This study deals with the meanings and conditions of motherhood for some Muslim women in Sweden, the majority of which live in Stockholm. The analysis is based mainly on 16 in-depth interviews with women who self-identify as Muslims. A majority of them were born in Sweden. In this study, motherhood and mothering are defined as intentional care work situated within, and shaped by, specific social, cultural and historical contexts. I examine which gendered, religious and spatial meanings are associated with mothering and Muslim identity in a Swedish transnational context. The analysis shows that religion (for most of the women) constitutes an interpretational frame for motherhood and for how children should be mothered into good Muslims and citizens. The women represent Islam as a facilitating religion by making a distinction between religion and culture. The study also shows how the women approach the problem of maintaining the children’s Muslim identities and their self-esteem in a secularized and islamophobic Swedish context, and how they stress the importance of the child developing a strong inner self. Based on the women’s own experiences of having been singled out as different, they respond to a racist logic associated with certain norms and conceptions about what counts as freedom or oppression. The interviews also reveal a transnational aspect of their mothering in which they consider what other places can offer their children. The thesis shows on the one hand how an authentic Muslim identity is related to ideas about Muslim places and origins; on the other hand it demonstrates how the women’s ambivalent affinities with Sweden, and (what they consider to be) Swedish and Muslim values, destabilize such an unambiguous connection. These ambivalent identifications show how the women’s conditional affinities become relevant for how they speak about motherhood and mothering and for how they relate to questions concerning “the good of the child”.

This thesis examines the ways in which American Idol producers rely on the white, Christian, heterosexual, middle-class, Americanness of contestants’ bodies and identities to advance the show’s American Dream narrative. When contestants do not meet all four of the components of Americaness, producers highlight some aspects of the contestants’ identities while hiding other truths about who they are. Additionally, those contestants who are able to adhere simultaneously to their producer-constructed personas while also asserting their individuality tend to fair best in the competition. / text

This report examines the construction of whiteness in Appalachia through a close study of two New Year’s Eve celebrations in a small community in Brasstown, North Carolina. By examining these two celebrations, I draw out questions of race and racialization that have been largely overlooked in the study of Appalachia and illustrate the connections between the construction of a whitewashed Appalachian identity and the construction of an equally pale national identity. This report challenges the idea that Appalachia as a region is “racially innocent” and therefore does not play a role in discussions of race in America. On the contrary, I show that Appalachia’s position as a site of production of a national culture and identity means that in the context of Appalachia, race and racialization demand scrutiny as a means for understanding what “whiteness” is. / text

This study explored the racial identity development of White corporate trainers who deliver training in racially diverse organizations. The purpose of this study was to acquire an understanding about the various factors that affect the racial identity development of White trainers as well as to distinguish ways in which racially diverse organizations support the creation of culturally responsive training. The study sought to identify aspects that affect White trainers’ identity and the role of the organizations in defining, or impacting, competencies related to culturally responsive training. A basic qualitative design guided the study and data was collected through two face-to-face interviews and a written reflection in response to their own completed interview transcripts. The participants included six White females and one male and were employed in organizations in the areas of oil and gas, real estate, retail, and consulting. The participants were identified by their connection to Texas A&M University students and faculty, the Academy of Human Resource Development, or the American Society for Training and Development. The findings of the study indicated that White corporate trainers develop their racial identity through a variety of experiences in their personal and professional environments. The White trainers’ perceptions of racial identity were impacted through environmental influences and their construction of Whiteness. Their racial consciousness was further developed through their work within racially diverse organizations and cultural diversity within the training environment exposed the trainers to their weaknesses and areas for growth. The process of becoming more culturally responsive trainers was a constant evolution that took place through self-reflection and the acknowledgment of race as an important component related to identity and their work.

The experiences of racial minority teacher candidates are often unheard in teacher education programs considering that the student population is increasingly diversifying and the teaching population does not reflect this dynamic. In a country that is internationally known for its multicultural practices, it is important to examine the experiences of racial minority teacher candidates in order to gain a better understanding of the ways in which issues of race and power persist in our education system. This qualitative study documents the experiences of a small group of racial minority teacher candidates who recently completed post baccalaureate teacher education programs at universities in Ontario, Canada. With a particular focus on their practicum placements, the five participants were interviewed in order to bring to light their experiences of working and living in an education system that sustains, what has been called by critics, “a culture of whiteness.” Over the course of the interviews, the five racial minority teacher candidates reveal that the often covert and overt forms of racism are systemic to the education system. It became obvious that in many cases, the participants did not consciously recognize the racism they encountered while working, living, and learning within the education system. Considering a culture of whiteness that is endemic in schools, power relations were further jeopardized and imbalanced by their race. Despite this, the participants also exhibited forms of resistance to the Eurocentric culture that is so deeply entrenched in the education system. Through an investigation of these themes, this thesis offers implications for future racial minority teacher candidates and anti-racist educators. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-08-29 13:21:55.632

Racialized female faculty frequently experience discrimination in the academy. However, few scholars have attempted to understand such experiences. This study helps to fill this void by exploring the experiences of racialized female faculty within the university. More specifically, in this study, I interviewed racialized female faculty from Queen's University and asked them to discuss their experiences with discrimination on campus. I was interested in conducting this study at Queen's due to The Henry Report (2004) which examined the experiences of racialized faculty at Queen's and found that the university suffers from a 'culture of whiteness'. Moreover, I also wished to conduct this study at Queen's with racialized female faculty specifically because of the difficulties the university has in retaining these women, due to their experiences with racism on campus. From the interviews, I was able to conclude that racialized female faculty experience both racial and sexual discrimination at Queen's. Moreover, I was also able to conlude that this university still suffers from a 'culture of whiteness' and racism, and needs to make greater efforts to confront these issues or continue to have difficulties retaining racialized female faculty. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2009-05-21 12:54:47.649

