Exploring the Communicative Identity Construction of Descendants of Roberts Settlement

Winner of the Bowling Green State University Graduate College Distinguished Thesis Award

This thesis examines the identities of descendants of an early racialized settlement in Indiana. The findings show that Roberts descendants communicate their identities in diverse ways, notably: their personal racial identities develop over time and are sometimes fluid; and their conceptions of family are diverse and tie them to a larger, imagined community, with histories of racial passing affecting degrees of relational closeness. The findings of this study exemplify the social, cultural, and political forces that create and maintain race in the US, as well as their influence on individual and communal racial identity.