This thesis looks into a current trend within the Christian community online, namely Christian YouTube channels. The thesis revolves around the channel Coffee and Bible Time, a channel run by three women, and asks two main researh questions: 1. Which theological arguments or values are expressed in Coffee and Bible Time regarding God, the Bible, and view of women, and how does the channel argue for these? and 2. What criticism can be aimed at the channel from a queer-feminist theological perspective? The theory and perspective used to research these questions is a queer-feminist theology, mainly inspired by theologians Linn Marie Tonstad and Susannah Cornwall. For this thesis, an analysis of ideas is used as the method for discovering the channel's views. Regarding the result, in sum, the channel has a high regard of the Bible as the highest authority in life, which impacts their view of God and of women. God is also the one with power in relation to human beings, while humans are viewed as sinful and weak. Women are usually talked about in relation to men, in future marital relationships.  Coffee and Bible Time is an interesting example of women who have authority online, and who are theologically serious. Their theological background is Evangelical Christianity, which usually has a conservative view regarding same-sex relationships. The queer-feminist theological critique looks at the channel's upholding of gender binaries, how the women talk (or do not talk) about same-sex relationships, alternative interpretations of the Bible, and the (sometimes harmful) power of sexuality.

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It is a difficult task to interpret historical silences, to investigate subjects that are largely missing in the archives. However, the writing of history must not stop because of that, but with the help of the small amount of material that exists, research must move forward and create more knowledge. One purpose of the essay is precisely this, to contribute with inspiration and knowledge about working with limited materials from marginalized groups. This particular essay is about lesbian living conditions during the 1940s in Stockholm and this is examined using documents from a police investigation during the time, that convicted five women by the swedish law against homosexuality, "fornication that is against nature". This court case is unique as it is the first case in swedish legal history where women have been convicted of homosexual acts. The source material is examined using text analysis, queer theory, queer phenomenology and gender theory. Through this method and theory formation, lesbian living conditions are studied based on factors such as identity, community, norms and attitudes. The main results show that the prevailing heteronormativity and gender order were both limiting and liberating for gay women in different situations and that there were different attitudes towards female homosexuality. The various investigated categories are also woven together in the final discussion and their connections and influence on each other are made visible. With this essay, the goal is to contribute to the research of historical lesbian living conditions as well as to contribute with historical role models for lesbians today.

This thesis uses a combination of medical humanities, queer public theory, and literary analysis to showcase the uniquely American connections between alcoholism and masculinity in the literature of Ernest Hemingway. By situating both Hemingway and his characters within the medico-legal rhetoric of modernism’s famous Parisian Jazz-age, which occurred at the same time as American prohibition, I reveal changes in white American men’s relationships with gender, bodily autonomy, and the patriarchy that are often overlooked due to Hemingway’s publicly constructed masculine persona. My work provides new queer interpretations of The Sun Also Rises (1926) and the posthumous Garden of Eden (1986) divorced from Hemingway’s masculine persona and critical of how celebrity and scholarship impacted the public reception of these novels and American masculinity as a whole. Through my analysis, I forward a new, uniquely American concept in the masculine gender performance I call the autonomy of masculinity.

My partner Zoë was killed in October 2013. We worked together as arts educators, mostly with people involved in the Canadian mental healthcare system. This thesis explores social conceptions of madness, drawing on theorists such as Tobin Siebers, Sara Ahmed, Lynne Huffer and Ann Cvetkovich, and engaging with works of art by people who have been involved in mental healthcare in some way. There is a simultaneous exploration of my process of grieving Zoë's death, drawing on the tradition of autocritique by writers such as bell hooks, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and others. Chapter one looks at poetry produced by the Workman Arts Group and a zine by Anna Quon, investigating the impact of diagnoses of mental illness on the reception of art and artists, as well as the history of silencing and confinement of mad bodies. Chapter two explores the memoirs of Bobby Baker and Merri Lisa Johnson, emphasizing the impact of diagnosis on those not already marginalized by society, and drawing attention to the kinds of communities that memoirs produce, as well as the connection between community, capitalism, and the grievability of life. Chapter three looks at the paintings, performance art and installations of Yayoi Kusama to complicate the connection between madness and celebrity power, as well as Kusama's own engagement with death and infinity. I conclude by looking briefly at the deaths of Michael Brown and Robin Williams, and again at my own grief one year after Zoë's death. / Thesis / Master of English

