Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item IN THE PURSUIT: BLACK WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES IN PWI DOCTORAL PROGRAMS & THE USAGE OF BLACK JOY AS PERSISTENCE(2022) Sessoms, Christina Simone; Williams-Forson, Psyche; American Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Out of 104,953 doctoral degrees earned by women within the United States in 2019-2020, Black women obtained 10,576 PhDs across the span of academic disciplines, equating to 11.1%, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (2021). However, research has not done its due diligence of parsing through the data to understand the stories of the women who make up those 10,576 PhDs granted. This dissertation study explores the lived experiences of Black women who specifically transitioned from their undergraduate institutions into doctoral programs at predominately white institutions (PWIs) and how Black joy may be employed as a persistence mechanism toward degree completion. Because no literature exists to understand this community of doctoral students, this groundbreaking study begins with the question of what are the lived experiences of Black women who transition directly from their undergraduate to doctorate at PWIs? The dissertation continues to push further to then question how Black women in doctoral programs understand, experience, and sustain their joy and in what ways does joy inform persistence and resistance amongst these sista scholars. Utilizing Patricia Hill Collins’ (2000) Black Feminist Thought as a theoretical foundation and Black feminist-womanist storytelling as the chosen methodology, I argue that this specific transition is one that must be deeply explored because of unique components and that Black joy does, in fact, serve as a positive mechanism for persistence. Life stories were collected through two interlocking methods of semi-structured interviews and focus groups amongst 14 Black women spanning 12 different academic fields in PhD programs across the United States. By sharing life narratives of Black women in doctoral programs, in-depth insight is gathered concerning reasons for going to graduate school, academic and socialization transitions, three primary barriers to success - age being a salient identity, mental health challenges, and perceived & real pressure, and, lastly, understanding and experiencing joy through self, community, and work. Through this research project, Black women in doctoral programs created space to critique and disrupt the Ivory Tower while producing joy amongst each other.Item THE INTERSECTIONS OF MASCULINITY, GENDER, AND RACISM: EXPLORING THE LIVED EXPERIENCES AND INTERACTIONS OF BLACK MALE GRADUATE STUDENTS ATTENDING A PRIMARILY WHITE INSTITUTION(2021) Perry, Jamar J; Slater, Wayne; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Negative perceptions of Black boys and men have persisted and have been analyzed through numerous studies over the years, showcasing both educator’s low gendered schooling expectations of them and their racial trauma and stress they experience attending PWIs if they are able to graduate from secondary school. Placing Black men in deficit positions starts in our nation’s PreK-12 public schools through their experiences in college, affecting their ability to participate successfully in the labor market, obtain higher earnings and savings, and their professional and personal mobility. Research that focuses on these negative perceptions impoverishes our understandings of Black men who do succeed in schools, from PreK-12 through doctoral study. The purpose of this collective case study was to explore Black male doctoral students understanding of their lived histories of masculinity, race, and racism through their connection with their childhood, schooling, and doctoral study. Data sources included an individual interview, journal entries, member checking, and a focus group. This study took place at a primarily white institution (PWI) in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and focused on three Black male doctoral students. Through the adoption of racial/critical race literacy, Critical Race Theory, and Black masculinity literacy as theoretical frames, the findings highlight four common themes—or what I call “dimensions”—from participants’ interviews and journal entries of their experiences and interactions with doctoral study based on their historical understandings of themselves: a) feelings of loneliness/not being able to forge closeness with other Black male doctoral students; b) negative perceptions of and racial microaggressions attending a PWI; c) the influence of Black masculinity to progress; and d) the ways PWIs can establish progressive spaces for Black men. One participant inhabited a dimension that was unique to him with how he claimed masculinity for himself based on his historical positioning and socialization: e) using traditional masculinity to claim manhood. The findings from participants’ focus group highlight two common dimensions of participants’ understanding of their experiences as they reflected together: a) reflecting and learning from Black masculinity in relation to white spaces; and b) recommendations for recruiting and retaining Black men in doctoral study. These findings show how Black male graduate students reflect upon their masculinity histories and schooling and connect them to their understandings of themselves as Black doctoral students. This work contributes to our understanding of successful Black male doctoral students and breaks new grounds by showcasing that Black men do uphold ideals of progressive masculinity that do call for the liberation and protection of all people of color. It also shows how Black men are historically socialized and grounded as gendered and racial beings and how they view white spaces from these lenses as navigational tactics. It also demonstrates how Black men can and do communicate with each other when given the chances to, interrogating their own masculinity practices in conjunction with modeling their own behavior in progressive ways for other Black men. Finally, this study advocates for educational stakeholders to act in concrete and tangible ways to increase Black male doctoral student presence at PWIs.