This Post Mortem discusses the choices made during the design and development process of In a Haystack, a narrative based adventure video game that discusses Privilege and Discrimination in American Society. As a solo project, I created a polished interactive experience that I intend to turn into a published episodic video game series. This document goes over the methodology choices, technical and artistic difficulties, and challenges faced by in pursuit of this goal.

In light of globalization, international social work from global North to global South is accelerating and the emphasis from Swedish universities on international experience among students has increased. Various scholars problematize the domination of the global North as theories and practice have historically been unquestionably transformed from so-called developed to developing countries. Since the Western knowledge can be seen as the norm worldwide, international social work practice can have a negative impact on the local people, culture and knowledge if not adapted to the local context. The aim of the study was to explore to what extent Swedish social work students are prepared for field training abroad. This by exploring Swedish social work student’s experiences of their field training in South Africa. Further, the study aim was to increase our understanding of how the background as a Swedish social work student influences the field training in South Africa. The idea of the study is also to explore how South African social welfare workers relate and conceive Swedish social work students at their social welfare organization. In order to explore this subject, the study was based on fifteen semi-structured interviews with both Swedish social work students doing field training in South Africa and South African social welfare workers supervising Swedish students. Our study reveals that Swedish students doing field training in South Africa are not prepared academically in order to conduct field training abroad. Furthermore, the students expressed that the social work education lacked in terms of support, supervision and preparations for international field training. Our result indicated that students are given a high status and are seen as professionals by South African social welfare workers. Further, this study shows an indistinct relation between who is educating and who is learning among Swedish students and South African supervisors. This as a result of the power of whiteness and the view of the student’s as professionals with valuable knowledge. Our analysis has revealed, according to postcolonial theory and the concept of white privilege, signs of a continuation of historical colonial power relations and a distinction between “we” and “them”. However, international social work is a complex phenomenon and additional research is needed to unpack this subject further.

This thesis analyses information disclosure in clinical practice from a legal, ethical and professional perspective. It examines therapeutic privilege, the duty of candour and the application of virtue ethics to truth-telling in nursing practice. I argue that each of these areas requires further clarity, articulation and application in order to assist the decision-making process of health care professionals and improve disclosure practices. In analysing these areas this thesis recognises the context of disclosure practices in relation to respect for patient autonomy and trust in the patient-health care professional relationship. The first published paper at the core of this thesis considers the status of therapeutic privilege in English law and concludes that further clarification is needed to establish its legitimacy. I argue that the shift in English law towards a disclosure standard judged by reference to the reasonable patient requires a doctrine of therapeutic privilege. There are strong ethical arguments in favour of information disclosure, particularly founded on respect for patient autonomy. As such, further clarification is needed to identify and define the grounds on which this exception exists, when the information can lawfully be withheld and how this exception extends to the rest of the health care team, particularly nurses. The second paper examines the ethical and practical considerations that underpin the disclosure of medical errors to patients. This provides a foundation for a discussion of how the law can best support a duty of candour. I argue for the introduction of a statutory duty of candour and analyse the current legal mechanisms and proposals for addressing this issue. The final paper argues that virtue ethics is a useful approach from which to explore decisions relating to information disclosure. Its explicit focus upon moral character, the role of emotion, intention and the importance of practical judgement are considered from the nurse's perspective. This thesis contributes to the dialogue on information disclosure on a number of levels. In terms of methodological approach, it recognises the importance of the synthesis of law and ethics in addressing issues in clinical practice. It uses an interdisciplinary approach, incorporating both legal and ethical perspectives, to examine the substantive questions as well as incorporating reference to empirical research to further underpin its normative claims. Moreover, this thesis considers the nursing perspective in relation to issues of information disclosure to explore the role of the nurse in decision-making regarding disclosure practices.

