The Black experience, both within and outside of the United States, has been consistently problematized by those outside of the culture. The associated issues range from violent language and images to physical violence. As a result of this, ideologies and created identities -- neither of which are wholly authentic -- have sought to dominate the narrative and experience of Blackness. While these efforts may be appear to be successful on the surface, they are not all-encompassing. In “Toward the Black Interior,” humanities scholar and activist Elizabeth Alexander asserts that the discredited Black knowledge that is excluded from the social identities ascribed to Black people rests at the core of the Black interior (5-6). The interior, Alexander articulates is “an inner space in which Black artists have found selves that go far, far beyond the limited expectations and definitions of what blackness is, isn’t, and should be” (5). My research seeks to explain the nature of this space and how it is represented in Black art.
 

Edgar Allen Poe’s work is typically categorized as Gothic fiction, a genre that often conveys stories of death and romance through their relationship to fear. In Poe’s short stories, fear is an embodied emotion; however, the means by which this fear is expressed differ depending on circumstances that construct the plot. Ultimately, the embodied fear can be defined through horror and terror. In terms of genre, terror is often conflated with horror, as there is no presence of a genre dedicated to terror and many novels that are considered “horror” are instead tales of terror. Through a literary analysis of Poe’s short stories, this research intends to define horror and terror as separate terms of categorization for theme and genre. Although terror and horror may exist in the same text, the two are distinctly different. Terror defines a dread that is intangible and reliant on a spiritual or psychological experience, whereas horror exists solely as a physical and contact-based experience of the macabre. Justifying these terms as separate forms that can coexist in a text aids in the understanding of how fear itself manifests within us. These distinct concepts offer a more complex understanding of the emotion of fear as a common human experience.   

Black Twitter, a subculture with a Black frame of reference within the popular social media site Twitter, acts as a “counterpublic” that engages in critical dialogue and resists hegemonic power. As part of this counterpublic vocalizing Black issues, it has in recent years targeted the representation of Blackness by large companies such as Gucci, Moncler, and H&M. For example, a Gucci balaclava jumper that resembled blackface sparked wide-spread controversy and outrage regarding the intentionality of the sweater. This research is geared toward uncovering how the Black outrage that resulted from the apparent blackface reference may well be harnessed by companies as a marketing tool. Is the public’s denouncing of major brands equivalent to unpaid marketing? This research examines the extent to which companies seem to deliberately exploit Black outrage. This research focuses on Black Twitter’s response to specific incidents similar to Gucci’s and offers a rhetorical analysis of the companies’ subsequent responses following the incidents.

Representation of Black characters in animated television opens new possibilities for questioning tropes and stereotypes. This presentation analyses the way tokenism impacts the development of Black character portrayals across animated television shows whether the program aims at children or adults. By analyzing the Black characters in "Rugrats," "South Park," and the “The Proud Family," it becomes clear that animation allows for creative commentary on the media’s stereotypes of the Black community. This research enables connections to be drawn between how the depiction of Black identity has evolved through animation and how each show’s commentary on racial identity impacts the larger ways the Black community is portrayed in the media. The nature of animation gives the representation of Black people a "what-if" in a field that originally limited their portrayal by offering creative imaginary alternatives that both mimic and comment upon real life.