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Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Whaley, Deborah. "The Cultural and Counterpublic Sphere Work of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority," University of Kansas, May 2002.
This dissertation is an interdisciplinary case study on the cultural, social, and political uses of sororities for women of the African diaspora. Following the axes of race, gender, class and sexualities, the importance and contradictions of racial and gender-specific undergraduate and post-graduate women in the organization are explored. Since the original founders of African American Sororities were mostly of the middle-to-upper-middle classes, this project necessitates a critique of the African American intelligentsia that composed the sorority at the turn of the century. Yet, I acknowledge their commitment to uplift the race; through general philanthropic work in the African American community, local, national, and international public spheres. Organized thematically and in seven chapters, the study includes an overview of fraternal and benevolent organizations in general and African American sororities and fraternities in particular, a deconstruction of film depictions of African American sorority women, a cultural history of their work in the public sphere, an ethnography and cultural analysis of step dance and hazing, and a final oral history chapter where women from various regions and of different ages respond to the issues raised in the study. I argue that Alpha Kappa Alpha experiences reflect the ways African American women stressed culture, acted politically, upheld educational merit, transformed themselves personally, and struggled to create community in a racist, sexist, and class caste society.
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