This qualitative study addresses teacher perceptions of indigenous peoples representation in United States history. This phenomenological study was conducted within a school district in East Tennessee. For the purpose of this study, teacher perceptions of indigenous representations in history were defined as teacher beliefs towards the inclusion and representation of indigenous peoples in United States history. To gather data, both one-on-one and focus group interviews were conducted from a purposeful sample of United States history teachers from the high schools in the school district. Through an analysis of data derived from interviews and qualitative documents the researcher was able to identify themes such as systemic challenges to multiculturalism within state course standards and textbooks, teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in teaching their students using indigenous perspectives, and the perpetuation of indigenous stereotypes. Furthermore, the qualitative data derived from the study reveals that U.S. history courses in the district perpetuate both the notion of indigenous peoples as historical bystanders and the racial stereotypes of Native Americans. Findings from this study will be useful in evaluating both teacher training and instructional practice in regard to indigenous representations in history.

Minorities have gained more civil rights with the cooperation of both major political parties in the United States, yet the actions of the Republican Party are often conflated with racism. This is partially the result of clashes in ideological visions, which explain the different political positions of partisans. However, during his 1980 run for the White House, a concerted effort was made to tie Ronald Reagan to racism, as he was accused of pandering to white Southerners. Therefore, this thesis also focuses on “Southern strategies” used by both the Republican and Democratic parties to exploit race, which have spilled into the new millennium.

Thesis (M.A.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. / Directed by Scott Romine; submitted to the Dept. of English. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jul. 19, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 23-24, 40-41).

Based on a discourse analysis of Swedish public investigations regarding immigration detention, this thesis examines the discourses around ‘foreigners’ therein. Rejected asylum-seekers awaiting deportation have gone from being systematically detained in prisons by the police, to instead be confined in detention centres administered by the Swedish Migration Board. Yet, an increased criminalisation is evident. Focusing, in particular, on the legal ambiguity that authorises the detention system to further detain and criminalise asylum seekers, it is argued that the practice of detention can be seen as ‘exceptional’ where discourses of care, suspicion and fear constitute subjectivities such as the ‘identity-less foreigner’, the ‘vulnerable foreigner’, and the ‘dangerous foreigner’.

This is a case study on human trafficking that was conducted on the small Central American country of Costa Rica via a mixed-methods approach which included document review, surveys, and interviews. It was selected due to Costa Rica’s history of fluctuation between Tier 2 and Tier 2 Watch List status on the Trafficking in Persons Report, issued by the U.S. Department of State, over the last ten years. This ranking average indicates that it is one of the worst performing Central American states in efforts to combat trafficking in persons. This finding breaks with Costa Rica’s traditional placement as one of the best performing Central American countries by other indices, such as GDP, Human Development Index (HDI), World Happiness Report, and Corruption Perception Index (CPI), to name a few. The purpose of this research was to explore the reasons why Costa Rica leads Central America in numerous international measurements of success, yet remains equal to or below other Central American countries in its fight to combat human trafficking. There were two hypotheses. First, Costa Rica has strong economic ties to and reliance on tourism. According to data collected for this study, tourism has become Costa Rica’s primary means of “development,” which has created a neocolonial-style enclave economy and society which responds heavily to the demands of the tourists. This reliance on tourism is associated with choices made by government officials for inaction. Second, low levels of prosecutions and convictions are due to the state’s reliance on NGOs to shoulder the responsibility of efforts. The government even pays the NGOs to care for rescued children to alleviate any burden placed on its own agencies. NGOs operating in Costa Rica run shelters and rehabilitate survivors, head awareness campaigns, and educate. Along with the United Nations, and other IGOs, NGOs have been the main force against trafficking in persons in Costa Rica. Other findings included issues with the definition of human trafficking under the law, as it is not in alignment with those of the United Nations and the United States. As well, the limited awareness across the country, both for professionals and citizens, is a concern. Poverty, particularly increases in extreme poverty, was cited as a recurring problem by the stakeholders interviewed. Furthermore, the image of the country as exceptional was reported by many interviewees as a barrier to recognizing the relevant issues and combatting them. Finally, the persistent culture of machismo and a political and social culture in turmoil were found to be detrimental to combatting human trafficking, particularly when dealing with gendered crimes, prostitution, and the feminization of poverty and of the marginalization of women and children. This study has synthesized the data and shows support for a correlation between the aforementioned factors, tying human trafficking to the tourist industry, to political inaction, to NGOs and their activities and responsibilities, as well as to political and social culture and a number of other factors. Prosecutions and convictions remain low, and efforts to fight modern-day slavery remain below the minimum standards. Thus, it is the implication of this study that the notion of Costa Rica as exceptional, as a leader across Central America, is more an image than reality, at least in this case. In reality, Costa Rica is caught between opposing political and social cultures, between Western capitalism, classic machismo, and Costa Rica’s historical notion of peaceful living and exceptionality.

