This thesis explores the current divide in the LGBTI or queer social movement industry in Santiago de Chile. Based on field interviews with Chilean activists in June 2013, it argues that the deployment and maintenance of hegemonic masculinity is ultimately at the root of the fissure. The introduction provides a brief history of the movement in Chile since the 1970's, as well as short introductions to each of the six social movement organizations in the study. Chapter 1 problematizes the recent rapid lexical change in which the term diversidad has come to mean `gay,' as well as it impact on social movement framing tactics, providing evidence of a nascent diversidad frame that has been coopted by hegemonically masculine actors. Chapter 2 explores the politics surrounding the passage of Chile's Ley Antidiscriminación and the murder of Daniel Zamudio, arguing that certain social movement actors deployed hegemonic masculinity to seize and maintain control of both the media frenzy and the passage of the law. Finally, Chapter 3 analyzes the ongoing fight for same-sex partnership recognition in Chile by problematizing the fight for the proposed Acuerdo de Vida en Pareja as well as marriage equality, arguing that these issues represent the interests of hegemonically masculine voices within the movement above all others. / acase@tulane.edu

Scholars have often viewed nation and diaspora as opposing concepts. Such a binary perception is not useful for the establishment of a harmonious nation where multi-diasporic groups are compelled to cohabit. This study attempts to reconcile nation and diaspora. Reading Earl Lovelace’s fiction, I argue that in ethnically diverse countries like Trinidad, migrant populations can maintain their specific diasporic identities and still come together as a nation. Trinidad is inhabited by diasporas and its various people should be seen as such. In this study, the main diasporas in Trinidad include Afro-Trinidadians, Indo-Trinidadians, and white Creoles. Other minor diasporic groups include the Chinese, the Lebanese, and Syrians. The diasporic conception of Trinidad, where the original natives are a small minority, helps to ward off any autochthonous, indigenous and tribal territorial claims that potentially disrupt the social fabric. I argue that the promotion of diasporic consciousness can be a sine qua non pathway towards the formation of a consolidated multi-ethnic island of Trinidad. In practical terms, this means that the different diasporas in Trinidad are likely to come together if they are allowed to revitalize homeland cultures as they contribute to the national space. This study traces the evolution of Lovelace’s nationalist discourse, which progresses from a focus on the Afro-Caribbean male diaspora to an incorporation of other diasporas as well as women, as he imaginatively figures the future of the Trinidadian nation. This shift underscores Lovelace’s growing self-consciousness about the imperative to negotiate and reconstruct ethnic and gender identities in order to create a diverse Trinidadian nation. / acase@tulane.edu

While "philosophical counseling" emerged in the 1980's as a new form of caretaking practice, it can be understood as an attempt to re-embrace a tradition that goes back to the ancients, with their conception of philosophy as a "way of life." This study discusses elements of that tradition in order to provide a theoretical-historical framework for the modern practice of philosophical counseling. The central figure for this philosophic tradition is Socrates. The present study focuses on his notion of the "the examined life," while considering some doctrines in Hellenistic philosophy as further expressions of the Socratic tradition. As represented in the Platonic dialogues, Socrates exhibits "the examined life" by engaging in the practice of philosophy as some kind of "care of the soul." Though he speaks on occasion of the "conversion" that may be required for the commitment to this philosophic practice, it is carried out, in dialogical settings, through the rational-cognition dimension of reason and argument, undertaken with a basic critical stance. This is fundamental for differentiating philosophy from psychotherapeutic practices and highlights the unique value that philosophy may be able to contribute to caretaking practices. This dissertation has a synoptic character: it seeks to integrate a self-reflection on the philosophic tradition with a concern for issues present in the contemporary field of caretaking. For those broad purposes, the interpretation of ancient philosophy relies mainly on the scholarly work by G. Vlastos, M. Nussbaum, M. Foucault, and P. Hadot. With their guidance, the dissertation addresses one question in general: What was present in classical philosophy as a way of life with therapeutic aims that is absent in today's dominant practices of care for the person? / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

