In the United States, Black defendants are more likely to be sentenced to death than their white counterparts exclusively due to their race. There are several aspects that work to explain why this pattern is present, and this paper analyzes our current sentencing disparity through the lens of race to understand why this is the case. First, the historical context of legal racial discrimination will be explored as I discuss the legacy slavery and how the trade and ownership of Black people led to the devaluation of African Americans long after the 13th Amendment abolished the practice. This is seen from the establishment of convict leasing directly following abolition, to the development of Black Codes and Jim Crow laws, and eventually this legacy became the foundation that contributed to the targeted mass incarceration of African Americans beginning with Richard Nixon’s 1970s “war on drugs” campaign and spanning to today. Next, six important milestone Supreme Court cases relating to the evolution of capital punishment in the United States will be described. These cases include Furman v. Georgia, Gregg v. Georgia, Lockett v. Ohio, Batson v. Kentucky, and McCleskey v. Kemp. This research also presents data that illustrates the current trends in death penalty sentencing within 26 states who currently implement this punishment. The results show that there is an overwhelming amount of data in support of harsher criminal sentences and therefore a higher likelihood of Black defendants being sentenced to death in comparison to their white counterparts. Lastly, the systemic inequalities embedded within several aspects of capital trials are outlined—both in terms of juror bias against African American defendants as well as racial issues when hiring an attorney—and works to inform my argument that the death penalty should be abolished. An offender’s race should not play any role in determining the severity of their punishment, but the historic criminalization of Black people works to ensure that these groups of people are typically at a severe disadvantage when navigating the American justice system. Overall, the application of the death penalty can not be applied in a standard manner, nor can there be regulations passed in such a way to guarantee an absence of racism within our current system. Therefore, the United States should abolish this unjust, discriminatory practice.

Reproductive Justice is defined as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children (or not), and parent children in safe and sustainable communities (Ross & Solinger, 2017). Reproductive politics in settler nations like the United States are based on gendered, sexualized, and racialized acts of oppression (Gurr, 2014). Among the Indigenous communities in New Mexico, reproductive sovereignty is synonymous with tribal sovereignty and is intimately tied to connections to their land base. A central question guides this work: How have the rules of tribal enrollment impacted dating, child rearing, and family structures within Pueblo communities? Pueblo communities have been subject to centuries of settler colonial rule, then under the Spanish, Mexican, and currently U.S. jurisdictions, each of which shaped enrollment policies. Those policies reflect external normative systems (the Catholic church) and governmental structures (tribal constitutions based on the U.S. model), and membership rules based on settler notions of blood quantum. In particular, strict blood quantum rules threaten the continuity of families, land tenure systems, and Native nations themselves. Blood quantum and other forms of tribal enrollment practices must be understood as reproductive justice issues. This research draws on 89 interviews with 24 Pueblo people (15 women, 5 men, 4 non-binary) over the span of 11 months in 2021. Interviewees represent the Pueblos of Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna, Pojoaque, San Felipe, San Ildefonso, Taos, and Zuni. This research found that Pueblo people conceptualize the term “reproductive nation building” in two ways: (1) they correlate tribal enrollment requirements with reproductive expectations placed on Pueblo women, and (2) Pueblo people feel a sense of belonging that transcends enrollment via concepts such as responsibility, accountability, permission, and protocol. Current tribal enrollment practices (especially blood quantum and lineal descent) significantly impact Pueblo women’s reproductive choices. Both positive and negative impacts have generational legacies that hold long-lasting implications for the future of tribal nations. Reimagining enrollment is necessary to reclaim kinship, clanship, and other forms of belonging that have been used within Pueblo communities since time immemorial.

This dissertation examines practices of belonging in contemporary Italy as a fluid process. I examine the Chinatalian experience in Rome, Italy. I am interested in the ways that a Chinatalian phenomenology creates a discursive space for myriad practices of being both Chinese and Italian. “Chinatalianess” is an elastic process and a way of life unique to the individual and the historic and geopolitical context of the moment; it is not definable by nationality, biological characteristics, or even shared cultural practices. “Chinatalian choreographies” are sets of literal and symbolic bodily operations that resist exclusion and generate material and symbolic support for Chinatalians. I would argue that “Chinatalian choreographies” also create the potential for a more just Italy. I analyze actual choreographed events —for example, a happy hour in Rome and a dance performance by a Sicilian dance company — and autobiographical texts written by Chinatalians. My theoretical and practical approach is interdisciplinary and intersectional; I use critical ethnography as a primary method, which builds on theories and practices in critical dance studies, feminist geographies, and postcolonial Italian studies to engage the ways that Chinatalians in Rome are contributing to new forms of “Italian” culture. The recent resurgence of anti-Chinese sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic lends urgency to this project which asks: What are the lived conditions of Chinatalians in contemporary Italy? Who is allowed to contribute to “Italian” culture? This thesis demonstrates that the notion of Italianess and Chinatalianess, are cultural fictions. Not only is Chinatalian identity and culture an invention but its performance is situated in the specific historical and geopolitical context in question. Rome provides the backdrop to this project, and it is against and alongside this history and contemporary context that my argument for a more just Italy emerges.

