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Title: "Matrimonial good among the Atoende Kusasi" contingent presentations : Part II
Creator: Awedoba, A. K.
Date: 1989
Collection: Research Review (New Series)

Title: "Meanings" of the Rorschach inkblots for three nosological categories as measured by a semantic differential technique
Creator: Mathie, James P.
Date: 1962
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: "More than our reasoned acts" : Du Boisian philosophy and imaginative fiction
Creator: Lee, Evan R.
Date: 2019
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation approaches the literary corpus of W.E.B. Du Bois with specific attention paid to understudied speculative texts, what could be classified as Science Fiction presently, and the theoretical elements of Du Bois's scholarly work which inform them. I argue that both that these works---"A Vacation Unique," The Star of Ethiopia and "A.D. 2150"---belong in a critical canon of Science Fiction or Speculative Fiction, but that these texts are also vitally linked to Du Bois's political...
Show moreThis dissertation approaches the literary corpus of W.E.B. Du Bois with specific attention paid to understudied speculative texts, what could be classified as Science Fiction presently, and the theoretical elements of Du Bois's scholarly work which inform them. I argue that both that these works---"A Vacation Unique," The Star of Ethiopia and "A.D. 2150"---belong in a critical canon of Science Fiction or Speculative Fiction, but that these texts are also vitally linked to Du Bois's political and sociological philosophy. Du Bois's groundbreaking sociological work and theories of human societies as they are organized by concepts of Race, and the complex relationships between individuals and larger groups---including and especially "Sociology Hesitant" and "The Spirit of Modern Europe"---provide the technological and scientific basis for his literary consideration of the possible. Du Bois's literary imagination is oriented toward a future which is not necessarily Utopian but which is sensitive to the social construction and consequences of Race, and the pathway to a more equitable and just society. The scientific imagination of Du Bois's literary fiction presents his theoretical vision of Race, Identity, and collective enterprise as it spans centuries and travels long distances among the global descendants of the African Diaspora, and this theoretical, historical view shapes the structure of my analysis. First, in Chapter 1, I seek to establish Du Boisian philosophy as it wields a variety of scientific and sociological concepts to describe and imagine the possibilities of Race and the future in his theoretical works, which Du Bois explicitly connects to the experimental space of imaginative fiction. Chapter 2 focuses on Du Bois's spectacular historical pageant, The Star of Ethiopia, which establishes the foundational past of African Civilizations, and the intellectual technology of Ancient History as a tool for asserting national identity in the present and looking towards the future. Chapter 3 examines Du Bois's fragmentary short story, "A Vacation Unique," as it explores the slippery sociopolitical category of race through the abstract geometrical analogy of the Fourth Dimension. Finally in conclusion, I look to an explicitly futuristic short story, "A.D. 2150," which projects some of Du Bois's sociological theories into the future, but which is remarkably hesitant to perform sincere forecasting, and demonstrates some of the limits of futurology for Du Bosian thought. Locating these texts in Du Bois's corpus and critically linking them to his political and sociological work, provides models of understanding their place among the canon of African American literature and Science Fiction. The theoretical possibilities of Du Boisian literary fiction provides not only a framework for reading these particular texts, but demonstrates the remarkable intersection of African American Science Fiction and Du Boisian Critical Race Theory more broadly.
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Title: "Musadzi u fara lufhanga nga hu fhiraho" : black women elementary school leaders creating socially just and equitable environments in South Africa
Creator: Phendla, Thidziambi
Date: 2000
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: "My life is changed but the trust ain't there to trust somebody else" : experiences of recovery from intimate partner abuse of women of Mexican heritage in a mid-size city in Michigan
Creator: Palma-Ramirez, Evangelina
Date: 2020
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This exploratory qualitative study aimed to gain an understanding of the experiences of recovery from intimate partner abuse (IPA) of 17 women of Mexican heritage in a mid-size urban city in Michigan. IPA was defined as any type of physical, sexual, stalking, psychological harm or coercive control by a former intimate partner or spouse. Two aspects were explored: experiences of abuse and experiences of recovery from abuse. The study used a feminist theory and intersectionality perspective as...
