Being and inviting full selves into academia is about marginalized and minoritized academics, teachers, and students investing in marginalized academics, teachers, and students. This autoethnographic and qualitative interview-based research starts to re-/co-author a new kind of academia; an academia based on care and consent which uplifts instead of tears down, and which centers crip, feminist, and queer justice. / Doctor of Philosophy / In this work, I discuss the possibilities that are opened by bringing your whole self into the institution of academia as a student, teacher, and/or researcher. A Pedagogy of the Full Self is about creating a new scholastic arena where those who face oppression are welcomed wholeheartedly as though they always belonged. I discuss how identities of gender, ethnicity, race, class, and dis/ability can impact student learning, faculty teaching, and researchers developing new information and I emphasize the role of clear communication in the process of developing new ways to learn, create, and share knowledge.

The aim of this study is to make visible and analyze how male subordination is described and which ideals of masculinity are highlighted as worthy of aspiration in material from internet personality Andrew Tate. The material consists of interviews and podcasts that are available on the internet. The analysis draws on a qualitative content analysis, in which three feminist perspectives are used as an analytical lens for interpreting the material: liberal feminism, radical feminism and queer theory. The results show that male subordination is described as coming from an inverted gender order, a matriarchy, as well as inherent differences between the nature of the sexes that inhibit men. Among these inherent differences is a male sense of duty and a societal view of male value as lower than female. The results also show that violence, dampening of emotions, and money constitute masculinity traits that are highlighted as desirable. Tate's view of male subordination and ideals of masculinity is characterized by a tendentious argument that collides with the three feminist perspectives. Thus, it is possible to understand Tate's approach as anti-feminist, which is consistent with research on, among other things, the Manosphere that Tate can be connected to.

Through a large-scale installation called mantle, I explore how the queer body becomes uncanny to the home through a human sized dollhouse and using scenic design ideas. Home for many is a safe place, but for queers, it can be a difficult one, wrought with not belonging in a childhood of heteronormativity. Being stuck in that heteronormative space is what I communicate through a stage set, composed of four theater flats, printed and collaged wallpaper, free-standing photos mounted on MDF, a giant necklace in a separate room, and impromptu pieces made in the space.

This master’s thesis documents the dramaturgical exploration of the spring 2018 University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Theater’s production of gender non-conforming performance artist Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge. The thesis is separated into two parts. The first half focuses on my dramaturgical analysis of Mac’s play and its exploration of queer temporality and queer embodiment, asserting the importance of queer aesthetics in American drama and its vital role in shaping the future of LGBTQIA+ politics in the United States. The second half includes reflections on rehearsal processes and performances, giving readers and fellow artists examples of the potential of queer dramaturgical practices that are products of LGBTQIA+ theater and politics in the United States. These reflections show the application of research to rehearsal processes into theatrical performances as directed, designed, and performed by graduate and undergraduate students at UMass Amherst Department of Theater, located in Amherst, Massachusetts, thus giving a trajectory of how the queer and feminist theories written into the play are manifested into a full production through collaborative design, movement, staging, and performance. Drawn from my discoveries while working on The Lily’s Revenge as production dramaturg, I have shaped my own style of collaborative “queer dramaturgy” with the director and designers, hopefully, opening new entry points of future explorations for queer dramaturgs to synthesize theory and practice onto the stage with collaborators from all disciplines and identities.

The protagonists of the novel, Vedantika Ojha (12) and Cyka Ho (13), meet when the latter starts working as a domestic help in the former’s house. They live in a conflict-ridden town in India which is the site of one of the world’s longest ongoing guerilla rebellions, the Naxalite-Maoist insurgency. The girls seem to have little in common. Vedantika resides in a big house with razor spikes on the boundary walls. She is a queer neurodivergent 7th grader who has unstable relationships with everyone, including the reader. Cyka, who lives in the slums, is confident and charming. She stands up for herself because she knows that no one else will. She is all too familiar with the violent streets that Vedantika has so far been sheltered from. However, a closer look reveals that the girls share an absence. Cyka’s family was displaced from their village due to coal mining. She belongs to one of the indigenous tribes who have historically co-existed with nature without capitalizing on its resources. But their lands are now being taken over by the neoliberal government. Her people must revolt to survive. On the other hand, Vedantika’s mother has left her family to take up a job in Delhi. While Cyka pines for her village, Vedantika pines for her mother. Their respective losses become the basis of the bond that develops between them despite their dissimilar contexts.

Searching for Afrekete is a hybrid collection of poems, epistles, a short story, and an essay conveying a search for a queer God. This god is reflected from Audre Lorde’s seminal work ZAMI. Each genre represents a quest to find, lay bare feelings, and be in conversation with the god, trickster, and mother Afrekete who encapsulates these personas according to some seminal scholars in dialogue with ZAMI. This collection is a lament and affirmation of black, queer life and spirituality.

