This qualitative study explored the influence of racialized lived experiences (RLEs) on equitable decision-making among philanthropic leaders, employing a narrative inquiry approach. It examined how diversity within philanthropy, beyond tokenistic representation, can introduce a wide range of perspectives that enhance equitable decision-making…

Protecting children online from sexual predators has been a focus of research in psychiatry, sociology, computer science, and information systems (IS) for many years. However, the anonymity afforded by social media has made finding a solution to the problem of child protection difficult. Pedophiles manipulate conversation (discourse) with children…

In this dissertation, I draw on research carried out at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania in 2008 to examine Tanzanian academics' experience with research throughout the history of this institution. This dissertation is designed as an historical case study and investigates how economic and political changes in Tanzania's…

Over the last 50 years, the United World Colleges (UWC), which consist of 13 pre-university educational institutions across the world, have become a distinctive global education brand. UWC is frequently referred to as the only example of a purely ideology-driven international education model based on the school's adherence to certain key…

Identity has become a major interest for researchers in the areas of linguistic anthropology and sociolinguistics. Recent understandings of identity emphasize its malleability and fluidity. This conceptualization of identities as malleable comes from the realization that speakers relate strategically to propositions and their interlocutors in…

Freire (1970/ 2000) argued that both the oppressors and the oppressed should engage in a discussion of power struggles in order to become fully human. This study investigated how Freire's idea of becoming fully human was exercised in a critical literacy curriculum with a privileged group of students. As a teacher and researcher, I constructed an…

The identification and examination of cultural information strategies and censorship patterns used to propagate the controversial issue of the caricatures in two separate cultural contexts was the aim of this dissertation. It explored discourse used for the coverage of this topic by one newspaper in a restrictive information context and two…

There is an apparent dearth in the leadership literature of African American women when juxtaposed with race, gender and social class. This scarcity appears to be connected with the small percentage of African American women who hold the position of president in institutions of higher education. Additionally, recent reports have noted, that the…

What does it mean to be a graduate student and to "do" graduate school? What happens when we shift our focus away from learning as a process of gaining expertise in a field or being socialized into the literacy conventions of a discipline and instead consider the ontological component of learning--the idea that learning entails becoming a certain…

This project offers a close look into the meaning-making practices of the Bulgarian socialist state with regard to the conception and enactment of childhood. Held for the first time in 1979, on occasion of the UN declared "International Year of the Child", the International Children's Assembly "Banner of Peace" emerges as a…