include my personal experiences imagining and then teaching in the prison. Because it is unethical for me to share specific responses, verbal or written, from the students I work(ed) with in the prison, the prisoner voice in the thesis will be limited to narratives of prisoners around the United States excerpted from various published memoirs and collections. I will discuss the Free Alabama Movement manifesto produced by Mevlin Ray, who is incarcerated at St. Clair, which sparked labor strikes at three Alabama prisons in protest of cheap and free prisoner labor in January 2014. I will also contextualize the contemporary prison in the United States by discussing the punitive nature of the prison and its place in a U. S. racist institutional history that evolved from slavery and Jim Crow. I will be in dialogue with such prison theorists as Michelle Alexander, Angela Davis, Michel Foucault, and Lisa Guenther. I will also reference the many depictions of prison in popular culture, including everything from television shows like Orange is the New Black and Oz, to leaders such as Bryan Stevenson and Collin Powell, to the Monopoly board game. With Dan Savage's idea that "we eroticize that which we fear," I will also bring the incredible amount of prison pornography into the conversation. The goal of this thesis is not to be a comprehensive analysis of the infinite flaws in the justice system of this country or of the ways in which we collectively support, deny, and necessitate this system. I will touch on, but not exhaust, state surveillance, for-profit prisons, detention of undocumented people, and juvenile detention. The goal is, rather, to attempt to understand my intentions coming to the prison and my experience teaching there by relating my own thoughts and observations to the ocean of prison-related material that floats through popular culture and academia. In addition, I will move between the sources I used in my classes, both to talk about the teaching experience itself and because the experience of teaching, reading, and discussing these pieces inside prisons has shaped the way I consume and remember them. In addition, I will include lyrical descriptions of the prisons themselves.
"What don't Black girls do?": constructions of deviance and the performance of Black female sexuality
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Hill, Kiara Monique; Shoaff, Jennifer L.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This research interrogates the ways in which Black women process and negotiate their sexual identities. By connecting the historical exploitation of Black female bodies to the way Black female deviant identities are manufactured and consumed currently, I was able to show not only the evolution of Black women's attitudes towards sexuality, but also the ways in which these attitudes manifest when policing deviancy amongst each other. Chapter 1 gives historical insight to the way that deviancy has been inextricably linked to the construction of Blackness. Using the Post-Reconstruction Era as my point of entry, I demonstrate the ways in which Black bodies were stigmatized as sexually deviant, and how the use of Black caricatures buttressed the consumption of this narrative by whites. I explain how countering this narrative became fundamental to the evolution of Black female sexual politics, and how ultimately bodily agency was later restored through sexual deviancy. Chapter 2 interrogates the way "authenticity" is propagated within the genre of reality TV. Black women are expected to perform deviant identities that coincide with controlling images so that the "authenticity" of Black womanhood is consumed by mainstream audiences. Using Vh1's Love and Hip Hop Atlanta and Basketball Wives I analyze the way these identities are performed and policed by the women on both shows. Lastly, Chapter 3 is a reflexive analysis detailing the ways in which Black women process the performances of deviant Black female identities on reality TV using ethnographic methods.
From margin to center: feminism in an era of mainstream co-optation
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Caddell, April; Purvis, Jennifer; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Contemporary American culture is witnessing the phenomenon of many high-profile celebrities proudly calling themselves, feminist--I refer to these individuals as celebrity feminists. This phenomenon comes as a shift from the historical avoidance with the term feminist and the feminist movement due to mainstream media's portrayal of feminism using negative and fallacious stereotypes. The current shift to "feminism is wonderful," in the mainstream media--as a reflection of a white supremacist and patriarchal society--de-politicizes feminism, making it less of a radical movement that seeks social change and more a portrayal of individual empowerment on the part of exceptional women. In essence, it seeks to separate the personal from the political. Following the lead of bell hooks, we must combat this co-optation and de-politicization of feminism and reclaim it as a transformative politics. We must come to a consensus on what feminism is, even if the definition is fluid and broad, determine the goals of feminism so that we do not mistake the individual success of women as proof of feminism accomplished, and challenge the so-called sex positivity of feminism as portrayed by the mainstream media for its lack of inclusion of all people and its portrayal of sex as the last frontier of feminism. In spite of these misrepresentations, feminism has a bright future in an era of social media that gives the power of media and message to more people who can portray a feminism that is radical and uses an intersectional lens.
A look at colonialism from the spiritual perspective of Africans
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Parnell, Raisa Cornelia; McKnight, Utz Lars; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The colonization and enslavement of Africans has been analyzed and engaged from various angles throughout history. One perspective that has yet to be delved into properly is that of the religious/spiritual perspective. This paper examines various instances that express how Africans of different backgrounds did and have come to spiritually understand and process colonialism.
Incorporating Criterion Ratings Into Model-Based Rater Monitoring Procedures Using Latent-Class Signal Detection Theory
(Sage, 2017) Patterson, Brian F.; Wind, Stefanie A.; Engelhard, George, Jr.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa; University of Georgia
This study presents a new criterion-referenced approach for exploring rating quality within the framework of latent-class signal detection theory (LC-SDT) that goes beyond commonly used reliability indices, and provides substantively meaningful indicators of rater accuracy that can be used to inform rater training and monitoring at the individual rater level. Specifically, this study illustrates a flexible application of restricted LC-SDT modeling, in which restrictions can be specified for the true latent classification to reflect the unique characteristics of a particular assessment context. While the LC-SDT modeling framework provides immediately useful characterizations of raters' behavior, the restricted LC-SDT offers complementary evidence to further support the monitoring of rater behavior by bringing criterion ratings to bear. This study uses ratings from a large-scale writing assessment, and findings suggest that the criterion (i.e., restricted) LC-SDT provides useful information about rating quality for operational raters relative to criterion ratings, which may ultimately inform rater training and monitoring procedures.

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