Many international graduate students serve as teaching assistants at US universities. As teaching assistants, they carry out significant responsibilities such as leading lab sessions, grading student work, holding office hours, and proctoring exams. When these international teaching assistants (ITAs) cross national boundaries to teach at US universities, they may experience significant differences in the educational cultures. Teaching in a new educational culture offers ITAs both challenges and opportunities for growth. To better understand the experiences of this population within engineering, data were collected from seven engineering ITAs using a multiple-case study approach with each ITA representing a case. Data were collected in the form of weekly reflections and in-person interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester, at an R1 university representative of national averages in terms of international graduate student population in the US. The participant pool represented diversity in the form of nationality, gender, prior teaching experience with the same course, and engineering discipline. Data were analyzed using both a priori codes and inductive coding emerging from the data, with particular attention given to experiences specific to engineering. Based on data analysis, codebooks were developed that operationalize ITAs' experiences and navigational strategies in the context of engineering. While illuminating the intersections of ITAs' teaching experiences with their international and GTA identities, the results point to the complexity and variations in participants' experiences based on various social and contextual factors such as gender, cultural background, prior exposure to the English language, prior engagement with the course material, and interaction with the teaching team. The results point to several contributions, and implications for engineering departments and universities, faculty, and ITAs to better engage ITAs in the process of undergraduate engineering education. In terms of contributions, this study uses intersectionality, a critical framework, which accounts for the complexity of engineering ITAs' experiences to provide systematic accounts of their experiences and navigational strategies while illuminating the nuances related to social, cultural, and disciplinary identities. Implications for the engineering departments and universities include creating an educational environment that values the cultural and linguistic diversity brought by ITAs, and collaborating with ITAs to organize training programs that help ITAs strengthen their communication, workload management, and intercultural skills; those for faculty include helping ITAs manage their teaching and research requirements by allowing for flexibility in ITAs' schedules, and treating ITAs as budding colleagues by using ITAs' existing pedagogical knowledge and scaffolding them when needed; those for ITAs include resisting the institutional pressure to "fit" into the US educational norms by using the pedagogical and cultural knowledge they bring from their home countries to better support student learning, and develop students' intercultural skills; and those for undergraduate students include engaging with ITAs to learn the engineering course content and simultaneously develop intercultural competence. / Ph. D.

The Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia represents a period of social transition, associated with hierarchical social stratification. Evidence for stratification at Karataş-Semayük (i.e., Karataş) (2700 to 2300 BCE) is present through architectural composition and size, privatized storage, and differential mortuary treatment. However, previous research has not interpreted paleopathological conditions with considerations of intersectionality to interpret the lived experiences of individuals and assess the presence of marginalization embodied by the inhabitants of Karataş. Estimated females (n=39) and estimated males (n=60) were observed from a total sample of 170 individuals. Through observations of cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, and periosteal reactions, the ways in which the interactions of age, sex, and socioeconomic status contribute to differential levels of frailty and risk of mortality were explored. Fisher's exact and Kendall's tau-b correlations, ordered probit regression, hierarchical loglinear, Kaplan-Meier, and Cox proportional hazard analysis were employed to address these goals. Females are no more stressed than males in terms of quantity of stress markers or severity when present, which suggests that Karataş may be more reflective of a heterarchical social system. Statistical analyses reveal the interaction between sex and socioeconomic status to be the most influential in predicting frailty and risk of mortality. Hazard analysis results indicate that females of low status are least likely to experience increased frailty and risk of mortality, which rejects the hypothesis that females would exhibit more stress due to previous research indicating Karataş was likely virilocal and that higher ranked individuals generally exhibit greater buffers to stress. Beyond establishing a way to implement intersectionality into bioarchaeological studies of marginalization, this research contributes to the reassessment of past perspectives that hierarchical social systems were well-established and rigid in Western Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age.

To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of Scout and her adolescence in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. Her social environment is colored by traditional and contemporary gender roles and the demands and expectations that accompany them. Aunt Alexandra is the character in Scout’s closest circle of influence who embodies such ideals. However, Scout also has the nuanced influence of her father, Atticus, and her neighbor, Miss Maudie, two characters that can act as role models for Scout when it comes to conformity to gendered expectations or the rejection of the same. As such, these characters also demonstrate that agency is a factor, even in such instances as gender. Beauvoir, Butler, Wittig, and Jay, to mention some of the research referenced in this essay, contribute to a reading of the novel and of Scout from the perspective of socially constructed gender, or more specifically, socially constructed femininity. Scout is biologically female, but this essay argues, with the aid of the above-mentioned scholars and their work, that this fact does not mean that there is such a thing as inherent femininity. Instead, Scout personifies the agency within socially constructed gender as she chooses to conform or reject the expectations based on her due to her sex. Furthermore, she is able to do so in part because of her tomboy appearance and the insight she gains regarding the stereotypes surrounding her, as well as the role models she finds in Atticus and Miss Maudie and their androgynous approach to life and their surroundings in turn.

