Violence against women continues to be an issue that severely impacts women worldwide. Since the global spread of the #MeToo movement in 2017, debates regarding this issue significantly increased. Yet the precise ways in which women are impacted by violence, heavily influenced by their unique and diverse aspects of identity, are often disregarded. By focusing on two of these aspects of identity, namely gender and nationality, and comparing the circumstances of sexual violence against women in Germany, Nigeria, and South Korea, this thesis aims to showcase the diverse experiences of ‘being a woman’ and what this implies regarding the issue of sexual violence against women. With an additional analysis of four important international conventions aimed at ameliorating women’s lives (UDHR, CEDAW, DEVAW, and BPfA) regarding their acknowledgement of this diversity and guided by three theories, namely Multi-Ethnic Feminism, Feminist Postcolonialism, and Intersectionality, this thesis highlights the necessity of including everyone and their unique experiences with all kinds of discrimination to adequately tackle an issue such as sexual violence against women.

Women in the Theological Anthropology of the Afrikaans Reformed Tradition This dissertation examines women in the theological anthropology of the Afrikaans Reformed Churches. The study is set out as follows: In Chapter 1, a survey of methodology is presented. The exposition of the question about the theological anthropology is done against a poststructural background. Both structuralism and poststructuralism largely put aside existentialism as an inadequate methodology. Chapter 2 aims to give an overview of the contribution of Michel Foucault. The chapter begins with a discussion of structuralism. This brief overview is then followed by a classification and investigation of the basic aspects of Foucault's approach. The chapter highlights Foucault's rootedness in poststructuralism. Chapter 3 attempts to explain silence of women in the theological anthropology of Dutch Reformed Church. The central aim of Chapter 3 is to demonstrate, against the development of the women ministries and the discourse about the ordination of women, that the Dutch Reformed Church theological anthropology is deeply influenced by the discursive practices developed during 1928-1932. Chapter 4 gives an overview of the developments in the theological anthropology of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, Dutch Reformed Church of Africa and the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa that took place from 1924 until 2002. Different approaches to the women question developed in the course of time. At the heart of the discourse is the shift in the reading process. The developments in the feminist standpoint theory as such led to this displacement. In Chapter 5 the deconstruction of the theological anthropology are being discussed. Preference is given in this chapter to the concept partnership or transformative relations. In the concluding chapter [Chapter 6], a poststructural feminist discourse is presented. Selected guidelines that the church may wish to take into account in the deconstructing of the theological anthropology are suggested. In the future, the frame of reference to the women question would likely be poststructural. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

This dissertation is a critical examination of selected Tsonga novels by male and female writers. Positive and negative images of women by these authors are analysed, compared and evaluated from a feminist perspective. Emphasis is laid on the manner in which Tsonga writers portray female characters in a changing society and the extent to which the images of women in this literature represent the present day woman. Adherence to ideological, cultural and traditional values as well as the differences in portrayal of women by male and female writers is also investigated. Through a comparison of novels written by male and female writers it is established that because of patriarchy these writers differ markedly in their portrayal of female characters. In all the novels analysed, the sociol-cultural context influences the way in which these writers portray female characters. Male writers promote traditional values which female writers strive to discard by portraying female characters who predominantly undermine stereotypical cultural sex-roles. / African languages / M.A. (African languages)

Gender discrimination is an ongoing topic, including discrimination that occurs in higher education. Previous studies have shown female faculty experience a variety of workplace discrimination including sexual harassment/bullying, salary disparities, and lack of worklife balance. This dissertation aimed to analyze equity issues for female faculty at a private university. The researcher utilized a narrative inquiry methodology, conducting interviews with five full-time female faculty. The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the participants’ everyday stories and lived experiences. The researcher utilized critical feminist theory and leadership theory to examine the notion of equity at this campus. The findings, shown through narrative profiles, demonstrate the five women have experienced equity issues at the institution including workplace bullying and lack of work-life balance. It also found the women utilize a self-silencing voice, struggling between challenging equity issues while maintaining their positions at the university. In addition, gender issues experienced prior to working at the university were discussed, demonstrating larger societal issues in relation to gender equity. This dissertation adds to the current studies on equity issues in higher education by focusing on the participants’ stories rather than quantitative or coded data. In addition, it bridged two seemingly disparate frameworks, critical feminist theory and leadership theory, to demonstrate how these concepts can work toward alleviating equity issues in organizations.

