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This study compares print media representations of refugees and asylum seekers with representations in short stories and poems written by refugees and asylum seekers themselves, within the frames of creative writing workshops. The primary research question guiding the study reads: How do (self-)representations in texts written by refugees and asylum seekers, within the frames of creative writing workshops, differ from representations of refugees and asylum seekers in print media.As a theoretical foundation for the study serves the social constructionist assumption that language, rather than reflect, constructs reality, and that the way the world is understood affects policies, practices and actions – in this case concerning refugees, asylum seekers, refugee relief, refugee/asylum seeker reception systems, integration etc. Starting out from the notion that print media representations of refugees and asylum seekers follow certain recurring patterns – not only resulting in rather simplistic portrayals, but, also, almost systematically leaving out refugee and asylum seeker voices, views and opinions – the study, following Dorothy Smiths suggestion that individuals somehow excluded from a particular discourse may offer perspectives undermining it, turns to the refugees and asylum seekers’ own texts as a possible source of alternative representations. Using Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory, complemented by semiotic analysis, (self-)representations in three anthologies with refugee and asylum seeker texts are compared to the results of a meta analysis of earlier research of representations of refugees and asylum seekers in print media.The findings of the study suggests that there are similarities, but also significant differences in how refugees and asylum seekers are represented in their own texts when compared to print media. Consequently, it is argued that there is a potential worth fostering in the creative writing workshops for refugees and asylum seekers, as well as similar initiatives. They may be seen as a step towards increasing refugees and asylum seekers’ opportunities to voice their opinion in matters that concern them; as answering to the post colonial call for bringing in new voices to the (social) development debate; and as contributing to the realisation of an agonistic democracy/pluralism.

This dissertation makes three key arguments regarding politics and print culture in antebellum Florida. First, Florida’s territorial status, historic geographical divisions, and local issues necessitated the use of political parties. Second, Florida’s political parties evolved from a focus on charismatic men and local geographic loyalties to loyalty to party regardless of who was running to national and regional loyalties above local issues and men. Lastly, the central and most consistent aspect of Florida’s political party development was the influence of newspapers and their editors. To understand Florida politics in the nineteenth century it is necessary to recognize how the personal, geographical, and political divisions in Florida’s territorial past remained a critical factor in the development and function of national political parties in Florida. The local divisions within Florida in the 1820s created factions and personal loyalties that would later help characterize national parties in the 1840s. Political leaders, with the help of editors and their newspapers, created factions based more on personal loyalties than on ideology. By the 1850s party loyalty became paramount over personal or regional loyalties. In the last years before the Civil War Democrats linked Southern loyalty to the Democratic party and accused their opposition of treason against the South leading Florida and the nation to Civil War. Yet, throughout these political changes, editors and their newspapers remained central to political success, becoming the voice of political parties and critical to attracting and maintaining potential voters. In addition to understanding how politics functioned in antebellum Florida, this dissertation contributes to our larger understanding of the Second Party System and the South. An underlying argument of this dissertation is that while the Democrats tended to be better organized and more ideologically coherent, the Whigs suffered from constant in-fighting and splintering. This led to the Democratic domination of politics and, in the South, the ability of secession supporters to control the public conversation during the Sectional Crisis of the 1850s and lead the nation to war. This dissertation also claims that there is not just one South but many and exposes the myth of a changeless and monolithic South. / History

In this thesis, two studies are presented which examine reading development and proficiency in post-secondary education. The first study examines the utility of a common method for determining print exposure, the Author Recognition Test (ART), in populations less frequently examined—namely, college students (as opposed to university students), and individuals whose first language is not English. Item Response Theory analysis shows that ART is not informative for these populations, which suggests that the development of a novel test of print exposure for comparing different populations is necessary. The second study quantifies the impact of each year of post-secondary study on reading development, and the differential effects between native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers of English. Findings show that each year of study itself is not a significant predictor of change, but rather improvement is explained by advancement in component skills of reading which develop over the course of the degree. Additionally, contrary to previous studies indicative of the Matthew Effect in college literacy development—which suggest that students improve by the end of their degree as a function of their ability at the beginning—this study demonstrates that L2 students generally benefit more from post-secondary education when compared to L1 peers, who start with a significant advantage. In this way, L2 students with sufficient mastery of component skills of reading emerge from post-secondary education with skills comparable to those of native English-speaking colleagues. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

I mitt examensprojekt, Saving Tegelbruket 4, Konstfack 2024, kandidatprogrammet Inredningsarkitektur och möbeldesign, presenterar jag en hypotetisk transformation av S:t Eriks ögonsjukhus. Huset uppfördes 1978 på Kungsholmen i Stockholm och liksom många andra byggnader från denna epok planeras huset att rivas. Rivningarna motiveras ofta med förklaringar som att byggnaderna inte uppfyller dagens standarder och krav. Dessutom finns det en allmän uppfattning att dessa hus är oattraktiva eller rent av fula. I en tid då klimatkrisen är vårt största hot kan vi inte fortsätta riva funktionsdugliga byggnader och måste därför hitta nya sätt för att förvalta det redan existerande. Syftet med Saving Tegelbruket 4 är att vara ett transformationsprojekt som kan bidra med nya metoder för bevarande av senmodernistisk arkitektur.  Mina gestaltningar har utgått från byggnaden och platsens historia. Genom att noga studera exteriören har jag skapat en gemensam entré för husets nya verksamheter med stor vördnad för arkitekturens estetiska uttryck, samtidigt som huset får tillåtelse att förändras efter nutida behov. Vidare har jag aktivt försökt inkorporera områdets långa historia av sjukvård i interiören för att förstärka det kollektiva minnet platsen bär på. Mitt övergripande mål är att förslaget jag presenterar gör människor uppmärksamma på det värde senmodernistiska byggnader besitter, vilket förhoppningsvis kan motverka de idag allt för ofta förekommande rivningarna.  Interiören jag presenterar har framför allt vuxit fram ur dokumentation från den aktuella platsen i form av fotografier och 3D-skanningar. Utifrån det insamlade materialet har jag utformat en entré som kan liknas vid en homage till byggnadens exteriör. Genom att upprepa, men också till viss del förvränga, material och strukturer som återfinns på husets utsida i interiören, är min förhoppning att människor ska kunna se den stora vita tegelbyggnaden med nya ögon.  Baserat på platsens historia har jag gestaltat symboler som kommunicerar tre olika historiska skeenden som utspelat sig i området. Symbolerna blir rummets utsmyckningar och påminner besökare om en svunnen tid.

a series of sectional graphics are created to represent the architectural whole. this thesis is about how a three dimensional architecture is seen and perceived through use of two dimensional graphics. it is about understanding a finished work [the whole] by viewing its individual sectional layers [the parts]. a whole does not exist without its parts, just as architecture would not exist without section. in this case, the section is raised above all other things in order to see the potential of the whole. / Master of Architecture