Youth of color are routinely dehumanized and treated as objects both in schools and in society. The “banking method” approach to teaching and stringent zero tolerance policies that are prevalent in low-income schools predominantly populated by youth of color serve to push youth out of school and pull them into the school-to-prison pipeline. When students do not meet their school’s standards, the institutional gaze is fixed disapprovingly on the child and the family. The history of segregation and institutionalized oppression that led to a legacy of inadequate and culturally irrelevant schooling and a poor quality of life for communities of color is erased. For the children who grow up in such environments, a historical silence makes it difficult if not impossible to make sense of their present-day conditions and the changes they are witnessing in their communities. People Organized in the Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) is an organization that focuses on issues of environmental, economic, and social justice, and strives to facilitate youth empowerment through their Young Scholars for Justice (YSJ) summer program. The youth of color in the program are positioned as knowledgeable researchers and historical actors in their community. The Chicana feminist epistemology of PODER’s staff members creates a nurturing and family-like environment for the youth, which has a significant impact on the females, and enables youth to utilize personal experiences to develop a structural analysis of oppression. As youth acquire a historical conocimiento of East Austin, they also learn about organized resistance to oppression vis-à-vis environmental justice campaigns. In doing so, a spiritual activism blossoms in the youth that is born from their wounds of oppression and rooted in a cultural and historical awareness of their community. The youth engage in a cycle of praxis as their spiritual activism mobilizes them against injustices and ushers in their transformation into subjects. Through participant observation and interviews, I weave together a critical case study of the YSJ program that is informed by the metamorphosis I experienced after participating in the program. / text

La matérialité biologique du corps humain est devenue l'objet d'interventions inédites au moyen de nouvelles technologies biomédicales, comme la procréation médicalement assistée, les tests génétiques, la contraception hormonale. Cette thèse part des difficultés inhérentes à une approche antinaturaliste pour aborder la dimension biologique des corps sexués. “On ne naît pas femme, on le devient” : mais qu'en est-il des corps ? Les technologies biomédicales investissent la chair selon des modalités qui échappent aux grilles d'analyses matérialiste et butlérienne. Faut-il y voir une réfutation du constructivisme, la revanche d'un socle biologique – hormonal, génétique, moléculaire – primant sur les effets anatomiques de la socialisation, comme le suggèrent les partisan·e·s d'un material turn féministe ? À partir d'une analyse de l'évolution de la notion de nature, définie comme "vie elle-même" depuis la révolution moléculaire de la biologie, cette thèse propose une autre interprétation, en définissant les technologies biomédicales comme des technologies de pouvoir relevant d’une biopolitique moléculaire de genre. Sans infirmer la perspective constructiviste, ces médiations sociales originales (adossées au nouveau paradigme épistémique) permettent de comprendre comment les frontières et limites du genre sont déplacées, tout en produisant des identités, des expériences et des subjectivités genrées inédites. En dégageant les coordonnées d'un véritable dispositif biomédical, notre étude comparative entre techniques disciplinaires et biopolitique moléculaire de genre plaide pour une critique antinaturaliste renouvelée, s’articulant à une critique de la technique qui permette d'inventer collectivement des moyens pour se réapproprier démocratiquement les technologies biomédicales. / The biological materiality of the human body has become an object of unprecedented interventions through “new biomedical technologies” as medically assisted procreation, genetic tests, or hormonal contraception. This thesis interrogates the difficulties inherent to anti-naturalist approaches in order to address the biological dimension of sexed bodies. “One is not born a woman, one becomes one”, but is this also true for the body? The analytical frames of materialist or deconstructivist feminism cannot cease the modalities through which biomedical technologies invest the flesh. Do biomedical technologies make constructivist approaches obsolete through the revenge of a biological – hormonal, genetic, molecular – ground that tops the anatomical effects of socialization? Partisans of a feminist “material turn” seem to think so. After analyzing how the molecular biology revolution changes the very concept of nature in defining it as “life itself”, I offer an alternative interpretation by defining biomedical technologies as technologies of power that stem from a molecular biopolitics of gender. Instead of overturning constructivist perspectives, these new social mediations (residing on a new epistemic paradigm) help understanding a shift in what has been seen as the limits of gender. This shift creates unprecedented identities, experiences and subjectivities of gender. In exposing the coordinates of the biomedical apparatus, this comparative study between disciplinary techniques and molecular biopolitics of gender pleads for a renewed anti-naturalist critique that takes the form of a critique of technology in order to allow for a collective appropriation of biomedical technologies.

