As Richard Thomas writes, “there is nothing like Star Trek…Of all the universes of science fiction, the Star Trek universe is the most varied and extensive, and by all accounts the series is the most popular science fiction ever” (1). Ever growing (the latest Star Trek film will be released in Spring 2013) and embodied in hundreds of novels and slash fanfiction, decades of television and film, conventions, replicas, toys, and a complete Klingon language Star Trek is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. As Harrison et al argue in Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, the economic and cultural link embodied in the production of the Star Trek phenomena “more than anything else, perhaps, makes Star Trek a cultural production worth criticizing” (3). A utopian universe, Star Trek invites its audience to imagine a future of amicable human and alien life, often pictured without the ravages of racism, sexism, capitalism and poverty. However, beyond the pleasure of watching, I would ask what do the representations within Star Trek reveal about our popular culture? In essence, what are the values, meaning and beliefs about gender, race, sexuality and disability being communicated in the text? I will explore the ways that the Star Trek universe simultaneously encourages and discourages us from thinking about race, gender, sexuality and disability and their intersections. In other words, this work will examine the ways that representations of identity are challenged and reinforced by Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. This work will situate Star Trek specifically within the science fiction genre and explore the importance of its utopian standpoint as a frame for representational politics. Following Inness, (1999), I argue that science fiction is particularly rich textual space to explore ideas of women and gender (104). As Sharona Ben-Tov suggests in The Artificial Paradise: Science Fiction and American Reality (1995) science fiction’s “position at a unique intersection of science and technology, mass media, popular culture, literature, and secular ritual” offers critical insight into social change (ctd. in Inness 104). I extend Inness and Ben-Tov here to assert that the ways in which science fiction’s rich and “synthetic language of metaphor” illustrate and re-envision contemporary gender roles also offers a re-imagination of assumptions regarding race, sexuality and disability (Inness 104). Extending current scholarship (Roberts 1999, Richards 1997, Gregory 2000, Bernardi 1998, Adare 2005, Greven 2009, Wagner and Lundeen 1998, Relke 2006, and Harrison et all 1996), I intend to break from traditions of dichotomous views of The Next Generation and Voyager as either essentially progressive or conservative. In this sense, I hope to complicate and question simplistic conclusions about Star Trek’s ideological centre. Moreover, as feminist media theorist Mia Consalvo notes, previous analyses of Star Trek have explored how the show constructs and comments on conceptions of gender and race as well as commenting on economic systems and political ideologies (2004). As such, my analysis intends to apply an intersectional approach as well as offer a ‘cripped’ (McRuer 2006) reading of Star Trek in order to provide a deeper understanding of how identities are represented both in science fiction and in popular culture. Both critical approaches – especially the emphasis on disability, sexuality and intersectional identities are largely ignored by past Trek readings. That is to say, while there is critical research on representations in Star Trek (Roberts 1999, Bernardi 1998) much of it is somewhat uni-dimensional in its analysis, focusing exclusively on gender or racialized representation and notably excluding dimensions of sexuality and ability. Moreover, as much of the writing on the Star Trek phenomena has focused on The Original Series (TOS) and The Next Generation this work will bring the same critical analysis to the Voyager series. To perform this research a feminist discourse analysis will be employed. While all seven seasons and 178 episodes of The Next Generation series as well as all seven seasons and 172 episodes of Voyager have been viewed particular episodes will be selected for their illustrative value.

This thesis investigates the access to IVF-treatment for people with psychiatric disabilities who intend to carry the child themselves. It explores how the Swedish welfare state resonates around people with psychiatric disabilities wanting to become parents, and how their reproductive rights might differ from others seeking the same treatment. Therefore, different official reports from the Swedish government and documents from the National Board of Health and Welfare that deals with the legal framework and state-sanctioned guidelines for medical professionals regarding IVF has been examined in a qualitive discourse analysis. Two interviews with two medical professionals working with IVF has also been conducted. The focus has been on the psychosocial interviews every treatment-seeking individual has to go through to determine if they are fit as parents. The main body of theory consists of work surrounding feminist disability studies, crip theory, discourse analysis, repronormativity and critical studies of the welfare state. This thesis set out to investigate how the demand from the government to put the best interest of the child first when deciding over who gets access to IVF are used to resonate around if people with psychiatric disabilities can be seen as fit parents. It also seeks to understand what these state-sanctioned guidelines and the way medical professionals interacts with them can say about the reproductive politics of the Swedish welfare state regarding people with psychiatric disabilities. The general conclusion is that the welfare state has implemented tools for reproductive control over the group that has been studied (particularly women and trans people) since at least the 1930’s, and while there has been significant change, the gatekeeping practises surrounding IVF can be seen as another tool for reproductive control. It is evident that people with psychiatric disabilities have to prove themselves in order to be seen as fit parents, and it is assumed that there is a risk trying to combine their psychiatric disabilities with the best interest of the child. While there is no legal framework denying this group access to IVF outright, this thesis shows that they face challenges to gain that access that people without psychiatric disabilities does not.

