<p>From Labov's (1963) finding that the centralization of the /ay/ and /aw/ diphthongs in Martha's Vineyard was emblematic of resistance to local economic and social change, to Mendoza-Denton's (2008) finding that variation in the realization of the /I/ vowel corresponds to gang affiliation among Latina girls in a Northern California high school, identity has been at the center of sociolinguistic analysis and theory for nearly a half century. Despite the centrality of this construct, sociolinguists have rarely stopped to ask about the epistemological, theoretical, and even political implications of identity. This dissertation offers a sustained, interdisciplinary critique of identity, both in linguistics and more generally in contemporary social theory. Through engagements with cultural anthropology, feminist theory, cultural studies, and linguistics, this critique calls attention to identity's epistemological baggage (e.g. collusion with neo-liberalism and Englightenment-era humanism) and theoretical tendencies (e.g. overestimation of agency) and suggests a turn to poststructuralist theory of subject formation. The dissertation is organized around three sections: historiography, theory, and empiricism, as follows.</p><p> The study begins with historiography, tracing the relationship between language and social analysis in a limited archive that includes the work of 19th and 20th Century language scholars, including William Dwight Whitney, Leonard Bloomfield, and Noam Chomsky. Focusing specifically on the relationship between Labov's variationist sociolinguistics and Chomsky's generative program, the historiography analyzes the conditions that led sociolinguistics to a form of social theory scaffolded around identity. </p><p>Poststructuralist theory of subject formation is introduced, with an emphasis on the work of Judith Butler (1990, 1997, 2004) and Michel Foucault (1975, 1976, 1981). A set of terms that animate this framework are introduced, including interpellation, subjectivization, discourse, subjectivity, subject position, subject type, power, and identity.</p><p>Two empirical studies of adolescent language are introduced and the findings are considered in light of the constellation of terms introduced in the prior section. The first is a case study focusing on the speech of one adolescent Mexican American female, "María," whose language use underwent reorganization over a three-year period coinciding with a change in community and school. Segmental and suprasegmental variables were analyzed from data collected from two time periods, T1 and T2. In order to account for modifications in "María's" vocalic production, two vowel variables were selected for acoustic analysis: pre-nasal and non-pre-nasal allophones of /æ/. These variables were selected because of their saliency in both Latino varieties of English (Thomas, Carter, & Coggshall 2006; Fought 2003; Thomas 2001). Midpoint measurements were taken for F1, F2, and F3 for a minimum of 25 tokens of each variable from T1 and T2 using PRAAT phonetics software (Boersma & Weenink 2009). Maria's production of prosodic rhythm was also analyzed using the Pairwise Variability Index (Lowe & Grabe 1995). Changes in F1 and F2 for both vocalic variables were statistically significant--both allophones of /æ/ were lowered and backed from T1 to T2. Conversely, no statistically significant difference was found in prosodic rhythm. These findings are analyzed in the context of the poststructuralist framework already set forth.</p><p>The second study is an intensive ethnographic investigation of a `majority minority' middle school in North Carolina that took place over a five-month period. Detailed ethnographic fieldnotes and unscripted interviews with 50 African American, white, and Latino speakers in social groups identified during observation constitute the data for this study. The analysis focuses on the subjectivizing effects of the institution, particularly the institutional discourses of `choice' and `value,' on the cultural and linguistic practices of its students. Using discourse analytic methods, the analysis shows that talk by students across all major social divisions (grade level, popularity status, gender, and ethnicity) is inflected by institutional discourses. </p><p>A complementary analysis considers the subjectivizing function of language ideology in the middle school context. Analysis of interview and ethnographic field data show three distinct discursive formations about language: `proper talk,' `ghetto talk,' and Spanish.</p> / Dissertation

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Master of Arts / Department of History / Donald J. Mrozek / On 16 January 1991, a coalition of nations led by the United States launched a series of air strikes against Iraq to force that country to withdraw from Kuwait. What followed was an intense aerial bombardment of Iraqi military and civilian infrastructure which lasted until 24 February when the coalition began a ground offensive. After four days of ground fighting Iraq withdrew from Kuwait. American pictorial print media created a historical interpretation of the 1991 Persian Gulf War in the sense that selected images were immediately published to a broad audience and these images provided an acceptable story of the war. Perceptions of an Air Campaign examines the cultural meanings of the air war and how these meanings took shape in the narrative pictorial print media produced. The narrative is intricately related to the legacy of the Vietnam War. For generations, Americans viewed contemporary war, politics, foreign affairs, and culture through their memories of the U.S. defeat in Vietnam. President George H.W. Bush guaranteed the U.S. public that the Gulf War was consciously being constructed to avoid a conflict similar to Vietnam. According to the president, the United States was going to war with enough resources for a swift and decisive victory, thereby avoiding the Vietnam pitfall of an open-ended conflict. Pictorial print media articulated a narrative displaying U.S. military strength and dominance that fulfilled Bush’s promise.