Submitted by Cássia Santos (cassia.bcufg@gmail.com) on 2016-10-21T11:42:43Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Elismênnia Aparecida Oliveira - 2015.pdf: 1944567 bytes, checksum: 6b1ba0084ec3e86434968ffee4c8db30 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Jaqueline Silva (jtas29@gmail.com) on 2016-11-08T18:42:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Elismênnia Aparecida Oliveira - 2015.pdf: 1944567 bytes, checksum: 6b1ba0084ec3e86434968ffee4c8db30 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-08T18:42:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Elismênnia Aparecida Oliveira - 2015.pdf: 1944567 bytes, checksum: 6b1ba0084ec3e86434968ffee4c8db30 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-04-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / In this thesis is discussed and examined the introducing of the feminist production of knowledge in Brazilian University. I am concerned about the challenges, frequency and feminist influences in universities. I achieved, by a qualitative methodology, a reflective research based on possible ways to study the issue which, after a laborious path, led up to the use of three procedures: 1 ) the analysis of the study group leaders programs and research centers found on the Diretório de Grupos e Núcleos CNPq research centers, taking into account the registered groups; 2) the arrangement and analysis of Brazilian feminist literary production concerning to the introduction of feminism in the universities of the country; 3) the analysis of interviews with leaders of seven research centers already scanned. Taking into account the methods, the analyzes were conducted from contemporary social theory, with emphasis on: the feminist theory and epistemology, especially: post-structuralist, including the production of the ‘Third World’ feminists and post and decolonial thought and Subaltern Studies Group and post-structuralism. The union of these options are discussed issues concerning the creation of universities and access to them by the rise of feminism in Brazilian universities. The analysis points out the influences of the permanence of the colonization process, still in force and the consequence that, among others, is the invisibility of feminist knowledge production in Brazilian universities. Also, this process exhibit the difficulty of the rise of both women researchers in general and feminist researchers in particular until the most prestigious positions in various areas of science, this event occurs in Brazil and other countries. Finally, the research shows that there is a homogenization in the production of knowledge which hinders the spread of new looks and new epistemologies. / Nesta dissertação abordo e analiso a inserção da produção de conhecimento feminista em universidades brasileiras por feministas brasileiras. Atentando-me para os desafios, recorrências e influências feministas nas universidades realizei, por metodologia qualitativa, uma pesquisa reflexiva a partir dos caminhos possíveis para estudar o tema que, após um árduo trajeto, resultou no uso de três métodos: 1) análise curricular de líderes de grupos e núcleos de pesquisa mapeados no Diretório de Grupos de Pesquisado CNPq, tendo em conta os grupos cadastrados; 2) mapeamento e análise das produções bibliográficas de feministas brasileiras sobre a inserção do feminismo nas universidades do país e; 3) análise de entrevistas com líderes de sete núcleos de pesquisa mapeados. Tendo em vista os métodos, as análises foram realizadas a partir da teoria social contemporânea, com ênfase em: teorias e epistemologias feministas, destacando-se: epistemologia feminista e estudos descoloniais, incluindo a produção de feministas ‘terceiro-mundistas’, estudos subalternos e pós-estruturalismo. Da junção dessas escolhas são tratadas problemáticas em relação à criação das universidades e ao acesso a elas junto ao emergir do feminismo nas universidades brasileiras. As análises apontam para a permanência de influências do processo de colonização, ainda vigente e cuja consequência, entre outras, é a invisibilidade da produção de conhecimento feminista nas universidades brasileiras. Este processo se expressa também na dificuldade de ascensão tanto de mulheres pesquisadoras em geral quanto de pesquisadoras feministas e pesquisadoras feministas negras em particular às posições de mais alto prestígio nas diversas áreas das ciências, fato que ocorre tanto no Brasil quanto em outros países. Por fim, a pesquisa mostra que há uma homogeneização na produção do conhecimento, dificultando a disseminação diversificada de olhares e epistemologias.