Some say that science fiction becomes science. If science fiction eventually becomes science and technology, then US-American science and technology surrounding robots are rooted in white supremacy. Scholarship has previously highlighted the way that films and stories about robots are exclusionary towards Black people and persons of color. These texts, while aptly making the connection between race, Blackness, and technology, do not sufficiently address the embedded design of anti-Blackness in cultural artifacts in the early twentieth century and the anti-Black logics that, to this day, continue to inform how stories about robots are told. Further, these analyses do not consider the connection between cultural artifacts and the material development of emerging technologies; how these embedded racist narratives drive and shape how the technologies are then constructed. In this dissertation, I aim to link how anti-Black scientific popular culture has informed academic scholarship and engineering related to robots in the United States. Stories are an inherently spatial project. Stories about robots are a spatial project intended to create “Cartographies of Subordination.” I contend from 1922 to 1942, US-American robots were mapped into and onto the world; in just twenty short years, I argue a Cartography of Subordination was established. I apply a spatial lens to critique the impact of embedding stories about robots with anti-Blackness. These stories would develop into narratives with material consequences and maintain lasting ties and allegiance to a world invested in white supremacy. I outline how popular culture and stories are transfigured into narratives that have a direct impact on how futures are built. I expose the loop between popular culture and scholarship to unmask how research and development in robotics are based on white-informed futures. My dissertation makes an original geographical contribution to the fields of Human and Cultural Geography by asserting that narrative and popular culture about robots serves to remake Cartographies of Subordination in both science fiction and science and technology broadly. If science fiction has the potential to become real scientific outcomes, I connect culture, geography, and legacies of power in an otherwise overlooked space.

People in college are made vulnerable to sexual, domestic, and relationship violence by narratives of individual “bad apples” that obscure violence as a cultural condition. Scholars in Gender Studies have worked to name and identify the extent of the problem of sexual, domestic, and relationship violence and argue that victims must be centered in campus-based research. Cultural Geographers have investigated violence as socially re/produced through the relationships between culture, community, and space. However, few works have engaged survivors as research partners to investigate survivorhood, relationality, and trauma to understand how to undo rape culture, thus endorsing survivors as passive subjects rather than active agents for social change. My dissertation asserts that home work is the personal and relational labor of practicing community and enacting justice that survivors engage in to come to feel at home in our bodyminds and relationships. My interlocutors are 10 survivors of sexual violence experienced while attending university in Minneapolis and five survivor-advocacy practitioners. To be survivor-centered and uplift survivor-voice, this project partners with my interlocutors as co-researchers and is built upon critical ethnography and Indigenous methodologies. I utilize semi-structured interviews, walking conversations, and group discussions in which I co-performatively witness survivorhood with my interlocutors. Chapter 1 situates sexual violence in the United States, discusses survivor-voice and the project’s method/ologies, and the significances of Minneapolis as the site of study. Chapter 2 explores “why” my interlocutors “do community”: To meet various needs, to support their growth, and to engage in mutual aid. Chapter 3 explores “how” my interlocutors do community: Showing up, vulnerability, and mutual care. In Chapter 4, my interlocutors and I build our theory of justice as a process of doing community rooted in accountability, responsibility, and relationships that allows us to feel at home in our bodyminds, relationships, and encounters. My research shows that active community engagement is the core variable for pursuing justice, shifting views on community building, campus policies, and processes of justice related to sexual violence. Situated in Minneapolis, my research connects rape culture, white supremacy, and state violence to the crisis of sexual violence on campus.

This project covers the history, function, and issues with campus policing in general across the United States and specifically at Arizona State University. With campus policing overall, this project discusses the issues of power and issues of race, racial profiling, and racism. With the Arizona State University police department, this project discusses the issues of how sexual assault has been handled, issues of transparency, lack of screening/qualifications/training, and issues of race, racial profiling, and racism. All of these issues are studied using specific cases and instances. Several suggestions for improvement are then covered, including the removal of police presence on campus, improved training, and increased accountability and transparency measures.

