Browsing by Author "Cespedes, Karina, committee member"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Open Access
A feminist epistemological critique of conservation projects in Africa
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Jones, Octavius, author; Souza, Caridad, advisor; Cespedes, Karina, committee member; Laituri, Melinda, committee member
This study seeks to elucidate the roles that Western conservationists play in conservation's relationship with Indigenous communities and local ecologies within African countries. Employing a qualitative analysis of conservationist research practices, the study seeks to examine Western community-based conservation research approaches that value collaboration with the participants of study in order to ascertain whether and how conservationists incorporate women into their research. For the purposes of this thesis, the inclusion of women refers to local and Indigenous women in the communities where community-based conservation projects and research occur. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conducted with five CSU faculty who work on ecological research in Africa to tease out the epistemic foundations of Western conservation research practices. Findings show that the adoption of community-based approaches to research do not necessarily coincide with increased incorporation of women and their knowledges into conservationist research practices in the field. Women in local communities remain marginal to research practices that purport to promote equity with Indigenous people in the field based on collaborative methods. Findings also indicate that conservation research practices continue to marginalize women in local contexts in ways that make Western conservation efforts detrimental to global ecological protection and sustainability.
Open Access
Black Lives Matter as "social movement": theorizing the materiality of movement of the social
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Clark, Jordin, author; Dunn, Thomas, advisor; Dickinson, Greg, committee member; Cespedes, Karina, committee member
Utilizing Michael Calvin McGee's notion of social movement as a set of meanings that move the social, this thesis builds upon and adjusts the discursive focus of McGee's rhetorical theory of social movement to include materiality, particularly material movement as influential in changing the social. To do so, I build upon theories of sociality, space, and movement to present movement and motion as material texts that hold rhetorical power to inflect and produce our cultural and social understandings of our sociality. Analyzing the Black Lives Matter's Black Friday protest at the Magnificent Mile in Chicago in 2015, this thesis argues that protests—in their material movements—remake public spaces and the societal, spatial, and individual social body to carve out an imaginary and thus sociality in which Black lives matter. The aptly named Black Lives Matter movement is a social movement that makes visible systemic racism that disciplines, endangers, and marginalizes Black lives, with the goal to reimagine a world where Black people are free to exist and live—where Black lives matter. Our current social and spatial imaginary constructs the Black body as a subject of exclusion and allows whiteness to ignore and disregard that Black lives matter. However, during the Black Friday protest at the Magnificent Mile in Chicago in 2015, as this thesis argues, the protesters disrupted the embodied and spatial rhythms of the Magnificent Mile to open a fissure within the shopper's social/spatial imaginary wherein the protesters compelled them to recognize Black lives while urging them to accede that they matter.
Open Access
Crisis in whiteness: white workingmen's narratives and the American dream
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Morrison, Joseph J., author; Ishiwata, Eric, advisor; Cespedes, Karina, committee member; Souza, Caridad, committee member; Brinks, Ellen, committee member
This project examines the ways in which white working class men make sense of their own socioeconomic positioning in the contemporary U.S. economy. This is accomplished through the exploring of white workingmen's narratives of the American Dream, and how these narratives are informed by the race, class and gendered identities of the white working class men expressing them. Specifically, this project is a case study of five self-identified white working class men living in Upstate New York's Chemung, Onondaga, Tioga, and Tompkins Counties. Through this project's findings the researcher hopes to chart a new course for the field of Whiteness Studies into the twenty-first century.
Open Access
Ethical dilemmas in college campus victim advocacy
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Woods, Kathryn Scott, author; Bubar, Roe, advisor; Tungate, Sue, committee member; Opsal, Tara, committee member; Cespedes, Karina, committee member; McShane, Katie, committee member
This dissertation examines ethical dilemmas in college campus victim advocacy. Dilemmas were identified by experts in the field of college campus victim advocacy. A Grounded Theory approach was used to identify categories of dilemmas, and interviews were conducted with experts in the field. Ultimately, dilemmas were identified that led to participants experiencing significant institutional trauma. These dilemmas related, not to working with individual survivors, but rather to working within broken systems and navigating complicated relationships with other professionals. Participants’ own and survivors’ identities were also explored, and ultimately also related back to systems and the “bad” professionals working within them. Based on these findings, implications for future research are discussed.
Open Access
Graduate students of color: the impact of mentoring at predominantly white institutions
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Gonzalez, René, author; Aragon, Antonette, advisor; Basile, Vincent, advisor; Folkestad, James, committee member; Cespedes, Karina, committee member
Despite the increasing diversity of the US population, particularly of Latinx residents, the lack of resources and the underrepresentation of graduate students of color (GSC) are lingering issues in higher education. This dissertation discusses the impact of mentoring at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) for GSC. With Critical Race Theory (CRT) as my lens, I expand on mentoring, mentorship services, counter-storytelling, critical social factors and a historical context of higher education in order to both illustrate the problem and offer specific solutions to the systemic barriers that GSC face every day on college campuses. By leveraging the narrative side of CRT, this study provided the opportunity for additional GSC by creating a qualitative/quantitative survey designed to capture perceptions and experiences at other PWIs. These stories identify a trend or need for appropriate services in a system where GSC are attempting to navigate. The results offer specific counterstories by and experiential knowledge of GSC on mentoring at PWIs. There were two types: open-ended and Likert-scale. The survey results gave clarity on the specific topics it was designed to address. Respondents' overall attitudes and perceptions of mentoring show that mentees expect mentors to exhibit high levels of accessibility, approachability, trust, interest in a mentee's personal and academic welfare, especially as a person of color. Also, GSC expected at least some level of engagement with the mentee as a junior colleague, not merely as a student. Finally, GSC expected mentors to help navigate departmental academic support structures and policies as well as professional opportunities.
