What's mine isn't yours, but what's yours is definitely mine: University student use of Cherokee Indian culture in identity formation

This thesis concerns a predominantly white university, Western Carolina University, with historical links to the Cherokee people as well as contemporary links to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. I chose to analyze WCU's student newspaper within a 50-year period before and during the beginning emergence of the American Indian Movement to determine in what ways, if any, do students engage with settler-colonial narratives to selectively remember events and express their student body collective identity. Within the analysis process, I determined the narratives of Ancient Peoples, Exoticism and Romanticism, and Civilized and Uncivilized Peoples most significantly impacted student identity formation. My results demonstrated how students' newspaper articles intertwined campus identity narratives with a perpetuation of settler-colonial beliefs.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Department dc:contributor.department

Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Money, Emalee Faith

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Wimberley, Dale W.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Cook, Samuel R.
• Reichelmann, Ashley Veronica

• university student
• collective identity
• american indian
• selective remembering
• cherokee
• north carolina

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:37999

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115323