This thesis will explore the intersectional construction of the British asylum network in the nineteenth century. It will look at gender, race, and class as factors in the diagnostic process, in addition to the confinement and treatment of the insane.

This thesis explores French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s ’hauntology’ through the lens of digital monsters and feminist theory. Hauntology – a pun on ‘ontology’ and ‘haunting’ – offers an ethics based on responsibility towards that which cannot be said to fully exist, yet has an effect on our everyday lives nonetheless. Like the figure of the ghost, such undecidable existences are neither absent nor present, here nor gone, of the past or the future. In other words: they haunt. By engaging with hauntology through contemporary stories of digital monsters – such as The Curious Case of Smile.jpg, Welcome to Night Vale and Mushroom Land TV - the thesis discusses how such troubling hauntings might be imagined, and what it means to think an ethics based on responsibility towards the undecidable. In this way, the thesis brings together hauntology and digital media, arguing that thinking with and through the figure of the ghost as well as the digital monster may lead to different and critical ways of imagining both the world and ethics. In short, drawing upon feminist theory and creative writing, the thesis maps out a relational ethics of hauntings and internet story-telling. / Denna avhandling utforskar den franske filosofen Jacques Derridas ’hauntologi’ genom digitala monster och feministisk teori. Hauntologi - en ordlek på ontology och haunting - erbjuder en etik som bygger på ansvar gentemot det som inte kan sägas helt existera, men ändå har en effekt på vårt dagliga liv. Liksom figuren ’spöket’ är sådana obestämbara existenser varken frånvarande eller närvarande, här eller borta, i det förflutna eller framtiden. Med andra ord: de hemsöker. Genom analyser av samtida berättelser om digitala monster - som The Curious Case of Smile.jpg, Welcome to Night Vale och Mushroom Land TV - diskuterar avhandlingen hur sådan oroande hemsökelser kan bli föreställda, och vad det innebär att tänka en etik baserad på ansvar gentemot det obestämbara. På detta sätt sammanför avhandlingen hauntologi och digitala medier ihop för att argumentera att akten att tänka med och genom spöket som figur och det digitala monstret kan leda till annorlunda och kritiska sätt att föreställa sig både världen och etik på. Avhandlingen bygger på feministisk teori och kreativt skrivande för att utforska en relationell etik baserad på hemsökelser och internet-berättelser.

Global initiatives regarding environmental change have increasingly become part of political agendas and of our collective imagination. In order to form sustainable societies, education is considered crucial by organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union. But how is the notion of sustainability imagined and formed in educational practices? What does sustainability make possible, and whom does it involve? These critical questions are not often asked in educational research on sustainability. This study suggests that the absence of critical questions in sustainability education is part of a contemporary post-political framing of environmental issues. In order to re-politicize sustainability in education, this study critically explores how education—as an institution and a practice that is supposed to foster humans—responds to environmental change. The aim is to explore how sustainability is formed in education, and to discuss how these formations relate to ideas of what education is, and whom it is for. This interdisciplinary study uses theories and concepts from cultural studies, feminist theory, political theory, and philosophy of education to study imaginaries of the unknown, nonhuman world in the context of education. The focus of the empirical investigation is on teacher education in Sweden, and more precisely on those responsible for teaching the future generations of teachers – the teacher instructors. With help from empirical findings from focus groups, the study asks questions about the ontological, political, and ethical potential and risk of bringing the unknown Other into education. / Utbildning har globalt fått en central roll i strävanden efter att skapa hållbar utveckling. Initiativ tagna av såväl Förenta Nationerna som Europeiska Unionen, där utbildning och hållbarhet kopplas samman, vittnar om att frågor som rör miljöförändringar har blivit allt viktigare både på de politiska agendorna och i våra kollektiva, kulturella föreställningsvärldar. Men hur formas begreppet hållbar utveckling när det ska göras undervisningsbart? Vilka framtider möjliggör hållbar utveckling i utbildningssammanhang och vem inkluderas i begreppet? Frågor av kritisk karaktär är ofta frånvarande i tidigare utbildningsforskning som rör hållbar utveckling. Denna avhandling tar sin utgångspunkt i att frånvaron av kritiska frågor kan ses som del i en samtida postpolitisk inramning av miljöfrågor i såväl utbildningssammanhang som i samhället i stort. Studien undersöker hur utbildningsväsendet, som är en central institution i fostrandet av framtidens medborgare, tar sig an frågor som rör miljöförändringar. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur hållbar utveckling formas genom utbildning samt att diskutera hur dessa formationer relateras till idéer om vad utbildning är och vem som ska utbildas. På så vis söker studien också efter sätt att re-politisera hållbar utveckling i utbildningssammanhang. Avhandlingen är tvärvetenskaplig och använder teorier och begrepp från kulturstudier, feministisk teori, politisk teori och utbildningsfilosofi för att studera vad utbildning som relaterar till natur- och miljöfrågor möjliggör. Empiriskt undersöks svenska lärarutbildare, som ansvarar för att utbilda framtidens lärare. Studien ställer frågor om ontologiska, politiska och etiska aspekter av att öppna upp utbildningen för det som ligger bortom mänsklig kontroll och kunskap. / Sustainable development as an area of knowledge

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The core question that is addressed by this research is whether, and to what extent South African women’s NGOs contribute to enhancing state feminism through their ability to articulate and mobilise the strategic interests of women at grassroots level to appear on the national agenda, through the channels provided by the National Gender Machinery (structures of the state). A literature review was conducted that draws on the work of predominantly feminist authors in order to locate this research in previous scholarly knowledge that is relevant to the purpose of this study. The literature review includes elaboration of concepts like state feminism, women’s interests, agenda setting, civil society, and linkages between the women’s movement and the National Gender Machinery (NGM). A theoretical framework developed by Stetson and Mazur (1995), which aims at measuring whether gender machineries facilitate an increase in gender equality within the state, is used. The framework utilises two dimensions in order to investigate the level of state feminism within a country, i.e. state capacity, which investigates to what extent gender machineries influence and inform policy that is feminist and gender friendly; and state-society relations, which investigates the extent to which gender machineries provide opportunities for organised civil society actors (women’s organisations) to engage and access policy making and contribute to policy influence. In order to examine the levels of state capacity present in South Africa with regard to gender equality, current patterns of politics (a concept used by Stetson and Mazur) are considered. This is done in order to evaluate whether the political context is conducive to the passing and implementation of policy that is of a feminist nature. A qualitative study of the experience of four South African women’s NGOs, using face-to-face interviews specially designed for this purpose, was undertaken. The NGOs were interviewed in order to ascertain the status of state-society linkages, and whether the state provides access to civil society actors to inform policy making and implementation from a gender-friendly perspective that is reflective of grassroots women’s interests. The NGOs interviewed are the New Women’s Movement (NWM), the Women’s Legal Centre, the Black Sash and the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG). The findings of the fieldwork are analysed according to the framework of Stetson and Mazur (1995) in order to formulate a response to the research question. Findings include the presence of state capacity that is hostile to gender issues, with minimal (unreceptive) efforts to engage society actors in a flourishing state-society relationship. The provision of unreceptive and inconsistent space provided by the state, the lack of commitment to gender by women working within the state, and the state of “decline” that many South African NGOs are facing, have led to a “blockage” in the articulation of gender issues by NGOs that emanates from grassroots level to inform policy making, and contributes to the institutionalisation of state feminism. The national levels have therefore been largely out of touch with the interests of women at grassroots level as a result of minimal engagement and communication through the (dysfunctional) NGM. The state has spoken on behalf of, and decided on behalf of, women what is best for them and their livelihoods. Instead of being a gateway to the institutionalisation of state feminism, the state has acted as a patriarchal entity and has, to a very large extent, further entrenched gender inequality and the hardships faced by ordinary South African women at grassroots level. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die kernvraag wat deur hierdie navorsing aangespreek word is of, en tot watter mate, Suid-Afrikaanse vroue se nie-regeringsorganisasies (NRO’s) bydra tot die verbreding van staatsfeminisme deur hul vermoë om die strategiese belange van vroue op voetsoolvlak te artikuleer sodat dit op die nasionale agenda deur die kanale wat deur die Nasionale Gender Masjinerie (NGM) (strukture in die staat) verskaf word, verskyn. ’n Literatuurstudie, wat die werk van hoofsaaklik feministiese outeurs aanhaal, is onderneem om hierdie navorsing binne vorige akademiese kennis wat relevant is tot die doel van hierdie studie, te plaas. Dit sluit bespreking van konsepte soos staatsfeminisme, vrouebelange, agenda-skepping, burgerlike samelewing, en verhoudings tussen die vrouebeweging en die NGM in. ’n Teoretiese raamwerk wat deur Stetson en Mazur (1995) ontwikkel is, wat ten doel het om vas te stel of gendermasjinerie ’n toename in geslagsgelykheid binne die staat fasiliteer, word gebruik. Die raamwerk gebruik twee dimensies om die vlak van staatsfeminisme in ’n land te ondersoek, naamlik staatskapsiteit, wat ondersoek tot watter mate gendermasjinerie beleid wat feministies en gender-vriendelik is, beïnvloed en inlig; en staat-samelewing verhoudinge, wat ondersoek instel na die mate waartoe gendermasjinerie geleenthede bied vir akteurs vanuit die georganiseerde burgerlike samelewing om toegang te kry tot en deel te neem aan die beleidmakings- en -implementeringsproses. Om die vlakke van staatskapasiteit t.o.v. geslagsgelykheid in Suid-Afrika te ontleed, word kontemporêre politieke patrone (’n konsep wat deur Stetson en Mazur gebruik word) gebruik. Dit word gedoen om vas te stel of die politieke konteks gunstig is vir die goedkeuring en implementering van beleid van ’n feministiese aard. ’n Kwalitatiewe studie van die ervaring van vier Suid-Afrikaanse NRO’s met behulp van aangesig-tot-aangesig onderhoude wat spesiaal vir hierdie doel ontwerp is, is onderneem. Die onderhoude is met die NRO’s gevoer om die status van staat-samelewing verhoudings vas te stel, en om te bepaal of die staat toegang verleen aan akteurs vanuit die burgerlike samelewing om beleidmakings- en -implementeringsprosesse vanuit ’n gender-vriendelike perspektief, wat die belange van vroue op voetsoolvlak reflekteer, te informeer. Die NRO’s waarmee onderhoude gevoer is, is die New Women’s Movement (NWM), die Women’s Legal Centre, die Black Sash en die International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG). Die bevindinge is volgens die raamwerk van Stetson en Mazur (1995) geanaliseer ten einde ’n antwoord op die navorsingsvraag te bied. Die bevindinge sluit in die aanwesigheid van staatskapasiteit wat vyandig gesind is teenoor gendersake, met minimale (nie-ontvanklike) pogings om akteurs vanuit die samelewing betrokke te kry in ’n florerende staat-samelewing verhouding. Die voorsiening van ’n nie-ontvanklike en nie-konsekwente ruimte deur die staat, die gebrek aan toewyding tot gendersake deur vroue wat binne die staat werk, en die toestand van agteruitgang wat baie Suid-Afrikaanse NRO’s in die gesig staar, het gelei tot ’n “blokkasie” in die artikulering van gendersake deur NRO’s, wat hul oorsprong het vanaf die voetsoolvlak om beleidmaking te informeer, en by te dra tot die institusionalisering van staatsfeminisme. Die nasionale vlak is dus baie uit voeling met die belange van vroue op voetsoolvlak a.g.v. minimale betrokkenheid en kommunikasie deur die (disfunksionele) NGM. Die staat praat en besluit namens vroue oor wat die beste vir hulle en hul bestaanswyses is. In stede van ’n poort te wees tot die institusionalisering van staatsfeminisme, tree die staat op as ’n patriargale entiteit en dra dit grootliks daartoe by om gender-ongelykheid en die swaarkry van gewone Suid-Afrikaanse vroue op voetsoolvlak verder te verskans.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur une poétique de l’excès dans Orlando de Virginia Woolf et Nightwood de Djuna Barnes comme une stratégie combattant la tendance qu’a le modernisme à dévaloriser l’écriture des femmes comme étant trop ornementale. J’expose comment Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, et Wyndham Lewis tentent de récupérer la notion du détail afin d’affirmer une poétique masculin. Je fais appel également aux oeuvres de l’architecte autrichien Adolf Loos qui souligne sa dénonciation de l’ornement comme régressif. Dans Orlando et Nightwood, je considère l’excès associé au corps. Je soutiens que, dans ces textes, les corps dépassent les limites de la représentation moderniste. Je considère aussi comment Orlando et Nightwood font apparaître la narration comme ornement et écrivent excessivement l’histoire et le temps. Pour conclure, je propose une façon de lire l’excès afin de reconceptualiser le potentiel de production de la signification dans des textes modernistes. / My thesis explores a poetics of excess in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood as a strategy through which the authors combat modernism’s devaluation of women’s writing for being overly ornamental, detailed, and/or artificial. I examine how the critical writings of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis attempt to reclaim the notion of detail for a masculine-oriented poetic project, and I look at how Austrian architect Adolf Loos’s work condemns ornament as backward and regressive. In treating Orlando and Nightwood directly, I consider the novels’ excessive and ornamental construction of bodies and how these bodies exceed the limits of existing modernist paradigms for representation. I also discuss narration as ornamentation in Orlando and Nightwood and how these novels excessively inscribe history and time. My conclusion proposes a practice of reading excess that rethinks this concept and its potential for producing meaning in modernist texts.

