This thesis examines nationalism and colonialism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and asks the questions: What is the relationship between these ideologies and "national narratives" constructed of collective historical memory? How do these ideologies produce recognizable, sexualized, national bodies? What are the defining characteristics of these national bodies and how do they perform roles from the national narratives? These questions are addressed through a discussion of the role of masculinity in modern Zionism and the state of Israel, in particular how it relates to the land of Palestine and the Palestinian "other". This thesis also addresses anti-colonial resistance movements in Palestine and argues that performative nationalism produces a fetishized commodity that can me labeled "militancy". This militancy is found institutionalized in the popular culture of everything from poetry to political posters. Finally, Palestinian female suicide bombers, like women nationalists before them, do little to challenge how specific nationalist acts of resistance are defined by patriarchal nationalists and sexualized within a "gendered space of militancy".

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published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Arts

Utilising a gender critical perspective augmented by statistical analysis, this thesis examines the binary approach customarily employed throughout archaeological narratives pertaining to the Danish Bronze Age. In respect to the recent development of feminist scholarship in archaeology regarding concepts of gender, identity and the body in prehistory, it is argued that a binary approach, which views prehistoric society as having been structured according to rigid male-female oppositions, places inappropriate restrictions upon evidence relevant to the study of gender in Bronze Age Denmark. To decipher the meaning encoded in any type of evidence related to gender ideology a perspective which emphasises contextual analysis rather than assumed heteronormativity is essential. In addition, statistical analyses of data from a representative sample of the mortuary record reveal that continuous implementation of the binary approach in the documentation of funerary remains has effectively corrupted the integrity of the evidence. The results of this investigation have significant consequences for the study of gender and societal organisation in the Danish Bronze Age. Gender categories valued by contemporary western ideology can no longer be grafted onto prehistoric society in archaeological investigations of the Bronze Age in Denmark. Moreover, traditional methods which use the objects in a grave to determine a burial’s sex can no longer be justifiably employed. Furthermore, analysis demonstrates that it is not possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of gender ideology from the mortuary data alone. Rather, through the application of current approaches to the study of gender in the past, osteological examination of the skeletal material must be revisited in conjunction with the analysis of evidence from elsewhere in the archaeological record. Thus, the potential variation concerning this period in Danish prehistory is greater than can be explained through the limitations of a binary approach, perhaps extending to evidence for the existence of an ambiguous gender identity in the society of Bronze Age Denmark.

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This thesis examines the intersection between masculinity and risk in educational settings. It draws on an intensive examination of the field of dance-education in Scotland and an extended period of research with YDance, Scotland’s only state-funded dance education company. Data was gleaned from a combination of qualitative and ethnographic methods including unstructured interviews, planned discussion groups and participant observation. The thesis synthesises the work of Ulrich Beck and with micro-level approaches popular in studies of gender and education through Bourdieu’s meso-level theories of society and social actors. It uses Bourdieu in new ways, both to reconcile these concerns of structure and action and to overcome key problems that have been identified with the work of authors like Butler and Connell. Substantively, the thesis draws attention to the risks which so-called ‘feminised’ activities like dance pose to young masculine identities and the role played by schools in reproducing and tacitly authorising inculcated assumptions about dance, gender and sexuality. The thesis also investigates the various ways in which dance educators attempt to challenge these reified associations and considers some of the unintended consequences of these practices. Despite ostensibly challenging gender stereotypes, many of the steps taken in order to engage boys in dance at school result in the reproduction of strong versions of masculinity and femininity. In attempting to recode dance as a ‘acceptable’ activity for young men, dance educators often disavow the contribution of gay and effeminate men to the art form, downplay the merits of genres like ballet which is perceived to carry particularly strong associations of femininity and homosexuality, and engage – albeit subtly – in misogyny and homophobia. Dance educators are often therefore unintentional agents of the reproduction of inculcated masculinities and gender inequality.

