Historians of the American South have been diverse in their descriptions of the master-slave relationship over the last half-century, and have engaged in lengthy discussions in an attempt to answer the intricate question of what life was like between slaves and their masters. The phenomenon of slave runaways has perhaps offered the most convincing evidence of the troubles on southern plantations, which has been used in recent decades to emphasize negotiation and agency in the shaping of master-slave relations. The last twenty years have been consequently marked by a plethora of studies that accentuate non-traditional slave holding as it becomes clearer that masters had to compromise with their human chattel. Through an examination 9,975 runaway slave advertisements and 943 testimonies of former slaves, this study illustrates how black bondsmen absented themselves so to negotiate the terms of their working and living conditions. It traces the acts of individual slave runaways in place of broader generalizations that have for a long time contributed to some of the myths and legends of American slavery through examination of the many reasons that slaves chose to stay in bondage.

Jessica Bell’s MFA thesis exhibition, All things being equal., presents the very idea of constructing a painting as a way of making sense of the world. Simple materials and formal devices make allusions to ordinary events and experiences. The works bear the marks of incidental studio occurrences, which conjure a conversation between the will of objects and the artist’s intention to activate them. Canvas and stretchers appear like characters, assuming the posture of active participants instead of subservient structure. The pieces engage with and resonate in one another, emphasizing the temporal relationship with the physical space. The forms are deliberately abstract and minimal, drawing our attention to subtle differences in the surfaces of material, gentle play with volume and light, and the quiet passage of time. All things being equal. was exhibited at the Ottawa Art Gallery’s Firestone Gallery in Ottawa from August 21 through September 13, 2015.

Cyberfeminist scholars have identified the Internet as a site where feminist issues are substantiated. This exploratory study investigates young women’s lived experiences of agency within online social networking, also looking at the ways in which their assertion of agency is constrained. Analysis identified four biographically consistent identity narratives within which participants experienced online agency, each with a unique operationalization of agency, constraints upon agency, and role of a heteronormative boyfriend. Identity narratives tended to invoke socially- and media-entrenched representations of how to ‘properly’ perform ‘girl’ online, including stereotypes of girls vigilantly managing online risk or portraying themselves as professional, ethically sensible, family-oriented, or popular and celebrity-oriented. However, these representations were also inherently conflictual, presenting incompatible expectations that were difficult to simultaneously negotiate. In conclusion, this study recommends that future research and policy abandon patriarchal, neoliberal underpinnings in favour of deconstructing problematic stereotyped representations of femininity within online spaces.

The topic of my master thesis is the valuation of Pixelfield, s.r.o. company. The introduction and the theoretical part present basic and advanced procedure with valuating a company. An emphasis is put on the financial analysis and on the financial plan. In the practical part I apply and analyze findings on a company, which makes business in digital marketing and IT. The primary objective is to apply the theoretical knowledge and valuate the company according to the official proceeding. The secondary objective is to confront the valuation with a real situation - that means the real amount of money that possible investors offer. Further I use other possible solutions how to valuate a company and again to confront it with a real situation.

This thesis describes preparing media concept for travel agency

The University of ManchesterNatalie Dietrich JonesPhD Development Policy and ManagementThe ma(r)king of complex border geographies and their negotiation by undocumented migrants: The case of Barbados2013ABSTRACTUsing Barbados as a case study, this thesis examines the relationship between agency, undocumentedness and borders. The relationship between these three concepts has been debated in a well-established European and North American literature; however, there is no similar body of work for the Caribbean, a space which since its genesis has been shaped by b/ordering practices. Through a stratified view of the border, it explored the discursive and non-discursive (material) factors which constrained migrants’ existence, and migrants’ agentic response to these constraints. The timing of fieldwork meant that the location’s geography, as well as migrants’ narratives, was marked by a recent amnesty exercise. In addition to ‘talk’ the research also relied on text, in the form of government and other legal documents relating to the management of migration. The research is therefore based on a combination of narrative and critical discourse analysis, espousing the methodological eclecticism that is encouraged in critical realist methodology. The study makes an important contribution to the field of border studies, based on its exploration of the relationship between a complex border ontology and migrant agency. The principal finding is that borders create complex geographies, which operate at varying spatial scales. The thesis thus provides an enhanced theorization of border(s), in particular as it relates to conceptualizations of space, suspect status, governmentality, and agency.

Abstract available to download.

The dilemma of accounting for race, class and equity in admission to university education is not a new one. And yet it remains a heated debate and an unsolved problem to this day. The grey areas surrounding this dilemma far outweigh the proverbial black and white. This study argues that the equity dilemma may have much to do with the way access is granted into university and aimed to offer actionable alternatives to the debate surrounding the equity dilemma: should access be granted – in attempt to redress past inequalities - on the basis of race or class? By focusing on race and/or class, we may misread the underlying signals of agency and resilience in students who work against disadvantage, even at times thrive in the face thereof, and transcend (or has the potential to transcend) all of these imposed restrictions and obstacles. In the field of education, the figure of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu looms large, and for this reason, amongst others, I mainly draw on his ideas to expand on how I came to understand this interplay between educational disadvantage as structure and the ability of some students to succeed, as agency. Yet, I did not find sociological notions of agency completely satisfactory in my attempts to understand why some students excel despite challenges and hence attempted to enrich the sociological notion of agency with a complimentary focus on the psychological concept of resilience. Consequently, my argument was that if resilience and agency is demonstrated by a student and can be perceived, it must be possible to assess it and to determine, before allowing a student access to university whether he/she is in possession of such traits. This was to be done by examining a biographical questionnaire (BQ) for its usefulness in identifying resilient-agency (R-A) and then, if it is found to be useful, implement such a BQ to augment placement at the University of Pretoria. The BQ was administered to two cohorts of students in 2012 (n=118) and 2013 (n=229) respectively. The data from the BQ was used to identify interview participants and interviews were consequently conducted with seven participants. A narrative analysis was done on the qualitative and quantitative data whereby the data was restoried into narratives. With the permission of the Registrar, the first-year marks of the students were added and organised into the narratives. A thematic analysis of the narrative was done and elucidated through the inclusion of the theoretical framework underpinning this study. Various questions arose in grappling with the positioning of the concepts resilience and agency in this study and specifically into the narratives. In wresting with them, a shift in my own theoretical understanding of these two concepts led to the investigation of a possible amalgamation of the two terms. As a result, a new conceptual language is introduced that builds on resilience and agency. The contribution of this study is found in the identification and discussion of the potential indicators for resilient-agency (R-A) as identified from the narratives presented and positioning them in such a way that they inform the future development of the BQ into an instrument that has the potential to identify R-A and therefore augment the process of university admissions and effectively address the equity dilemma. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Sociology / PhD / Unrestricted

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / The choice of topic for the research paper was influenced by my experiences of attending university as an adult student and contemporary policy developments. In its White Paper for Post School Education (2013) the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) expresses intentions to expand access to post-school education for all people of all ages, including adults. The research paper focuses on the relationships between access, barriers to participation and success related to adult students who attended a university.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地域研究) / 甲第22559号 / 地博第262号 / 新制||地||99(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院アジア・アフリカ地域研究研究科東南アジア地域研究専攻 / (主査)教授 速水 洋子, 准教授 伊藤 正子, 准教授 小林 知, 教授 松岡 悦子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Area Studies / Kyoto University / DGAM