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CFP: Edited Volume on Empirical Studies of Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs)

Edited by M. W. Hughey (University of Virginia) and G. S. Parks (Cornell University).

We invite submissions for an edited volume on Black Greek Lettered Organizations (BGLOs). In recent years, scholarship on BGLOs has sprouted up and has been received as a rich and contextual area of study for many practitioners across traditional academic boundaries. That is, out of its initial genesis in Higher Education, study of BGLOs has come to attract a vast array of interdisciplinary focus. This work hopes to assist the field blossom as today BGLOs are one of the most influential black-centered organizations, and they still hold critical purchase in the discourse and praxis of identity politics in a postmodern age. By couching this volume within the ethnic, gender, and cultural studies arenas that have been historically attentive to issues of power and representation – and by focusing on empirical studies – we hope to advance the study of BGLOs, to lend rigor and substance to recent trends that over-depend on abstract theorizing, and to reach an audience that is both academic and popular.

In this vein, academicians who are trained in empirical methodology but unaware of critical issues in BGLO related affairs, or vice versa, scholars who are well-versed in the culture, history, and social organization of BGLOs but lacking in the implementation of rigorous empirical methods, should not feel this is beyond their scope. The editors, with the council of the Advisory Board [co-chaired by Dr. Edward Whipple, Vice President for Student Affairs at Bowling Green State University and author of New Challenges for Greek Letter Organizations: Transforming Fraternities and Sororities into Learning Communities (1998) and Dr. Walter Kimbrough, president of Philander Smith College and author of Black Greek 101: The Culture, Customs, and Challenges of Black Fraternities and Sororities (2003)] will pair scholars together, if needed or requested, for collaborative chapters.

Potential projects could examine, but are not limited to, the following:

Academic achievement
Authoritarianism or Democracy in their BGLO Organizational Ontology
BGLO Politics (e.g.: Qualities and characteristics that predict election to national office)
BGLOs and (un)involvement in local politics
BGLOs and Afrocentricity
BGLOs and Geographic Regionalism
BGLOs and the Question of Black Nationalist vs. Assimilative Agendas
BGLOs and their Iconography (e.g.: Kappas and canes, Omegas and gold boots, etc.)
BGLOs and their role in the Civil Rights Movement
BGLOs on White campuses vs. BGLOs on HBCUs
Black Sororities and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Wave Feminism
Black Sororities and Women’s Liberation
Colorism/Internalized Racism (e.g.: Brown bag and blue vein tests)
Council Decision Making vs. Hierarchical Leadership in BGLOs
Cultural competence of Greek affairs advisors
Dating behavior among BGLO college members
Difference between Alumni/Undergraduate Chapters
Differences in the Portrayals of Founders among BGLOs
Eating disorders and sororities
Feminist/womanist identity development
Films featuring BGLOs (School Daze, Drumline, Stomp the Yard, etc.)
Hazing/pledging/MIP
High Functioning vs. Low Functioning Chapters
Homosexual members
Leadership development
Leadership vs./and Service
Militarism in the traditions of BGLOs
Non-black members
Non-Christian members
Oral Traditions of Chapter Histories among BGLOs
Politics within BGLOs
Portrayal of BGLOs in works of fiction
Public perception of BGLOs
Racial identity development
Reasons why people choose to join certain BGLOs
Reclamation/organizational behavior
Sexual aggression/date rape
Significance of BGLO poems and narratives
Spirituality/religiosity
Stereotypes of Individual Organizations
Substance use/abuse
The Politics of Small vs. Large Chapters
The Question of Traditional Animosities between organizations (e.g.: AKA and Delta)
The Semiotics of Greek Paraphernalia (line jackets, etc.)

Those interested in contributing should send a CV with a list of five (or less) topics they would be interested in exploring to the lead editor (M. W. Hughey) by 1 November 2006: mwh5h@virginia.edu. Potential contributors will be contacted about submitting an abstract by 15 December 2006.
More information about the project can be found at: http://empiricalbgloproject.blogspot.com/