This study explored how Swedish comprehensive plans formulated visions about planning for the needs of people and how Swedish urban planners interpret those visions into implementations in detailed development plans. The aim was to examine how visions in comprehensive plans address how to plan for the needs of a diverse society and how visions were translated into implementation by planners in Swedish municipalities. The research questions were: How is planning for people with different needs incorporated in the comprehensive plans and how are the visions in the comprehensive plans implemented by urban planners in the detailed development plans? The background was that Motala municipality, which this study was in collaboration with, expressed difficulties in planning with an intersectional perspective. The focus become on the language used in visions of planning for different needs and how the language usage was interpreted by urban planners. The methods used was a discourse analysis called “what’s the problem represented to be”, WPR, developed by Carol Bacchi. In addition, thematic analysis of interviews with urban planners were conducted. The main results from the WPR analysis showed that comprehensive plans were vague in their description of how to plan for people with different needs and that intersectionality was described but the term was not used. The interviews provided with an explanation of why the formulations are vague in the first place, with flexibility being described as underlining why the visions was vague. Yet, vagueness was expressed as being problematic since it opened the visions for interpretation.

This study explores the oppression faced by 18th-century labouring-class women through poetry and intersectionality. By employing Kimberlé Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality and Beverly Skeggs' theory of respectability, it examines how gender and class intertwine to create unique challenges. Analysing the lives and works of non-canonized women poets, the research unveils enduring patterns of overlapping oppressions, highlighting the significance of intersectionality in understanding women's experiences. This study offers fresh insights into their struggles, contributing to both literary analysis and women's studies.

This thesis seeks to understand and explain gendered everyday life in the village of HatNyao in Northwestern Laos, specifically in relation to rubber cultivation, by using an ethnographic approach and methods. The ‘rubber boom’ is changing the landscape of Northern Laos, and in the process is reshaping gendered everyday life. Gender relations in the village of HatNyao are undergoing various transformations whereby previous gender structures start to erode. Additional changes will probably continue to occur, largely due to increasing labour shortages. Gendered everyday life in HatNyao is therefore ‘bending’ with the changes associated with rubber cultivation, as well as in relation to different spaces of the everyday and household diversity. The concept of ‘paradoxical gendered spaces’ is invoked to capture the ways in which the dimensions and activities of the everyday vary with, in particular, ethnicity and age. Most households in HatNyao have improved their living conditions due to rubber cultivation. Nevertheless, inequalities are increasing within the village: better-off households have improved their situation, while for others it has been more difficult to adapt to the new conditions of everyday life and rubber cultivation. As the number of villages introducing rubber in Laos is increasing, alongside the number reaching the crucial tapping stage, it is essential to understand how rubber cultivation in smallholder communities interacts with gender relations and the division of labour. There are thus both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ outcomes from introducing rubber in Laos, since it depends on the context, as well as on the diverse spaces of the everyday.