Orientadora: Lidia Maria Vianna Possas / Banca: Eliane Rose Maio / Banca: Antônio Mendes da Costa Braga / Banca: Lilian Henrique Azevedo / Banca: Monique Florêncio de Aguiar / Resumo: Esta etnografia foi realizada a partir de cenários de circulação de homens em situação de rua; Praça do Ferreira no centro de Fortaleza/Ce e o Centro POP (política pública para a população em situação de rua). A tese trata de apreender um modo específico de "olhar fronteiriço" para a relação contemporânea entre às margens, os chamados moradores de rua e o centro chamadas de "pessoas de bem". Tendo como pano de fundo essa relação, o objetivo central deste texto é etnografar os estilos de masculinidades forjadas pelos homens em situação de rua com suas identidades abjetas e performatizações de gênero com fins de sobrevivência. Os homens em situação de rua, como categoria plástica de rejeição, acusação e desvinculação social e econômica, evocam e questionam zonas de fronteiras simbólicas, espaciais, sociais, corporais, morais e políticas. Consequentemente, incitam nas "pessoas de bem" uma defesa de ações para a sua retirada dos espaços urbanos pelos quais circulam. Com expressões limites de degradação humana por estarem abaixo na escala social e por subverterem o espaço público, os homens que moram na Praça do Ferreira criam alteridades, gestam territorialidades, acionam o Estado e incitam políticas urbanísticas sanitárias e repressivas, além de provocarem saberes e classificações. A pesquisa foi realizada em dois registros empíricos distintos: i) convivência com os homens no Centro POP e participação nas oficinas socioeducativas; ii) convivência em suas sociabilidades no espaço... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This ethnography was made from scenarios of circulation of street men; the Ferreira Square in the center of Fortaleza/CE and the POP Center (public policy for the street population). The thesis is about apprehending a specific mode of "frontier look" for the contemporary relationship between the margins (street men) and the center ("good people"). Against this background, its central goal is to ethnograph the styles of masculinities forged by street men with their abject identities and their gender performations in order to survive. Street men, as a plastic category of rejection, prosecution and social and economic untying, evoke and enquire areas of symbolic, spatial, social, corporeal, moral, and political frontiers. Consequently, they incite in the "good people" an avid defense of actions for their withdrawal from the urban spaces through which they circulate. With bordering expressions of human degradation, as they are below in the social scale and because they subvert the public space, street people in Praça do Ferreira create alterities, generate territorialities, trigger the State and incite sanitary and repressive urban policies, besides to provoke knowledge and classifications. The research was conducted in two different empirical registers: i) coexistence with the men in the POP Center and participation in socio-educational workshops; ii) coexistence in their sociabilities in the space of the Square of Ferreira and streets of the Fortaleza's center. The descriptions... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

This dissertation consists of the musical score for my work for voice and ensemble, "Voices from the Killing Jar," and an accompanying paper. "Voices from the Killing Jar" was written for the Wet Ink Ensemble in 2010-2011, and takes as its subject seven female characters from literature, history, and myth. In the paper, a musical analysis of each of the work's seven movements is accompanied by brief literary analyses of the characters and their sources. This is followed by relevant details of my history as a performer, composer, and Wet Ink Ensemble co- director, and a discussion of the unique instrumentation and performance practice encapsulated in this piece as a result of my close work with Wet Ink over the last several years. The paper concludes with an examination of my dual role as a composer and performer in this piece and in my work in general, and with a brief discussion of social and gender-theoretical issues that inform my work as a female composer.