This Barrett thesis is a praxis-oriented research project designed to address issues that women face in hip hop and to give voice to female artists in the Arizona hip hop community specifically. In creating this project, I sought to encourage women in my community to create a conversation about their roles in the hip hop scene, to listen to and unite with other female artists in the valley, and to help create the networks and spaces that center the diverse narratives female hip hop artists express which the industry at large currently fails to represent. This paper examines similar research done in the field of hip hop sexism and hip hop feminism across the world, with an emphasis on US hip hop culture, to identify what many hip hop scholars and feminists point to as the sources of sexism in hip hop and the systems that maintain it, focusing on (1) the rap industry’s favoring of sexist lyrics and disfavoring of womxn’s points of view throughout the commercialization of hip hop culture and music, (2) the media’s discrimination against female hip hop artists in their coverage, and (3) the unequal distribution of space and resources allocated to women of color in hip hop resulting from black men’s need for those spaces and resources in order to reassert their masculinity in the face of their exclusion from the widley accepted white hegemonic masculinity they have been barred from. Combining the methods of successful activists in the US with findings from a series of interviews with women from the Arizona hip hop scene, I make recommendations on actions to take in the Arizona scene in order to combat the sexism found in hip hop while maintaining a pro-hip-hop stance throughout.

The objective of this research project was to explore how lower-income, Latinx parents make decisions about where their child will attend high school and the factors that influence choosing out-of-district or in-district (public, charter or private) high schools. Research on parental choice of schooling often finds that parents’ education and income make a difference in school choice decisions with higher-income parents relying more on social networks for information and lower-income parents relying more on school-based information (e.g., Bosetti, 2004; Holme, 2002). Researchers have also found that how information is presented and understood also plays a part in school choice (IES, 2018).
However, less information is available on how Latinx parents receive information and the factors that play a part in their schooling decisions. This project focused on how Latinx parents weight information about their local high schools versus other school choices. The research revolving around Latinx families and high school choice matters because most research in the education sector does not involve minority groups, such as the Latinx and Hispanic communities specifically in Laveen. The key research questions are: Why do Latinx parents send their children to in-district high schools when those schools have poorer test scores? Why do parents send their children out of district high schools? What information and resources are used by parents to help make their decision in the process? How do student perspectives play a part in the decision?
Data was gathered through an on-line survey of parents about factors that play a part in the choice of high school. In-person case studies of four families also showed the detail of the specific ways that sources of information, personal networks, child input, and other factors influence the school choice process. I found that parents sent their children to their designated in-district high school because it was the closest available option that led to the most convenience in regards to commuting. On the other hand, I found that parents sent their child to an out of district high school because of the resources they used, which consisted of mostly family and other social networks that had attended or were currently attending that high school. Overall, the students’ perspective at the time when the decision was made played an important role in almost all of the case studies. All of the children were included at least somewhat and their input was taken into consideration if and when possible. Also, a geographical analysis of Laveen that includes the income levels, education levels, and high schools available in the area is interpreted. Through the maps completed by Social Explorer, the data used is from 2018, and it was filtered from the Hispanic population in Laveen from the non-Hispanic population to add more emphasis on a specific ethnicity.

End the Silence, End the Violence is a creative project to aid victims of domestic violence. There is a website, pamphlet, video and presentation attached that explains statistics, encourages awareness, and provides victims with access to shelters and legal resources. The website and the pamphlet are intended to put all resources in one place, making them easily accessible for victims of domestic violence. The legal terms were explained, helping any victims who may not have a legal background understand how the court process works. On the website, the adult court process is explained in simple language. Orders of protection are also explained, as well as how to access them, with the direct links to the forms provided. Domestic Violence Shelters in Maricopa county are also listed, along with contact information. All of these shelters were contacted, and were verified to be open for a minimum of one year from October, 2019, and are still accepting victims. No addresses were provided on either the website or the pamphlet, with the hopes that not providing locations will better protect the victims who are seeking help. The pamphlet includes these same shelter resources, along with contact information. The presentation includes domestic violence statistics, as well as important terms and definitions. Finally, there was a video to encourage awareness towards domestic violence. Purple and red paint was used to demonstrate common places these victims suffered abuse, with the purple representing sexual violence, and the red representing physical violence. Not all of the volunteers in the video are victims of domestic violence, but are all advocates for ending domestic violence and helping with prevention.

The website can be found at http://endyoursilence.org/

A preliminary critical ethnographic study was conducted to garner Punjabi Sikh U.S. young adults’ understandings and experiences with their cultural, religious, gender, and sexual identity development. Nine participants from King County, Washington were interviewed and engaged in a weeklong self-reflective journal writing activity. This data was then analyzed alongside existing scholarship. This study indicates that participants experience challenges in navigating their bicultural identity, grappling with the historical and present trauma their communities endure. Additionally, to navigate such challenges, Punjabi Sikh U.S. young adults invoke various methods to negotiate their various cultures, identities, and desires, and remain resilient.