This thesis explores the role played by narrative desire within two modernist experimentations with novel form: Willa Cather's 1918 novel My Antonia and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936). In it, I argue that Cather and Faulkner utilize framing narratives in order to present the main plot of each novel as a product of multiple narrators' desire for a story to emerge. In My Antonia, it is the expressed wish of Jim Burden's nameless writer friend that compels him to finish writing his account of Antonia, which constitutes the main plot of the novel. Meanwhile, in Absalom, Absalom! it is Quentin's perception that Rosa "wants it told" which inspires him to investigate and reconstruct her ex-fiancee Thomas Sutpen's life story with the help of two other character-narrators: his father and college roommate Shreve. Calling on narrative theory and psychoanalysis, I argue that Cather's and Faulkner's novels depict characters' desire for both storytelling and each other to be enigmatic and intersubjective. Indeed the impulse to generate narrative on the part of the tellers in both texts--notably Jim and Quentin--is seen to arise out of a partial, but not entirely clear, sense that another wants them to do so. In other words, the narrative desire conveyed by the nameless writer and Rosa appears to have no clear object. While it is understood by Jim and Quentin that a story is desired of them, the full extent of what this story might come to be about is never fully explicated by their interlocutors. Theoretically, the intervention this project wagers by way of Cather and Faulkner is a rethinking of two influential attempts to bring together narrative theory and psychoanalysis: Peter Brooks' Reading for the Plot (1984) and Judith Roof's Come As You Are (1996). While the claims regarding narrative advanced by both Brooks and Roof rely primarily on Freud's work (notably his theories of the death drive and of sexual development), I attempt to demonstrate how Lacan's thinking allows us to understand narrative as issuing from a desire that is at once intersubjective and objectless--as appears to be the case in My Antonia and Absalom, Absalom!. Lacan's dynamic conceptualization of desire, I suggest, is not only essential to understanding these two works; it is also very much implicit within the interplay of desire and narrative form they establish.

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Strong evidence exists that LGBTQ students are underserved and at high risk in schools. Only by increasing the knowledge, skills, and awareness of school counselors will they be able to act systematically and effectively address the needs of LGBTQ youth within the complex school environment. In order to design programs for school counselors that reflect their unique roles, it is necessary to learn more about their experiences in working with LGBTQ youth, ideas regarding training needs, as well as motivation and type of training that would be helpful. The goal of the presenters is to share the results of a nationwide study exploring the experiences and identified training needs of Professional School Counselors in working with LGBTQ youth.

This presentation focused on research that evaluates and examines the impact of Safe Space trainings on competency levels of a sample of school counselors/ school counselor trainees. Dr. Byrd also explored the relationship between LGBTQ competency and awareness of sexism and heterosexism in order to determine the effectiveness of Safe Space trainings.

No description available.

Strong evidence exists that LGBTQ students are underserved and at high risk in schools. Only by increasing the knowledge, skills, and awareness of school counselors will they be able to act systematically and effectively address the needs of LGBTQ youth within the complex school environment. In order to design programs for school counselors that reflect their unique roles, it is necessary to learn more about their experiences in working with LGBTQ youth, ideas regarding training needs, as well as motivation and type of training that would be helpful. The goal of the presenters is to share the results of a nationwide study exploring the experiences and identified training needs of Professional School Counselors in working with LGBTQ youth.

Although advancements have been made in facilitating counselor awareness and knowledge in working with the LGBQ population, counselors identify skills as the competency they are most lacking. This leaves counselor educators with the task of improving skills-training for future counselors. Presenters will discuss and demonstrate techniques for working with the LGBQ population that may be infused into the counselor education curriculum. Delivery methods include brief didactic presentation, experiential exercises, and resources describing skill development activities.

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Binary ways of thinking about gender and affectional orientation permeate broader society—male-female, woman-man, gay-straight, to name a few. Such binary thought may even contribute to further marginalization within, among, and between individuals of the LGBTQQIAA2P community. The presenters of this roundtable will share findings of their study of genderism in the LGBTQQIAA2P community and facilitate discussion of the themes with implications for counselors, counselor educators, and clinical supervisors.

Genderism may be understood as “an ideology that reinforces the negative evaluation of gender nonconformity or incongruence between sex and gender” (Hill & Willoughby, 2005, p. 534). Further, genderism may be similar to the concept of heterosexism. While western culture has operated within traditional binary thought systems and the LGBTQQIA subculture has been subject to these same ideas, affectional orientation and gender identity have also been significantly expanded through greater recognition of nonheterosexuality. Emerging research validates the complexity of affectional orientation and gender identity through the recognition of intersectionality as a more accurate framework. The presenters will discuss findings of their qualitative research study that examined how genderism is experienced within, among, and between members of the LGBTQQIA communities. For the purposes of the study, genderism was defined as bias resulting from a binary view of gender. Responses from ten individuals were analyzed for themes within and across participants using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The findings have implications for counseling practice, counselor education, and considerations for advocacy.