Syftet med detta självständiga arbete är att belysa några transpersoners erfarenheter av sin röstanvändning samt sitt deltagande i sångundervisning. Undersökningen genomfördes utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där fyra transpersoner med erfarenhet av individuell samt gruppbaserad sångundervisningen intervjuades i halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna spelades in, transkriberades, och analyserades sedan utifrån en fenomenografisk ansats. Resultatet består av två olika utfallsrum; uppfattningar gällande röst samt uppfattningar gällande sångundervisning. I utfallsrummet gällande röst framkommer uppfattningar om att rösten är fundamental för ens identitet, att röstanvändning kan ge upphov till både positiva och negativa känslor samt att vissa faktorer i rösten som påverkar könsuttrycket är svåra att styra själv. Transspecifika erfarenheter vid röstanvändning som framkommer är könsdysfori, könseufori samt upplevelser av röstförändringar till följd av könsbekräftande behandling. I utfallsrummet gällande sångundervisning framkommer uppfattningar om att det finns transexkluderande praktiker i sångundervisning, att sångundervisning skulle kunna utformas på ett mer transinkluderande sätt, samt att det är viktigt att lärare har transspecifik kompetens. Aspekter som bör reflekteras över vid transinkluderande undervisning är bland annat användandet av könande begrepp, gruppindelning och repertoarval. Läraren bör även lyssna på elevens önskemål angående utformningen av utbildningen.

After a thwarted assassination attempt, renowned poet Sappho is forced into exile in ancient Sicily, where her hubris and terrible advice on love from Aphrodite jeopardizes her dreams of artistic greatness.

This research employs qualitative methodology to analyze social change in business news articles of The New York Times. A random sample of 127 articles published between 1970 and 2000, discussing advertising news and containing one or more of the terms "Gay", "Lesbian", " Bisexual", "Transexual", "Transgendered" and "Queer" (GLBTQ), were selected. Feminist, Marxist, Postmodern, and critical theory is used to analyze social representation, cultural norms, stereotypes and levels of visibility. The "meta-theoretical" lens applied is a gendered postmodernism grounded in stratification theory that assuages the cultural-based critique of Marxism, overcomes the essentialist limitations of radical feminism, incorporates the pluralism of socialist feminism and delimits the relativist tendencies of a purer postmodernism. Quantitatively, gay men were found to achieve twice as much business news coverage as lesbians. Bisexuals, transsexuals, transgenders and queers were highly invisible. Overall, a change in the representation and depiction of corporate interest in gays and lesbians was manifested. This socio-historical analysis revealed a shift from deviantization and stigmatization of homosexuality to the commodification, and spectacularization of GLBTQs. GLBTQ invisibility is documented and the misconception of gay and lesbian wealth, created by market research, is addressed. Invisibility of GLBTQs is posited to be both an intentional and actively managed form of politics. Furthermore, business news reporting is argued to be less "objective" and more a political, social cultural and political activity where the media itself is a stage for the cultural contestation of social norms. This sociologically informed reading of business news articles details numerous case-specific instances where The New York Times contributed towards the proliferation of norms, values and beliefs characterizing GLBTQs. The New York Times is argued to be a contributor towards the creation of sexuality as a cultural product. Its representations of GLBTQs are seen as one manifestation of an institutionally created understanding of the "culture of homosexuality". / Ph. D.

Under the hopeful atmosphere of Turkey's accession to full membership to European Union, Turkey became oriented towards realizing extensive legal and constitutional amendments, as well as juridical reforms in restructuring the contemporary body of law and judicial institutions based on the promise of strengthening access to justice mechanisms and improving human rights laws and practices in Turkey that was shaped by the discourses of democratic governance, rule of law, and economic progress. At the beginning of the second decade of 2000, the affective atmosphere in Turkey abruptly changed by a series of national and international crises, leading into an impasse in the ordinary life in Turkey. This dissertation aims to examine the promise of legal change as the history of the present of law and legal practice in Turkey. Focusing on everyday personal and professional practices of avukats (attorneys) in addressing the legal issues of gender and sexuality, I explore how the narratives of legal change historically inform the aesthetic formation of the contemporary body of law, as well as the differences between ordinary and professional bodies. Building on theories of affect and queer theories, I argue that the law constitutes both a historical site of socio-cultural belonging and an everyday social space within and through which professional bodies become oriented towards generating the possibilities of socio-legal change, depending how their personal and professional experiences and encounters shape their everyday legal practices and how they reside within judicial and professional positionalities in practicing the law. / Doctor of Philosophy / Starting from early 2000s, the contemporary body of law and judicial institutions underwent drastic changes, which accelerated by Turkey's accession to full membership to European Union. Under the discourses of democratic governance, rule of law, and economic progress, Turkey realized extensive legal and constitutional amendments, as well as juridical reforms with an emphasis on strengthening access to justice mechanisms and improving human rights laws and practices in Turkey. A series of national and international crises, which broke out at the begging of the second decade of 2000s, led Turkey to enter into a political and economic deadlock. In this dissertation, I examine the historical meanings attributed to the body and practice of law in discussing how the legal professional bodies are affected from the recent crises. Focusing on everyday personal and professional practices of avukats (attorneys) in addressing the legal issues of gender and sexuality, I explore how the historical narratives concerning legal change shaped the conventions of the form and content of the law, as well as the differences between the personal and professional identities. I argue that law constitutes a historical site in which socio-cultural norms and hierarchies are negotiated and a social space within and through which professional bodies negotiate the possibilities of social change, depending on how they shape their everyday personal and professional practices and how they position themselves within judicial and professional relations.