<p> &ldquo;<i>Somos semillas</i>&rdquo; &mdash; we are seeds is a slogan, a sentiment, and a belief that emerges and circulates in a myriad of spaces from Ferguson Black Lives Matter protests advocating for racial justice in the United States, to struggles against state violence in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, to climate justice and food sovereignty movements in Latin America. Seeds are both symbolic and material embodiments of futurity. In this dissertation, I examine the discourses around seeds, particularly genetically modified seeds (GM), and the role of biotechnology as our only purveyor of futurity. In &ldquo;Seeds,&rdquo; I examine the dominant discourses around GM seeds produced by pro-GM actors such as agro-industries including Monsanto and Syngenta, and USDAID programs such as Feed the Future. These discourses are constructed around social and environmental looming crises that include hunger and overpopulation, loss of biodiversity and climate change. In &ldquo;Seeds,&rdquo; thinking through the decolonial option, I challenge the single Western narrative that presents GM seeds and crops as the only path to solve these crises and for humanity to have a utopian future. &ldquo;Seeds&rdquo; takes on a &lsquo;studying up&rsquo; approach that as scholar Laura Nader argues investigates those in power instead of those that are being oppressed. &ldquo;Seeds&rdquo; then works alongside other academic, indigenous, campesin@s, and farmer intellectuals and activists to elucidate a number of ways that people around the world are engaging with such crises and are building different paths to decolonial futures.</p>

<p> There is little research into the effect religion may have on the gender assignment of intersex persons. This research addresses that issue, exploring the possible roots of contemporary gender assignment practices in ancient notions of purity and pollution, or purity rules, and argues that such customs or norms influence contemporary perspectives and attitudes surrounding gender identity. This work examines the practice of gender assignment of intersex persons in the &ldquo;Western&rdquo; world, along with any and all associated medical procedures and the teaching of gender performance and the adoption of gender performance by the subjects, and suggests that the practice of gender assignment is, in fact, a ritual practice stemming from western notions of purity and pollution surrounding the body, specifically, gender as it relates to the body. Finally, this work concludes that the &ldquo;Western&rdquo; notion of purity and pollution which frame the ritual practice of gender assignment, have failed to evolve despite advances in science, psychology and social ethics and thus, this ritual practice needs to be seriously reexamined.</p>

<p> Counselors are members of the general public and, thus, are exposed to popular misperceptions about specialty populations, specifically sex offenders. Male and female counselors can be socialized to vary in their responses to sex offenses. Inaccurate assumptions about sex offenders and discrepancies in counselor attitudes towards clients can linger in the counseling environment impacting treatment. This quantitative survey study was conducted to assess the attitudes of male and female counselors towards sex offenders of both sexes. This study hypothesized that male and female counselors would differ significantly in their attitudes towards sex offenders and that counselors&rsquo; attitudes towards male sex offenders would differ significantly from attitudes toward female sex offenders. Participants completed the Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders Scale (ATS) in conjunction with reading a vignette about the relationship between an adult teacher and a high school student. A purposive sample of 202 counselors was obtained through national and state counseling organizations. Participants reviewed vignettes and completed the ATS online via Qualtrics. Data were analyzed with SPSS and ANOVA, indicating that male counselors had significantly more positive attitudes towards sex offenders than female counselors. Results also showed that both male and female counselors had more positive attitudes towards female sex offenders than toward male sex offenders; however, the difference in attitudes towards male versus female sex offenders was not statistically significant. The findings suggested that counselors are at risk for maintaining inaccurate assumptions leading to unhelpful treatment. The results can lead to improved trainings to counselors and counselor educators to provide education about the experience of specialty populations and to discuss internal counselor responses to such clients.</p>

<p> This research looks at the production of <i>Hamlet</i> by Thomas Ostermeier, the director of the Schaub&uuml;hne Berlin. The production presents two female characters with a single female performer, and persents the concept that coporeality is an impossible exteriority. This research uses the playscript of Ostermeier's production of <i>Hamlet</i> as reference, and Judith Butler's book <i>Bodies that Matter</i> for its theoretical method, as well as contemporary critics of feminist study on the gendered body, to interpret the role of female characters in Ostermeier's production of <i> Hamlet.</i> The focus will clarify how Ostermeier cultivates Butler's theory of body performativity as the source for portraying his understanding of the female identity, and as the decoder for the conventional sexgender culture. The research shows how Ostermeier's presentation of Gertrude and Ophelia reflects the contemporary concern for the deconstruction of the normative concept of woman.</p>