Show moreThis exploratory qualitative study aimed to gain an understanding of the experiences of recovery from intimate partner abuse (IPA) of 17 women of Mexican heritage in a mid-size urban city in Michigan. IPA was defined as any type of physical, sexual, stalking, psychological harm or coercive control by a former intimate partner or spouse. Two aspects were explored: experiences of abuse and experiences of recovery from abuse. The study used a feminist theory and intersectionality perspective as a guiding framework to understand the experiences of women considering their contextual situation. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory by Charmaz. The findings revealed that women understand their experiences of abuse as being connected to their early socialization about gender roles, history of child abuse, lack of sexual education, and the influence of the environment. Also, the participants revealed they experienced overlapping types of abuse: psychological, coercion, economic, physical, sexual, and stalking. Despite the negative impact of the abuse on participants' physical and mental health, findings showed that women were able to recover from the abuse and to move on with their lives. Data suggested that the recovery was a gradual ongoing process of physical and psychological healing. Participants identified empowering experiences that helped them in their recovery from IPA. Such empowering experiences included life-changing religious realizations, receiving services in Spanish, acquiring more education, receiving counseling services, and getting a job. Receiving social support from family and friends and having access to resources were identified as factors that aided in the recovery from IPA. However, some participants experienced limited access to such resources due to economic constraints, cultural beliefs about gender roles, and the impact of immigration policies.Lastly, findings revealed that experiences of recovery from IPA vary based on whether women decided to leave their partners or to remain with them. Implications for culturally sensitive interventions for Latinas of Mexican heritage are discussed as well as implications for future research on issues of recovery for this specific Latino subgroup.
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Title: "My logo is branded on your skin" : the Wu-Tang Clan, authenticity, black masculinity, and the rap music industry
Creator: Huey, Ryan Alexander
Date: 2014
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The rap group, the Wu-Tang Clan came out of a turbulent period of time in both the rap music industry and American society in the early 1990s. Lawsuits over sampling in rap music forced producers to rethink the ways they made music while crack cocaine and the War on Drugs wreaked havoc in urban communities across the nation, as it did in the Clan's home borough of Staten Island, New York. Before the formation of the group, Gary "GZA" Grice, had managed to land a recording contract as a solo...
Show moreThe rap group, the Wu-Tang Clan came out of a turbulent period of time in both the rap music industry and American society in the early 1990s. Lawsuits over sampling in rap music forced producers to rethink the ways they made music while crack cocaine and the War on Drugs wreaked havoc in urban communities across the nation, as it did in the Clan's home borough of Staten Island, New York. Before the formation of the group, Gary "GZA" Grice, had managed to land a recording contract as a solo artist, but his marketing was mismanaged and his career stagnated. He returned in 1992 as one of the nine member collective, who billed themselves as kung fu movie buffs melding low-fi, eerie productions with realistic raps about ghetto life. Drawing from the vibrant underground rap scene of New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, Brooklyn's rich African American chess tradition, the teachings of the Five Percenters, and the cult following for Hong Kong action cinema, the Clan became a huge hit across the country. Each member fashioned a unique masculine identity for himself, bolstering their hardcore underground image while pushing the boundaries of acceptable expressions of manhood in rap music. Their avant-garde approach and business acumen turned the group into `underground superstars' who sold millions of records worldwide. Despite their success as a multinational corporation, the Clan still managed to maintain their authentic image as underground devotees from the tough streets of Staten Island.
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Title: "My voice speaks for itself" : the experiences of three transgender students in secondary school choral programs
Creator: Palkki, Joshua
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Is choral music education in America at a “trans(gender) tipping point”? With the purpose of furthering and enhancing the sociocultural dialogue surrounding LGBTQA issues in music education and to improve vocal/choral instruction for trans students, this multiple narrative case study explored the musical lives and lived experiences of trans students in high school choral music programs. The two grand tour problems of this study were:• To describe how transgender students enrolled in secondary...
