Date of Award
5-10-2019
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
African-American Studies
First Advisor
Dr. Lia T. Bascomb
Second Advisor
Dr. Sarita Davis
Third Advisor
Dr. Jamae Morris
Abstract
Homeplace, a concept credited to bell hooks (1991), was conceptualized through the practice and resiliency of Black women as they historically transformed the home as a space for reclamation of resistance and freedom. Through digital and social technologies, home is capable of manifesting outside of heteronormative meanings regarding spatiality and assumed gendered roles. This study explores second-generation East African women’s utilization of Twitter as a diasporic tool for homeplace, identity, and memory. This research incorporated a qualitative-phenomenological approach by interviewing ten participants from the ages of 18-26 in the United States, followed by a textual analysis of Twitter. Through coding cycles of transcriptions, key hashtags and phrases were pulled from participant’s interviews to guide the textual analysis. This research explores ways digital spaces are utilized and whether they provide adequate, fulfilling, and freeing manifestations of identity and home that are not often permitted to African diasporic communities in their realities.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/14337450
Recommended Citation
Fekade, Beza T., "Relocating Home: Second-Generation East African Women's Twitter-Use as sites of Homeplace, Identity, and Memory." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2019.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/14337450