M. Tech. (Department of Visual Arts and Design: Fine Art, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / This study explores two artistic methods of enquiry in order to firstly better understand the lived experience and its contributions on the formation of sexuality and secondly, to explore how a method can dissect and interrogate a theoretical discourse such as Queer theory. The project takes a twofold approach. In the Practice-led Research (PLR) section, which constitutes the first part, I attempt to utilize PLR as a means of exploring the lived experience along with the artistic contributions PLR might have on the ideation process and identity construction I made use of journal writings as a means for data generation and artistic exploration. The second part of this study, utilizing Research-led Practice (RLP), I attempt to dissect and interrogate Queer theory and the ideation process involved with RLP. I analyse Queer theory as a starting point for my artistic productions and explore and compared the two approaches to one another with regards to the ideation process and the construction of the self. The main aim of this study was to use the strategies of PLR and RLP to interrogate the process of ideation generation. The study set out to achieve three objectives. Firstly, it compares and contrasts the research methods suggested by PLR and RLP, as both operate from different points of ideation. Secondly it compares and contrasts the type of insights (philosophical ideations) around homosexuality and Queer theory that arose from using the two different methods. Lastly it tentatively/speculatively assesses which of the two approaches worked for me both as an artist (the making/ideation process) and as a gay man (the personal philosophical ideation process). In chapter one I discuss the background to the study and where it is situated within academia. In chapter two I discuss the two methodologies namely PLR and RLP and how I made use of them in the artmaking process. In chapter three I discuss the findings of working with PLR. In chapter four I engage with the theoretical discourse of Queer theory. In chapter five I discuss RLP and how Queer theory influenced the artmaking process. In chapter six I conclude with the findings. This study allowed me to channel my lived experience as a valid method of inquiry along with PLR. I discovered that a gay identity is based on personal experiences and shaped by the body. My second body of work (RLP) allowed me to investigate and interrogate Queer theory and I found that a Queer identity sits within a continuum. Working with these two methodological approaches allowed me to expand and grow as both an artist and gay man. Tentatively I conclude that PLR worked effectively for me to achieve this growth, whereas the RLP approach I found somewhat confining. Yet, the RLP approach ‘forced’ me to reconsider my preconceptions and the conclusions I had reached using the PLR approach.

<p>Narratives of undocumented students reveal that, commonly, a shared concern of such youth is a sense of powerlessness in the school environment; this lack of control predominantly stems from legal restrictions and anti-immigrant sentiment among peers and staff (Chang, 2017). However, there is a danger in treating undocumented youth as a monolith, as well as in failing to recognize their agency (Abrego & Negrón-Gonzales, 2020). Autoethnography, as a methodology, is by its very nature an act of agency which allows vulnerable populations to deeply explore their own sensitive identities (Philaretou & Allen, 2006). This thesis thus highlights my own voice as an undocumented student by combining the temporality, sociality and place of narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) with critical autoethnography’s attention to social inequities (Adams, 2017). Critical reflections on my educational experiences, as they compare and contrast with narratives in existing literature, imagine possible futures in which pre- and in-service teachers may more equitably support undocumented students in the classroom. Additionally, research on undocumented students predominantly focuses on immigrants of Latinx origin, who constitute almost eighty percent of the undocumented population (Migration Policy Institute, 2019); under a queer theoretical framework, my identity as a White immigrant of European origin uniquely problematizes naturalized attitudes towards the racialization of undocumented status. </p>

The female gothic as a genre, with its emergence in the 19th century, has a history of critiquing women’s place in the domestic sphere by showcasing the horrors of the home. When The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was first published in 1959, it did so with both this historical genre background, as well as with a resurgence of traditional gender roles as an ideal. With the help of this context, this paper will do a queer reading of Jackson’s novel, highlighting the main character Eleanor’s queer longing for her friend Theodora. It will furthermore take into consideration Eleanor’s gender and the restrictions put on it during the time, especially concerning heteronormativity. To closer examine the relation between Eleanor and her desires, Hill House as a force will be analyzed. Although previous scholars have differing conclusions regarding Hill House, the most common one is Hill House as a patriarchal presence. However, Eleanor is also shown to be merging with Hill House during the narrative. To be able to combine these readings, as well as a queer reading, Sandra Lee Bartky’s reworking of Michel Foucault’s theories of internalization and self-surveillance will be used. This results in a queer reading of the novel where Hill House reflects Eleanor’s patriarchal internalization and acts as a self-surveilling force, disciplining her queer desires and finally resulting in her suicide. Ultimately, this essay argues that the character of Eleanor in The Haunting of Hill House has internalized patriarchal oppression and acts out disciplinary acts onto her own gender and sexuality through Hill House itself, which results in an overall textual critique of heteronormative ideals.