Show moreIs choral music education in America at a “trans(gender) tipping point”? With the purpose of furthering and enhancing the sociocultural dialogue surrounding LGBTQA issues in music education and to improve vocal/choral instruction for trans students, this multiple narrative case study explored the musical lives and lived experiences of trans students in high school choral music programs. The two grand tour problems of this study were:• To describe how transgender students enrolled in secondary school choral music programs navigate their gender identity in the choral context.• To describe if/how transgender students in secondary school choral programs were supported by groups including their choral teachers, choral peers, and school administrators.The emergent research design employed narrative inquiry and ethnographic techniques in order to honor and highlight voices of the three participants: Sara, Jon, and Skyler (pseudonyms). The stories of these three students revealed the importance of context and geography in shaping the experiences of trans youth at school. Additionally, the connection or lack thereof between voice and gender identity was different for each of the participants. The policies of the students’ school districts, high schools (administrators), choral programs, and outside music organizations (e.g., state music education organizations) shaped and influenced how Sara, Jon, and Skyler navigated their trans identity within the high school choral context. Mentors and important others helped these students as they traversed their individual gender journeys. Based upon these data, I contend that secondary schools and choral programs can make policy changes, both large and small, in order to better serve trans youth. I also posit that more professional development and incorporation of (trans) gender issues is needed for choral music educators.
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Title: "Narrativas de transicion en el cine y la literatura de Chile : neorrealismo, virtualidad y cuerpos ciberneticos de la postdictadura"
Creator: Vidal-Jones, David A.
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation project explores cultural narratives in Chile during the transition to democracy from 1990 to 2010. I examine the impact of literature and cinema in the construction of (post) national discourses and its implications in the context of the globalized Chilean society. In the works of Alberto Fuguet, Carlos Franz, Alicia Scherson, Ernesto Díaz-Espinoza and Gonzalo Contreras, I advance the idea of a third space in transition which allows a post-colonial place of enunciation that...
Show moreThis dissertation project explores cultural narratives in Chile during the transition to democracy from 1990 to 2010. I examine the impact of literature and cinema in the construction of (post) national discourses and its implications in the context of the globalized Chilean society. In the works of Alberto Fuguet, Carlos Franz, Alicia Scherson, Ernesto Díaz-Espinoza and Gonzalo Contreras, I advance the idea of a third space in transition which allows a post-colonial place of enunciation that falls between democratic realism and authoritarian narratives of dictatorship.Following Bernardo Subercaseaux’s conceptualization of historical national time as a theatrical world of spectacle, this dissertation explores emergent narratives of liminal communities, interrupting dichotomist discourses about the past.This study situates the following literary and cinematographic corpus between the centripetal discourse of national imagined communities and the centrifugal dynamics of globalized imagination. Walter Mignolo’s concept of ‘borderthinking’ helps to problematize the post authoritarian local-global axis, inciting the following question: Can we determine the existence of a new kind of post-national neorealism in Chile’s post-authoritarian period? If so, do these narratives present a disruption from the post-dictatorial rhetoric? Alberto Fuguet’s novel Mala onda (1991) and film Se arrienda (2005) offer fractured subjects as they enter fluid spaces between modernity and resistance. As the main characters fail, desacralizing the bildungsroman, they allow a critical representation of the subject within democratic realism, defined by Nelly Richards. Conversely, Ernesto Díaz-Espinoza and his film trilogy Kiltro, Mirageman and Mandrill (2006-2009) render a parody of the national hero between the fluid spaces of global and local realities. Through the novel Películas de mi vida (1993), Alberto Fuguet dislocates the period of political transition towards democracy with new temporality and velocity relocating the narrative from extraterritorial spaces. This study problematizes also the concept of ‘virtual realism’ in Alicia Scherson’s film Play (2005) and Carlos Franz’s novel Santiago cero (1988). These works navigate the world of hyperreality created through epistolary interchanges and virtual gaming to contest the place of enunciation of the national subject, specifically its construction and deconstruction process of Santiago’s neoliberal landscape. Finally, the figure of the cyborg appears to challenge democratic progressivism through historicity and memory in the works of Gonzalo Contreras’s novel La ciudad anterior (1991) and Alberto Fuguet’s film Velódromo (2009).It is important to establish a connection between these works and new ‘glocal’ imaginaries that have been overlooked since the decade of the 1990s. These cultural productions, in their visual and textual dynamic language, challenge national identities by intersecting the global with a local through folklorization, parody, and hyperbolic realisms. They deconstruct the naturalized national hero and reconstitute virtual and precarious cyborg identities disrupting dominant discourses such as the dictatorship and the democratic transition rhetoric.
