This research utilizes an agency framework to examine the complexities of the participation of indigenous women in local, national, and global spaces of activism. By examining the connections between processes of globalization of indigenous and women’s rights, development agendas, local politics, and gender dynamics in indigenous organizations, this research highlights the connection of ethnicity, gender, and power in an indigenous organization of Cotacachi, Ecuador, and for Ecuadorian and Latin American indigenous leaders and professionals working in national and global arenas. Four interconnected topics are explored: (1) the understanding of indigenous women’s participation in the history of their organization within a context of interethnic discrimination and poverty that especially affects indigenous women; (2) the relation between indigenous women and the changing demands on indigenous leadership due to reconfigurations of rural livelihoods, the ascendance of the indigenous movement as a political actor, and the sustained presence of development projects; (3) the challenges indigenous women face and the strategies they enact as local leaders in their communities and organization negotiating essentialized constructions of indigenous women’s identity and forms of gender inequality; (4) the transition to local, national, and international formal politics and indigenous activism in which indigenous women’s legitimacy increasingly necessitates both experience in the indigenous movement and professionalization and expert knowledge. Using an ethnographic methodology including interviews and participant observation, the research explores the participation of indigenous female leaders who, even if their strategies have favored working within the indigenous movement’s wider agenda, are also contesting forms of gender, ethnic, and class inequality they find in their own organizations and beyond. Thus, the research highlights the challenges they face, the strategies they resort to, and the possibilities of articulating a differentiated agenda that reflect their particular interests.

My dissertation explores the narrative of Aurora Bertrana (1892-1974), an unknown writer today, but a successful and recognized female author in Catalonia and Spain during the mid 20th century. The written work of Aurora Bertrana is almost never mentioned in manuals of literature. Relegated almost to absolute oblivion, her rich, intellectual writting has not received the attention it deserves. I have studied seventeen of Bertrana’s novels –practically her entire oeuvre– written in Catalan and Spanish, including the following excellent books that have escaped critical attention: Ariatea (1960), “El pomell de les violes” (mn.), L’inefable Philip (mn.), La aldea sin hombres (mn.), La madrecita de los cerdos (mn.), Entre dos silencis (1958), La ninfa d’argila (1959), Fracàs (1966) and La ciutat dels joves: reportatge fantasia (1971). I have analyzed her writing, published and unpublished, from a feminist approach, taking into account the intellectual history of Spain and Catalonia. Bertrana’s strong commitment to controversial, social issues reveals her association with the modern and noucentists Catalan trends of her time. Her novels also reveal a unique interest in Europe at war and in non-Western cultures and lifestyles that draws attention to the situation of women in different circumstances and cultural geographies. My research is therefore anchored on interpretive and theoretical parameters that intersect, with a consideration of gender, such as class-and-gender, war-and-gender and travel-and-gender. I have used the work of feminists such as Simone De Beauvoir, Shulamith Firestone, Jelke Boesten, Margaret and Patrice Higonnet, Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, and Julia Kristeva to help assess Bertrana’s engagement with gender and socio-political issues. This approach is particularly well suited for a writer like Aurora Bertrana, a Catalan and Republican intellectual woman forced into exiled during the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

When writing about Junot Díaz’s Drown (1996) Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007) and This is How You Lose Her (2012), I focus on the iterations of masculinity depicted and embodied by Yunior de las Casas, the primary narrator of this collection. I explore the links between diaspora, hybridity, masculinity, and trauma, arguing that both socio-historical and personal traumatic experience reverberates through the psyches and bodies of Díaz’s characters. I demonstrate the relationship between Yunior’s navigation of the United States and the Dominican Republic and his ever-shifting sexuality, self-presentation, and gender identity. The physical and discursive spaces he must traverse contain multiple, contradictory narratives about how to be a man; within Díaz’s collection, we witness Yunior’s coming-to-terms with the way that these stories of masculinity are rendered dysfunctional and incoherent. Accordingly, Yunior uses the hegemonic discourses of masculinity as a way to cloak his own queer difference, ambivalently interacting and identifying with characters marked as Other. In this analysis, I read Yunior’s masculinity as reactionary to the expectations of Domincan society, and also explore how he shaped by migration, trauma, and unspeakable queer desire.

During the 1960s and 1970s, tribes across Indian Country struggled for tribal sovereignty against “termination” policies that aimed to disintegrate the federal government’s trust responsibilities and treaty obligations to tribes and assimilate all Indians into mainstream society. Individual tribes, pan-Indian organizations, and militant Red Power activists rose up in resistance to these policies and fought for self-determination: a preservation of Indian distinctiveness and social and political autonomy. This thesis examines a crucial, but often overlooked, element of the self-determination movement. Hundreds of tribal and national-scope activist newspapers emerged during this era and became the authentic voices of American Indians and the messengers of the movement. This thesis examines the stories of several key newspapers. By looking at the opportunities and challenges their editors faced and the different approaches they took, this thesis will assess how they succeeded and fell short in telling authentic stories from Indian Country, fighting for distinct indigenous culture and rights, and reshaping public discourse and policy on American Indian affairs.