We live in a time marked by ecological precarity and crisis. Critical scholars of the Anthropocene have identified extractivism and its associated ideology of human exceptionalism as driving forces behind these crises. This thesis joins a call to develop naturalcultural theory – ways of conceptualizing the more-than-human world and our place in it as humans that do not rely on longstanding distinctions between “Nature” and “Culture.” Moreover, scholars and activists have clearly outlined the urgent need for us to change the way we live with nonhumans. As a step towards such new ways of living with nonhumans, in this project I study how foragers foster multispecies ethics through their encounters with nonhumans, using multispecies ethnography as my primary methodology. In this thesis, I develop a theoretical framework through which to understand forager-plant interactions, informed by my experiences in the field interviewing and observing foragers as they harvest plants and directly studying the plants that my participants frequently interacted with. I tentatively propose a distinction between extractive and non-extractive approaches to foraging. Overall, I suggest viewing plants and humans as living-persons who are tangled in a field of socioecological relations to one another. Through partial and intermittent encounters, they become contaminated and adopt new habits that affect their future interactions with other living-persons. This has important implications for how we conceive of ethics as only incorporating nonhumans as objects of ethical consideration rather than ethical subjects in their own right.

The situation in the U.S. domestic politics has by media been presented that large groups of citizens are divided in the political arena. Today many scholars in the field of international relations tend to describe the political climate in the United States, between democrats and republicans as polarized and towards confrontation. The ongoing situation has heavily escalated due to the fact of the Trump administrations incapability to restore former order in the political system. This makes it easy for radical political groups to follow an agenda which has helped to create a favourable breeding ground for escalating violence, which currently raising large-scale concerns among senior executives, media and citizens. The aim of this thesis is therefore to introduce a perspective that could offer a complementary understanding of some identified elements that affects the current political situation. By using Ty Solomons theoretical framework of emotions this study seeks to identify the fundamental elements of Master signifiers in political contexts. A use of this theory can be a helpful tool for political leaders, when trying to restore balance and unifying people for a common political cause.

Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study seeks to illustrate how Donald Trump’s Inauguration Address incorporates elements of power which are embedded in various forms of American exceptionalism. Since the American myth of exceptionalism does not necessarily reveal itself at first glance, this thesis traces its variety of roots back in American history. By doing so, it explains how this myth emerged, how it became infused with power and how Trump’s rhetoric keeps it alive. The theoretical framework of this study is built on Michel Foucault’s writing on power and van Dijk’s concept of ideology. In addition, this study introduces the idea of legitimising myths in the context of Social Dominance Theory to highlight the effect ideologies have on societies. This thesis finds that some references to American exceptionalism in Trump’s speech can be attributed to the Colonial era. More specifically, Trump’s call for social cohesion, his allusions to predestination, his image of civilisation and his language on American labour bear close resemblance to Puritan discourses. Further, the theme of nationalism and limited government run through his speech, both of which are integral to American history and the myth of exceptionalism. In line with the general goals of CDA, this study exemplifies how ideologically charged language needs to be contextualised socio-historically to expose its relationship with power.

Studien har undersökt utmaningar och motstånd som mångfaldsarbetare möter i sitt arbete och hur det synliggör maktrelationer inom rummen de försöker förändra. Empirin har samlats in genom intervjuer med sju mångfaldsarbetare som arbetar i den svenska kontexten både internt inom organisationer och med konsultuppdrag, för att fånga upp deras upplevelser av utmaningar och motstånd. Studiens teoretiska ramverk är affektteori, svensk exceptionalism, vit skörhet, mångfaldsbacklash och närliggande områden. Studien visar motståndsstrategier som används mot mångfaldsarbetare genom ignorans, ifrågasättande och kritisering och illegitimering av deras arbete. Mycket av motståndet handlar även om okunskap om maktrelationer och en färgblind utgångspunkt. Studien påvisar även hur organisationer skapar sig själva genom frågor om social rättvisa, konstruerar en image om modernitet, progressivitet och engagemang i sociala frågor. Mångfaldsarbetarna i studien upplever det som lättare att få igenom symboliska åtgärder såsom föreläsningar och uppmärksammande av speciella event, men svårare med långsiktiga strukturella förändringar. Studien visar hur frågor rörande ras och rasistisk diskriminering är extra svåra att arbeta med och möter särskilt motstånd.

‘the habitat’ is a Design+Change project which originates from the will to create positive change in the current situation of climate and ecological emergency. The design project takes the Anthropocene and the materialization of nonhumans as starting point and develops further around the possibilities of forming non-anthropocentric and nonhuman-centered mentalities and world-making processes. It aims to highly emphasize the human dependence on nonhuman existence and well-being. Therefore, the ultimate purpose of the project is to de-center humans and challenge the human exceptionalist mentality. In order to achieve that; practices of making kin with nonhumans are explored and practiced throughout the project. This Design+Change project builds its framework within the theories of posthumanism by Braidotti (2013) (2017) and Barad (2008), the vitality of matter by Bennett (2010) and gets inspiration from multispecies ethnography and design, discusses the possibilities of making kin (Haraway, 2016) with nonhumans. Building on the theoretical framework, my own lived experiences of sharing my domestic environment and my attempts to interact, and interconnect with fungi persons, strive to show interdependencies of life, the assemblages weaved in intertangled lives of humans and nonhumans and to overcome human exceptionalist mindsets and lifestyles. ‘the habitat’ seeks to also question the dichotomies of nature/culture, animate/inanimate. The discussion of the nonhuman agency has also been essential throughout the design project.  ‘the habitat’ displays a journey, an intimate autoethnographic mental expedition, rather than being a monolithic and finished product. It presents my bare attempts and generates discussions from them. At the end of the project, it wraps itself up in the form of an archive, a map, and a record of the journey for the audience to walk through.