Title Disciplining women : Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black counterpublics, and the cultural politics of Black sororities / Deborah Elizabeth Whaley

Published Albany : State University of New York Press, ©2010

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 206 pages) : illustrations Series UPCC book collections on Project MUSE Contents 1: Stomp the Yard, School Daze, and the Cultural Politics of Black Greek-Letter Organizations 2: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Ambiguity of Social Reform 3: Stepping into the African Diaspora Alpha Kappa Alpha and the Production of Sexuality and Femininity in Sorority Step Performance 4: Disciplining Women, Respectable Pledges, and the Meaning of a Soror Alpha Kappa Alpha and the Transformation of the Pledge Process 5: Voices of Collectivity/Agents of Change Alpha Kappa Alpha and the Future of Black Counterpublics Summary Black Greek-letter organizations offer many African Americans opportunities for activism, community-building, fostering cultural pride, and cultural work within the African American community. Disciplining Women focuses on the oldest Black Greek-letter sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), established in 1908. In this innovative interdisciplinary analysis of AKA, Deborah Elizabeth Whaley combines ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, oral history, and interpretive readings of popular culture and sorority rituals to examine the role of the Black sorority in women's everyday lives and more broadly within public life and politics. The study includes sorority members' stories of key cultural practices and rituals, including political participation, step dancing, pledging, hazing, and community organizing. While she remains critical of the shortcomings that plague many Black social organizations with activist programs, Whaley shows how AKA's calculated cultivation of sorority life demonstrates personal and group-directed discipline and illuminates how cultural practices intersect with politics and Black public life "Disciplining Women provides a unique outsider's/insider's peek into a world known only to a very few, and it situates that world within a larger context of black culture and black women's activism."--Katrina Bell McDonald, author of Embracing Sisterhood: Class, Identity, and Contemporary Black Women "Disciplining Women is a well-written scholarly engagement that drills deeper than most other recent works on this subject. As a political philosopher, I was impressed by the use of strong theory to shore up arguments."--Ricky L. Jones, author of Black Haze: Violence, Sacrifice, and Manhood in Black Greek-Letter Fraternities --Book Jacket Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Greek letter societies -- United States. African American Greek letter societies. African American college students -- Societies, etc SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General. African American Greek letter societies Greek letter societies United States Genre/Form Electronic books Form Electronic book LC no. 2010004840 ISBN 9781441674142 1441674144 1438432747 9781438432748

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