Cette thèse explore les reconfigurations contemporaines du féminisme en Italie, et en particulier les pratiques, les représentations et les narrations de femmes engagées contre l’homophobie et le racisme à partir des relations postcoloniales et d’un sens libre de la différence sexuelle.Ces femmes composent des ensembles de résistances où sont en train d’émerger des positionnements politiques nouveaux, dont les « devenirs engagées » excédent ou resignifient de façon inédite des catégories occidentales telles que « lesbienne », « féministe », « migrante », « culture » etc. Il s’agit de sujets excentriques qui travaillent les séparatismes dans les mouvements sociaux, et mettent en échec les polarisations idéologiques à partir d’expériences des différences agissant comme des instances conflictuelles vitales : elles inaugurent des formes de participation fondées sur un besoin de coalitions et de transversalité.De l’analyse des itinéraires corporels, des pratiques et des cartographies des mouvements il ressort que les vecteurs de connexion principaux entre les actrices sociales marquées par la multiplicité sont les généalogies et les origines ainsi que les dimensions de l’in/visible et de la représentation.Cette ethnographie terrona s’inscrit dans une généalogie d’anthropologie postexotique qui se fondant sur une implication autoethnographique de la chercheuse, propose une révision des relations entre les participantes à la recherche, et de l’idée de terrain.Cette thèse relie des expériences de recherche à Paris, à Palerme et à Vérone, respectivement dans le Sud et dans le Nord-est de l’Italie, et thématise les formes de compétition culturelle et les représentations du Sud et du Nord italiens par une perspective postcoloniale. / This thesis explores the current reconfiguration of feminism in Italy, particularly the practices and self-representations of women who struggle against racism and homophobia from a postcolonial standpoint and with a freely interpreted sense of sexual difference. These women create spaces of resistance that allow the emergence of new political positionalities, which go beyond western categories of ‘lesbian’, ‘feminist’ and ‘migrant’ by re-signifying them in novel ways. These “eccentric subjects” (de Lauretis 1999) work on the separatisms inside social movements, confounding their ideological polarizations by living difference as instances of vital conflict. They thus open up forms of participation based on the need for transversality. The analysis of the activists’ bodily itineraries and of the movements’ practices and cartographies shows that two main elements of connection exist between these women, who are characterized by multiplicity: on the one hand, their genealogies and origins; on the other, the dimensions of visibility, invisibility and representation.This terrona ethnography draws on a post-exotic anthropological tradition predicated on the researcher’s auto-ethnographic implication, and on a revision of the relation between research participants and the notion of the field. The thesis connects experiences in Paris, Palermo (southern Italy) and Verona (northeast Italy), problematizing forms of cultural competition and the representation of (different parts of) Italy from a postcolonial perspective.

The purpose of this thesis is to identify common themes presented in several illness narratives with specific attention paid to the relationship between patients and their physicians and patients and their families. Only illness narratives written in America and Western Europe were used for this thesis so the topic could be narrowed to the experience within the western biomedical field. While most research on illness narratives focuses on defining illness and illustrating the importance of introspective work, this thesis identifies patterns in a way that can shape the future treatment of chronically ill patients. This thesis also allows me to creatively explore a personal illness narrative, reinforcing these themes and contributing to the discussion of what physicians and families can do to make the illness experience more bearable for the patient.

This thesis explores the role of drama in creating transformative schooling practices with at-risk youth. Specifically, through an auto-ethnographic study of my own experiences in the dramatic arts as a student and teacher, I analyze the potential of drama education to disrupt hegemonic performances of gender and sexuality in the classroom. By using feminist and queer theories, I analyze my experiences and then share key insights through narrative writing. My narrative, analysis and findings are organized into three thematic lenses: body as a site of knowing, drama space as a queer space, and drama as a method for creating change. This thesis also offers specific pedagogical, curricular and relational strategies for developing a transformative schooling practice. Finally, the study examines the role of teacher positionality in creating a transformative practice, and the potential of using a queer pedagogy.

An approach to teaching art using a cross-cultural curriculum to create enthusiasm amongst Latino students and myself was the basis for my research. I collected my data using auto-ethnographical recordings and documenting my results in a pre-evaluation in December 2009, and an implementation of the study in January and February of 2010, with third grade students in a public school in Metro Atlanta. After the pre-evaluation I decided to use a more cross-cultural and tactile approach. I first implemented a lesson based on the Maori of New Zealand. I furthered my research by implementing a second lesson based on Chinese New Year dragon puppets. This lesson was also cross-cultural, but created a more tactile experience. I found that teaching about a culture rather than a singular artist, using tactile materials, and having step-by-step directions that led to a specific outcome created more enthusiasm in my classroom.

