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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
Description
My project maps assets of welcome in the built environment in youth performing arts spaces. What signifiers reveal how a physical space conceptualizes the child, reflects professed theological claims, and cues youth to practice ownership and experience belonging? I explore the cultural capital that emerges from the sites and I assert theological implications of the findings. Through mixed qualitative, quantitative, and arts-based methods, I employ asset-based and cultural mapping tools to collect data. I parse theories of space, race, and capital. Half of the ten sites are faith-based; others make room for practices that participants bring to the table. Therefore, I discuss theologies and theories about racialized, religious, public, and arts spaces. My research shows that one ethnographic task for the arts groups is unearthing and embedding neighborhood legacy. I source fifty-six written youth questionnaires, forty youth in focus groups, staff questionnaires, parent interviews, and observations across fourteen months at ten sites. Interpreting the data required that I reconceive multiple terms, including “youth dedicated,” “partnership,” and art itself. The research codes spatial, relational, economic, temporal, and comfort-level assets. Observed assets include strategies for physical safety, gender inclusivity, literary agility, entrepreneurship, advocacy, and healing. Analyzing data showed the sites as conceptualizing the child in three change-making areas: the Child as Hungry, the Child as Village, and the Child as Visible. The Child as Hungry emerged because participants self-report myriad “feeding” physically, spiritually, and artistically at each site. Youth participants at each site maintain a Village presence, and each site offers a manner of gathering space that signifies Village responsibility. Each site carves space to witness the child, contrastingly with other spheres—so much so that being a Visible Child becomes a craft itself, added alongside the fine art. Child theology is the primary theoretical lens that I use to contribute to and intersect with performance studies theory, critical race theory, child drama, and childhood studies.
ContributorsTrent, Tiffany (Author) / Etheridge Woodson, Stephani (Thesis advisor) / Gomez, Alan E (Committee member) / Ellis Davis, Sharon (Committee member) / Carnes, Natalie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Predominantly White arts colleges in the United States, like many other institutions around the country, need equitable leadership frameworks that center Black and Brown students. This project is a response to that demand. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a BIPOC equity coalition in an Arts college at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). The choice to utilize an autoethnographic research design was based on the researcher’s lifelong work in social justice and equity. Additionally, the choice to utilize Black-centered storytelling was due to the researcher’s identity as a Black male who has a company devoted to social justice activism. The research questions for this dissertation are: 1) How does one develop a diverse equity coalition that is BIPOC-centered within a Predominantly White arts college? and 2) What leadership roles must be in place in order to develop a diverse equity coalition that is BIPOC-centered, within a Predominantly White arts college? The data sources for this dissertation are meeting notes, Facebook call for action, letter of demand, and reflective journal process. The data from this year-long experience was analyzed to describe the steps needed to develop a BIPOC equity coalition. The steps included a call to action on social media, listening sessions, formation of the coalition, development of guiding principles, and action steps taken throughout the academic year. Additionally, data revealed that roles such as having a seat at the table with administrators, and having the power of a job and a title within the arts school influenced the success of the coalition’s actions throughout the academic year. The first three chapters of the dissertation present the theoretical frameworks supporting the equity coalition. Chapter 4 and 5 presents findings and answers to research question 1 and 2.
ContributorsMcGilvery, Donta (Author) / Etheridge Woodson, Stephani (Thesis advisor) / Alhassan, Shamara (Committee member) / Tepper, Steven (Committee member) / Belgrave, Melita (Committee member) / Stewart Sr, Warren (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021