The relationship between the police and African Americans has been fraught for some time. In the 2010s, amid the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the relationship between African Americans and the police was marked by serious tensions including racism, White privilege, and perceptions of police brutality. The purpose of this case study was to explore the current relationship between the police and the Black Lives Matter social movement and assess movement activists' perceptions of police actions. The theoretical framework for this qualitative case study was based on procedural justice and the reason of actions component of Derrick Bell's critical race theory. Data for this study included more than 1,000 social media postings from Facebook and Twitter; 205 public documents, which included police interactions, incident reports, and interviews; and 25 observations from public gatherings between 2013-2016. Data were coded into a priori themes and then content analyzed. Findings indicated that the Black Lives Matter movement generally increases the tensions in the relationship between the police and African Americans, creating emotional strain due to activists' messages of racism, White privilege, and violence. Recommendations included expanding open communication with the police, providing more training for the police, and encouraging police officers to control their actions when having interactions with African Americans, all of which may result in positive social change. The study findings provided a blueprint for community policing in minority communities.

Past research indicates that having a similar life experience as another person leads to greater empathic concern towards that person. Two studies empirically investigated if similar experiences of race-based social identity threat can increase the empathic concern of White Americans toward African Americans. Study 1 revealed that White Americans randomly assigned to think about White privilege and then randomly assigned to read a passage about an African American whose accomplishments are attributed to Affirmative Action policies (versus an African American whose accomplishments are attributed to his hard work and merit) felt greater empathic concern toward the African American described in the passage. This effect was significantly mediated by stereotype threat feelings and moderated by group identity. Study 2 revealed that White Americans randomly assigned to think about how others think they have benefited from White privilege and then randomly assigned to read a passage about an African American whose accomplishments are attributed to Affirmative Action policies (versus an African American whose accomplishments are attributed to his hard work and merit) felt greater empathic concern toward the African American described in the passage only when mediated by stereotype threat feelings or stereotype threat cognitions. This mediated effect was moderated by merit identity. This suggests that White American participants do not see the literal similarities between the scenarios of race based social identity threat to merit but can see the similarities in internal feelings and cognitions that both experiences create. Collectively, these studies suggest a novel consideration of social identity and understanding of intergroup processes.

In this work , I analyze the emergence of a series of Supreme Court cases in the Rehnquist and Roberts era which frame race-conscious legislation as discriminatory against whites; and which are responded to by the conservative justices as though anticlassification and reverse-discrimination are indeed rights claims. I analyze the response of the conservative justices to such claims, and posit that response of the conservative Justices to such cases constitutes activism. Further, the emergence of these cases can be attributed to the entrenchment of a colorblind narrative that is by its very nature not grounded in social reality, or historical context; and which aims to elevate the privileges of whiteness into rights. The implications of these narratives and conservative judicial activism will have monumental consequences for minority populations of color in the country.

This qualitative study focuses on students and instructors who study, teach, and learn critical concepts of identity, such as gender, race, and dis/ability. The participants’ reflections on these university classroom experiences are examined in order to explore the ways they understand their encounters with privilege and power. In classes that take up discussions of identity – critical identity classrooms – the intention is often to teach, study, and learn how (our) identity or identities manifest in social life, how these manifestations can be problematized, and how these explorations can lead to social change. Often, these courses centre on discussing identity in terms of oppression, rather than investigating the intersections of privilege and oppression. A major contention of this study is that a lack of discussion about privilege in the academy enables the pervasive invisibility of many unearned social advantages to remain under-theorized and ‘invisible.’ This study questions how it is that we come to understand concepts of identity to be one-dimensional, rather than understanding privilege as dynamic and situated. Using in-depth interviews with 22 undergraduate students and 8 instructors from 2 contrasting universities, this study explores 3 main questions: (1) How do students in higher education who are engaged in critical identity studies interpret privilege, both for others and themselves? (2) How do the participants understand their experiences inside and outside the classroom to be related to notions of privilege and oppression that often arise in critical identity classrooms? (3) How does using a multi-site approach to study critical identity classroom experiences extend the ways in which students’ understandings of privilege can be explored? Using these research questions, the intersections of space/location, power, and identities as they inform notions of privilege and oppression are demonstrated. The participants’ reflections expose how questions of belonging, safety, and ‘place’ contribute to the silences around the study of privilege. The study suggests that understanding privilege and oppression as located within the same network of relations, rather than as binary opposites, will aid in making privilege more accessible as a topic of study in critical identity classrooms.

