This thesis attempts to present the way in which male members of an emerging gay scene in Beirut, Lebanon conceive of their sexuality. The work is based on ethnographic research conducted between March 2005 and June 2007 that explores this gay scene and Helem, the first civil rights organization in the region publicly advocating gay rights. The ethnographic materials include interviews with the administrators of Helem, materials published by Helem (i.e. newsletters, magazines, press releases), secondary sources on the organization (i.e. media and news reports), twenty-five interviews with members of the Beirut gay scene, and two surveys with one hundred and sixty-four respondents. The analysis begins by exploring some of the limitations and binary constructions that appear within the study of homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic world and pursues an ethnographic response to this scholarship. Case studies on Helem's activism and materials from informants in the gay scene are used to illustrate the construction and negotiation of "local" homosexualities. The reconstructed area of Downtown Beirut, where the fieldwork was conducted, is understood as a site of struggle where these sexual identities are negotiated. My central claim is that these understandings of (homo)sexuality disrupt a number of existing dichotomized frameworks that are currently embedded in the study of homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic world: global/local, identity/behavior, visible/invisible, and West/East. / Cette thèse tente d'identifier les façons selon lesquelles les membres d'une scène homosexuelle émergeante à Beyrouth conçoivent leur sexualité dans. La présente thèse, avec du recherches menées durant la période de Mars 2005 à Juin 2007, examine la gay scène dans la capitale libanaise, Beyrouth, et Helem. Cette dernière est la première association visant à promouvoir publiquement les droits civils des hommes homosexuels. Le matériel ethnographique inclut des entrevues auprès des administrateurs de Helem, des publications de Helem (bulletins, magasines, communiqués de presse), des sources secondaires concernant l'organisme (rapports et/ou reportages des médias et des nouvelles), vingt-cinq entrevues passées par des membres faisant partie de la scène homosexuelle de Beyrouth, et deux sondages avec cent soixante-sept répondants. L'analyse débute par l'exploration d'un certain nombre de limitations et de constructions binaires qui se sont manifestées à portée de l'étude de l'homosexualité dans le monde Arabe et Islamique. Cette analyse cherche à formuler une réponse ethnographique à son érudition. Afin d'illustrer un meilleur portrait de l'homosexualité ‘locale', nous utiliserons, des études de cas visant l'activisme de Helem et des matériaux offerts par des informateurs de la scène homosexuelle. Downtown Beirut, une région nouvellement reconstruite et qui me servit de terrain de travail, est reconnu comme étant un site où les identités sexuelles sont négociées. Ma principale hypothèse est que la multitude d'interprétations ainsi que la compréhension (ou le manque de) vis-à-vis de l'(homo)sexualité perturbent un grand nombre de structures dichotomiques déjà existantes : globale/locale, identité/conduite, visible/invisible et Ouest/Est.

In this thesis, I examine the role of queerness, solidarity and movement in anti-war activism relating to the 2006 Lebanon War. I investigate two events called "Out Against the Occupation" that were organized during the summer of 2006 in response to the war. These events emerged as a queer response to the context of various gay pride events held throughout the war that failed to develop an anti-war response to the war in Lebanon. These gay pride events include the Divers/Cité festival held annually in Montreal, the first World OutGames held in Montreal, the World Pride events held in Jerusalem and the Queeruption gathering held in Tel Aviv. I argue that we must rethink the role of movement, queerness and solidarity in order to understand how movements of resistance emerge. I do so by examining the role of subjectivity in how we come to move and orient ourselves towards others. / Dans ce mémoire, j'examine le role de la sexualité queer, la solidarité et le movement dans les mobilisations contre le conflit israélo-libanais de 2006. J'examine deux événements appelés "Out Against the Occupation," organisés durant l'été de 2006 en reaction à la guerre. Ces événements émergaient d'une réaction allosexuelle au contexte de plusieurs événements se rapportant à la fierté gaie qui ont été organisés durant la guerre au Liban. Ces événements se rapportant à la fierté incluaient le festival Divers/Cité à Montréal, le premier "World OutGames" à Montréal, les événements World Pride à Jerusalem et la réunion "Queeruption" à Tel Aviv. Je propose qu'on devrait repenser le rôle du mouvement, de la sexualité queer et de la solidarité pour comprendre comment les mouvements de résistance émergent. Je l'accomplis en examinant le rôle de la subjectivité dans la façon dont on se déplace et s'oriente vers les autres.