The purpose of this life history qualitative study was to explore the Counter-Life Herstories of African American women faculty in U.S. Computing Education. Counter-Life Herstories are derived from Counterstories, life histories, and herstories as powerful social justice tools to uncover hidden truths about marginalized groups’ experiences. Through the collection of timelines, counter-life story interviews, and reflective journal writings, I co-constructed and interpreted the Counter-Life Herstories of five participants using an integrative conceptual framework that included critical race theory and Black feminist thought as interpretive frameworks, and Afrocentric feminist epistemology to govern my knowledge validation process. As an emerging African American woman scholar, with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I have a “unique angle of vision” to situate African American women’s distinctive educational experiences in the social-political context of U.S. Computing Education. In this study, I build upon limited knowledge about African American women’s experiences throughout U.S. Computing Education. My discoveries indicated unequivocally that my participants’ persistence in U.S. Computing Education was not solely based on their early positive reinforcements or strong academic preparation, but their resilience and ability to bounce back from insurmountable barriers, such as negative stereotypes and biases. This inquiry directly supports the U.S.’ national interest to diversify the Computing workforce, while revealing hidden truths about African American women’s experiences in U.S. Computing Education.

This thesis develops a critique of the methodology of mainstream academic moral philosophy, based on insights from feminist and more generally anti-oppressive political thought. The thesis consists of two parts. In the first, I loosely characterise a certain dominant methodology of philosophy, one based on giving an important epistemological role to existing, 'pre-theoretical' moral attitudes, such as intuitions. I then argue that such methodologies may be critiqued on the basis of theories that identify these moral attitudes as problematically rooted in oppressive social institutions, such as patriarchy and white supremacy; that is, I identify these attitudes as ideological, and so a poor guide to moral reality. In the second part, I identify and explore of a number of themes and tendencies from feminist, anti-racist, and other anti-oppressive traditions of research and activism, in order to draw out the implications of these themes for the methodology of moral philosophy. The first issue I examine is that of how, and how much, moral philosophers should use abstraction; I eventually use the concept of intersectionality to argue for the position that philosophers need to use less, and a different type of, abstraction. The second major theme I examine is that of ignorance, in the context of alternative epistemologies: standpoint epistemology and epistemologies of ignorance. I argue that philosophers must not take themselves to be well placed to understand, using solitary methodologies, any topic of moral interest. Finally, I examine the theme of transformation in moral philosophy. I argue that experiencing certain kinds of personal transformation may be an essential part of developing accurate ethical views, and I draw out the political implications of this position for the methodology of moral philosophy.

