This dissertation traces the literary and cultural phenomenon of “bad readers” across a range of Greek and Latin texts from the late first to late second centuries CE. By jointly engaging the framework of book history with the insights of feminist, queer, critical theory, it offers a methodology for understanding why certain readerly embodiments and modes are stigmatized for deviating from the hegemonic norm, and how the contested space of reading intersects with negotiations of power, embodiment, and identity. I argue that “bad readers” are not “bad” in any inherent or universal sense, but rather that “bad readers” intersect with particular literary, cultural, and ideological agendas. I also show how “bad readers” help illuminate the broader material, social networks that are adumbrated by books as objects in antiquity, thus contributing to recent work that has emphasized the importance of situating “reading” within its ancient, sociocultural context. At the same time, this study lays bare how such work has also tended to leave the question of modern readerly poses and politics to the side. Ultimately, this study shows how literary representations of “bad readers” offer a powerful locus for telling a different story about books and reading in the ancient Mediterranean, as well as a lens for theorizing how certain hermeneutic modes in the discipline today participate in and reproduce hierarchies of power.

Normative ideas of what it means to be a ‘good’ parent can often come into conflict with non-monogamy. This thesis explores how non-monogamous parents living in Sweden adhere to certain normative relationship and family practices, while rejecting others. Additionally, this thesis identifies some of the counternormative strategies that non-monogamous parents integrate into their parenting practices. This research is based on data that was collected through nine semi-structured interviews with twelve non-monogamous parents living in Sweden. This data was then analyzed primarily using theoretical frameworks from within the fields of queer studies. Furthermore, concepts of queer kinship and family formation are utilized in order to understand the experiences of the participants. This study reveals that ideals around what it means to be a ‘good’ parent can create hardship for non-monogamous parents who do not adhere to mononormative family structures. The fear of facing stigma, conflict, or the loss of social relationships serves as a strong motivating factor for non-monogamous parents to maintain some normative family practices, such as dyadic parenting dynamics, child-centered lifestyles, and rigid familial borders. At the same time, many parents exercise small, daily acts of counterresistance to these pressures. Motivation for these practices often lies in the desire to open up possibilities for their children to live their lives in a free and authentic way, regardless of their gender, sexuality, or relationship orientation.

This study examines how poetry can be understood as intersectional activism. Doing intersectional activism can be expressed in many different forms, and there is also no consensus in Sweden on how the intersectional perspective should be used or handled in academic, political and activist contexts. Based on performativity theory, intersectionality and gagafeminism, this study explores the potential of using artistic strategies such as poetry to deal with feminist intersectional issues in activism.  The study more specifically examine how the poet Yolanda Bohm does intersectional activism in her performance "Icon Medley".

Through qualitative interviews with three people who identify as queer this essay studies identity in relation to two main discourses about the nature of being queer, which can be understood as the essentialist and the constructivist arguments. In previous research it is suggested that these discourses can be problematic for self-identification of queer individuals, if these discourses are seen to go against each other. The participants of this essay show, despite the expectations set by previous research, that these discourses are helpful in order to better understand themselves. However, the results show that there are other anti-queer discourses, found in media, culture and religion, that can lead to larger feelings of experienced discrimination. The participants are also second-generation immigrants, which has been taken into the analysis. Discursive and queer theory, and perspectives of intersectionality, are used to interpret the results and their relevance for social work. / Följande uppsats handlar om hur queeridentitet utvecklas mot bakgrunden av två samhällsdiskurser, nämligen den essentialistiska diskursen och den konstruktivistiska diskursen. I tidigare forskning föreslås att den essentialistiska och den konstruktivistiska diskursen kan påverka människans queera identitet negativt, ifall dessa anses att gå emot varandra. Deltagarna av denna studie visar däremot att diskurserna kan vara till hjälp för att bättre förstå sig själva, om dessa betraktas istället som motpoler i ett spektrum. För att uppnå syftet har tre livsberättelser samlats in. Resultaten visade också att det finns andra problematiska diskurser som påverka den queera identiteten negativt, såsom mediala, kulturella och religiösa diskurser. Deltagarna som ingår i studien är tre personer som identifierar sig som queera och som har utländskt ursprung. Med stöd i teorin och tidigare forskning, har deras etniska identitet också tagits i analysen. Analysen har genomförts, ur ett intersektionellt perspektiv, med hjälp av diskursiv- och queer teori. Diskussionen, och uppsatsen i överlag, presenterar kunskaper som bidrar till social arbetarens ökade förståelse inom den queera målgruppen.

The thesis elaborates upon a question which literary techniques Jeanette Winterson applies in her novels The Passion and Written on the Body to portray queer body. The thesis conceptualizes queer body as crystallizing in discontinuous relationships between the categories of sex, gender identity and compulsory heterosexuality within Butlerian heterosexual matrix. The possibility of discontinuous relationships between them - gender disorder - is realised in the act of beholding queer body. Conceptualization of queer body embedded within the Butlerian heterosexual matrix has not been elaborated upon in the full scope of Jeanette Winterson's work. Literary criticism deals with the body in Written on the Body, not, however, in the context of Butlerian model of heterosexual matrix. Articulation of queer body is realized by deconstructive techniques of Jeanette Winterson's writing. These are comprised in the motifs of mirroring in The Passion and palimpsest in Written on the Body. Ontological anxiety in The Passion brings queer body. Magic realism in the novel gives queer body magical skills which make gender disorder possible. Queer body is abject in the novel. In Written on the Body genderless narrator describes queer body as his/her body. It is an adorable and morbid body. The queer body in this novel...