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Title: "Neglected Honor," : the life of General A.S. Williams of Michigan (1810-1878)
Creator: Charnley, Jeffrey Gordon
Date: 1983
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: "No God, no morality, no history"--South African ethnographic film
Creator: Van Zyl, J. A. F., 1934-
Date: 1980-03
Collection: Critical Arts

Title: "No sovereign nation, no reservation" : opposing Haudenosaunee sovereignty through land claim and fee-to-trust discourse
Creator: McCune, Meghan Y.
Date: 2015
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: In 1974, the United States Supreme Court Oneida Indian Nation of New York v. County of Oneida decision opened the federal courts to Native American land claims against states and many Native Nations have since used the United States legal system to file land claims. In the wake of the now landmark 2005 United States Supreme Court decision City of Sherrill v. The Oneida Indian Nation of New York, Native Nations have found it nearly impossible to seek redress through the courts and many have...
Show moreIn 1974, the United States Supreme Court Oneida Indian Nation of New York v. County of Oneida decision opened the federal courts to Native American land claims against states and many Native Nations have since used the United States legal system to file land claims. In the wake of the now landmark 2005 United States Supreme Court decision City of Sherrill v. The Oneida Indian Nation of New York, Native Nations have found it nearly impossible to seek redress through the courts and many have turned to the fee-to-trust process as a means of regaining land. Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s when the Oneida Indian Nation and Cayuga Indian Nation successfully filed their land claims, non-Native communities—affected by 50 years of economic decline—organized and systematically challenged the exercise of Haudenosaunee sovereignty in Central New York State. Specifically, since its inception in 1980 the Cayuga Nation’s land claim has been met with local opposition in the form of organized grassroots anti-Indian sovereignty movements—most notably Upstate Citizens for Equality (UCE). This dissertation draws from ethnographic research of UCE and analyzes varying interpretations of law, policy, race, and class that inform non-Native understandings and attitudes towards Haudenosaunee sovereignty. Social norms of public discourse discourage direct conversations of race and class and, as a result, such discourses must take other normative forms; in UCE land claim and fee-to-trust discourse, linguistic frames of property (and property rights), patriotism, equality, and assimilation are used to challenge Indigenous sovereignty while also serving to resist labels of racism/anti-Indianism. This analysis also includes UCE’s use of litigation and legal discourse to formulate—and in turn perpetuate—(mis)understandings of Indigenous land rights, identity, and sovereignty.
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Title: "Non-racialism" : Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland
Creator: Ngcobo, S. B.
Date: 1973-12
Collection: Zambezia

Title: "Northern Michigan's Greatest Daily" : an examination of the news, entertainment, and opinion content of the Traverse City Record-Eagle before and after its purchase by Ottaway Newspapers, Inc
Creator: Sommerness, Martin David
Date: 1979
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: "Not as multicultural as I'd like" : White English teachers' uses of literature for multicultural education in predominantly White contexts
Creator: Borsheim-Black, Carlin
Date: 2012
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Research at the intersection of multicultural education and English education has established that English teachers who engage multicultural literature study in predominantly White contexts face formidable challenges. English teachers not only meet a dearth of multicultural literature curriculum but also struggle to overcome student resistance and norms of Whiteness in classroom discourse. Existing research has contributed to a deeper understanding of the complexity of the issue. However,...