There is a dearth of literature to guide the development of community-based HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) prevention and sexual health promotion programs within Inuit communities. The aim of this research project was to create a dialogue with Inuit women to inform future development of such programs. This study employed Indigenous methodologies and methods by drawing from Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and postcolonial research theory in a framework of Two-Eyed Seeing, and utilizing storytelling sessions to gather data. Community-Based Participatory Research Principles informed the design of the study, ensuring participants were involved in all stages of the project. Nine story-sharing sessions took place with 21 Inuit women ages 18-60. Participants identified several key determinants of sexual health and shared ideas for innovative approaches that they believe will work as prevention efforts within their community. These research results build upon the limited knowledge currently available about perceptions of HIV and STI among Inuit women living in the remote north. / Graduate / 0573 / jenny.r.rand@gmail.com

Las primeras generaciones de intelectuales africanos educados en los sistemas occidentales se apropiaron las lenguas coloniales y las manipularon a su voluntad para que fueran capaces de expresar el mestizaje cultural. En el contexto poscolonial todo acto de creación literaria representa una toma de posición respecto al mundo heredado del imperialismo.En la traducción de textos poscoloniales africanos hay que diferenciar bien dos procesos: el de los escritores en lenguas coloniales, que tratan de reflejar la hibridación de la sociedad poscolonial de la que proceden mediante un trabajo de creación-traducción; y el de los traductores, cuya labor consiste en hacer accesibles dichos textos a un público lector por lo general desconocedor del contexto cultural híbrido.En conclusión, el conocimiento en profundidad de las problemáticas que encierra la producción literaria poscolonial puede hacer tomar conciencia al traductor de literatura poscolonial de su papel de transmisor de una determinada imagen de las culturas poscoloniales.

There exists in the modern worlda form of non-Christianised religious thought which develops the basic ideas of indigenous African religion beyond their beginnings, and is represented in authorssuch as Kamalu, Osabutey-Aguedze, etc. The spheres of interest in such authors fiJay be analysed in terms of the following areas: Intervening ideological conditions bearing on African life (particularr; theological and cosmological ideas): The historical background of African life; The roots of African life, as manifested in its traditions, and tts ethical and cultural heritage; Means for the innovative development of African life, found in African concepts of knowledge, mysticism and magic; The perceived destiny of African life. The thesis concludes with an indication of areas of agreement and debate in post-traditional African thought, of problems faced by such thought; and of other possible priorities for future study. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D.Th. (Religious Studies)

The central thesis of this study is that Newbigin‟s thought and writing can contribute to understanding the church as an integral part of Indian society, in terms of both her identity and role. Newbigin‟s writing, subsequent to his return to the West after more than three decades in India, often sought to address what he saw as the Western church‟s loss of confidence in its role and position in a post-enlightenment, post-Christendom society. This study tries to work with this material, as well as what was written during his time in India. The second chapter and the third chapter give consideration to the two central elements in Newbigin‟s understanding of the church‟s mission and identity: the eschatological renewal of the whole earth that will occur at the return of Christ and the connection of this end to Christ‟s death on the cross. As the third chapter will consider, while he locates the focus of the church‟s mission in relation to the end, the death of Christ indicates the way in which this mission will be carried out. The remainder of the third chapter will consider the implication of this for the church‟s mission in relation to the presence of poverty and marginalisation in Indian society and its movement towards a consumer economy. The fourth chapter will consider the place of the church in relation to India‟s long and rich culture, suggesting ways in which the church is to become an incultured community. The fifth chapter will address the issue of the relationship of the church to the followers of other faiths. Through interaction with some Indian theologians it will be shown how Newbigin gave attention to the church as both open to the movement of the Spirit beyond the boundaries of the church, while also emphasizing the church as central to our knowing Christ. The sixth chapter will draw out the ways in which Newbigin was consciously engaging with the post colonial context of the church, particularly in his interpretation of the relationship between the Spirit and the church. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology)

