This thesis is an exploratory study of the everyday lives of four women with various physical disabilities and how these women came to view themselves as sexual beings. Using an intersectional analysis and in-depth interviews, it examines these women's perceptions of expectations of normalcy in regard to life style, body image, and sexual practices, especially the expectations of their able-bodied family members and friends. It also explores how these disabled women deal with the stigmas they encounter in their everyday lives. Special attention is focused on how disabled people are often viewed as asexual or without sexual desires. By contrast, this thesis highlights the sexual agency of the disabled and includes policy implications that entail new ways of defining sexual practices, as well as the need for sex education for the disabled.

acase@tulane.edu / This dissertation research brings together disparate bodies of literature on environmental inequality, sociology of space, and feminist theories of intersectionality to bear on the location and distribution of environmental hazards in the form of landfills. Landfills pose a threat to both ecological sustainability as well as present risks to human health through contamination and pollution. While environmental inequality literatures have executed exceptional work into the dynamics of race and class with respect to the distribution of hazardous waste facilities, the literature is noticeably lacking with respect to identifying relationships between gender and environmental inequalities. Furthermore, many quantitative studies have exclusively focused on hazardous waste facilities as a singular measure of environmental inequality. This study advances the field in three major ways. First, through the inclusion of theorizations based on feminist intersectionality theories, this research empirically analyzes hypotheses derived from intersectionality theories to understand dynamics of gender-environment interactions. Second, this study extends analysis to all forms of waste containment—municipal, industrial, construction and demolition, and hazardous—to identify trends across the social fabric of the contiguous United States at the county level of analysis with respect to multiple forms of environmental hazards. Third, utilizing innovative analytic techniques, this research provides three unique and related strategies, geographic information systems, logistic binary regression, and structural equation modeling, to examine socio-environmental disparities. Findings from each analytic strategy inform the subsequent strategy. Findings suggest the importance of including gender indicators to account for the unique effect of gender and environmental inequality. Furthermore, results indicate the importance in applying intersectionality theories to environmental outcomes as well as empirically testing hypotheses derived from the largely theoretical and qualitatively backed field. Future research should focus on specific regional dynamics of identified socio-environmental interactions by including historical and qualitative data to triangulate quantitative findings. / 1 / Clare Cannon

Thesis advisor: Leigh Patel / Despite the 1982 Plyler v. Doe court decision, which upheld the constitutionality of undocumented youth having access to public K-12 education in the United States, Latina students who are undocumented face unique educational and societal barriers. Material and psychological conditions of “illegality” permeate these young women’s social worlds (Muñoz, 2015). Latina students continue to lag behind their Latino and white peers as a result of historically built gendered and raced school structures of dispossession (Cammarota, 2004; Fine & Ruglis, 2009). This institutional ethnography used the lens of intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1991; Collins, 1998) to examine how ten Latina students navigated “illegality” in schools, the state house, and an immigrant youth-led organization. Intersectional analyses of the Latinas’ multiple experiences within and across institutional structures shed light on the specific ways that “illegality” and heteropatriarchy manifested, changed or remained stagnant, interconnected with race and class, and how these junctures were negotiated in undocumented spaces of resistance. Based on intersectional analysis of policies, interview, and observation data, it became apparent how nationalistic discourses of citizenship were embedded in structures of white racism and heteropatriarchy. The Latinas of color in the study predominantly endured interlocking forms of gendered and racialized oppression, including sexual violence, which became a dimension of intersectional disempowerment that men of color and white women seldom confronted. Based on findings from interview and observation data, this institutional ethnography challenges gendered and raced nativist conceptions of U.S. citizenship, reclaiming pathways for undocumented communities as well as action-oriented educational policies, theories, and pedagogies rooted in intersectional frames aimed at decentering heteropatriarchal whiteness in the construction of the nation state (Collins, 1998), and more in accordance with the fluid, complex realities of interlocked global economies, local cultures, and transnational citizenry. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This project aims on exploring ways to redefine the relationship of gender and space through urban design. Gender inequalities expressed in spatial manners have been theorized by feminist geography, an approach to human geography. Having a good understanding of this theoretical context will provide the tools to tackle distantiation, spatial separation, constraint and the limited spatial opportunities women experience in public places. Using Rinkeby square as the canvas for this exploration, the effort will be put on mapping the uses of the square through observation, quantitative research, as well as interviews with local organisations, shops and authorities close to the square. An inventory of the architectural features of the square will be made along with a site analysis focusing on the questions of effects on equality. Furthermore existing female networks and societies in the area will be contacted seeking possible collaborations for a later project work, workshops or events. Finally, as a result of the initial investigations, this project intends to explore how a physical intervention would affect these questions at Rinkeby square. It is the working hypothesis of this project that any project in order to be successful would need to be based on a deeper understanding of the challenges surrounding female presence on the square, and be tied into the already existing networks for women. This project therefore hopes to establish contact with existing female networks such as (D)Järva Kvinnor, Café Respekt and Tensta-Hjulsta Kvinnocenter, amongst others.