Black Queer students in the United States did not ask to be born into a social world where being both Black and Queer are associated with stigma and marginalized oppression they did not contribute or consent to. Acknowledging that too often, the unique needs of and contributions made by Black Queer public middle and high school students in the United States are absent within research, policymaking, and practice, this dissertation seeks to fill a gap in the existing literature by exploring essential characteristics and features of informal educational programs and activities (IEPAs) from the perspective of Black Queer middle and high school students. Informal educational programs and activities are sites of possibility that have a long history in the African American tradition of learning and development. IEPAs are supported by public investments at every level of government. Specifically, this dissertation employs a secondary analysis of GLSEN's 2017 School Climate Survey (School Climate Survey) dataset to examine the relative impact of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and demographic variables on how frequently Black Queer public school students attend informal educational programs and activities. Quantitative analysis is enhanced by interviews with Black Queer public middle and high school graduates, split by gender and program participation. I find that Queer Black youth are more likely to participate in IEPAs when they are older, in urban areas, out to their peers, and in school contexts where they do not feel respected, feel unsafe because of their gender, are subject to policies that preclude bathroom choice, and observe symbols in their schools conveying that they are safe spaces. Some interpersonal and school context factors are significant for trans and non-binary/non-conforming students. I conclude with recommendations for the design of school programs and policies that can enable youth with multiple marginalized identities to thrive.

In previous research biological sex and gender are defined as the same thing, which has lead to a misconception of Gender. However, the notion of stereotypes being connected to a sex is inevitable. While this may not be true in each and every game, drastic underrepresentation becomes a problem. It is a self-perpetuating cycle; designing for a target group that is constructed from a stereotype, that stereotype then dictates the norm for the target group and society adapts to fit that norm. This cycle has to break, as people are not stereotypes. Our hypothesis is that a queer perspective could provide a more nuanced spectrum of gender thus making games more inclusive for a broader audience. We will test this by using a queer theoretical approach to discourse analysis of segments from the game: Dragon Age: Origins ™ (2009). We chose this game for the chance to explore the possibilities for self-expression and sexuality in an environment which allows a more complex relationship between characters.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att genom en textanalys undersöka hur genus och sexualitet konstrueras i ungdomsböckerna Jag, En (David Levithan 2013) och Gilla ”Hata horan!” (Johanna Nilsson 2012). Problemformuleringen och dess relevans har en stark koppling till skolans värdegrund, således undersöker jag även hur dessa texter skulle kunna ligga till grund för ett värdegrundsarbete utifrån just genus och sexualitet. I min uppsats utgår jag från nyss nämnda begrepp som sociala, och kulturella, konstruktioner. För att synliggöra genus använder jag mig utav Maria Nikolajevas motsatsschema över vad som anses vara stereotypt manligt och kvinnligt och jag antar även ett queerteoretiskt förhållningssätt där jag tittar på hur genus och sexualitet skapas i förhållande till heteronormen. I båda böcker finns könsstereotypa karaktärer och man kan se kopplingar mellan genus och makt i båda böcker, dock främst i Gilla ”Hata horan!”. Jag, En erbjuder, trots vissa normativa karaktärer och strukturer, många identifikationspositioner för läsaren och frångår till stor del heteronormen. Båda böcker har didaktisk potential när det kommer till att koppla läsningen till skolans värdegrund rörande genus, sexualitet och könsroller, dock med olika ingångar.

Frank Norris's novel McTeague can be read as an intense reflection on the limitations of language surrounding fluid sexualities in late-nineteenth century America. Through a queer theoretical lens, I examine the ways in which Norris collapses his characters and narrative in order to demonstrate those limits. Trina and McTeague suffer acutely from their inability to articulate their sexualities, and the narrator of the novel does little to compensate for the characters\' failure to speak. The novel, which is a collection of broken genres, further exposes the fact that various kinds of rigid narrative forms cannot sufficiently frame or articulate fluid sexualities. Through character, narrative, and genre breakdown, Norris reflects how the nineteenth century's lack of language regarding those who occupy a variety of sexualities can tear people and language apart. / Master of Arts

In this thesis, I have analyzed and problematized the discourse surrounding And Then We Danced (2019) dir. Levan Akin, by analyzing the film itself by using concepts from Pierre Bourdieu, and investigating what role the film has played in the call for action regarding LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia. I sought out to answer the research questions of how the film And Then We Danced (2019) portrays how one can adapt ones habitus and social field, how the film provoked the political discussion about LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia, and how the reception the film received reflected where Georgia, Sweden and the EU stands regarding the road to LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia. Using Bourdieu, I came to the conclusion that the film portrays how one can adapt ones habitus and social field through Merab’s character arc in the film, and the director used his cultural capital (embodied, institutionalized, and objectified) to not only produce the film itself, but giving a social subfield (Georgia’s LGBTQ+ community) acknowledgment and recognition by involving them in his film. Because of the reaction the film received, it amplified the need for social change in Georgia, reaching news across the globe, putting the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Georgia on the global political agenda. The way the reception the film received reflected where Georgia, Sweden and the EU stands regarding the road to LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia is quite accurate to where they stand politically regarding the issue. Georgia is divided on the issue as they both protested against the film while simultaneously selling out out all of their tickets to see the film, Sweden remained supportive and proud of the film throughout the entire process, and the EU much like Georgia is quite divided as they both funded the film, but does not have a united front on where they stand regarding the issue.