This dissertation is about learning as changing understanding in social and situated activities. It takes part in the development of a reconceptualization of learning initiated within participationist perspectives. Multiparty interaction in situated activities is a primordial site for the exploration of human action and cognition. Through the theoretical framework of Conversation Analysis (CA), a method for the analysis and description of trajectories of learning is proposed. Departing from a view of learning, interaction, and cognition as closely related, learning is argued as gradually changing understanding in situated activities. The empirical material consists of video recordings from an elementary school and pilot training. The recordings are analyzed using CA methods, including detailed attention to embodied features of interaction. The analyses focus the development of trajectories of learning through the participants’ orientations. The trajectories are based on topicalizations and co-constructions of contents of learning, where interactional organization and content are interrelated. Participants are shown to make relevant relations between past, present, and future actions and material settings, and their ways of aligning and resisting participation and change are explored. A framework for the analysis of learning as embodied interaction in change is developed. The dissertation shows the fruitfulness of CA work for the understanding of learning processes. The results underline the importance of including embodied action, as constitutive of the co-constructions of contents, into learning studies. The value of highlighting learning as co-construction and of anchoring the analyses in the participants’ orientations is underscored. The results further the understanding of how people learn, and of how they make relevant knowledge and experiences in activity. The understanding of learning and change as action, which can be initiated, aligned with and resisted, opens up for future developments within CA, where learning researchers might be able to describe more precisely how human learning is constituted.

This essay focuses on Maggie in The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot. An examination of her life is presented which is anchored in feminist critical theory and focuses on the ordeal Maggie has to endure in a patriarchal society. Furthermore, the life of the Roma is examined through postcolonial theory and compared to Maggie’s. Many of the stereotypes that emerged about the Roma are also present in Maggie’s life. It is argued that Maggie embodies the stereotypes of the Roma through her encounters with different characters in the novel.

This paper provides a corpus linguistic analysis of verbs included in English path-, road- and way-sentences. My claim is that many of the differences between metaphorical and non-metaphorical patterns including these terms are related to a qualitative difference between real and imagined journeys. Both non-metaphorical and metaphorical instances go back to our experiences with real-world paths, roads and ways. Path and road-sentences are connected with motion along the specific artifacts that these terms refer to. Way-sentences refer to motion through space. Differences between prototypical and un-prototypical paths, roads and ways, however, and a close connection between prototypical instances and metaphorical meaning, result in differences between non-metaphorical and metaphorical patterns. The findings explain why the source domain verbs in metaphorical path- and road-sentences are more restricted than the verbs in the non-metaphorical sentences. They show why metaphorical ways, but hardly ever metaphorical paths and roads, are paved.

The musical performer’s embodied experience is an aspect of the performing process that has yet to be adequately considered in music scholarship. The embodied experience is relegated to the realm of the inaccessible and subjective, rather than being considered a valuable source of information for both the music analyst and performer. This thesis contends that the performing body can provide deep insights into musical meaning and can act as a resource for developing musical understanding. The sensations and experiences of the performer’s body during the process of creating music can lead to the recognition of important moments and fundamental meanings within a musical work. Engaging with scholarly literature from a variety of disciplines, this thesis will explore the classical singer’s embodied experience from the three primary perspectives of phenomenology, ecological perceptual theory and body communication theory. Each perspective is explored in and through a comparative listening analysis of Luciano Berio’s work for solo voice Sequenza III per voce femminile (1966) in order to illuminate specific aspects of the singer’s embodied experience. This embodied approach to musical analysis considers the singer’s body as a contributor to not only the production of sound but also to the creation of musical meaning, and can thus offer rich insights into that which is discovered through traditional analysis.

The aim of this master thesis is to contribute to a deeper understanding of women’s experiences in regard to menstrually related suffering. These particular experiences are examined in relation to notions of normality and authenticity. The study designed for this purpose is based on the life world of women in order to explore these ideas. The visceral signs originating from within the body are generally understood to be undetectable when working properly. Such is not the case for many women who menstruate. The cyclical change in physical and mental states associated with the menstrual cycle provide an opportunity to study how going in and out of different ways of being in the world influence human experience. Thematic interviews were conducted asking ten women living in Sweden to share their experiences of suffering related to the menstrual cycle. A phenomenological approach with focus on the body was used to study how changing ways of being in the world contribute to the construction of illness and health. Beginning with discussions about their experiences of suffering revealed that women thought in terms of when they felt like themselves and when they did not. Organization of time was interrelated with how women understood their experiences. Emphasizing recurring negative experiences lead to contemplation about causes of suffering and comparison of different states of being. The lack of ‘one’s selfness’ due to what is commonly referred to as PMS represents the dilemma these women describe. The need to have control over the outward representation of one’s self is discussed in light of different medical technologies like SSRI antidepressant use and hormonal therapies which revealed that women saw the origins of their suffering to be a product of society but tightly connected to their identity as women and were not willing to be without a menstrual cycle. Phenomenological ideas about embodiment were used to understand how suffering was seen both as a sign of health and as a part of the self.