Race- and gender-related contextual factors influence Black women’s sexual behaviors, attitudes, and outcomes. Contextual factors of Black women’s sexual behaviors include stereotypes, microaggressions, ethnic identity, and self-concept. Little to no research has examined race- and gender-specific microaggressions (i.e., gendered racial microaggressions; GRM) impact on Black women's sexual health. Responsively, using an intersectional approach, this study hypothesized that ethnic identity’s influence on the relationship between GRM and sexual behavior (i.e., condom use, lifetime sexual partners) is conditional on self-conceptualization moderated effect on ethnic identity and sexual behavior. Participants included 124 unmarried Black women, recruited from mTurk, a southeastern university and community. Moderated moderation analyses revealed the relationship between GRM and number of lifetime sexual partners is conditionally based on one's level of ethnic identity and self-conceptualization. Findings could potentially enhance existing HIV interventions by increasing awareness of GRM and implementing coping strategies to combat GRM’s effect on sexual behaviors.

Research in Canada and Turkey suggests that LGBTQ asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable among an already marginalized group, the refugee community, where different forms of structural violence manifest itself in particular ways towards gay refugees.Given that few studies exist in the Swedish context, the aim is to gain a preliminaryunderstanding of LGBTQ refugee’s experiences of structural violence in Sweden, legally,socially and economically.The material is based on interviews of four male gay refugees from different countries all living in Malmö.Using a thematic analysis by categorizing the material into patterns of meaning, two mainthemes have been identified: structural violence in the asylum system and structural violence in social life. The intersectionality theory will be applied in order to understand how oppression expresses itself in particular ways towards these individuals, because of their intersecting identity as gay and as refugee.The results indicate that LGBTQ refugees experience structural violence through economic marginalization and the re-telling of traumatic experiences in the asylum process. However, structural violence expressed via social marginalization they cannot be sufficiently understood through the intersectionality theory, urging future studies to further explore and expand the topic and scope of the thesis.

Government began legislating abortion in the mid nineteenth century and has controlled access to this service for women ever since. With the creation of hospital boards after WWII, state control over access became further entrenched. Regulations and restrictions since Roe v. Wade limit the availability of abortion services for women served by Medicaid and other social assistance programs. The existence of a class bias around access can be seen throughout the topic's history and legislation has unfairly targeted and therefore disproportionately affects poor women. The data show that these restrictions have no impact on the number of unintended pregnancies over the last 20 plus years. Without the ability to personally fund the procedure, poor women do not enjoy the same choices as women in other social classes. In the next decade, we are likely to experience more of the same without having a realistic conversation about Medicaid funding of abortion.

Eurocentric and marginalizing schooling practices hinder Latino student persistence in US Schools. Furthermore, an intentional focus placed on Latinas uncovers compounding layers of oppression permeating the educational system. Through an analysis of testimonios, this qualitative critical narrative study better understands the schooling experiences and academic self-concept of seven Latina junior high students. Guided by Latino Critical Race (LatCrit) and Intersectionality Theories, it contributes to understandings of how Latina youth experience the transition from elementary to junior high school and how they perceived themselves as scholars. Testimonios were captured through a three-part series of semi-structured videoconference interviews. Data analysis utilized tenets from both LatCrit and Intersectionality frameworks and revealed navigating academic challenges, language challenges in the classroom, and overall belonging were key for participants. Gender and ethnic identity also surfaced as significant factors that impact academic self-concept of Latina student's academic perceptions. The findings lead to suggestions for liberatory pedagogical, political, and social schooling practices.