This study examined the caregiving identities of Taiwanese women who have siblings with cerebral palsy. It is based on 12 in-depth qualitative interviews with 6 women who were at least 20 years of age, each of whom self-identified either as the family member most involved in caregiving or as the only sister of the sibling with cerebral palsy. The results of the study suggest that the provision of current and future care to siblings with cerebral palsy is a complex phenomenon that contributes to how these women view themselves. Caregiving is informed by four processes associated with the provision of care to their siblings: (a) caring through interpretation (b) caring through transformation (c) caring through protection and (d) caring through sacrifice. Engaging in these four processes of providing care to others created unique considerations and tensions in carrying out other roles these women assume in their lives. More specifically, these tensions had to do with their negotiation of relationships with their mothers, considerations pertaining to who they will marry or have already married, the denial of their right to inherit family properties, as well as their desire and expectation to provide ongoing care to their sibling with CP after marriage. In the study, we observed that these women internalized the sexual division of labour in their families and in their culture; they perpetuated the gender system that requires mothers and sisters to engage in family care. Therefore, greater attention must be brought to the promotion of a more equitable sharing of caring tasks by men and women in the family and to the designing and implementing of long-term care policies adapted to the unique characteristics of Taiwanese society. / L'identité d'aidante naturelle des taïwanaises avec frères ou sœurs atteints de paralysie cérébrale Résumé Cette étude a examiné l'identité d'aidante naturelle des taïwanaises qui prennent soin de leurs frères ou sœurs atteints de paralysie cérébrale. Elle est basée sur 12 interviews détaillées avec 6 femmes âgées d'au moins 20 ans. Ces dernières se sont identifiées soit comme les uniques sœurs des personnes atteintes de paralysie cérébrale ou encore comme les personnes les plus impliquées dans la provision de soins. Les résultats de cette étude suggèrent que la provision de soins présents et futurs aux frères ou sœurs atteints de paralysie cérébrale est un phénomène complexe qui contribue à la perception de soi de ces femmes. Ce phénomène est influencé par quatre processus associés à la provision des soins : (a) soins par interprétation (b) soins par transformation (c) soins par protection (d) soins par sacrifice. L'implication dans ces quatre processus a crée pour ces femmes des considérations uniques et des tensions dans d'autres domaines de leur vie. Plus précisément, ces tensions sont liées à la négociation des relations avec leurs mères, à leurs choix de conjoints, à la répudiation de leurs droits à la succession, ainsi qu'à leurs aspirations et attentes relatives à la provision de soins continus à leurs frères ou sœurs atteints de paralysie cérébrale après le mariage. Étant donné que les femmes ont assimilé la division du travail dans leurs familles et dans leur culture, et qu'elles continuent à vivre dans un système qui demande que les mères et les sœurs s'impliquent dans les soins familiaux, plus d'attention doit être accordée à la promotion d'un partage plus équitable des soins prodigués par les hommes et les femmes dans les familles. Plus d'attention doit aussi être portée au développement de politiques de soins à long terme adaptés à la société taïwanaise.

