Theses and Dissertations
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Browsing Theses and Dissertations by Author "Cespedes, Karina, advisor"
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Item Open Access Fathering behind bars: testimonio and the Prison Industrial Complex(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Martinez, Ashley V., author; Bubar, Roe, advisor; Cespedes, Karina, advisor; Montoya, Fawn-Amber, committee member; Vigil, Patricia, committee memberChicano boy and girls are twice more likely to go to prison than grow up with their fathers compared to their White counter parts. This is due to the Prison Industrial Complex, a term used to identify how government and industry work together to implement systems that oppress and marginalize "undesirable" citizens through surveillance, policing and confinement. The Prison Industrial Complex is a tool of power used to marginalize and displace Chicano men as fathers leaving over 2.3 percent of children of Latino descent to be raised with a father behind bars.' The research questions guiding this study are: 1) How does incarceration affect Chicano fathers and their relationships with their families/communities? 2) How does spirituality affect how Chicana/os experience incarceration and perceptions of fathering; and 3) How do Chicano fathers understand what experiences led to their incarceration? This research project utilized interviews in the form of testimonio and extensive document data in the form of personal correspondences to explore the experiences of incarceration for Chicano fathers. A non-probability (purposive) sample was used for the document data and the 4 semi-structured interviews of formerly incarcerated Chicano fathers. A basic qualitative design and approach was used to analyze the document data. The purpose of this project was to expose how the P.I.C. empowered by Governmentality works to displace Chicano men as fathers. To also facilitate a theory on fathering from "behind bars" and to validate the use of testimonio as methodology in this under-researched area. Finally, to challenge traditional means of parenting and to validate the different forms parenting from behind bars can emerge.Item Open Access Food systems among Native American peoples in Oakland, California: an examination of connection and health(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Vernon, Rachel Valerie, author; Cespedes, Karina, advisor; Souza, Caridad, committee member; Pickering, Kathleen, committee memberThis thesis is a critical engagement with Indigenous communities and the reclamation of food sovereignty as a movement that heals Indigenous populations. The Indigenous food sovereignty movement stands in opposition to a history of colonialism and disenfranchisement that sought to deny Indigenous people of their autonomy by creating dependency on Western institutions. Reclamation of a food system stands to signify the healing of community through the honoring of relationships and interdependence. Contemporary scholarship and policy efforts addressing health disparities have focused the debate on Indigenous food and health around personal accountability, and personal choice in eating and exercising. Although these behaviors improve health for communities, and individuals, they do not account for systemic disparities forged out of a history of colonialism and current institutional racism. Moreover, this focus is deeply engrained in Western models of health, rather than promoting the power of communities to forge their own culturally appropriate solutions. These mainstream attempts by Western institutions are singular in nature, denying the complex interaction at multiple points of colonialism and racism. This thesis focuses on Indigenous food sovereignty, and in particular attempts at urban community production, to address the emancipatory act of reclaiming traditional knowledge and the right to feed oneself and one's community. Food sovereignty is an ideological, cultural, and political act that can transform Indigenous communities that are "dying to survive" and transform them into thriving communities. This Indigenous food justice movement honors native peoples as visionary survivors of catastrophe. Using Indigenous methodology and photovoice I provide an analysis of one urban community in Oakland California where participants have been engaged in reclaiming their food system since 2010. This project allows us to understand how empowerment (of self and community) as well as relationships are strengthened because of such projects.Item Open Access "I feel, therefore I can be free": Black women and Chicana queer narratives as differential consciousness and foundational theory(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Middleton, Kianna Marie, author; Cespedes, Karina, advisor; DeMirjyn, Maricela, advisor; Breaux, Richard, committee member; Thompson, Deborah, committee memberThis thesis is a literary analysis of queer Black women and Chicanas within the fictional and semi-autobiographical texts of "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" (2003) by ZZ Packer, What Night Brings (2003) by Carla Trujillo, "Spice" (1997) by Mattie Richardson, "La Ofrenda" (1991) by Cherríe Moraga, "Mamita te extraño" (1991) by Karen T. Delgadillo, and Corregidora (1975) by Gayl Jones. This is an assessment of dislocation, of trauma within relationships both matrilineal and otherwise, and how status as outsiders affects and heightens senses which moves queer women of color in these narratives into deeper levels of consciousness and allows for them resistance and freedom that is independent from binaries and is differential and disidentified in composition. I build this work upon the varying ways in which violence and erasure occur towards Black and Chicana lesbians in literature. This includes physical violence, sexual violence, emotional violence and also literary violence and invisibility. Through revealing the sources of pain and abjection within narratives I discuss how these queer women gain empowerment and freedom by maintaining differential and creative consciousness as they navigate the world. And finally, I offer the practice of reading and writing narratives through lived experience as a basis on which new queer women of color theories can be imagined.Item Open Access Navigating conciousness toward liberation: investigating a contemporary radical faerie manifestation through a decolonial lens(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Pape, Kyle Andrew, author; Cespedes, Karina, advisor; Bubar, Roe, advisor; Vernon, Irene, committee member; Sherman, Kathleen, committee memberThis thesis argues for the necessity of decolonial consciousness within queer thought and activism. The historical acts of cultural appropriation enacted by the LGBTQ subculture radical faeries of indigenous peoples are intended for healing. However by investigating contemporary radical faerie culture in Thailand, it is found that colonial culture fundamentally defeats queer liberatory movements from within. Primary data was collected through cyber-ethnographic methods and consists of a photo archive and several online blogs and associated websites. Analyzes emerged through Visual Grounded Theory methodology. This study provides evidence of globalizing colonial discourse and the resulting ineptitude of radical faerie activism.Item Open Access Reading Ché Guevara’s "new man" through the praxis of misfitting: towards a revolution for "people like us"(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Putnam, Bryan Rodrigues, author; Cespedes, Karina, advisor; Souza, Caridad, committee member; Sagás, Ernesto, committee member; Velasco, Marcela, committee member; Aragon, Antonette, committee memberThis study incorporates reflections from five Cuban participants about the contemporary status of Ernesto Ché Guevara’s “new man” in Cuba. Grounded in the Marxist tradition of praxis as philosophy, the thesis integrates Pan American articulations on the theme of Latin American liberation alongside interview data. In light of research findings pertaining to the “new man,” I evoke Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s feminist materialist disability concepts of “fitting” and “misfitting” alongside Tobin Siebers’ assertion that by way of “misfitting” one produces critical knowledge revealing the “blueprints of power” that have constructed exclusionary reality for some and a contingent fit for others. I argue that the state imposed ideal of the “new man” failed to create the proper channels within which everyday misfit knowledge could be elevated to the level of social theory. However, the “new man” as a set of embodied values and mechanisms for social integration did succeed at various levels, which are explored throughout the chapters.