While African Americans are overrepresented in Minnesota police shootings and officer-involved fatalities, they are underrepresented in Minnesota law enforcement. The reasons are complex, interconnected, grounded in historical racial barriers and racist practices, and reinforced by current obstacles such as career awareness, concerns about the…

Despite nonnative English-speaking teachers' (NNESTs) professional qualifications and increasing contributions to research in TESOL, the native speaker (NS) myth (Phillipson, 1992) continues to undermine these teachers' sense of professional legitimacy and pedagogical efficacy. Thus, due in great part to the notion of an idealized NS teacher of…

Many universities and colleges across the country and around the globe are concentrating on becoming increasingly international. The extent to which they are internationalizing varies widely and depends greatly on strategic initiatives and priorities on the part of university administration, faculty, staff and students alike. Despite the many…

The following study is an extended ethnographic case study of a "black intellectual insurgency" within the predominantly white space of the U.S. intercollegiate policy debate activity. A growing number of black students are entering the debate activity and insisting that "whiteness" be confronted and interrogated and that…

This dissertation is a dual-site ethnographic case study of the lived information literacy experiences of students in their junior year of high school relative to their school library and librarians. What began as an investigation of an apparent gap in understanding between the views of teens and school librarians regarding "information…

This in-depth case study of classroom interaction illuminated how a white female teacher and African American students used talk to build positive authority relationships across their racial difference. Racial difference in classrooms can engender cultural misunderstandings between teachers and students around behavior, communication, and learning…

Over the coming years an increasing number of college presidencies will change hands. Choice of a new president who will effectively lead an institution is a decision of great importance to individuals within the organization and to the community the college serves. Most colleges employ a search process composed of representatives of key…

This dissertation deals with the tense relation between the visibility of unauthorized economic practices and the invisibility of law in Zhongguancun (ZGC) Beijing, a Chinese information technology (IT) industry center dubbed "China's Silicon Valley." This dissertation ethnographically examines the double process of extra-legal/illegal…