Cette thèse a pour objectif de développer un savoir empirique dans les domaines de la parenté et de juridicité et s’est intéressée à comprendre comment la société Mossi au Burkina Faso et ses agents sociaux s’adaptent à l’intégration de référents juridiques exogènes. Plus précisément, il s’agit de déterminer quelles sont les conséquences du pluralisme juridique, tant au niveau du vécu que des processus, dans la gestion des conflits matrimoniaux. Le mariage comme agent classificatoire et d’ordonnance a permis une reconstruction de l’organisation sociale et des structures de la parenté et, ainsi de mieux comprendre la justice coutumière qui sous-tend l’ensemble des relations sociales. Dans ce contexte, on assiste à l’apparition de nouvelles subjectivités et d’identités créées par la synthèse de la pluralité des corpus législatifs locaux et importés. La confrontation d’archétypes différents révèle des traits culturels inédits engendrant une réalité nouvelle notamment par un métissage des pratiques et des représentations. Ce pluralisme juridique génère en outre un phénomène de « forum shopping », soit le développement d’une diversité de stratégies médiatrices parmi lesquelles les justiciables naviguent selon les situations conflictuelles, des trajectoires qui ont été analysées à partir du concept de la perception de la justice. / This thesis aims to contribute to the development of empirical knowledge in the scientific fields of legal anthropology and the study of kinship in Burkina Faso. More to the point, it focuses on the understanding of the consequences of legal pluralism in matrimonial dispute cases among the Mossi society in Koudougou, the country’s third most populous city. Marriage is a social indicator and a fundamental institution which allows the reconstruction of the social organization and kinship systems, a process which highlights the transversal effect of customary justice. This situation of legal pluralism induces the creation of processes such as innovation, resistance and legal interbreeding. It engenders a phenomenon of forum shopping, whereby social actors navigate through a multiplicity of tactics, among several legal orders, and is being analyzed through the lens of the perception of justice concept.

Les duels de rap sont souvent définis dans la littérature sociologique comme étant des échanges d’insultes ou des joutes verbales improvisées. Ces définitions risquent de biaiser la compréhension du phénomène, puisque les chercheurs auront tendance à ne relever que les aspects qui vont dans le sens des définitions choisies au début de l’analyse qui, en plus, sont très réductrices et contextuelles. En adoptant une perspective évolutionnaire, il est possible d’ancrer l’analyse dans un cadre plus large, car basé sur des tendances motivationnelles universelles, pouvant servir comme un point de départ objectif à l’analyse. En ce sens les duels de rap peuvent être considérés comme des concours de compétences pour un statut conféré par le public (hypothèse de départ) où les participants tentent de surpasser leurs adversaires (hypothèse 1), tentent de conquérir le public (hypothèse 2), et reçoivent certains bénéfices en liens avec le statut grâce à leurs performances (hypothèse 3). Ces trois hypothèses évolutionnaires ont été confirmées par un examen systématique de cinq duels selon une grille d’analyse standardisée comportant 14 critères d’observations. Ces critères, regroupés en neuf prédictions, représentent les aspects variables et contextuels des duels de rap, tels que les niveaux et fréquences de dominance physique démontrés par chaque participant, d’interactions avec le public, de vers où ils se vantent et/ou rabaissent leur adversaire, de démonstrations des capacités artistiques, d’humour, et, pour le public, les niveaux d’acclamations des participants et les votes pour élire un vainqueur ou encore pour établir une hiérarchie entre les participants. L’utilisation d’un cadre évolutionnaire a donc permis d’intégrer les aspects motivationnels universels et les aspects variables contextuels dans l’étude des duels de rap, offrant ainsi une vision plus complète et nuancée du phénomène. De plus, le modèle présenté permet de s’interroger sur les liens entre les performances de chaque participant, l’appréciation relative qu’elles suscitent et le statut qui est attribué aux participants par le public. / Rap duels have been often described as exchanges of insults, or as freestyle competitions in the sociological literature. These definitions are not only highly reductionist and contextual, but they can also influence researchers to adopt a stereotypical image of what rap duels should look like, and only record the aspects that fit this image. By adopting an evolutionary perspective, it is possible to set the study in a larger framework which considers the universal motivational tendencies underlying social behavior in this context, and thus give a more objective starting point in the study of rap duels. With an evolutionary perspective, rap duels can be studied as a form of competition where participants display their competences in order to get status conferred by the public (initial hypothesis); where participants try to surpass their opponents (hypothesis 1); try to conquer the public (hypothesis 2); and improve their relative status in return for their performances (hypothesis 3). These three hypotheses were confirmed by the systematic examination of five duels, using a standardised analysis grid composed of 14 criteria. These criteria, forming together a set of nine predictions, describe the variable and contextual aspects of rap duels: 1) levels of physical dominance displayed by each participant; 2) levels of interaction with the public; 3) proportions of verses where they boast and/or demean their opponents; 4) the content of those verses; 5) levels of demonstrated artistic skills in rap; 6) humour; and, in terms of the public reactions, 7) the levels of acclamations and, 8) votes to elect a winner; and 9) votes to establish a hierarchical status between the participants. Applying this methodology, we see that using an evolutionary framework allows the integration of the universal motivational aspects and the more contextual and variable aspects of rap duels, and thus offering a more complete and nuanced vision of the phenomenon. Furthermore, this model proposes methods of quantifying links between the performances of each participant, the relative appreciation which they arouse in the public and the status which is attributed to the participants by the public.