Background: In 2014, 1.2 million people died from HIV related causes around the world. Colombia ranks second in HIV prevalence in Latin America and the number of people infected with HIV in Colombia increases. One of the reasons for the increase is the stigmatization and discrimination against patients infected with HIV that exists. Nurses are human beings, influenced by their surroundings, with personal beliefs and preconceptions and may, if not being aware of these preconceptions and personal beliefs, help supporting stigmatization and discrimination.  Aim: The aim with this study was to describe how Colombian nurses view upon caring for patients with HIV.  Method: A qualitative approach was being used in this empirical study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with six Colombian nurses at an infection unit in a university hospital. The interviews were transcribed and later analysed by using a qualitative content analysis.  Results: The findings resulted in three major themes: Nurses’ reflections on attitudes towards HIV, The role and responsibilities of a nurse and Nurses’ thoughts regarding the patients, the disease and the profession. The first theme illustrates how the nurses reflect upon the attitudes within the society, the patients’ family and the patients’ attitudes towards themselves. The second theme describes how the nurses worked with patients with HIV. In the third theme, the nurses reflect upon their previous experiences, the future and the profession.  Discussion: Based on the result from the interviews, the factors influencing ones’ values and preconceptions were discussed. Some of these factors are religious and moral beliefs, lack of education and experience. / Bakgrund: 2014 avled 1,2 miljoner människor i världen av HIV-relaterade orsaker. Colombia återfinns på andra plats i Latinamerika vad gäller antal personer smittade med HIV och antal smittade i Colombia ökar. En orsak till ökningen är den stigmatisering och diskriminering av patienter smittade med HIV smittade som existerar. Sjuksköterskor är människor, influerade av sin omgivning, med personliga åsikter, värderingar och förförståelse. Om sjuksköterskan inte är medveten om sina värderingar och sin förförståelse, kan det bidra till stigmatisering och diskriminering. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva sjuksköterskors syn på att vårda patienter med HIV.  Metod: En kvalitativ ansats användes i denna empiriska studie. Data samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex colombianska sjuksköterskor på en infektionsklinik på ett universitetssjukhus. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades sedan med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys.  Resultat: I resultatet framkom tre huvudteman: Sjuksköterskors reflektioner angående attityder till HIV, Sjuksköterskans roll och ansvarsområden och Sjuksköterskors tankar angående patienterna, sjukdomen och professionen. Det första temat behandlar hur sjuksköterskorna ser på attityderna i samhället, i patients familj, samt patientens egna attityder. Det andra temat beskriver hur sjuksköterskorna arbetade med patienter med HIV. I det tredje temat reflekterar sjuksköterskorna kring tidigare erfarenheter, framtiden samt professionen.  Diskussion: Baserat på resultatet från intervjuerna, diskuterades de faktorer som påverkar ens värderingar och förförståelse. Några av dessa faktorer är religiösa och moraliska värderingar, brist på utbildning och erfarenhet.

Syftet med föreliggande studie är att belysa och analysera interaktion mellan pedagoger och barn på en fritidshemsavdelning med fokus på maktförhållanden. Som empirisk grund för arbetet ligger de observationer vi har gjort på ett fritidshem. För att analysera våra observationer har vi använt oss av positioneringsteori och intersektionell teori.En av studiens slutsatser är att olika pedagoger positionerar sig själv och barnen på olika sätt. Vi lyfter fram exempel på fyra olika pedagogpositioner. Dessa kallar vi en auktoritär, en kommunikativ, en närhetsskapande och en fostrande pedagogposition. Studien visar vidare att pedagogerna återkommande utmanar överordnade, underordnade och likvärdiga positioneringar bland barnen. Vi kallar detta för pedagogiska repositioneringar, och vi tolkar det som ett sätt att försöka utjämna ojämlika förhållanden i barngruppen. Olika kategoriseringar som kön, ålder och etnicitet verkar spela roll för vilka positioner som finns tillgängliga både för barn och pedagoger. Ytterligare ett resultat av studien är att kulturella berättelser, så kallade storylines, ofta verkar utgöra ramar för vilka handlingar och tolkningar som är tillgängliga för de inblandade. Dessa kan verka begränsande och befästande av positioner. / The purpose of this study to analyze interaction between educators and children at an after- school programme, focusing on power relations. To create the empirical data for this Bachelor's thesis we have performed observations at one after- school programme. The theoretical framework we used for the analysis is a combination of positioning theory and intersectional theory.Among our results we find that different educators position themselves and the children in different ways. We present and discuss four main pedagogical positions for educators that we identified in our field work. These are: an authoritarian educator position, a communicative educator position, an intimacy creating educator position and a fostering educator position. The study showed that the educators recurringly challenge superior, equal and subordinate positions among the children. We choose to call this phenomena pedagogic repositioning. It is understandable as an intent to remediate unequal relationships between children. In the study patterns emerge of how categories such as gender, age and ethnicity has importance for a person's available positions and repertoire of actions. Another result is that cultural stories called storylines often limits the actions and interpretations of the studies’ participants.