The aim of this study was to explore how women who were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as adults described their existence before and after the diagnosis. The study was conducted by analysing four women’s autobiographical texts. The texts deal with their experiences growing up without awareness of their disability, how they got diagnosed as adults and how the diagnosis impacted their lives. The study used a qualitative approach and a theoretical framework consisting of social constructionism and crip-theory. Through a thematic analysis of these women’s stories this study found that women who are diagnosed late in life experience challenges such as mental health problems, feelings of exclusion and confusion around one’s own identity. Findings also highlight the importance of early diagnosis to prevent previous mentioned challenges. Further research should be made to explore how new national guidelines for support and treatment impact individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Arbetet i särskolan ska förbereda för vuxenlivet, och sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen ska bedrivas utifrån ett främjande perspektiv med fokus på sexualitet, identitet, normer och jämställdhet. I Skolinspektionens aktuella granskning av sex- och samlevnadsundervisningen framkommer betydande brister. Den här studien vill öka kunskapen om pedagogers föreställningar om sexualitet och sex- och samlevnad avseende elever med intellektuell funktionsnedsättning i särskolan. Undersökningen utgörs av semistrukturerade intervjuer med pedagoger i gymnasiesärskolan. Utifrån ett normkritiskt perspektiv har insamlad empiri analyserats med hjälp av begreppen cripteori, normalitet och empowerment i syfte att beskriva och tolka hur pedagogerna i särskolan förhåller sig till eleverna och deras förmåga och rätt till sin sexualitet. Olika teman har konstruerats ur empirin för att definiera attityder, normer och förhållningssätt. Resultatet visar pedagoger med oerhört engagemang i ett svårt ämne där de känner sig ensamma och utsatta utan pedagogiskt stöd. Eleverna visar en stor önskan att passa in, de skäms för att gå i särskolan och gör allt för att inte framstå som avvikande. Osäkerheten hos pedagogerna är av central betydelse samtidigt som den normkritiska medvetenheten i undervisningen behöver stärkas. Slutsatsen är att kompetensutveckling och pedagogisk vägledning inom särskolan är avgörande för detta viktiga men känsliga ämne. / The work in school for students with special needs should prepare for adult life, and sex and cohabitation education should be based on a promotion perspective with focus on sexuality, identity, norms and gender equality. The School Inspectorate's current review of sex and cohabitation education reveals significant shortcomings. This study aims to increase knowledge about educators' perceptions of sexuality, and sex and cohabitation, regarding students with intellectual disabilities. The study consists of semistructured interviews with educators in special needs upper secondary school. Based on a norm critical perspective, collected data has been analyzed using the concepts of crip theory, normality and empowerment for the purpose of describing and interpreting how the educators relate to the students, their ability and right to their own sexuality. Different themes have been constructed from the collected data in order to define attitudes, norms and approaches. The result shows educators with huge commitment in a difficult field where they feel lonely and vulnerable without pedagogical support. The students show great desire to fit in, they are ashamed of going to special school and do anything to not appear deviant. The insecurity within the educators is of central importance and there is little norm critical awareness in the teaching. The conclusion is that knowledge development and pedagogical guidance within the special needs upper secondary school is crucial in this important but sensitive field.

Using hauntology as a linchpin, this dissertation explores the undertheorized connection between intersex and disability. Building on important feminist research in the fields of intersex, queer, disability, crip, and hauntology studies, I ask, how do we understand and reconcile the contested meanings, responses to, and effects of intersex? Intersex is “a perpetually shifting phantasm” (Holmes 2002: 175), yet intersex is typically represented and treated as innate disorder, disability, or disease by medical professionals. That said, many intersex people appear to distance from disability. By engaging intersex studies with feminist disability and crip theories, however, I demonstrate that an intersex politic and intersex studies must be rooted in a disability politic and disability studies. Through a feminist disability and crip lens, I conduct a textual and critical discourse analysis of three case studies of interphobic violence or, what I term, “compulsory dyadism,” meaning the instituted cultural mandate that people cannot have intersex traits or house the “spectre of intersex” (Sparrow 2013: 29); such a spectre must be exorcised. The three case studies include nonconsensual medical interventions, sport sex testing, and employing reproductive technologies to select against intersex variations. My analyses of these case studies produce three important observations. First, intersex is presently and effectively being integrated into conventional notions of disability; second, ableist logics underpin interphobic violence; and third, compulsory dyadism is intertwined with, or is an iteration of, compulsory able-bodiedness. In recognizing this interconnection, theorizing intersex and disability together is not merely beneficial, doing so is necessary. Ultimately, my dissertation interrogates and extends questions of the ever-shifting categorization of body-minds, culturally mandated ways of being, and (the haunting effects of) pathologization. I apply pressure to the academic field of intersex studies as well as intersex activist and advocate communities to center disability in discussions concerning intersex human rights and interphobia.