From 1839 to 1873 New Zealand was characterised by ideological, religious, economic cultural and social contest. This struggle to order a new society, in which colonists and indigenes were required to co-exist, is captured in the newspapers of the day. These document and attest to a contest over power; power to appropriate and control resources, power to administer, control and institutionalize the colony, and power to ascribe identities. Newspapers published during the initial period of colonization in New Zealand are saturated with instances of ideological work where discourses were deployed that supported the colonial endeavour. In this study therefore I have sought to understand and articulate those racial ideologies, racial formations, and discourses, which emerged from New Zealand’s colonial press archives. How did New Zealand’s colonial press constitute the privileges, entitlements and struggles of the white British colonist in relation to the native? What white British colonial ideologies, discursive formations and discourses can be identified in the colonial press in relation to the native? Are there any patterns or relationships between these discourses? What did these discourses look like over time? A critical discourse analytical approach has been applied to a body of texts extracted from newspapers published in New Zealand between 1839 and 1873. From this analysis three broad discursive formations have been apprehended; the discourses of sovereignty, discipline and paternalism respectively. These discourses were not independent of one another but worked to construct an interlocking network of discourse that provided sound ideological coverage. The discourse of sovereignty provided a broad platform for working out the colony’s ideological and institutional plan; discourses of discipline discursively managed native disruptions to the plan, while discourses of paternalism invested the colonial project with affectations of concern and interest in the progress of the native. Weaving through these discourses are patterns of meaning which worked to constitute white British colonial authority in economic, political, judicial, social, martial and moral affairs. These constitutive repertoires were malleable and adaptable and attached and detached themselves, according to the context, to and from the discourses of sovereignty, discipline and paternalism. Over time it appears that these discourses and the associated patterns of meaning worked responsively and flexibly, bleeding into each other, reconstituting authority and identity across different contexts. Furthermore, these discourses and patterns attest to a complex encounter with a vociferous non-white challenge, which necessitated a flexible reservoir of rhetoric to situate and position the white British colonial incursion favourably in the white settler public arena.

This thesis deals with professionalism in early childhood education in relation to «race» and whiteness in primarily a Norwegian landscape. The overall aim of the study is to investigate how sociomaterial «race»-events can be understood as constitutive of preschool teachers’ subjectivity. The thesis is a theoretical experimentation with strong ties to a real social landscape. One of the main problems that the study evolves around is how «race» is silenced in the dominant discourse contributing to how preschool teachers can create socially just and indiscriminating pedagogical practices in a current «multicultural society». Hence, there seem to be a lack of tools for preschool teachers to think through how «race» might be part of their pedagogical practice in preschools, and how «race» is an important issue to address when working with how to perform pedagogy ethically and politically. More specifically and in a philosophical-theoretical manner, the study explores «white» preschool teachers’ relation to «race». The philosophical-theoretical-methodological conceptual toolbox for the study is mainly constructed from the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1977, 1987). E.g. machinic assemblage, stratification, Body without Organs, nomadic subject, affect, individuation, micropolitics, becoming, actual/virtual and event. The methodological approach is highly inspired by decolonizing-, feminist poststructural- and critical methodologies. However, immersed with Deleuze and Guattaris philosophy of desire, what started out as a poststructural autoethnography transformed into a cartography of «my own» racial becomings in/with an early childhood landscape. The study shows how subjectivity, when understood as produced through sociomaterial «race»-events, offers another understanding of doing professionalism. Further, it offers an alternative understanding of how to create more socially just pedagogical practices in early childhood education.

This thesis is a phenomenological study that has been carried out via two semi-structured interviews with an -  in conventional ways of categorising - 22 years old white, heterosexual, and middleclass Swedish woman, referred to as “Andrea”. The thesis aims to explore the becomings of Andrea in connection with cosmetic body modifications and her experiences in relation to this of fitting and misfitting, which are related to the dis/ability system. The aim of this thesis has also been to situate her as an embodied female subject in an intersectional context, in addition to her own experiences, as multiple social categorizations intra-act in the creation of dis/ability. The thesis takes its point of departure in Rosi Braidotti’s theorization of nomadic subjectivity and employs her notion of subjectivity as a negotiation between desire and power, with the goal of analysing the affirmative potential of cosmetic body modifications, as well as being critical towards them and their effects. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s concepts of fitting/misfitting are used in order to analyse the intra-actions between body and environment as well as how cosmetic body modifications affect the fit and/or misfit of Andrea.  Sara Ahmed’s notion of orientation has been employed in relation to this, with the aim of showing how beauty, whiteness, femininity, and economic wealth are produced and sustained. In the thesis it is analysed how Andrea, in complex ways desires molarity at the same time as she actively resists “fixed” positionings of her. Andrea contributes to a deconstruction of the fixity of molar identity as her resistance disrupts the flow of expected behaviors - something which creates moments of imperceptibility. The thesis furthermore argues that Andrea uses cosmetic body modifications as an affirmative deconstruction of power in addition to it being a force that drives her towards the desired molarity.

The purpose of this thesis is to support White social workers who wish to become allies in their child welfare work with Aboriginal children, families, and communities. It is based on the premise that it is crucial for Aboriginal children to remain connected with their families, communities, and cultures. To this end White social workers need to consider practicing in a different way. Using the stories of five White social workers on their journey to become allies, this thesis identifies a process which can support other would-be White allies on their journey. An autoethnographical method informed by Critical Race Theory and White Racial and Social Development Models was used to create a thematic analysis of the journals of participating social workers. Five main themes emerged that contribute to a process others can use to guide their own journeys to becoming White allies in their practice.