This study was based on the premise that some African-American women continue to resist control of their reproduction, by empowering themselves using a variety of folk medicines practices. A case study analysis approach was used to analyze data gathered and it reflected that the collective reproductive resistances stemmed from a shared memory known as the African Ancestral Maternal Memory.

The researcher found that selected urban African-American women utilized several forms of folk healing medicines to gynecologically resist control of their reproduction. The conclusions drawn from the findings suggest that the need for continued gynecological resistance by African-American women was not only rooted in the reproductive oppression of enslaved African women, but correlated with the systematic gynecological control of urban African-American women.

The research also proved that it is necessary to further define the traditional black church as a necessary shaper of public policy. In fact, what can be inferred from the research is that the traditional black church must reflect in its leadership persons who are active participants in the life of the community. In this regard, the research is emphatic about the role of the traditional black church that it is to continue to be an advocate for community needs, expectations, and system change. This research reemphasized the role of the church as a public conduit for relating community needs and engaging societal issues.

The researcher found evidence that African Consciousness and African identity and culture were apparent in school and community activities. The rural citizens were aware of their black identity and they shared information about the positive accomplishments of black people with each other. Traditions, practices, and customs that affirmed worth, dignity and integrity were passed on in the communities; furthermore, they helped each other learn the traditions. Racial oppression was resisted in the communities. Cultural activities were provided by the schools and the communities in mutually beneficial endeavors.

Exploration of the education provided to rural African Americans before the Brown decision was significant for several reasons. First, it allowed an examination of an under-researched segment of the American educational system. Second, African Americans, including the researcher, who were part of the segregated educational system were able to give their own descriptions and interpretations of their educational experiences. Third, positive interactions and supports that promoted student survival in the segregated system were identified.

Girl, Brownstones; The Color Purple; and When Rocks Dance. Employing the

scholarship of women writers of the Diaspora, I contend that the works dismantle and

(re)construct gender identities. Where traditional notions of sexuality depict men as

masculine and women as feminine, this analysis interrogates and subverts the traditional

paradigm. Methodologically, the dissertation combines literary analysis, post-colonial

studies, and gender schema theory into an interdisciplinary approach. I begin by

exploring gender construction to establish a theoretical perspective for characters who

reject traditional heteronormative paradigms. I then extend recent critical discussions on

gender and post-colonialism by examining the relationships between the men and women

in each literary text. I contend that traditional notion of characters as homosexual or

lesbian is dismantled and (re)constructed, thereby resulting in characters who embrace

their femininity or masculinity in a more balanced construction of personality, which is

the key to their self-actualization.

when it is that women, too, deserve the title. After all, save is what women do. Because

of the Biblical and subsequent patriarchal paradigm, men only are attributed the title, but

what we fmd in certain texts is that women are saviors as well. It is through women’s

somewhat magical feminism that she is able to heal, make sacrifices, and save, even

when others are not aware it is necessary. The writer re-presents the notion of Savior

whereby Savior as Woman is constructed culturally with the women saving not only their

families, but the community at large. She has to step outside of herself and concern

herself with the well-being of others. Using the Savior as Woman theory is a viable

textual approach to literature that allows the women in the text to be seen in a more

flattering light and one that they deserve but have been deprived of for numerous reasons.

It is one that is viable and can help one get a deeper textual understanding.

doing so as illustrated in Daniel Black’s Perfect Peace and Obery Hendricks’s

Living Water. The focus of this study is to explore how Black and Hendricks

demonstration of Dunbar’s concept of masking evolves from societal

oppression. The environment and social constructions within the two novels

centralizes the cause to wear the mask. The female characters discussed in this

paper tacitly agree with their oppressors to at least pretend to submit to their

own oppression. Black and Hendricks develop female characters that emerge

from their oppression and achieve self-assertion. The female characters

redefine and redeem themselves through unconventional concepts of heroism.

The study further examines Butler’s portrayal of the “othemesses” that continue to plague societies, despite the societies’ “higher” evolution, and concludes that only through continuous compromise will the world become unified. Butler indicates that the onerous task of achieving this ultimate unification lies on the shoulders of women who will serve as, what I term, the future’s “female Adams.”

This work utilized normal prostate epithelial cells (PrEC), androgen-dependent LNCaP cells, androgen-independent C4-2, DU145, 22Rvl, ARCaP and PC3 prostate cancer cell lines. Cells with either the endogenous, overexpression or knockdown of the Snail transcription factor were utilized to observe the role of Snail in cell adhesion and migration and to establish its molecular mechanism(s) of action. We have provided direct evidence that the Snail transcription factor negatively impacts prostate cancer cell adhesion and migration to fibronectin and collagen matrices. This activity was regulated through integrins and the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Additionally, we have shown that Snail negatively regulates maspin expression by inhibiting activity at the maspin promoter.

Collectively, these studies define a new role for Snail in cell adhesion to the ECM. Therefore, targeting of Snail may be useful to re-induce expression of maspin putative tumor suppressor, increase cell adhesion to ECM, decrease cell migration and prevent prostate cancer tumor progression and metastasis.

Data were collected from ten schools and a total sample of 51 teachers participated in the survey. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to summarize the data. The following statistical procedures were used: Pearson Correlation,and Multiple Regression Analysis. The data were presented in two parts, the statistical distribution of the variables to observe the extent of their variations, and the results and analyses of the statistical tests in response to the identified research questions. All of the statistical procedures were tested at the (0.05) significance level.

Findings showed that administrators’ postobservation conferences with teachers about the use of instruction strategy designed to include differentiated instruction, flexible grouping, and teaching for higher order thinking skills had the most significant relationship with student achievement in mathematics (r. = .586), whereas students’ responses to creative and different instructional strategies had the most significant relationship with student behavior (r = .5 90). Administrative supervision had no significant relationship with students’ achievement in mathematics (r. = .243) or student behavior (r. .183). There was no significant relationship between lesson planning and student behavior. There was also no significant relationship between the moderator variables: grade level, class size, students’ socioeconomic status, and teacher experience and students’ achievement in mathematics or student behavior.

The researcher found that the political-economic structure of poverty theories should be the theoretical framework used to explain how welfare reform has impacted Georgia’s TANP leavers following the passage of the PRWORA. This study’s findings and the researcher’s review of the literature reveal that in order for Georgia’s TANF population to maintain an acceptable standard of living, they will need access to job opportunities, expanded safety net programs, and increased wages which are strategies that are purported by political economic structural theorist. In turn, this information should be used to inform programmatic and policy changes that will best meet the needs of those transitioning into the labor force and self-sufficiency.