With women's increased education and labor market participation in the last few decades the labor market has changed considerably. At the same time the interaction between household activities and work have been constantly evolving, affecting household dynamics and family outcomes, such as fertility, marriage and divorce. The first chapter explores the effect of unrestricted access to the birth control pill on young people's career plans, using annual surveys of college freshmen from 1968 to 1980. In particular it addresses the question of who was affected by the introduction of the birth control pill by looking at career plans of both men and women, and by separating the effect by level of academic ability and race. The results show that unrestricted access to the pill caused high ability women to move towards occupations with higher wages, higher occupational prestige scores and higher male ratios. The estimated effects for women with low grades and from low selectivity colleges are in the opposite direction. Men were also affected by unrestricted access to the pill, as their aspirations shifted towards traditionally male dominated occupations, across all ability groups. The biggest effect of unrestricted access to the pill is found to be on non-white students, both among men and women. The paper uses Census Data to compare the changes in career plans to actual changes in labor market outcomes. When looking at the actual career outcomes, early access to the pill affects both men and women -- shifting their careers towards traditionally male dominated occupations associated with higher wages. Early access to the pill is also associated with significantly higher actual income for men. In the second chapter I look at the relationship between increased access to reliable fertility controls and men's disappearance from teaching. As the pill has been found to have a substantial effect on women's family responsibilities, career investments and labor market outcomes, men's bargaining position in the marriage market is likely to have changed considerably. Teaching stands out among the career choices of male college freshmen in terms of average income and prestige. The effect of the shift in bargaining power on men's career choices is hence likely to be prominent in the teaching sector. Between 1968 and 1980, the ratio of male college freshmen planning to become a teacher fell from 12.4% to 2.4% and the share of males among those who aspired to teach dropped from 30.6% to 19.7%. Using nationally representative data on the career plans of college freshmen I find that unrestricted access to the birth control pill bears a negative relation to the likelihood that men plan to teach, while changes in the strength of teacher unions and relative wages of teachers have limited effect on their career plans. Men's aspirations shift away from teaching towards occupations that are associated with higher average income like accounting and computer programming. The results are supported by equivalent findings looking at actual career outcomes in the Census Data. The third chapter focuses on the role of discrimination and the possibility that education as a tool to reveal ability is more important among women than men. As social networks tend to run along gender lines and managers in the labor market are predominantly male, it may be more difficult for women to signal their ability without college credentials. Moreover, women may use education to signal their labor market attachment. A game theoretical model of racial discrimination and educational sorting, introduced by Lang and Manove (2011) is applied to examine the gender gap in schooling attainment. As the gender gap differs between demography groups, being more prominent for blacks and Hispanics, the model is estimated separately for each race or ethnicity group. Using data from the NLSY79, the results in the paper are consistent with a model where education is more valuable to women, due to signaling. As predicted by the model, education as a function of ability (measured with AFQT scores) is more concave for women than for men. For over 88 % of the whites in the sample women choose higher level of education given their ability, than do men. On the other hand, the model fits the data better for whites than for blacks and Hispanics, and therefore fails to explain the observed differences across race and ethnicity groups.

This dissertation considers discourses bearing on the social dynamics of immigration and postcolonial diversity in contemporary France in light of their interconnections with issues of sexuality and assimilation. Synthesizing and building on recent work by anthropologists, sociologists and cultural theorists it explores the current debate over French identity--a debate that has to a considerable extent revolved around the impact of recent postwar immigration to France and the "integration" of immigrants on the cultural level, and of which a recent symptom has been the Sarkozy government's launch of a public national debate about "l'identité nationale" (national identity). Overall, my project focuses on the intermingling of the cultural and the political in cultural representations of immigrants and their descendants. Specifically, I consider the highly charged terrain of the representation of sexuality. In the discourse on laïcité (secularism) and integration, gender norms and tolerance of homosexuality have emerged as key components and are now often employed to highlight immigrants' "un-French" attitudes. I argue that, as French and immigrant identities have been called into question, sexuality has constituted a favored prism through which to establish the existence of difference. Through the study of cultural representations of immigration, I will explain how the potential of immigrants and their descendants to assimilate is often judged according to the "fitness" of their attitudes about sexuality. I will further argue that the successful assimilation of immigrants often follows a "required" phase of sexualization, in which the sexuality of the immigrant becomes his or her main marker, the primary factor through which the immigrant is intelligible, beyond other possibly relevant criteria.