<p> Contemporary urban mothers experience many challenges, even those in the middle class. Many of the challenges they face stem from western socio-economic and political systems. The present study recognizes the modern complexities of urban parenting and examines how and why many women are coming together in what I call social support peer networks, in order to mediate the plethora of challenges mothers experience today. </p><p> This research explores the &ldquo;mommy group&rdquo; phenomenon, through the ethnographic study of one such Southern California group, the &ldquo;Family Cooperative,&rdquo; which has adopted the adage &ldquo;it takes a village to raise a child&rdquo; in response to mothers&rsquo; feelings that &ldquo;you can&rsquo;t do it alone.&rdquo; This mother-centered study recognizes the fact that urban residents of the U.S. no longer live in small, traditional villages, yet still need socio-emotional support while raising their children. As such this research examines the ways in which these urban mothers come together, and why they do so. </p><p> In this research I found that flexibility in participation allowed a variety of mothers to participate &ldquo;at will,&rdquo; and to have access to the type and amount of resources they required and desired. The close-knit core expressed the greatest appreciation and shared the most resources, such as material goods and child-sharing. Peripheral members, including some that only participate online, especially appreciated the sharing of vetted informational resources and the camaraderie found in the online forums. All of the participants expressed an appreciation for access to a community that helps alleviate the fears of motherhood. These fears stem from the confusing mothering ideologies in particular, and lead to uncertainty about being a &ldquo;good mother,&rdquo; and the subsequent fear of judgment that is pervasive in urban motherhood today.</p>

<p> While studies have highlighted the role of gendered power in relationships, many assumptions have not been quantitatively tested due to a lack of measures for power. This study uses exploratory factor analysis to construct a dyadic assessment of relative power and equality in relationships. This assessment would be useful for research and for clinical work with couples to help raise awareness of the balance of power in their relationship. Equality is defined as a mutual process in which both partners demonstrate that they hold equal value in the relationship, whereas inequality is when there is a relative imbalance of value in the couple. Relative power is a dyadic outcome related to the recognition of one&rsquo;s value to a relationship, and is therefore important in relationship satisfaction. A review of the literature on how power predicts satisfaction has shown a shift in focus away from monetary resources and decision-making towards examining relationship processes and the connection between gender and power. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a new scale of equality for couples, the Relationship Balance Assessment (RBA). Exploratory factor analysis of individuals and couples identified 12 latent factors underlying relationship equality. While the study looked for significant correlations with their score averages, this study indicated that power is revealed more in the <i>differences</i> between partners&rsquo; responses. Contrary to expectations, couples&rsquo; differences in the perception of power, and especially the woman&rsquo;s perspective, were highly correlated with their satisfaction. This is consistent with previous qualitative research that asserted that mutual attunement is a critical link between equality and satisfaction. Furthermore, gender shapes couples&rsquo; perceptions, which ultimately affect their level of attunement. For couples in this study, the balance of power was often predicted by gender, gender role orientation and gender ideology&mdash;beliefs about how one should perform their socially-defined roles in family. This study will help researchers and therapists who work with distressed couples to have a clearer understanding of the factors in equality and to assess them. It can also serve as a road-map to improving relationship satisfaction.</p>

<p> This study examines the representation of women in Emile Zola&rsquo;s famous series Les Rougon-Macquart. Critics have described Zola&rsquo;s novels and their presentation of women as misogynist, yet this judgment obscures many of the textual details establishing the female protagonists&rsquo; relationships to industrial capitalism and the rapidly changing social landscape in late nineteenth century France. This study reexamines the narrative synthesis between Zola&rsquo;s naturalist &ldquo;objective&rdquo; narrator and his female protagonists. It also highlights one particular pairing that of Adelaide Fouque and her opportunist daughter-in-law, Felicit&eacute; Puch: Whereas Adelaide, the biological matriarch of the family who figures in each of the twenty novels, does not have an active voice, Felicit&eacute; as maternal <i>protectrice</i> of the family speaks frankly, even aggressively. Zola uses this pairing to link one generation to the next, a key structural element of his naturalist project. Ultimately, Zola&rsquo;s representation of women is more complex than might otherwise be understood.</p>