Canada is widely regarded as a liberal, multicultural nation that prides itself on a history of peace and tolerance. Oftentimes set up in contrast to the United States, Canada’s history of colonialism has been popularly imagined as a gentler, necessary, inevitable, and even benevolent version of expansion and subjugation of Indigenous populations. In recent decades scholars in the social sciences and humanities have challenged the rhetoric of Canada as a consistently benevolent and peaceful nation. They have pointed to the discontinuity between Canada’s rosy image, drawn from foundational nation-building myths of benevolence, and the deeply rooted colonial narratives of necessity and inevitability that underpin those nation-building myths. This discontinuity manifests itself in far reaching patterns of social and economic disparity between Indigenous and settler populations over time across the nation. This reality is acutely seen in the Canadian West, as Canada’s historic frontier. This thesis re-problematises narratives of Canadian nation-building from a regional perspective. It is argued that positioning the West as the frontier peripheral to Canadian ‘civilisation’ is part of a broader settler colonial logic that sees the contemporary manifestation of disparity between Indigenous and settler populations as emanating from uniquely backward, peripheral places in Canada, rather than challenging the fundamental benevolence of the Canadian nation. Through a close reading of two trials pertaining to an instance of multiple perpetrator sexual assault that occurred in Saskatchewan in 2003, I demonstrate how the complex web of interlocking systems of domination that oppress and privilege in trials do not emanate from the backwardness of the place in which they occurred, but are rather indicative of broader societal processes and power relations indicative of settler colonialism. This thesis argues there is a conflation between western Canadian identity, and settler identity, owing to the foundational nation-building myths in which the West became Canadian. In moving forward, this thesis proposes an acknowledgment of the settler colonial nature of westward expansion and suggests practicing openness to considering different ways westward expansion might have been understood and experienced. Key to this process is learning to listen, learning to hear, learning to believe, and learning to see oneself implicated in the stories of those who experienced westward expansion differently from how it is popularly constructed in settler society. I begin here by proposing the complainant’s voice in the trial be heard, and be believed. Her voice and her silence provides insight into understanding the oppressive power of settler-colonialism.

There have been several studies that have found that history textbooks are not equal when it comes to the representation of men and women. They are characterized by male perspective, where women as individuals and in groups are unapparent. The magazine Historiskan arose as a response to this problem, whose stated purpose is to highlight women in history and creating a gender historiography. When women on the other hand are being highlighted in history, other studies have shown that it is in general only the white Western heterosexual middle-class woman's perspective that historians include. Women of other ethnicity, class and sexuality ​​are excluded. The Swedish schools policy documents expresses that equality must be included in students’ education, and ethnicity, class and sexuality are perspectives to be included in the teaching of history. Based on a qualitative content analysis and intersectional gender theory this essay aims to examine how Historiskan depict women from the social categories; ethnicity, class and sexuality. The result shows that the stories are dominated by white Christian Western women as the norm. Women of different ethnic origin, color and religion exist, to a lesser extent, in which their ethnicity and skin color are more prominent in the narrative. Class and social status is a clear category that explains women's diverse experiences and opportunities. Heterosexuality is the norm, which is depicted as an economic and political agreement between the sexes. The big deviant is the unmarried woman. / Det finns ett flertal utredningar som har konstaterat att läromedlen i historia inte är jämställda. De präglas av manligt perspektiv, där kvinnor som individer och grupp osynliggörs. Tidskriften Historiskan uppstod som ett svar på denna problematik, vars uttalade syfte är att lyfta fram kvinnor i historien och skapa en jämställd historieskrivning. När kvinnor däremot lyfts fram, har andra studier visat att historieskrivningen generellt endast inkluderar den vita västerländska heterosexuella medelklasskvinnans perspektiv. Kvinnor av annan etnicitet, klass och sexualitet exkluderas. I skolans värdegrund uttrycks krav på att jämlikhet ska prägla elevers utbildning, samt ska även etnicitet, klass och sexualitet inkluderas i historieämnet. Utifrån en kvalitativ innehållsanalys och intersektionell genusteori genomförs en granskning av hur Historiskan skildrar kvinnor utifrån de sociala kategorierna; etnicitet, klass och sexualitet. Resultatet visar att berättelserna domineras av vita kristna västerländska kvinnor som utgör normen. Kvinnor av annan etnisk tillhörighet, hudfärg och religion förekommer om än i mindre utsträckning, och där framförallt deras etnicitet och hudfärg uppmärksammas mer specifikt. Klass och social ställning utgör en stark kategori som förklarar kvinnornas skilda erfarenheter och möjligheter. Heterosexualiteten utgör normen, som skildras som en ekonomisk och politisk överenskommelse mellan könen. Den stora avvikaren är den ogifta kvinnan.