The term diversity within institutions has been used as a selling point for colleges and universities. Verbally, institutions pride themselves in committing to increasing 'diversity'. But what happens after more students of color enter historically White- serving institutions? Through a framework of Critical Race Theory, this thesis critiques how diversity is 'done' by highlighting the voices and realities of the students who represent diversity. The student voices included come from analyzing independent internet blogs written by students of color from varying elite institutions of higher education. The main purpose is to articulate the realities of the minority students' experience once they have been accepted to enter a predominantly White institutions. The blogs highlight the alienation and microaggressions experienced by students of color, leading them to look for a space of comfort. Ultimately, it is argued, that online blogs, in most cases anonymous, for marginalized students have become a space of empowerment where their truth can be told without reservations. The creation of this virtual space of solidarity ultimately indicates the fact that institutions are not adequately supporting the students they are seemingly so devoted to admitting.

Assata Shakur is a 65-year-old revolutionary. During the 1960s, Assata Shakur was a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. However, on May 2, 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), placed Assata Shakur on the Most Wanted Terrorist List, with a $2 million dollar bounty for her capture and/or death. To examine Assata Shakur's legacy and radicalization, I examine her autobiography thematically. I will consider her autobiography along the following themes: Shakur's migratory subjectivity, organization, and symbolic insurgency. This thesis will situate Assata Shakur and her radicalism within the Black Radical Tradition and Black Feminist Thought in order to emphasize the humanist vision that has been at the core of Shakur's political activism and identity. I conclude by demonstrating that Shakur's radicalism is an embrace of community as a means to challenge a racist, imperialist, and capitalist society.

In the past, poignant controlling images and stereotypes have run prevalent in the American historical framework. However, these tropes are routinely challenged by black feminists and black entertainers in contemporary popular culture. This thesis will garner a comprehensive analysis of how the black female body has been—and is currently— portrayed in media. The analysis will create dialogue between the prevalent stereotypes of the past and how they affect the way black women are perceived—especially in regards to the dominant male gaze in our predominantly white patriarchal society. Using thorough readings of media outlets that include music videos, such as Beyoncé's "Partition," and television shows like Scandal, there are consistent links to black women obtaining agency despite the existing remnants of stereotypes and stigma against the black female body. Through the public sphere, black female entertainers in particular craft their self-definition and their politics around working to subvert the effects of controlling images from within the stereotypical framework that they are placed in. Therefore, while black women have achieved success from their presence in contemporary media, the fact that they must subvert images of the black female body as excess indicates that the stereotypes continue to evoke notions of sexual deviance and racial stigma in the 21st century.

As a national pageant, Miss Samoa operates as a performative space where notions of gender, politics, and culture are negotiated and transformed. In this thesis, I examine how these concepts operate on an individual, local, and transnational level. Plus, the shifting landscape of Samoa—particularly the growth of tourism and transnational migration— heightens the stakes that are involved in the pageant. I explore these issues by drawing upon a synthesis of primary and secondary research data. During my fieldwork in Samoa, I conducted a series of twelve interviews and two small surveys. I primarily selected my responses through snowball sampling and conducted my research between September and November of 2012. Drawing upon my data collection and existing sociological theory, this thesis explores the intersections and complexities that are inherent within the pageant. Although my analysis focuses primarily on historical and contemporary frameworks, I also argue that there needs to be a consideration for the future. Ultimately, my research can potentially be used to contribute to the development of the Miss Samoa pageant to ensure its potential efficacy.

Hip-hop is the most affluent subset of Black Culture today. The globalization and mass appeal of hip-hop has made this genre bigger than music; it's style, it's dance, it's art, and even literature. Hip-Hop music is a genre that is boastful of sexual prowess, money, status, and power. As a topic of discourse in the majority of Hip-Hop music, how do Black women exercise agency over their identities, portrayals, and representation in a male dominated industry? By examining different Hip-Hop feminist frameworks, conducting a case study on Beyoncé, and comparing letters from three young Black women, I analyze the complexities Black women face in Hip-Hop culture. Can it be argued that Black women are just as much of producers as a consumers in Hip-Hop culture given the subcategories beyond Rap? I propose that Hip-Hop allows feminism to be more accessible to Black communities. Women who are creators, critics, and consumers of Hip-Hop redefine and expand notions of feminism in the third wave. Black women need to be acknowledged as producers of Hip-Hop culture by actively creating discourse, whether it is Hip-Hop blogs, fan groups, scholarly writing, or everyday conversation. It is through these different avenues that I argue Black women are engaging with feminism.

Although immigration policies directly implicate the undocumented individual, it is important to note that generally undocumented immigrants are not living in the U.S. alone- they have a family. Therefore, when undocumented parents are faced with orders of deportation, not only are they the ones affected by it, but so are their U.S. citizen children. This report sheds light on the various ways current immigration policies negatively impact U.S. citizen children of undocumented parents. Through court cases, narratives and stories, I analyze how the constitutional rights of U.S. born children are violated when their undocumented parents are either (a) forced to relocate to their native country and decide to bring their children with them to maintain family unity or (b) when parents are detained and/or deported and forced to leave behind their children, which results in children being placed in foster care. Instead of protecting what the U.S. claims to value the most, immigration policies are destroying the family sanctity and violating constitutional rights of American citizens.