Although many aspects of English as a second language (ESL) academic writing instruction have been well researched, Leki, Cumming, and Silva (2008) note that, "There have been surprisingly few research-based descriptions of L2 writing classroom instruction" (p. 80). Although research related to the use of critical and feminist pedagogy in ESL is increasing, Kumaradivelu (2006) notices that it is still not clear how the critical awakening “…has actually changed the practice of everyday teaching and teacher preparation” (p. 76). The purpose of this study was to provide an individual response to the gaps identified by both sets of authors by investigating how critical and feminist theories could be utilized to develop an orientation to interactions in the everyday practices of an ESL academic writing classroom. In order to achieve this purpose, an autoethnographic study of an eight-week ESL academic writing course in an Intensive English Program (IEP) was conducted. The participants in this study included the teacher-researcher and seven learners. The data collected included the following: lesson plans, instructional materials, teacher field notes, teacher reflexive journal, transcripts of everyday class interactions, transcripts of multiple interviews with learners, learner written reflections, and learners’ written assignments for the course. Analysis of findings revealed that the critical and feminist theories selected for the course were realized even though there were some internal and external obstacles. Learners experienced positive shifts in their feelings about the topic of academic writing and their own abilities as academic writers. Learners’ written texts also reflected positive shifts with respect to the teacher’s goals for learners. These findings suggest that critical and feminist theories can be enacted in everyday classrooms and can be helpful with regard to improving teachers’ and learners’ experiences of everyday ESL academic writing classrooms.

In 2006, I began working collaboratively with People First members to use video as a means of telling experience-based stories. Although, I found little information that would help prepare me to work collaboratively with people who have been labeled with an intellectual disability. I was acquainted with participatory approaches to making video and with inclusive research methods with people with learning disabilities. After working for over two years and facing a variety of hurdles and barriers, The Freedom Tour documentary was released in DVD in 2008, and a year later, short video stories were published on the Internet as part of the Label Free Zone web-based project. After having worked intensely and with great urgency to “get these stories out,” I felt the need to pause. To reflect upon my experiences and to ask questions about the work I was doing, I chose to write stories adopting an auto-ethnographic approach. Experimenting with auto-ethnography as a method of inquiry and storytelling as a form of representation, gave me the opportunity to experience a process I had encouraged so many others to do: telling experience-based stories. I hope this study will increase our knowledge and understanding of collaborative video storytelling projects involving people who have been labelled. I also hope that by delving into and speaking from my experiences as filmmaker/facilitator, sibling and now auto-ethnographer I have contributed, if ever so slightly, to shifting our thinking about intellectual disability from a deficit perspective to an assumption of competence.

The eighth educational reform in China is experiencing a critical period. In the implementation process of this New Curriculum Reform (NCR), teachers become the target of criticism for their failure to act on the new ideas of the NCR. This research focuses on the question, “Why teachers accept the ideas of the NCR yet fail to implement these ideas in their daily teaching?” Through reflecting on my own teaching experience and interviewing a group of Chinese Language Arts teachers in a Beijing model high school, I collected qualitative data to create 8 ethnographic stories, showing teachers’ bodily, emotional and intrapersonal experiences that are rarely published in the academic world. Conclusions show that the coexistence of the new and old curriculum systems causes the discordance of school cultures, and teachers are suffering silently. Recommendations are made for researchers returning to teachers’ bodily experiences for solutions that can integrate reform ideals and reality. / Graduate / 0727 / wwang15473@gmail.com

An approach to teaching art using a cross-cultural curriculum to create enthusiasm amongst Latino students and myself was the basis for my research. I collected my data using auto-ethnographical recordings and documenting my results in a pre-evaluation in December 2009, and an implementation of the study in January and February of 2010, with third grade students in a public school in Metro Atlanta. After the pre-evaluation I decided to use a more cross-cultural and tactile approach. I first implemented a lesson based on the Maori of New Zealand. I furthered my research by implementing a second lesson based on Chinese New Year dragon puppets. This lesson was also cross-cultural, but created a more tactile experience. I found that teaching about a culture rather than a singular artist, using tactile materials, and having step-by-step directions that led to a specific outcome created more enthusiasm in my classroom.

The eighth educational reform in China is experiencing a critical period. In the implementation process of this New Curriculum Reform (NCR), teachers become the target of criticism for their failure to act on the new ideas of the NCR. This research focuses on the question, “Why teachers accept the ideas of the NCR yet fail to implement these ideas in their daily teaching?” Through reflecting on my own teaching experience and interviewing a group of Chinese Language Arts teachers in a Beijing model high school, I collected qualitative data to create 8 ethnographic stories, showing teachers’ bodily, emotional and intrapersonal experiences that are rarely published in the academic world. Conclusions show that the coexistence of the new and old curriculum systems causes the discordance of school cultures, and teachers are suffering silently. Recommendations are made for researchers returning to teachers’ bodily experiences for solutions that can integrate reform ideals and reality. / Graduate / 0727 / wwang15473@gmail.com

This is an auto/ethnographic account of one organization and one person as we concurrently moved thru a process of IT driven planned organizational change. The purpose of the study is to explain how the change agent is affected by the experience of leading change. Using actor-network theory and a polyphonic approach, I present a multi-voiced, multi-actor account of the social network in situ and trace how the various actors engaged with one another during the organizational change process. I reflect upon my own multi-role performativity when acting in the role of the internal change agent next to my daily job roles and explore the effects on both me and the network; which identifies that a new actor network has been created. Finally, a multi-voiced exploration of myself is presented which traces my evolution from researcher to auto/ethnographer, further demonstrating the effects of multi-role performativity on the human actor. The study demonstrates that the effects of organizational change on both the social network and the actors within the network cannot be foreseen. Furthermore, in combining the use of Actor Network Theory and auto-ethnography, the study provides new insights into the effects of performance on the human actor within a socio-technical network, which is an unexplored dimension within the field of organizational change.