Decision makers at every level of society, local, national and international, along with NGOs and civil society are committed to alleviating abject generational poverty. In the context of what many refer to as the ‘feminization of poverty', my dissertation focuses on girls during their early adolescent years in order to uncover the barriers that are present and which prevent them from exiting a life of poverty. By using participatory methodologies, in particular photovoice, we hear directly from ten girls between the ages of 10 – 14 who describe their experiences of living a life of poverty. In my engagement with the girls what became apparent is the impact of pre-determined roles and responsibilities on girls living with poverty. Many of these are noticeably absent in capacity building, poverty and gender related literature. Also absent in discussions related to girls living with poverty and capacity building is a spotlight on the influential role of cultural and societal norms resulting in the lower status of girls. The impact of culture and societal norms becomes self-evident in discussions with the girls, particularly after the girls' conducted community-based interviews with their grandmothers, mothers or aunties. Comprehensive data is often missing which includes specific barriers that emerge in a girl's life including attending school, achieving optimum health, accessing diverse economic opportunities, as well as achieving independence and empowerment. In this study, the importance of obtaining data directly from girls living with poverty becomes evident. For example, girls living intimately with poverty will identify barriers which may not be readily visible to researchers and decision-makers who do not share the same life experience. Only by understanding the diverse barriers that are present in young adolescent girls' lives that prevent them from accessing capacity building opportunities like education and literacy will decision makers be able to develop capacity building policies that will have a higher probability of being relevant, meaningful and high-impact. And only when these capacity building policies have quality of life as key success indicators, can girls living with poverty access a higher quality of life – a clear objective for research and policies related to girls, capacity building and poverty. / Les décideurs à tous les niveaux de la société, locaux, nationaux et internationaux, de concert avec les ONG et la société civile, consacrent leurs efforts à réduire la pauvreté générationnelle abjecte. Dans un contexte que plusieurs décrivent comme la féminisation de la pauvreté, ma thèse se concentre sur des jeunes filles au début de l'adolescence, afin de découvrir quelles barrières sont présentes et les empêchent de se sortir d'une vie de pauvreté. Utilisant des méthodologies participatives, en particulier photovoice, nous entendons les récits de dix jeunes filles entre 10 et 14 ans qui décrivent leurs expériences de vie dans la pauvreté. Ce qui est ressorti de mes échanges avec ces jeunes filles est l'impact de rôles et responsabilités pré-déterminées sur les jeunes filles vivant dans la pauvreté. Plusieurs de ceux-ci brillent par leur absence dans la littérature scientifique sur le renforcement des capacités, la pauvreté et le genre. Est également absent des discussions reliées aux jeunes filles vivant dans la pauvreté et au renforcement des capacités un éclairage sur le rôle influent des normes culturelles et sociétales entraînant un statut plus bas chez les filles. L'impact des normes culturelles et sociétales devient évident au cours de discussions avec les jeunes filles, particulièrement après qu'elles aient réalisé des entrevues au sein de la communauté auprès de leurs grand-mères, mères ou tantes. Il manque souvent de données complètes incluant des barrières spécifiques qui émergent dans la vie d'une jeune fille, incluant fréquenter l'école, atteindre une santé optimale, avoir accès à des opportunités économiques diverses, atteindre l'indépendance et se prendre en main. Dans cette étude, l'importance d'obtenir des données directement de la part de jeunes filles vivant dans la pauvreté devient évidente. Par exemple, les jeunes filles vivant intimement dans un contexte de pauvreté identifieront des barrières qui ne sont pas nécessairement visibles pour des chercheurs et décideurs qui ne partagent pas la même expérience de vie. C'est seulement en comprenant les diverses barrières présentes dans la vie des jeunes filles, particulièrement au début de l'adolescence, qui les empêchent d'avoir accès à des opportunités de renforcement des capacités telles que l'éducation et l'alphabétisation que les décideurs pourront développer des politiques de renforcement des capacités qui auront une plus grande probabilité d'être pertinentes, significatives et d'avoir un grand impact. Et c'est seulement lorsque ces politiques de renforcement des capacités auront la qualité de vie comme indicateurs principaux de succès que les jeunes filles vivant dans la pauvreté auront accès à une meilleure qualité de vie - un objectif clair pour la recherche et les politiques reliées aux jeunes filles, au renforcement de capacités et à la pauvreté.

