University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Melenas Malcriadas: The Black aesthetics of hair and Dominicanidad

Leonardo, Gisabel

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129531

Description

Title
Melenas Malcriadas: The Black aesthetics of hair and Dominicanidad
Author(s)
Leonardo, Gisabel
Issue Date
2025-04-15
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Garcia-Blizzard, Monica
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Garcia-Blizzard, Monica
Committee Member(s)
  • Melendez, Mariselle
  • Fornoff, Carolyn
  • Cacho, Lisa M
Department of Study
Spanish and Portuguese
Discipline
Spanish
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Aesthetics
  • Blackness
  • Hair
  • Dominican Republic
Abstract
“Melenas Malcriadas: The Black Aesthetics of Hair and Dominicanidad” untangles the intricate braiding of contradictions and hypocrisies of the Dominican racial paradigm within the national and collective diasporic imaginary. Versions of Blackness embedded in natural hair care function as acts of refusal to conform to an “official” record of the State. This work aims to interrupt narratives of dominicanidad that undermine racial and gendered implications of Dominican patria in contrast to the role of the figure of the malcriada: that unruly, undisciplined, and “uneducated” woman who is always already racialized and sexualized as “not-white” and untamed. This project emphasizes the process of haircare, with chapters titled CONDITION, SET, STRAIGHTEN, CUT, PROTECT, WASH & GO, to underscore the temporal and aesthetic markers of haircare that work with and against the Dominican aesthetic imaginary always already oriented toward aspirational whiteness.
Graduation Semester
2025-05
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129531
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2025 Gisabel Leonardo

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