Show moreResearch at the intersection of multicultural education and English education has established that English teachers who engage multicultural literature study in predominantly White contexts face formidable challenges. English teachers not only meet a dearth of multicultural literature curriculum but also struggle to overcome student resistance and norms of Whiteness in classroom discourse. Existing research has contributed to a deeper understanding of the complexity of the issue. However, much existing research assumes that literature is either multicultural or not, that multicultural education means applying pedagogy to content that is already multicultural, and that the myth of the generic, emancipated critical educator is a solution. Drawing on Critical Antiracist Multiculturalism and Critical Whiteness Studies, this dissertation study aims to challenge those assumptions and to identify new possibilities for teaching and research. Informed by critical educational methodology and employing a multi-phased qualitative research design, this dissertation explores the following research questions: What literature, if any, do White English teachers use to enact multicultural literature study in predominantly White contexts? How do White English teachers use literature to enact multicultural literature study in predominantly White contexts? What challenges do they face? And how does Whiteness shape their work? I explain that White English teachers who participated in the survey reported using literature by White authors, often canonical literature, to address multicultural themes, most often race and racism. Bringing together canonical literature and multicultural themes constructs a curricular borderland characterized by tensions and conflicts. I follow up on those findings with a case study of one White English teacher who employed a critical multicultural approach to To Kill a Mockingbird with her White students. Through that case study, I identify a constellation of practices she used to make Whiteness visible and to teach her students about institutional racism. At the same time, I explore how she and her White students participated in Discourses of Whiteness even as they attempted to disrupt them. Bringing together critical multicultural pedagogy and traditional English curriculum constructs a pedagogical borderland. Next, I explore one White English teachers' negotiations of competing discourses informing her notions of "diversity" and "prejudice" thereby complicating her purposes for multicultural literature study. By foregrounding multicultural discourse, a research interview provided a borderland space in which the White English teacher grappled with tensions and conflicts related to her curriculum and pedagogy. Finally, taken together, data chapters suggest that among the many challenges White English teachers negotiate are Discourses of Whiteness that work simultaneously at individual, institutional, societal, and epistemological levels and complicate "White contexts." Ultimately, this dissertation suggests that grappling with conflicts and tensions is the essence of critical antiracist multicultural literature study in predominantly White contexts. In other words, borderland discourses, which illuminate those conflicts and tensions, offer generative spaces for doing such work.
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Title: "Nsuae" - the Akan oath of office
Creator: Andoh, A. S. Y.
Date: 1966
Collection: Research Review

Title: "Off the field" : a mixed methods study exploring identity status and its relationship to psychosocial factors
Creator: Payne, Taylor
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: "Many athletes have difficulty transitioning out of sport. Identity foreclosure (high commitment to an ideology or vocation with little exploration of other roles and options) has been shown to have a negative relationship with career transition. This study investigated the identity status of former Division I football players and its relationship salient psychosocial factors (athletic identity, stereotype threat, and social support). A concurrent embedded mixed methods design was used with...
Show more"Many athletes have difficulty transitioning out of sport. Identity foreclosure (high commitment to an ideology or vocation with little exploration of other roles and options) has been shown to have a negative relationship with career transition. This study investigated the identity status of former Division I football players and its relationship salient psychosocial factors (athletic identity, stereotype threat, and social support). A concurrent embedded mixed methods design was used with priority given to the qualitative data. Using Marcia's (1966) identity development theory and the scoring guide of Marcia and Archer (1993), this study also ascertained the current identity status of the participants and examined their career transition out of sport. Six former Division I athletes from the university were recruited. It was found that social support had a strong relationship with identity status. Those in Identity Achievement (high commitment/presence of exploration) had the smoothest transition, while those in Moratorium (low commitment/high exploration) had a more challenging path. Those in Diffusion (low commitment/low exploration) experienced a passive transition out of sport. Management styles of role conflict had a strong relationship with identity status, and lastly, stereotype threat had a small relationship with role conflict by means of attachment to athletic identity."--Page ii.
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Title: "Oh the network webs they weave, when parents want their children to succeed"
Creator: Sheldon, Steven Benjamin
Date: 2000
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: "On intimate and friendly terms" : a regional comparison of gender, space, and community in antebellum higher education
Creator: Clingerman, Mary
Date: 2009
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: "One leg in one, and one leg in the other" : reflections of vernacular musicians as music educators
Creator: Adams, Mark C.
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: With a purpose of improving the experiences of vernacular musicians who want to become music educators so that more vernacular music-making can occur in K-12 music settings, this study explored the lived musical experiences of two vernacular musicians who successfully became music educators. The two grand tour problems of this study were:1. To describe how two vernacular musicians navigated their undergraduate music education programs.2. To describe if/how their vernacular musicianship...