This qualitative study focuses on students and instructors who study, teach, and learn critical concepts of identity, such as gender, race, and dis/ability. The participants’ reflections on these university classroom experiences are examined in order to explore the ways they understand their encounters with privilege and power. In classes that take up discussions of identity – critical identity classrooms – the intention is often to teach, study, and learn how (our) identity or identities manifest in social life, how these manifestations can be problematized, and how these explorations can lead to social change. Often, these courses centre on discussing identity in terms of oppression, rather than investigating the intersections of privilege and oppression. A major contention of this study is that a lack of discussion about privilege in the academy enables the pervasive invisibility of many unearned social advantages to remain under-theorized and ‘invisible.’ This study questions how it is that we come to understand concepts of identity to be one-dimensional, rather than understanding privilege as dynamic and situated. Using in-depth interviews with 22 undergraduate students and 8 instructors from 2 contrasting universities, this study explores 3 main questions: (1) How do students in higher education who are engaged in critical identity studies interpret privilege, both for others and themselves? (2) How do the participants understand their experiences inside and outside the classroom to be related to notions of privilege and oppression that often arise in critical identity classrooms? (3) How does using a multi-site approach to study critical identity classroom experiences extend the ways in which students’ understandings of privilege can be explored? Using these research questions, the intersections of space/location, power, and identities as they inform notions of privilege and oppression are demonstrated. The participants’ reflections expose how questions of belonging, safety, and ‘place’ contribute to the silences around the study of privilege. The study suggests that understanding privilege and oppression as located within the same network of relations, rather than as binary opposites, will aid in making privilege more accessible as a topic of study in critical identity classrooms.

The current degree of economic inequality in the US is the largest it has been since prior to the Great Depression and growing. Economic inequality is linked to mortality, social capital, interpersonal trust, and democratic participation, beyond the effects of poverty. Two main constructs are reviewed as predictors of support for efforts to reduce inequality: 1) distributive justice norms (equity and equality of outcome), and 2) causal attributions (individual and structural). Justification of the unequal status quo is often driven by reference to dominant cultural values personal responsibility and just deserts, which are likened to individual attributions and equity, respectively. However, individuals may also recognize that economic outcomes are determined by structural factors such as discrimination and privilege. Recognition that structural factors determine economic outcomes is referred to as systems analysis. Systems analysis is expected to be unrelated to individual attributions, reflecting the common view that economic outcomes are determined by both individual and structural factors. Furthermore, systems analysis is conceptualized as the central determinant of both the extent to which equality of outcome is desirable, despite prevailing preferences for equity, and the use of dominant cultural values as justifications for opposition to redistribution. Because systems analysis reflects the view that resources are not distributed solely based on individual merit, it implies that resources are not distributed fairly. This belief is expected to increase endorsement for equality of outcome and weaken negative effects of equity and individual attributions on support for redistribution. Predictors of support for government action to reduce inequality were examined using the US sample (n = 1414) of the 1991 International Social Justice Project. Opposition to reducing inequality is often driven by reference to dominant cultural values such as the equity distributive justice norm and individualistic causal attributions. The present study tested the hypothesis that supporters and opponents share a common endorsement of these dominant values, but differ in the extent to which they acknowledge that structural factors determine economic outcomes (defined as systems analysis). Results indicated that the negative relationship between individual attributions and support for redistribution was only significant among participants with low systems analysis.

This dissertation seeks to help teachers understand the ways that affect is tied to the dominant ideology of white supremacy in contemporary U.S. society. It argues that affect the complex confluence of feeling and judgmentis bound intricately to racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, etc. In this work I attempt to deconstruct the social construction of affect that fuels dominant white ideology what some scholars call whiteness in the context of white teachers and students in the cultural studies writing classroom. With the lofty yet ultimately empowering goal of effecting anti-racist change in the classroom and in the profession, I trace affective dimensions of whiteness (such as fear, blame, defensiveness, and denial) revealed by white teachers and students. Clinging to the myths of meritocracy, individualism, and the American Dream, white teachers and students often unknowingly perpetuate dominance based on white privilege.