Ce mémoire se veut une présentation et une interprétation de l’épistémologie de la philosophe féministe Donna Haraway, ainsi qu’une contribution à son rayonnement. Dans un premier temps, nous abordons le dilemme qui oppose deux grands types de réactions critiques face à la notion d’objectivité telle qu’elle est traditionnellement conçue : les réappropriations féministes de l’objectivité d’une part, et une forme de constructivisme radical « postmoderne » qui nie la possibilité d’accéder au monde réel et à un positionnement objectif d’autre part. Nous utilisons cette tension afin de mettre en évidence la manière originale dont Haraway la surmonte et afin d’éclaircir la notion d’objectivité encorporée qui se trouve au cœur de son approche théorique. Pour ce faire, nous la mettons en dialogue avec deux de ses interlocuteur.ices privilégié.es, Nancy Hartsock et Bruno Latour. Dans un deuxième temps, nous adoptons une posture d’interprétation internaliste et tentons d’établir la matrice conceptuelle dans laquelle la notion d’objectivité encorporée telle que la promeut Haraway prend sens. Nous nous attellerons alors à isoler et définir les concepts les plus importants que son approche met en jeu, sans pour autant remettre en question son caractère résolument non systématique. Le dernier temps de notre analyse consiste en une mise à l’épreuve de l’appareillage conceptuel que nous avons développé par l’application du dispositif épistémologique de Haraway à un objet de connaissance précis (le fœtus) afin de montrer concrètement le type de gains, en termes de savoirs et de compréhension, auquel donne accès l’épistémologie de l’autrice. / This master’s thesis is a presentation and interpretation of the epistemology of the feminist philosopher Donna Haraway, as well as a contribution to her influence. First, we address the dilemma that opposes two major types of critical reactions to the notion of objectivity as it is traditionally conceived: feminist reappropriations of objectivity on the one hand, and a form of radical "postmodern" constructivism that denies the possibility of access to the real world and to an objective positioning on the other hand. We use this tension to highlight the original way in which Haraway overcomes it, and to clarify the notion of embodied objectivity that lies at the heart of her theoretical approach. To do so, we put her in dialogue with two of her privileged interlocutors, Nancy Hartsock and Bruno Latour. Secondly, we adopt a posture of internalist interpretation and attempt to establish the conceptual matrix in which the notion of embodied objectivity as promoted by Haraway takes on meaning. We will then attempt to isolate and define the most important concepts involved in her approach, without questioning its resolutely non-systematic character. The last stage of our analysis consists in testing the conceptual apparatus that we have developed by applying Haraway's epistemological device to a precise object of knowledge (the fetus) in order to show concretely the type of gains, in terms of knowledge and understanding, to which her epistemology gives access.

No description available.

Ce mémoire porte sur les tests de féminité dans le sport de haut niveau. Plus particulièrement, les tests qui ont été menés par le Comité Olympique International (COI). Cette étude débute avec un survol historique des classifications du corps en sciences biomédicales et en sciences sociales, ainsi que de la place des femmes dans le sport et des tests de féminités. Ensuite, à travers une analyse de contenu des procès-verbaux, correspondances, et études présentées à la Commission Médicale du COI entre 1967 et 1972, cette recherche relève six catégories de discours sur le corps. Les résultats de cette analyse se déploient en deux temps : d’abord les discours à propos du corps et les différences de sexe et ensuite le rapport entre le corps et les membres de la Commission Médicale. Les trois discours relevés par rapport au corps sont : « la nature polymorphe du corps», « le corps comme dimorphique », et « le corps anormal ». Les discours par rapport à la relation entre corps et la commission médicale sont : « le corps comme objet scientifique », « le corps comme catégorie abstraite », et « le corps comme objet de préoccupation éthique ». / This thesis focuses on gender testing in high-level sport. More specifically, those conducted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). I begin with a historical contextualization of the various classifications of the body biomedical and social sciences have put forward. Then, through a content analysis of the minutes, correspondences, and studies read by the Medical Commission between 1967 and 1972, I highlight six categories of discourse on the body. These are divided into two types of categories: first the ways in which the body and sex differences are talked about; then, the relationship between the body and the members of the Medical Commission. The three types of discourses relating to the body are: “the polymorphic nature of the body", "the body as dimorphic", and "the abnormal body". Discourses on the relationship between the abnormal body are: "the body as scientific object", “the body as abstract category”, and "the body as an object of ethical concern".

Latinas represent a large proportion of the United States early care and education workforce, and thus have the potential to wield significant influence over the growth and development of millions of American children. However, the voices of Latina early childhood professionals often are missing in both research and mass media. Instead, social, political, and academic frames cast Latinas as foreign regardless of nationality, uneducated notwithstanding expertise, and passive despite action and influence. This testimonio analysis draws on Chicana feminist epistemology to re-center the perspectives of Latina child care providers and reveal more authentic insights on how they understand and perform their roles within the broader social contexts that define and delimit Latina identity in the United States. The collective account that emerges from their testimonios is one of straddling multiple borders: between influence and invisibility, between the personal and the professional, and between community and isolation.

No description available.