<p> The present study explores the emotion culture of polyamorists from 11 qualitative interviews. Drawing on the theories of Arlie Russell Hochschild (1979), I utilize the concept of emotion work to depict the ways individuals adhere to, and break from, monogamous relationship norms. Polyamory is a diverse practice that entails the conscious maintenance of multiple romantic and sexual relationships, under the terms of honesty and mutual respect. I utilize the concept of edgework, originally conceived by Stephen Lyng (1990), to illuminate the voluntary risk-taking behaviors of polyamorists as they enact counter-hegemonic relationship practices. Findings reveal the way polyamorists use emotional edgework (from Lois 2001), the intentional stretching of emotional boundaries, as they transition from mainstream emotion culture towards a polyamorous one. Motivations for emotional edgework are varied among the sample, and reveal two chief reasons individuals engage in this kind of emotion work: 1) to have or retain a specific partner, and 2) to reach goals of growth and self-actualization. Although the practice of polyamory challenges the dominant relationship culture, the narratives continue to reflect the lingering influence of a neoliberal capitalist economic structure.</p>

<p> This project is an investigation into the extent to which popular fantasy fictions entice their audiences to imaginatively reconsider their ethical commitments, relationships, and world views. Building upon the work of Richard Rorty and Martha C. Nussbaum's ethical criticism, I argue that the popular fantasy fictions by C. L. Wilson, George R. R. Martin, and Jim Butcher can assist audiences to understand the constructed nature of individual identity and the social construction of reality, allowing them to participate in discursive communities that empower them to see beyond stereotypes and to consider other people, no matter their differences, as humans equally capable of and entitled to their own decision-making. C. L. Wilson's <i>Tairen Soul</i> series provides a lesson on the importance of inclusion and communication, as it demonstrates that the differences people perceive in cultural groups are constructed and not actual. George R. R. Martin's <i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> demonstrates that buying into others' notions of identity, particularly in terms of gender, can be debilitating and restricting, and Jim Butcher's <i>The Dresden Files</i> shows that people with differing religious identities and beliefs can cooperate to solve problems even when they cannot agree upon their constructions of reality. Fantasy as a genre is valuable for cultural criticism, as it can function allegorically to allow audiences to experience emotions genuinely in an arena outside of their assumptions, engaging in experience-taking and learning how constructed realities are dependent upon their own interpretative, but not infallible, frameworks. Fantasy, in other words, can be used to engage people in discussions about values independent of real life that can then be applied to real life, allowing more people into the discussion about how to increase human happiness, a project that Rorty sees as the goal of human progress.</p>

<p> Few undergraduates choose physics as a major, and among those who do very few are women. One potential contributor to this problem is the impact that physics instruction seems to have on students' self-efficacy, which is student's thoughts and feelings about their capabilities to succeed as learners in physics. Self-efficacy plays an important role in student achievement in academics both in general and for students pursuing STEM degrees. Conversely, research has shown that the self-efficacy of both men and women tends to be reduced after taking traditional and research-based physics courses. Moreover, self-efficacy tends to be reduced further for women than for men. Whether the negative shifts in self-efficacy in physics are caused by physics instruction remains unclear. It may be that the negative shift in self-efficacy reflects a broader trend in university education that has little to do with physics per se. I investigated this and other alternative explanations for negative shifts in self-efficacy in physics courses using an in-the-moment measurement technique called the Experience Sampling Method. The technique allowed me to collect students' day-to-day feelings of self-efficacy, which I called states, and to compare students' self-efficacy states in physics to those in other STEM courses. I found that students experienced much lower self-efficacy states in physics than in their other STEM courses. Moreover, this difference largely affected women who experienced physics, and only physics, with much lower self-efficacy states than men. Given that experiences are an established sources of self-efficacy beliefs and women also had much more negative shifts in their self-efficacy beliefs I concluded that the experience of physics instruction was probably a causal factor in women's reduced self-efficacy. Further analysis found that the gender difference in self-efficacy states was more than twice that predicted by students' pre-course achievement, attitudes and beliefs. Thus I tentatively concluded that the negative impact on women's self-efficacy resulted from inequities in the physics-learning environment rather than preexisting gender differences. I present evidence that the physics course I investigated was similar to other research-based physics courses and tentatively I concluded that physics instruction in general is detrimental to women's self-efficacy.</p>