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Service, Leadership and Sisterhood: An Overview of Black Sororities in Social Science Research
Marcia D. Hernandez
Sisterhood is oft elusive, if not a misunderstood concept. Despite all the factors that could impede the development, elevation, and maintenance of sistering relationships, Black women continue to acknowledge the value of sisterhoods. Sistering offers a lifeline of support and validation. Holding membership in an empowering woman-centered relationship is a special kind of privilege. The authors in this volume contest any assumption that sisterhood is limited to blood relationships and physical proximity. In this volume, we consider sisterhood simultaneously as paradigm and praxis. We approach Sisterhood as Paradigm and attempt to parse out the nature of Sisterhood as it is understood in Black communities in the United States. We hope to convey an organized set of ideas about “sisterhood” to create sisterhood as a model of interaction or way of being with one another, specifically among Black women. As we consider how sisterhood could be enacted as practice. Using Sisterhood as a framework, we explore Sisterhood as Peer Support, examining how Black women provide support to peers in academic and professional settings. we embark on a provision of applied exemplars of sistering in emerging digital media in Digital Sisterhood.
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Racism, Canon and the Controversy Surrounding #BlackHermoine
Florence Maatita and Marcia D. Hernandez
A fascinating reconsideration of the depictions and implications of race and diversity in the Harry Potter franchise
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The Stockton Challenge: Surviving the Misery of the Great Recession
Marcia D. Hernandez
This collection of essays examines the city of Stockton, California from an interdisciplinary perspective. Stockton is in the heart of the Central Valley, an agricultural region that comprises a diverse population and rich history. This book covers the economic downturn of the city that was ground zero for the housing market crisis during the Great Recession, which resulted in it becoming the first major American city to declare bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the city cannot be framed only on its economic misfortunes; Stockton has a vibrant community with important historical figures such as Martín Ramírez, an outsider painter who was a patient in the Stockton State Hospital. This book also covers topics such as food studies, religious communities, historical resources at the library at the University of the Pacific, business community programs such as “Puentes”, an overview of the city’s racial diversity, auto-ethnographies, the family connection to Mexican author Elena Poniatowska, and a program at the Stockton High School during WWII to send jeeps as part of the war effort. This book is informed by the perspectives of historians, sociologists, political scientists, economists, business scholars, and literary and cultural studies theorists to provide a wide range of approaches to a vital community in the Central Valley of California.
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Black, Greek, and Read All Over: Newspaper Coverage of African American Fraternities and Sororities, 1980-2009
M. Hughey and Marcia D. Hernandez
Secret and private organizations, in the form of Greek-letter organizations, mutual aid societies, and civic orders, together possess a storied and often-romanticized place in popular culture.
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Partnerships across campuses and throughout communities: Community engaged research in california’s central san joaquin valley
Simón E. Weffer, James J. Mullooly, Dari E. Sylvester, Robin M. DeLugan, and Marcia D. Hernandez
In this chapter the co-authors explore the process of conducting social indicator research in California’s Central San Joaquin Valley. The “Central Valley” is notable for the high level of ethnic diversity, deep economic disparity, unemployment and underemployment, and blend of rural and agricultural communities with urban areas experiencing various levels of gentrification and development. The Partnership for the Assessment of Community (PAC) project was created to serve as a model to measure the changes over a 10-year period in the Central Valley. The PAC research team consists of faculty from different universities in the Central Valley and student-researchers. A description of the pilot study of PAC research is discussed in this chapter. The co-authors offer a critical read of the promises and challenges for researchers interested in conducting community-based research with students across multiple sites. We offer a summary of successful ventures as well as valuable lessons of what did not work for the initial study and salient issues for future social indicator research endeavors in the Central Valley.
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What a Man: The Relationship Between Black Fraternity Stereotypes and Black Sorority Mate Selection
Marcia D. Hernandez, Anita McDaniel, LaVerne Gyant, and Tina Fletcher
The black Greek-letter organization (BGLO) movement grew rapidly throughout the twentieth century, and these groups remain important for black cultural, political, and social life. Since their beginning, BGLOs have been defined by a tripartite identity. At the individual level, the organizations encourage members to excel, largely with respect to high academic achievement.¹ At the interpersonal level, BGLOs promote the development and maintenance of fictive kinship ties between individuals not related by blood or marriage.² Collectively, BGLOs share a similar mission of promoting racial equality and challenging discrimination via community service, civic action, philanthropy, and the shaping of public policy.³
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It’s the Best Place for Him: Harry Potter and the Magical Uses of Space
Florence Maatita, Marcia D. Hernandez, and Kristen Kalz
Philosophers and psychologists have explored the Harry Potter stories through the lenses of their disciplines, now it's time for sociologists. In the twenty-two chapters of The Sociology of Harry Potter, social scientists from eight countries cast their imaginations on the wizarding world. From standard topics such as inequality and identity to more contemporary topics such as technology and trauma memory, this essay collection analyzes, not J. K. Rowling's books as fiction, but her wizarding world as a "real" society.