Quel est l’état des relations entre les Autochtones et les nouveaux immigrants au Canada ? Existe-t-il une communauté de destin entre les populations nouvellement arrivées au Canada et les premiers peuples qui y étaient présents avant l’arrivée des colons européens ? Au-delà de leur différence, existe-t-il des similarités historiques, culturelles ou spirituelles entre ces deux groupes ? Ce sont les questions auxquelles se propose de répondre ce travail de recherche en se focalisant sur les mariages mixtes entre Autochtones et nouveaux immigrants. Après être revenus sur l’historique des relations entre ces deux entités et leur évolution jusqu’à nos jours, et avoir présenté les problématiques et les concepts liés à la notion de couple mixte, nous analyserons les extraits de différents d’entretiens réalisés avec des membres d’unions entre Autochtone et nouveaux immigrants ainsi que leurs enfants, afin de dégager des éléments de réponse relative à nos questionnements et tenter d’établir des faits concernant ce type d’unions. Ce travail de recherche se focalisera moins sur les couples en tant que tels que sur le ressenti qu’ils inspirent à leur entourage et aux communautés auxquelles ils appartiennent. De nombreux points seront abordé dans ce mémoire, notamment la question de la rencontre, celle de l’éducation des enfants ou encore les stratégies interculturelles mises en place par les membres de ces couples pour surmonter les éventuelles difficultés auxquelles ils doivent faire face dans leur vie quotidienne. / What is the state of relationships between Aboriginal people and new immigrants in Canada? Is there a community of destiny between the newly arrived populations in Canada and the first peoples who were there before the arrival of European settlers? Beyond their difference, are there historical, cultural or spiritual similarities between these two “groups”? These are the questions to be answered in this research by focusing on mixed marriages between Aboriginal and recent immigrants. After reviewing the history of the relations between these two entities and their evolution until today, and presenting the issues and concepts related to the notion of mixed couple, we will analyze the samples of various interviews with members of mixed unions between Aboriginal people and new immigrants and their children, in order to find some answers to our questions and to try to establish facts concerning this type of unions. This research work will focus less on couples as such than on the feelings they inspire in their entourage and the communities to which they belong. Many points will be expressed in this memoir, especially the question of the meeting, of the education of the children or the intercultural strategies put in place by the members of these couples to overcome the possible difficulties that they have to face in their daily life.

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and Keywords "In the World through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself." - Frantz Fanon In this thesis, one of my first aims, among others, is to discuss and put in perspective the different levels of identification that can coexist and contribute to the creation of a person. I want to understand the impact and the role played by the city in one's identity-building process by studying the self-perception of visibly black people in Prague and Paris. Why did I decide to work on blackness within the European context? I decided to work on blackness for many reasons, one being that blackness as much as whiteness are social constructs. However, when whiteness has a history of multiplicity, and white people are being granted individuality, blackness, on the other hand, is often seen as an encompassing term. Black people are perceived as a monolithic social group in every sense of the word, sharing the same history and past across the globe. It is because of the peculiarity of blackness, which is seen as a factor of global identity that I wanted to study that topic within Europe. Working on blackness in Europe is working on a topic that would look like an oxymoron. Indeed, Europe is associated with whiteness, and blackness is associated with Africa. Therefore, thinking about black Europeans or...

and Keywords "In the World through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself." - Frantz Fanon In this thesis, one of my first aims, among others, is to discuss and put in perspective the different levels of identification that can coexist and contribute to the creation of a person. I want to understand the impact and the role played by the city in one's identity-building process by studying the self-perception of visibly black people in Prague and Paris. Why did I decide to work on blackness within the European context? I decided to work on blackness for many reasons, one being that blackness as much as whiteness are social constructs. However, when whiteness has a history of multiplicity, and white people are being granted individuality, blackness, on the other hand, is often seen as an encompassing term. Black people are perceived as a monolithic social group in every sense of the word, sharing the same history and past across the globe. It is because of the peculiarity of blackness, which is seen as a factor of global identity that I wanted to study that topic within Europe. Working on blackness in Europe is working on a topic that would look like an oxymoron. Indeed, Europe is associated with whiteness, and blackness is associated with Africa. Therefore, thinking about black Europeans or...