On peut identifier une longue pratique autobiographique en Afrique, si l’on remonte aux Confessions de St Augustin, et l’écriture de soi s'est de surcroît développée dans les langues africaines, aux époques précoloniales puis coloniales. C’est toutefois à l’initiative d’anthropologues et d’éducateurs africanistes que les premières autobiographies africaines (souvent rédigées par des instituteurs ou des élèves) ont été collectées, tandis que parallèlement émergeait une écriture autobiographique dans le roman africain francophone. Avec le combat anticolonial, apparaît une forme nouvelle : l’écriture de mémoires par de grands acteurs politiques africains, qui accentue la dimension réflexive des écritures africaines de soi. A l’ère postcoloniale, l’autobiographie tend à devenir de plus en plus intellectuelle, oscillant entre l’essai autobiographique et l’auto-analyse. A partir d’un corpus majoritairement francophone et anglophone, composé d’auteurs aussi divers que Wole Soyinka, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Joseph Emmanuel Nana Appiah, William E. B. Du Bois, Léopold-Sédar Senghor, Lamine Gueye, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Valentin Yves Mudimbe, Achille Mbembe, Célestin Monga, Barack Obama, Paulin Hountondji ou Rasna Warah, notre thèse retrace les mutations des écritures africaines de soi, de l’ère coloniale à l’époque postcoloniale, en insistant au passage sur les formes de dialogue qui s’établissent entre ceux-ci et les penseurs africanistes français, pour lesquels l’autobiographie fut bien plus qu’un récit de vie. Dans ces perspectives d’histoire et de sociologie littéraire, nous empruntons à Jérôme Meizoz sa notion de posture pour étudier les positionnements esthétiques, politiques et littéraires des écrivains et penseurs africains dans les champs littéraires africains et occidentaux. Nous mettons également en relief diverses modalités de l’auto-réflexivité en confrontant les écritures africaines de soi avec certaines autobiographies intellectuelles de penseurs et écrivains afro-américains. Cette mise en regard permet une réflexion sur les "postures postcoloniales" de nos auteurs, et débouche sur une nouvelle problématique : la visée postraciale ou le dépassement des projets et des interprétations racialistes de l’histoire et de l’identité qui ont caractérisé nombreuses idéologies africaines comme le panafricanisme et la négritude. En nous appuyant pour finir sur l’idée de « postblackness » désormais en vogue aux États-Unis, nous tâchons de montrer que le postracial reste malgré tout davantage un horizon qu’une réalité des écritures africaines de soi, du milieu du XXe siècle au seuil du XXIe siècle. / We can identify a long autobiographical practice in Africa, if we go back to the Confessions of St. Augustine, and selfwriting has moreover developed in African languages, in pre-colonial and colonial times. At the initiative of anthropologists and Africanists, the first African autobiographies (often written by teachers or students) were collected, while autobiographical writing simultaneously emerged in the French African novel. With the anti-colonial struggle, memoirs were written by leading African politicians, which emphasized the reflexive dimension of African selfwritings. In the postcolonial era, autobiography tends to become more intellectual, oscillating between autobiographical and self-analytic projects. Through a predominantly french-and english speaking corpus, consisting of authors as diverse as Wole Soyinka, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Joseph Emmanuel Nana Appiah, William E. B. Du Bois, Léopold-Sédar Senghor, Lamine Gueye, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Valentin Yves Mudimbe, Achille Mbembe, Célestin Monga, Barack Obama, Paulin Hountondji or Rasna Warah, our dissertation traces back the mutations of African selfwriting, from the colonial times to the post-colonial era, emphasizing the dialogues established between African authors and French Africanist thinkers, for whom autobiography was much more than a life story. In these literary historical and sociological perspectives, we borrow from Jerome Meizoz his notion of “posture” to study the esthetical, political and literary positions, of various writers and thinkers in African and Western literary fields. We also highlight how self-reflexivity occurs by confronting African self writings to some intellectual autobiographies produced by African-American thinkers and writers. This comparison allows a reflection on the "postcolonial posture" of our authors, and leads to a new problem : the post-racial project that runs through the racialist interpretations of history and identity that characterized many African ideologies such as Pan-Africanism and negritude. Ultimately relying on the idea of "postblackness" now in vogue in the United States, we strive to show that the postracial remains nevertheless a horizon more than a reality of African writings itself, the mid-twentieth century to the twenty-first century.

Between 1847 and 1874 approximately 142,000 Chinese indentured laborers, commonly known as coolies, migrated to Cuba to work primarily on sugar plantations following the demise of African slavery. Comprised of 99.97% males and contracted to work for eight years or more, many of those coolies that survived the harsh conditions in Cuba formed consensual unions with freed and enslaved women of color. These intimate connections between Chinese indentures and Cubans of African descent developed not only because they shared the same living and working spaces, but also because they occupied similar sociocultural, political, and economic spheres in colonial society. This ethnography investigates the rise of a discernible Afro-Chinese religiosity that emerged from the coming together of these two diasporic groups. The Lukumi religion, often described as being a syncretism between African and European elements, contains impressive articulations of Chinese and Afro-Chinese influences, particularly in the realm of material culture. On the basis of qualitative research that I conducted among Chinese and Afro-Chinese Lukumi practitioners in Cuba, this dissertation documents the development of syncretism and discursive religious practice between African and Chinese diasporas. I conceptualize a framework of interdiasporic cross-fertilization and, in so doing, disassemble Cuba’s racial and religious categories, which support a notion of “Cubanidad” that renders Chinese subjectivity invisible. I argue that Afro-Chinese religiosity became a space for a positive association that I call “Sinalidad”. I also argue that this religiosity has been elaborated upon largely because of transformations in Cuba’s social and economic landscape that began during Cuba’s Special Period. Thus, the dissertation uses religious practice as a lens through which I shed light upon another dimension of identity making, transnationalism and the political economy of tourism on the island.