<p> From early to middle childhood, girls normatively begin to show a shift towards masculinity. Preschools are filled with "girly girls" whereas elementary schools show a high prevalence of girls self-identifying as tomboys. In contrast, boys' masculinity remains stable without a similar shift towards femininity. One possible explanation for this discrepancy is children's awareness of male prestige. As children become more aware that males are valued over females, I hypothesize that children may be motivated to approach masculinity and possibly avoid femininity. The current study uses archival data and examines whether awareness of male prestige is associated with an approach towards masculinity exhibited by children's gender attitudes. Participants included 217 six-year-old children who were interviewed. As hypothesized, the more that children believed that others had a higher regard for boys compared to girls, the more favorable were their attitudes towards boys, and the less favorable were their attitudes toward girls.</p>

<p> The post-apocalyptic narrative has been imagined time and again in American literature and popular culture. More often than not, it is presented as a dystopian future in which all signs of humanity and the world as we know it are lost. Through an examination of nature and environment, humanity, and time and futurity within two post-apocalyptic texts&mdash;Cormac McCarthy's novel <i>The Road</i> and Robert Kirkman's graphic novel <i> The Walking Dead</i>&mdash;this thesis explores the manner in which heteronormativity is presented and, more importantly, the ways in which this type of dominant order can be and are disrupted. Reading against the grain, I explore definitions "normative" and "nonnormative," "human" and "monstrous" within the post-apocalyptic narrative in an effort to suggest that these definitions are complicated in an attempt to present the post-apocalyptic future as a space for multiple potentialities and possibilities of living.</p>

<p> Job satisfaction (JS) has been shown to significantly predict life satisfaction (LS) across a large array of research (Tait, Padgett, &amp; Baldwin, 1989), though the strength of the relationship varies (Steiner &amp; Truxillo, 1987). Authors have suggested the difference in the strength of the relationship across studies may be due to the presence of moderators (Rain, Lane, &amp; Steiner, 1991), particularly an individual's level of work importance (Lent &amp; Brown, 2008). Unfortunately, the research on the moderating impact of work importance uses measures which lack sufficient validity and reliability evidence about their scores (Steiner &amp; Truxillo, 1987). Steiner and Truxillo (1987) suggested Kanungo's ( 1982) Work Importance Questionnaire and Job Importance Questionnaire as a specific measure which would address this concern, though adherence to traditional masculine norms may also tap into the construct of work importance. Individuals who adhere to traditional masculine norms of the dominant culture in the U.S. often place even greater emphasis on their work role (Mahalik et al., 2003). The past literature on adherence to masculine norms has generally focused solely on negative outcomes (Kiselica &amp; Englar-Carlson, 2010) and often samples including only mainly White, heterosexual men (Parent &amp; Smiler, 2012). </p><p> The current study explores the impact of potential moderators on the relationship between job and life satisfaction, examines how this relationship may vary across categories of identity, evaluates potential positive outcomes of adherence to masculine norms, and analyzes how adherence to masculine norms may vary across categories of identity. An online survey was given to 290 U.S. adults, working at least part time, about job satisfaction, life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, job and work importance, and adherence to masculine norms. The results showed job satisfaction to predict life satisfaction, though did not find any significant moderating effect of any measure of work importance (work importance, job importance, primacy of work). The model explaining the largest amount of variance (45%) suggested that job satisfaction may have an indirect effect on life satisfaction, through positive and negative affect. The above results did not vary by gender (job satisfaction predicting life satisfaction, no significant moderators, mediation model). With regard to adherence to masculine norms, there were no relationship detected between positive outcomes and adherence. While the current sample did not have sufficient numbers to examine how adherence to masculine norms may vary by ethnicity and sexual orientation, differences between men and women were examined. Men showed significantly higher adherence to masculine norms, as well as higher adherence to specific norms of power over women, the use of violence, and frequently changing sexual partners. The results suggest the need for more complex models and statistical methods, using outside raters, selecting methods that can test causality, and intentionally selecting higher numbers of ethnic and sexual minorities. With regard to clinical implications, the study suggests the need to address values around help-seeking, focusing on strengths for adherence to masculine norms, and addressing barriers within therapy and barriers towards entering therapy for individuals with high self-reliance.</p>

