Award Date

5-1-2021

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching and Learning

First Committee Member

Christine Clark

Second Committee Member

Iesha Jackson

Third Committee Member

Norma Marrun

Fourth Committee Member

Erika Abad

Fifth Committee Member

Robert Futrell

Number of Pages

254

Abstract

#WOCAffirmation was a hashtag created by April Reign in October 2017 in response to how Black women do not have the same supports of solidarity from populations who are non-Black women. Serving as a counterpublic, #WOCAffirmation embodied how Black women created space to affirm and amplify each other while also highlighting the harassment and abuse they experience in form of misogynoir on Twitter. As Black women are already under-researched in academia and fields within digital humanities, this study centered Black women while also highlighting oppressive systems of power in both physical and digital spaces. Using Black feminist thought as the theoretical framework, this study explored how the creation of, dialogue within, and engagement with #WOCAffirmation reflected the overall and intragroup lived experiences of Black women on Twitter. After conducting a critical discourse analysis of #WOCAffirmation, eight Black women were interviewed to explore their lived experiences on Twitter. The findings indicate how users within #WOCAffirmation and collaborators created space to prioritize joy on Twitter and used their voice to resist and to bond with Black women. Findings also demonstrate how users and Black women engage in digital resistance by protecting their space on Twitter, what kind of misogynoir they experience, and how Black women serve as producers of knowledge on Twitter. What threads the overall findings together was how Black women are able to use self-definition to challenge dominant narratives and combat controlling images. Between the findings and overall research design, implications for this study include attitudes, behavior, and policies on Twitter to protect Black women from misogynoir. Additionally, this study addresses changes in how researchers should critically consider the inclusion of Black feminist epistemology and methodologies in coursework. citational politics, and developing an ethics of care beyond what Institutional Review Boards require.

Keywords

Black feminist thought; Digital Black feminism; Digital humanities; Misogynoir; Social media; Twitter

Disciplines

African American Studies | Gender and Sexuality | Race and Ethnicity | Women's Studies

File Format

pdf

File Size

2400 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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