Open Access
Historical trauma: the impact of colonial racism on contemporary relations between African Americans and Mexican immigrants
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Wright, Noah M., author; Ishiwata, Eric, advisor; Cespedes, Karina, committee member; Breaux, Richard, committee member; Taylor, Peter, committee member
The purpose of this project is to examine tensions in present day United States between African Americans and Mexican immigrants. Hyper-violent incidents of interracial gang violence between these two communities are presented by mainstream media as signifiers of the existence of the tension. Latinos, as a whole, and African Americans, whether in gangs or civilians, are often portrayed to be in competition due to three conventional explanations. While scholars and media sources have validity in pointing out the significance of socioeconomic competition, struggles for political power and the problems that the language barrier create, these explanations are not complete. El sistema de castas or the caste system, a racial hierarchy created by the Spaniards in Latin America during their colonial efforts, established how people of African descent, both free and slave, were treated in New Spain. The caste system's continued influence can be seen with the denial of African heritage and the marginalized position of Afro-Mexicans in present day Mexico. Furthermore, these prejudices remain intact when Mexican immigrants enter the U.S. It is understood that Mexico's national identity is mestizaje, a racially mixed nation; however, racism existed and is also present today in Mexico. By combining a historical perspective with the three primary reasons, mentioned above, it is hoped that the complete picture will help resolve tensions. This thesis argues that colonization, influenced heavily by a racial hierarchy, has caused Mexican immigrants to carry with them prejudices towards African Americans that were learned in Mexico, showing that the issue is deeper than competition over resources in present times. In response to an influx of Latino immigrants, African American responses show parallels with historical nativist responses to immigrants. By combining the impacts of historical racism with conventional explanations for the existence of the tension it is hoped an understanding may develop that will help reduce conflict.
Open Access
Islamicodes: the post 9/11 racialization of counter-terrorism
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Kamandy, Jamal, author; Kim, Joon, advisor; Cespedes, Karina, committee member; Hempel, Lynn, committee member
After 9/11, a conceptual conflation between Islam and terrorism occurred within American culture and public spheres, forming a new epistemology, Islamicodes. In order to understand how Islamicodes have influenced U.S. Counter-terrorism efforts, this thesis analyzes American culture and the judicial system through discourse, semiotics, and power/knowledge. This article will argue that the conceptual conflation of Islam and terrorism, through the usage of language, symbols, and institutional practices, severely limits the Constitutional rights and life chances of Muslims in America.
Open Access
"It's my soul's responsibility": understanding activists' gendered experiences in anti-fracking grassroots organizations in northern Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Kizewski, Amber Lynn, author; Opsal, Tara, advisor; Shelley, Tara, committee member; Cespedes, Karina, committee member
Previous research highlights the relationship between gender and activism in various environmental justice (EJ) grassroots oriented contexts, including but not limited to: the coalfields of Central Appalachia, Three Mile Island, and the Pittston Coal Strike movement. However, little research examining the relationship between gender and activist’s efforts in relation to hydraulic fracturing exists, primarily because this movement itself is relatively new. From 2012-2014, four communities and one county collectively organized in an effort to ban or enact a moratorium on the practice of hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking. Anti-fracking activists in Northern Colorado deem this technological advancement as poorly controlled and dangerous to public health and the environment. On the other hand, pro-fracking activists argue that this process is highly engineered, adequately controlled, and necessary to boost and sustain local oil and gas development in Colorado and the United States. Historically, grassroots environmental justice organizations are often created and lead by poor and minority communities as these communities experience the brunt of problematic industry practices. The setting of Northern Colorado is unique in this sense because the communities trying to halt oil and gas development are opposite of what one might expect, as they are predominately white, middle class, and educated. Thus, my study fills current gaps that exist in the literature and adopts an intersectional approach to address the subsequent research question broadly: how do gender, race, and class intersect and impact the nature and extent of activist's efforts in Northern Colorado's Hydraulic Fracturing movement? Ultimately, I find that gendered and raced identities, such as "mother" or "steward to the earth" play an imperative role in explaining women's entry into the fracking movement, while men pull on a spectrum of identities. Furthermore, I find that traditional gendered divisions of labor help to elucidate the differing rates of participation among men and women in the movement, as well as the roles that activists fulfill in grassroots anti-fracking organizations. Ultimately, I argue that exploring gender, in conjunction with race and class on various analytical levels, contributes to a broader understanding of the nuances of activism in environmental justice movements.
Open Access
State injustice: trapping black women as "sex offenders" for prostitution in "the Big Easy"
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Sheets, Crystal Faye, author; Bubar, Roe, advisor; Cespedes, Karina, committee member; Valdez, Norberto, committee member; Daum, Courtenay, committee member
This qualitative case study explores the use of a sodomy statute, Crime Against Nature, to criminalize prostitution and its impacts on impoverished Black women located on the streets of New Orleans. Data from in-depth interviews with six participants including a Public Defender, a Prosecutor, a Judge, a Community Worker, and two sex workers, were studied through a critical feminist analytic framework to decipher prevalent themes regarding the state's implementation of this charge. Major findings include: intersecting race/class/gender oppressions socially track or position Black women in the street sex economy where they are targeted by the state, the regulation of prostitution is performed in ways which permit a sex economy in the French Quarter to cater to tourists while it criminalizes prostitution in poor areas outside of the French Quarter, drug addiction is used as justification by the state to criminalize Black women on the street using this charge, and the ways in which recipients of this charge are further burdened and trapped by the state, which labels them felons and sex offenders rather than offering assistance and protection.