<p> The purpose of this research is to examine sexual identity and sexual fluidity from a multicultural social work perspective. Examination includes having an understanding of the components of sexual identity development, the stability of sexual identity overtime and the challenges of sexual fluidity and identity. This provides a more substantial evaluation of themes within sexuality.</p><p> This content analysis of existing literature on sexual identity and sexual fluidity reveals findings and gaps in the research. In addition, it identifies areas in which further research is needed. This allows for more competent social work practices to effectively address issues of sexual identity. Findings suggest that it is difficult to capture the basic process that each individual experiences because circumstances can be unique for everyone. Patterns based on categorization within sexuality suggest that sexuality should be understood on a continuum.</p>

The point of departure for “Affecting change? Cultural politics of sexuality and ‘race’ in Norwegian education” is the reconfiguration of sexual and racial politics in the Norwegian public sphere over the past decade. Both gender equality and homotolerance was transformed from contested political issues to common values that were seen to positively distinguish Norwegian culture in this process. Furthermore, these issues were increasingly taken up to describe both cultural differences and “cultural conflicts” internationally and in Norway. This development can be traced in curriculum and textbooks from 2006-2010, especially in the discussions of cultural differences in Social Science. Through interrogations of both the discursive interconnections between gender, sexuality, and “race,” and how the issues of sexuality and “race” are tackled in education separately, the dissertation highlights that both education about sexuality and “race” in contemporary Norway can be informed by a postcolonial critique that reveals the persistence of racializing discursive strategies in Norwegian education. “Affecting Change? Cultural Politics of Sexuality and ‘Race’ in Norwegian education” is an article based dissertation that investigates the cultural configurations of sexuality and “race” in Norwegian education as they appear in textbooks and in classroom interaction. It consists of four articles and an introduction that discusses contextual, methodological, and theoretical issues that were important for the research that the articles present. The articles focus on a) the cultural politics of Norwegian sex education, b) the interplay between sexuality and questions of cultural differences in Social Science textbooks, c) conceptual and affective problems in education about “race” and racism, and d) the impact of affective educational spaces on teaching and learning questions of “difference” in the classroom. The first two articles primarily consist of discussions of existing research and textbook analyses. The latter two are based on classroom observation. The analysis highlights the persistence of heteronormalizing and racializing conceptual frameworks in education that aims to combat discrimination. Specifically, it argues that the denial of “race” as a relevant concept in Norwegian public discourse and education currently hinders educational efforts to prevent racism among young people. Furthermore, it sheds light on how affective aspects of classroom interaction can strengthen or work against education that reproduces oppressive social norms. These considerations of the cultural politics of sexuality and “race” in Norwegian education are informed by a theoretical and methodological discussion about affect and cultural analysis. Drawing on both psychosocial perspectives and Deleuzo-Guatarian affect theory, the dissertation explores the persistence of oppressive social structures through a focus on psychosocial aspects of racist interaction, and the potential for social change that can be traced through affect on the level of the situation. In the articles, affective inquiry on both these levels helps highlight both how racism is enacted and thwarted in educational encounters.

<p> The purpose of this project was to identify potential funding sources, and write a grant to fund an existing violence prevention program designed to change cultural norms around masculinity that condone and glorify violence. The grant would fund the expansion of the program into targeted organizations that the host organization was previously unable to collaborate with for a variety of reasons. An extensive literature review increased knowledge about the problem of violence and its relationship to traditional or hegemonic definitions of masculinity and provided information about evidence-based violence prevention programs that the grant writer then used to design a best-practices approach to phase two of the existing program. A search for potential funding sources resulted in the selection of the Office on Violence Against Women, a division of the United States Department of Justice, as the best funding source for this project. Actual submission and funding of this grant were not a requirement for successful completion of this project.</p>