Show moreWith a purpose of improving the experiences of vernacular musicians who want to become music educators so that more vernacular music-making can occur in K-12 music settings, this study explored the lived musical experiences of two vernacular musicians who successfully became music educators. The two grand tour problems of this study were:1. To describe how two vernacular musicians navigated their undergraduate music education programs.2. To describe if/how their vernacular musicianship contributed to their practice as music teachers. Ethnographic techniques were used within the framework of a multiple narrative case study to present the viewpoints of two participants, Carrie and Harrison (pseudonyms). Both were vernacular musicians prior to pursuing degrees in music education. The two participants’ stories revealed that they felt like they were living in two musical worlds. In their undergraduate experiences, participants felt their Western classical abilities were more highly valued than their vernacular musicianship skills, and they did not feel fully supported by faculty musically. In their teaching lives, their vernacular music-making backgrounds manifested through aural learning and rote teaching, creating, and their classroom environment. Participants experienced feelings of being an impostor during their undergraduate experiences, which, particularly for one participant, created fear and anxiety. These feelings of being an impostor continued into their teaching lives, typically brought about by preconceived program expectations (e.g., performance schedules, high-level student musical performance abilities) from community members and colleagues. These outside influences, at times, determined what vernacular music-making experiences they implemented into their classrooms and when it was “safe” to do so.Based on these data, I suggest institutions of higher education more equally value musics found outside Western classical cultures. This includes an evaluation of their audition processes, the support provided to “non-traditional” students, as well as a re-envisioning of required coursework, field experiences, and performance ensembles. Additionally, I suggest ways that teachers of K–12 musics can create a more diverse music education experience for students by including more vernacular music making. These suggestions include opportunities for informal learning, creative music making, and considerations for the classroom environment.
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Title: "Only the fourth chief" : conflict, land, and chiefly authority in 20th century KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Creator: Kelly, Jill Elizabeth
Date: 2012
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation examines the local nature of South Africa’s transition–era political violence (known in isiZulu as uDlame). While common explanations for the conflict focus on the struggle for political legitimacy between the rural and traditionalist Zulu ethnic nationalist movement Inkatha and the young and urban African National Congress (ANC), I argue that for the individuals and communities involved, politics were local. For the peri–urban Nyavu and...
Show moreThis dissertation examines the local nature of South Africa’s transition–era political violence (known in isiZulu as uDlame). While common explanations for the conflict focus on the struggle for political legitimacy between the rural and traditionalist Zulu ethnic nationalist movement Inkatha and the young and urban African National Congress (ANC), I argue that for the individuals and communities involved, politics were local. For the peri–urban Nyavu and Maphumulo chiefdoms in the Table Mountain region outside of Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu–Natal, these larger struggles were embedded in a century–old debate over land and what it meant for a chief to be legitimate. Drawing on a rich combination of written and oral sources, the dissertation examines the role of colonial and apartheid governments in the appointment and succession of Zulu chiefs, the engendering of debates over legitimacy and chiefly authority, boundary conflicts, “faction fights,” and competing claims on land. In the Table Mountain region, the Nyavu, whose chiefdom predated the rise of the Zulu state under Shaka, made land claims based on their hereditary status against the chiefdoms established in the area by the British such as the Qamu, Gcumisa, and Maphumulo (chapter one). The construction of a dam during the segregation era and the establishment of Tribal Authorities and bantustans under apartheid exacerbated these contests over access to land and political legitimacy (chapter two). The rise of the ethnic nationalist movement Inkatha in the KwaZulu bantustan, forced relocations, and an increasing population meant many parties competed over scarce land in the Table Mountain region (chapter three). As political violence erupted across KwaZulu–Natal and in the Gauteng townships during the late 1980s, the Table Mountain region initially remained a haven of peace under the “peace chief” Mhlabunzima Maphumulo of the Maphumulo chiefdom. In offering himself as peacemaker and protector, Chief Mhlabunzima attracted new Maphumulo members onto the contested land, sparking the deadly transition–era violence with the neighboring Nyavu (chapter four). Maphumulo’s actions also caused a rift within his chiefdom (chapter five). Local actors used both the national and local contest between Inkatha and the ANC as an opportunity to decide the land dispute through violence. The final chapter (six) turns away from the male-dominated experience of the violence to analyze how women's discussions about it reveal both their claims on ethnicity and uses of Zulu culture as a coping mechanism.The historiographical significance of these findings is threefold. First, my dissertation builds on earlier concerns of African historians about the importance of land for chiefly legitimacy, but goes beyond them by examining other claims to authority, such as hereditary descent, resource allocation, and security and protection during conflict. Second, after the advent of democracy, historical research and public history in South Africa has emphasized commemorative liberation history that tends to overlook the relatively recent painful, divisive years of warfare that almost scuttled the 1994 elections. Third, my study has relevancy in contemporary South African and African human rights debates over state/peasant relations and the role of chiefs and land reform in postcolonial African politics and democracy.
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