ABSTRACT This dissertation examines jazz in the life of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), from its founding after the end of World War II to its dissolution with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Challenging the established scholarly view that jazz was an art form whose primary dynamic consisted of opposition to the state, this dissertation argues that jazz was in fact a musical genre that enjoyed considerable state attention and in some cases support. Over the 40 years of the GDR’s history, party leaders variously legislated, controlled, repressed, encouraged, and ultimately sponsored jazz activities, recognizing throughout these years that jazz bore a critical relation to Marxist ideology with respect to its origins in racial identity and class-based oppression: this history, then, reflects the evolving struggle by socialist authorities to define this relationship and manage it accordingly. In order to make this argument, this dissertation examines previously unexamined material from a variety of sources in the GDR, including interviews from former residents and jazz actors, private documents such as diaries and letters, official government policies, and records of state surveillance. It provides the first full-length assessment of jazz over the entire lifespan of the GDR, dividing this history into four key phases and documenting the evolution of jazz from its initial use as a tool of re-education immediately following World War II to its emergence as a state-sanctioned art form in the 1980s. In sum, this dissertation argues that jazz can no longer be seen in such a simplistic way as scholars generally contend: rather, this research concludes that jazz must be understood as an art form in continuous and evolving dialogue with, not pure opposition to, the state. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation is a presentation and defense of the idea that public philosophy is a valuable activity, and that public philosophy should be generally supported because it provides benefits to the people who engage in it, and it raises esteem for philosophy generally. Historically philosophy was, in some measure, geared more toward the general public than it is today. Examining the history of philosophy in the most general terms reveals a trend for philosophy, over time, to become less accessible to the public and more of a specialized and professional practice. Philosophy is an activity that can and should provide benefits to people other than professional academic philosophers. In particular, applied philosophy is useful to other disciplines and professions. Applied philosophy is more well-known than public philosophy. Public philosophy may take two forms. There is public philosophy created for the public by public intellectuals. There is also a less well-known variant, philosophy by the public, which allows non-philosophers to participate in philosophical reflection and discussion in public philosophy programs. Public philosophy programs are an innovative way to revive the practice of philosophy as a way for ordinary people to improve their everyday lives. Public philosophy programs benefit individuals as well as their communities. / acase@tulane.edu

Approximately 600 people from across Europe have officially joined Santo Daime, a Brazilian religion organized around the ingestion of a potent psychoactive beverage called ayahuasca. Santo Daime members (called fardados) regularly attend ceremonies where they imbibe ayahuasca while meditating, singing, and dancing for between 6 and 12 hours. Deeming ayahuasca a dangerous “hallucinogen,” most European governments have responded by arresting and prosecuting people who engage in Santo Daime rituals. Highlighting Belgium as a cultural bellwether of Europe, this dissertation pursues the following question: Residing within a social milieu that is dominated by secularism and mainstream Christianity, why are some Europeans adopting Santo Daime spiritual practices? The “secular” designates those aspects of social life that do not involve any recourse to supernatural entities. Through the latter half of the 20th century, most social scientists welcomed progressive secularization as an inevitable substitute for declining religions in Europe. Recently, a budding anthropology of secularism has emphasized how the institutionalization of materialist disenchantment tends to exclude alternative ideas about the nature of mind and reality. Conversions to transnational religions portend deeper shifts in how some Europeans are adapting to an increasingly interconnected world. The clarification of this process is important because scholars have yet to account for why some Westerners are making unorthodox religious choices in the age of secularization. During fieldwork, I asked informants why they had become fardados. The collective responses are summarized by one Belgian fardado who said: “Santo Daime is the key to a lot of solutions.” Fardados consider ayahuasca as a medicinal sacrament (or “entheogen”), which helps them to cure various maladies, such as depression, social anxiety, and alcohol/drug dependence. My informants’ understand their Daime practice as a form of mysticism, whereby the entheogenic ritual acts as a kind of introspective technology (what I term a “suiscope”). Empirical studies corroborate fardados’ claim that ayahuasca is benign and can be beneficial when employed in ritual contexts. One of the essential functions of anthropology is to render different cultural logics as mutually explicable. Accordingly, this dissertation endeavors to intercede in a misunderstanding between a secular hegemony and an unfamiliar religious subculture. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu