As wild edibles gain in popularity both on restaurant menus and as a form of recreation through their collection, research on contemporary foragers/wildcrafters/gatherers of wild edibles has so increased from varied disciplinary perspectives. Through an exploration of gatherers in Vermont, I examine the relationships between practice and identity. By employing intersectionality through feminist ethnographic methods, this research recognizes the complex intersections of individuals' identities that challenge a more simplified, additive approach to definitions of race, class, gender and the myriad identities that inform one's experience of privilege and oppression. As prior scholarship has established, people from diverse ethnicities, genders, religions, class affiliations, rural and urban livelihoods, and ages gather wild edibles. This thesis draws connections between the intersectional identities of gatherers and the diversity of their gathering practices. This project includes a discussion of how intersectionality may be applied and employed as analytical theory and as methodological foundation to better approach connections between identity and practice. Key questions driving the analysis are: what are the intersectional identities of gatherers of wild edibles in Vermont, and to what extent are these intersectional identities informing, or informed by, harvest and post-harvest practices? This research contributes to scholarship on foragers from a qualitative methodological perspective and attempts to support the body of literature on intersectionality as methodology as well as research that focuses on the connections between people, practice, and wild foods.

Female undergraduates from a private college on the east coast were surveyed regarding their feelings about having children and were asked to complete the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). Eighty-one percent of the respondents indicated a desire to have one or more children. Nineteen percent responded negatively or were uncertain of their feelings at that time. On the BSRI, 12% were classified as Masculine, 38% as Feminine, 37% as Androgynous, 13% as Undifferentiated. Comparison of the Masculine, Feminine and Androgynous groups (the Undifferentiated group was excluded from analysis) showed that the proportion of Feminine women indicating a desire to have children was significantly higher than the proportion of Masculine women. The proportion of Androgynous women indicating a desire to have children was significantly higher than the proportion of Masculine expressing that same desire. No difference was found between the proportion of Feminine women indicating a desire to bear children and the proportion of Masculine women indicating that desire. The high percentage of women desiring children and the percentage of women in each of the four BSRI classifications was discussed. Explanations were posed for the lack of significant difference between the Feminine and Androgynous groups. Directions for future research were suggested.

The relationship between athletic participation, sex role orientation and self-esteem has received little attention from researchers and the relationship of these variables among females has not received as much attention as it has among males. It has been theorized that participation in sports, particularly team sports, may effect an increase in self-esteem due to increased positive body image and tend to “masculinize” women and/or attract females who possess or value more masculine traits and behaviors. To address these issues, a comparison of sex role orientation and level of self-esteem was made with female varsity athletes, recreational athletes and nonathletes at Western Kentucky University. The instruments utilized in the study were the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, and an activity instrument on which the women indicated activities in which they had participated since and including the ninth grade. The activity instrument also asked for certain demographic information. The three groups of women were matched according to age, socioeconomic status and marital status. Significant differences were found between the three groups on sex role orientation. There was a much larger proportion of varsity athletes classified as androgynous when compared to the recreational athletes and nonathletes. In addition, a larger proportion of nonathletes was classified as feminine, and fewer were classified as masculine when compared to the varsity and recreational athletes. Indicated was a trend for an increasing number of females to be classified as androgynous and masculine as athletic participation increased. No significant differences were found between the groups with regard to level of self-esteem. Possible explanations for the finding are explored.

This thesis examines the celebrity of governesses in British culture during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Victorian governess-mania was as pervasive as it was inexplicable, governesses comprising only a tiny fraction of the population and having little or no ostensible effect on the social, political, or economic landscape. Nevertheless, governesses were omnipresent in Victorian media, from novels and etiquette manuals to paintings, cartoons and pornography. Historians and literary critics have long conjectured about the root cause of popular fixation on the governess, and many have theorized that their cultural resonance owed to the host of contradictions and social conundrums they embodied, from being a `lady' who worked, to being comparable to that bugbear of Victorian society, the prostitute. However, while previous scholarship has maintained that governess-mania was produced by their peculiarity as social or economic actors, I intend to demonstrate that this nonconformity was extrapolated in visual and literary depictions to signify a more prurient deviance, specifically a fixation on human suffering. This analysis reveals that whether depicted in mainstream press or in nefarious erotica, popular interest in governesses was contoured by a fixation on their perceived relationship to corporal violence. Over the course of the nineteenth century governesses were increasingly portrayed as the victims of a huge range of internal and external threats, such as disease, sterility, assault, murder, rape, and even urban accidents like train crashes or gas leaks. Cast as flagellant birching madams in pornographic fantasy, governesses were also construed as deriving erotic authority through the infliction of pain on others. From imagining the governess as a pitiful victim of brutality or conversely eroticizing her as the stewardess of sadomasochism, all of these constructs rely on the dynamics of violation, on bodies that experience misfortune and bodies that mete that it out. Utilizing a wide array of sources and methodological approaches, I will demonstrate that the Victorian governess was not only popularly correlated with social or sexual irregularity, but that these themes were ultimately circumscribed by a larger preoccupation with the governess as an icon of violence and pain.

The existence of a persistent gender gap in literacy achievement, and particularly in writing, is not in dispute: boys trail girls in every assessment at state, national, and international levels. Yet although this basic fact is not in dispute, nearly everything else concerning the gender gap in literacy achievement--its causes, consequences, and potential solutions--remains hotly contested, particularly in the public and professional discourse. Scholarly research offers insights that frequently challenge the prevailing public discourse, but this research has been conducted primarily in the U.K., Australia, and Canada, leaving the experiences of U.S. students largely unexplored. Herein lies the problem: an inadequate (or worse, inaccurate) understanding of the context, causes, and realities of boys' writing experiences can lead to proposed policy and pedagogy solutions that range from the ineffective to the potentially harmful, with unintended consequences for both boys and girls that may worsen the underlying conditions implicated in boys' literacy underachievement. Equity demands that we address, in particular, the poor writing achievement of boys of low socioeconomic backgrounds. It is important that policy-makers consider the question of "which boys," as the writing achievement gap is far more dramatic for boys from a background of poverty than for middle-class boys. This study employed qualitative methods and a phenomenological lens to explore the writing experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of 21 young men currently enrolled in four colleges and universities in two New England states, including first-year and senior-year college students. The data collected from interviews and writing samples contradicted a number of the generalizations about boys prevalent in the public discourse, and offered a more nuanced view of the role of gender in boys' writing experiences than that presented in much of the scholarly discourse. The results of this study also challenge a number of commonly held beliefs about boys' and young men's writing motivations and preferences. The study's findings can contribute toward the ultimate goal of improving educators' and policy-makers' responses to the gender gap in writing by offering a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the writing experiences of boys and young men.

ABSTRACT Navigating systems of leadership in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in higher education as a Queer Woman of Color can be a challenging and complex process--one that integrates identity, experience, expertise, knowledge, patience, and most importantly the ability to risk; while remaining authentic and professional. It is a balance, which in my own experience and expertise requires constant reflection, evaluation, and adaptation. A negotiation of owning that one has power and agency, while realizing that the many intersecting identities that one holds influences how dominant culture perceives that power and agency. To reach authentic reflection and evaluation in leadership it is critical to examine and investigate one's own vocation to lead and to ask, what leads us and sustains us in that leadership? This dissertation will offer a counter-narrative of leadership in prose-poetry through a lens of intersectionality outside of the hegemonic or dominant ways that define the parameters of leadership. Through the use of personal narratives reinforced by scholarship using the methodology of Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN), I explore my own experiences of trauma throughout my life that led to agency and inevitably to leadership. I additionally examine the overarching tenants and themes that continue to inform, sustain and strengthen my leadership. "Damned If You Do--Damned If You Don't" represents a phrase often used amongst marginalized communities that signifies the challenges of navigating one's own power and agency within oppressive dominant systems. This SPN dissertation will be supported by the paradigms of Critical Race Theory (CRT) with a specific focus on Counter-Narrative/Storytelling and Critical Race Gendered Epistemology or Feminist Black/Latino Theory, while also incorporating aspects of positive psychology. It will offer a counter-narrative in leadership that highlights how my multiple intersecting identities, coupled with my life experiences, create meaning and go on to further shape my approach to trauma, agency, and leadership. As a Queer woman of color in leadership, I find that by honoring and examining my own stories of trauma and agency, and how it led me to leadership. I am better equipped as a professional to honor the narratives, identities, and experiences of those that I serve.

This thesis argues for the consideration of child care accessibility and costs as one factor in the success and wellbeing of farmers in the United States. There is a long tradition in rural studies of recognizing that farms are not just economic enterprises but are family-based social enterprises as well, with household level issues and family roles that are both acknowledged and contested. However, child care is missing from virtually all scholarly and public discussions of agricultural workforce development - even more so than other social services and family supports. Additionally, the agricultural sector, considered as a portion of U.S. businesses and as a locus of U.S. family life, is missing from most discussions of child care services. Although child care has been shown to be crucial to workforce development, and the need for workforce development in the agricultural sector is vital in light of an aging farm population, the agricultural sector has remained largely absent from child care policy discussions. This two-article thesis seeks to inform scholarship and public policy in both of these areas. Using data from a national survey of 186 farm families at the Rural-Urban Interface, Article One examines child care challenges faced by farm families and the influence community networks have on these challenges. This article focuses specifically on two groupings of farmers: multi-generation (MG) and first generation (FG) farmers, as part of a larger effort to support beginning farmers; and men and women farmers, as challenges related to child care are of particular concern for the increasing numbers of women farmers, who may have multiple roles including primary child caregiver, wage-earner through off-farm employment, and farmer. Findings establish that child care is an issue that influences farm business decisions for farmers, that FG and women farmers are farming populations that are more likely to have challenges with child care, and that family networks are an influencing factor in child care problems for MG and FG farmers. Through analysis of interviews and focus groups with 43 farmers in the Northeastern United States, a geographic region chosen for its high concentration of female farmers, Article Two seeks to understand child care in farm families by examining patterns in farmers' experiences with child care and the ways child care affects both the farm family and the farm business. Findings reveal child care as an issue in the wellbeing of both farm family and farm business: child care has economic effects on the farm business, influencing decisions about labor, growth, and financial resources; child care also has social effects on the farm family, including shifts in gender roles, stress, and reduced quality of life. Recommendations include child care subsidies specifically for farm families and the creation of formal child care networks that could allow for collaboration and use of already-existing networks of agricultural organizations: Extension, food policy councils, and producer groups. Additionally, state level departments of family and youth services, local child care organizations, and community development corporations are urged to tailor their resources specifically to farm families.

Well-meaning educators often recommend more "boy" books to increase reading motivation amongst boys. This experimental mixed-methods study investigated the influence of the "boy" book/ "girl" book phenomenon on willingness to read using a researcher-designed instrument called the Textual Features Sort (TFS). The TFS measured two attitudinal constructs—gendered beliefs about texts and willingness to read—in relation to individual textual features of selected young adult novels. Data came from 50 sixth and seventh grade students at a mid-sized public school in a rural New England state. Mean scores, frequencies, and percentages were analyzed using independent samples t-tests, paired t-tests, and Fisher's exact test. Qualitative data was used to explain quantitative results. Findings indicate that boys were not more willing to read "boy" books than other books, nor less willing to read books with female protagonists. Boys were significantly less willing to read "girl" books, though individual textual features of a single novel elicited different gendered beliefs along with varying degrees of willingness to read. Girls were significantly less willing to read a novel if it was first sorted as a "boy" book. Research revealed a widespread belief in social consequences for a boy carrying a "girl" book down the hallway, that did not hold for girls. Findings suggest that sociocultural constructions of gender inhibit both boys and girls as readers, though to varying degrees, and challenge the notion that highly gendered and heteronormative assumptions about books and reading practices will increase willingness to read among young adolescent boys.

Environmental pressures such as natural disasters, resource scarcity, and conflict related to climate change have emphasized the importance of considering social justice within its ecological context. Gender inequality is one type of injustice that has traditionally been addressed as a social matter, yet gendered divisions in bargaining power, mobility, and access to resources are exacerbated by environmental instability. One barrier to gender equity in the face of a changing climate is the mainstream economic paradigm, which promotes growth and individualism, often at the cost of environmental and social wellbeing. The issue of gender inequality in the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch highlighting human impact of earth systems, is explored here in three parts. The first section identifies opportunities for feminist and ecological economics to assimilate notions of justice in mainstream economic thought. The second considers dynamics of gender equality through an econometric analysis of macroeconomic effects of traditionally female-dominated unpaid care work. Finally, the third part investigates national progress toward the maternal mortality reduction target set in the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals and proposes a gendered perspective for the newly implemented Sustainable Development Goals. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of policy implications for national and international development institutions as they seek to improve gender equity in diverse social and ecological contexts.

Sweaty Mother Slow Groove is an engagement in magical thinking that proposes a displacement of swamp methodologies into the virtual realm, existing during the fourth wave. In doing so the cyborg and goddess are united in a re-routing of essentialism and the neo-liberal domination of technology. The metaphorical swamp is the possibility of a mushy danger zone that harnesses the absorption of an unwanted space: a disintegration of the binary and the soft-coded awareness of the body as a process, not a site.