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Atlanta, this study analyzes how transnational practices of, and discourse about, flamenco dance contribute to the performance and embodiment of gender, ethnic, and national identities. It argues that, in the context of the flamenco studio, women dancers renegotiate authenticity and hybridity against the backdrop of an embodied “exot-ic” passion.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how swedishness is constructed and narrated in two Swedish documentary series that picture the Swedish participation in the international ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The main focus lies on how the Swedish soldier as such is portrayed, on which values, characteristics and qualities that they are said to embody and how these are linked to notions of swedishness, particularly the strong historical narrative, formed during the second half of the twentieth century, that defines Sweden as a peaceful, neutral and humanitarian state, with peaceful, enlightened and democratically minded citizens. Theoretically it draws on the concept of metanarrative to explain how ideas of shared national origin translates in to a broad organizing discourse, that defines, interprets and communicates notions of what it means to be a Swede and what is needed to make claims on swedishness. Another concept, that of national bodyscape, is also used to further define and explain how ideas of nationality are embodied and take the form of specific characteristics and  personal qualities. The meaning-making in these two series makes use of the above mentioned definition of swedishness as defined by humanitarian concerns, democratic ideals and moral superiority to construct an image of the Swedish soldiers as on the one hand soft, humanitarians, who are needed in Afghanistan because of their especially strong sense of justice and moral, and, on the other, as tough soldiers, who are able to participate in every aspect of the war as fighters. These two images combined create a notion of a particularly Swedish type of soldier, who brings the separate roles of soldier, humanitarian worker and diplomat together and realises them in one individual, and who appears to be more capable in all these roles than both their American and Afghan allies. By shifting the narrative focus and change which part of the Swedish metanarrative that they choose to connect to, the series can also maintain the emphasis on the soldiers as Swedes, while at the same time showing them participating in situations or discussing aspects of their work that is not usually associated with swedishness, or that previously has not been a part of the broader metanarrative.

The utilization of micro-scale technologies is limited by the speed of their manufacture. Micro-milling is one particular technology used to manufacture micro-scale parts which could benefit extensively from an increase in throughput. Micro-milling involves a rotating cutter slightly thicker than a human hair removing material while spinning at speeds often over one hundred thousand revolutions per minute. An obvious solution to the throughput bottleneck is to move current micro-mills faster using existing technology; however, simply increasing the operational speed of existing micro-mills will lead to vibration and trajectory following problems. If a micro-mill cannot be positioned precisely, then part tolerances cannot be maintained. Thus any increase in throughput would be counterproductive in terms of overall performance. This dissertation presents techniques to improve the performance of micro-mills, as well as other flexible machines. Theses improvements are possible through the utilization of the vibration suppression scheme of input shaping. By thoughtfully altering the commands sent to flexible systems, their vibration can be significantly reduced. Input shaping was effectively applied to an existing micro-mill, which improved part tolerances and increased operational speed. However, at extremely high speeds, traditional input shaping is not effective at following complicated trajectories. Therefore, new input shaping techniques were developed specifically for trajectory tracking of extremely fast motions on micro-mills and other flexible systems. Often machines cannot achieve these high speeds while maintaining their accuracy because of the mechanical design of the machines themselves. If the mechanical design of micro-mills and other machines consider flexible and lightweight design alternatives that utilize input shaping for vibration suppression instead of stiff and heavy designs, then faster machine motion will be possible. By considering input shaped flexible systems as part of traditional mechanical design processes, these flexible solutions allow vast performance improvement. Specifically, embodiment design can be improved through consideration of input shaping performance requirements. Through these advancements, this dissertation improves the design, control, and performance of micro-mills and other flexible machines.

Designing domestic violence shelters for women must be considered from a feminist perspective, inclusive of theories of embodiment, as the female victim's emotional state (mind) is a critical component in determining her overall state (i.e., level of distress). The primary objective of this study (Specific Aim 1) was to identify the mental and emotional state of female domestic violence victims upon entry into a shelter as a means of establishing specific user needs which should directly impact the design of the shelter. The primary hypothesis (Hypothesis 1) was that upon entry into a shelter environment, victims are experiencing high levels of distress compared to normative controls. The secondary objective of this study (Specific Aim 2) was to identify shelter users? perceptions of the current shelter environment in which they lived as a foundation for matching specific design criteria with the specific needs of the female domestic violence victim (i.e., stress reduction) in an attempt to understand the relationship between user needs and individual design characteristics of the shelter. The secondary exploratory hypothesis (Hypothesis 2) was that anxiety or stress is reduced over time; therefore, the architectural design of a shelter that promotes independence will result in less distress among domestic violence victims utilizing the shelter. Thirty-three domestic violence victims in Fort Worth, Texas participated in focus groups and interviews conducted over a four-month period of time in 2009. Qualitative analysis of this data yielded four emergent themes: (1) loss of independence and control: the second layer of fear; (2) the search for security; (3) reconnecting to self; and (4) expressions of humanity. Quantitative analysis was utilized to measure participant stress levels at three intervals during their thirty day shelter program: (1) within the first twenty-four hours of shelter entry; (2) seven to ten days after shelter entry; and (3) fourteen or more days after shelter entry. Findings of this researcher have been utilized to generate design objectives that can be extrapolated to apply to other locations of shelters and could impact the design of new facilities as well as the redesign of current shelters.

Embodiment grows out from deep concerns about the body and embodied knowledge across disciplines. As both subject and object, the body demands explorations that move beyond the dichotomy of body and mind, surface and depth, outside and inside. The interaction, intensity, and interstanding in the middle activate the body to move, to feel, and to be with other bodies. In the information age, with the rapid change in digital, computerized, and networkable technology, coupled with our growing concerns about the environment, embodiment becomes more complex and shatters the boundaries between human and nonhuman. In a sense, embodiment becomes posthuman by extending itself to interactions and interstandings with other species. In this dissertation, I extend embodiment into aesthetics and media by thickening the notion of surface in all of its profundity, contentious forces, and intertextuality. I emphasize as well its significance in exploring what an embodied curriculum and pedagogy could become for schools and society. This dissertation points toward the interaction and interstanding between philosophy, art, and technology. It encourages a notion of experience that engages readers/viewers viscerally with a technically manipulated surface. The readers/viewers not only encounter the theoretical mapping of the content of this dissertation, but also imagine and investigate the metaphorical and metaphysical possibilities of curriculum and pedagogy.