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Challenging Controlling Images: Appearance Enforcement within Black Sororities
Marcia D. Hernandez
As members of the sorority, women are always required to represent their organization in the best possible way, whether in behavior or in the manner of dressing. Sorority sisters adhere to a strict code of conduct and demand high standards of fellow members to maintain the organization’s image or front, allowing them to actively recruit and promote notably exceptional women. This process is known as “appearance enforcement.” This chapter examines how appearance enforcement enables members of black sororities to challenge the negative images of black womanhood that persist in popular culture. However, it shows that many of the sorority women, in resisting the stereotypes that have historically stigmatized African American women, resort to harsh class distinctions and entrenched “us versus them” worldviews. The chapter looks at a series of magnified moments that emphasize how appearance enforcement operates as part of the socialization process for members.
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Negotiating Student Expectations and Interpretations of Service-Learning
Marcia D. Hernandez
In over twenty chapters of case studies, faculty scholars from disciplines as varied as computer science, engineering, English, history, and sociology take readers on their and their students’ intellectual journeys, sharing their messy, unpredictable and often inspiring accounts of democratic tensions and trials inherent in teaching service-learning. Using real incidents, they explore the democratic intersections of various political beliefs along with race/ethnicity, class, gender, ability, sexual orientation, and other conflicted issues that students and faculty experience in the classroom and community. They share their struggles of how to communicate and interact across the divide of viewpoints and experiences within an egalitarian and inclusive environment all the while managing interpersonal tensions.
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Sisterhood beyond the ivory tower: An exploration of black sorority alumnae membership
Marcia D. Hernandez
Alumnae members are the backbone of black sororities. The sheer number of alumnae members and their collective resources make these women a significant force for change in their communities. This research demonstrates that community service, philanthropy, sisterhood, and professional development are motivating factors for women to maintain an active status in their college organizations or to join sororities after graduation. Given the wide variety of philanthropic, professional, and social organizations that black women can join today, the fact that alumnae membership continues to grow highlights the importance of these groups in contemporary society. Moreover, the disproportionately high percentage of graduate members in black sororities speaks to members' individual commitment to maintain the vitality of the groups through different stages of their lives and across generations. However, research on Greek organizations continues to neglect the relevance of these organizations for members after college, while social movement literature ignores the complexity and multipurpose goals of sororities. My research indicates that membership in alumnae chapters involves a variety of negotiations, including when to seek membership, the nature of relationships with peers, and decisions to opt out. Most of my respondents believe that the opportunity to join later in life or to rejoin a sorority is beneficial for themselves as well as for the organizations. Membership in an alumnae chapter can be a complicated process to navigate, however. Continuous members hold complex and often contradictory views of their graduate-only peers. There was almost uniform agreement among the continuous members that pledging not only makes them better informed but also facilitates the creation of bonds among women. My findings indicate that graduate-only members may experience a social disadvantage due to their more limited membership intake process. All alumnae members have to negotiate how much of their personal resources they are willing to share with a sorority. Generosity with one's time, expertise, energy, and money is a sign of one's devotion to the group and is part of being a good sister. However, if the expectations of sisterhood are unrealistic or become too much, women may elect to opt out, at least for a limited time. My research indicates that further investigation is essential to better understand the dynamics of alumnae membership in black sororities. Research into intragroup class-based inequalities would provide more information on the diversity of membership as well as motivations for joining a sorority.49 Each sorority has nationally mandated community service goals, but each chapter can perform these goals according to the needs of the local community. Understanding the decision-making process alumnae members go through in terms of acting on these goals might uncover structural changes that could alleviate the pressure of sororities acting as greedy institutions. Also, longitudinal research on opting out and reentry would be useful in understanding at what point in life women are most likely to do either. Scholars studying community service, social movements, and Greek-letter organizations should explore these issues to expand the understanding of membership in black sorority alumnae chapters and their continued relevance in contemporary society. Copyright © 2008 by The University Press of Kentucky.
A selection of books and book chapters written by faculty in the College of the Pacific - Department of Sociology at University of the Pacific.
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