Depuis les années 80, le développement rapide des nouvelles technologies microélectroniques a donné naissance à une nouvelle génération d’oeuvres d’art musicales. Souvent, ces oeuvres profitent d’une approche analytique provenant de la théorie des médias. En même temps, de nouveaux courants dans la philosophie ainsi que dans les études culturelles ont engendré une nouvelle notion de genre (anglais : gender), qui vient s’établir dans la musicologie anglo-américaine et, de manière plus conscrite, dans la musicologie allemande ; jusqu’ici, elle ne s’établit guère dans la musicologie française. Cette thèse entreprend une investigation théorique d’oeuvres d’art électroniques, tout en utilisant la notion de gender : gender + electronic = gendertronics. Pour cette investigation, des notions sont employées dérivant de la lecture féminine : une approche pluridisciplinaire associée à l’écriture féminine d’Hélène Cixous (* 1937), écrivain et théoricienne poststructuraliste. Puisque ni la lecture féminine ni la théorie des médias ne prend en compte des éléments musicaux, cette investigation incorpore également des aspects de l’analyse musicale. Trois artistes sont considérées : Gerhard Stäbler (*1943), Terre Thaemlitz (*1968) et Miss Kittin (*1973). L’investigation trace le développement des notions de « sujet » et de « matériau musical » depuis la théorie poststructuraliste et la musique contemporaine jusqu’à des notions philosophiques émergentes du « corps ». Une considération particulière est le genre musical electronica, repérant ses antécédents dans la musique électronique expérimentale en Europe du vingtième siècle et dans les musiques populaires de danse aux Etats-Unis dans les années 80 et 90. L’investigation cherche à joindre les recherches récentes dans ces domaines. Elle ouvre de nouvelles pistes et propose des nouveaux outils pour explorer plus profondément le domaine émergent des gendertronics / Since the 1980s, rapid development of new micro-electronic technologies has spawned a new generation of musical art works employing electronic means. These artworks are often theoretically approached using media theory. Contemporaneously, new developments in philosophy and in cultural studies have given rise to the new notion of gender, which has since found its way into Anglo-American musicological and, to a more limited degree, into German musicology, though not at all into French. The present work undertakes a gendered theoretical investigation of electronic art works – gender + electronics = ‘gendertronics’. For the investigation, notions stemming from lecture féminine are employed, a pluralistic reading approach associated with écriture féminine of the poststructuralist theorist/writer Hélène Cixous (born 1937). Since neither lecture féminine nor abovementioned media theory takes musical elements into account, this investigation also draws on music analysis. Aspects of the works of three artists are considered: Gerhard Stäbler (born 1943), Terre Thaemlitz (born 1968), and DJ Miss Kittin (born 1973). The investigation traces the development of the topics ‘Subject’ and ‘musical material’ from poststructuralist and New Music theory of the 20th century to emerging new philosophical notions of the body. Particular attention is given to the development of the musical genre ‘electronica’, tracing its antecedents from European experimental electronic music of the 20th century and from American popular dance music of the 80s and 90s; subgenres treated include rave, glitch, clicks-and-cuts, electroclash, techno, electro, ambient, and house. The investigation complements recent research addressing lacunae in these areas and offers new paths and tools for future investigation in the emerging area of gendertronics