Thesis advisor: Zine Magubane / Interviews with 20 members of Black female-White male intimate couples were conducted and, utilizing a grounded theory approach, revealed multiple situations where members of these couples had to self-disclose to others that they were romantically involved with a person of a different race. Using one of the largest study samples to date of Black female-White male couples, I demonstrate how race and gender affect these unplanned and strategic self-disclosure events that members of these couples engage in, and how members of these couples make sense of these public inquires that are the remnants of our country's racially-charged history. I argue that the ways in which privilege is uniquely distributed within these relationships -- where White men simultaneously possess racial and gender privilege and Black women possess neither -- makes these couples structurally and fundamentally different than other interracial couples, and, ultimately, exemplifies that race and gender matter in the experiences of these couples and how society-at-large views them. Therefore, it is pivotal that experiences of interracial couples are not generalized and that each race and gender pairing receives its own individualized study. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Thesis advisor: Zine Magubane / One of the common beliefs in American society is that interracial couples transcend race. It is a curious belief considering that there is not a parallel logic that heterosexual couples transcend sexism. Using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 55 members of heterosexual Black/White intimate couples, I have investigated the internal dynamics involved in maintaining a relationship across race in our racially stratified society in three areas of these couples’ lives: public interactions, racial discussions, and childrearing. Most literature about interracial couples looks at race as the main determinant of the experience of these couples as a unit and as individuals. However, I argue that race, gender and racialized gender ideologies interact to shape how members of heterosexual Black/White intimate couples perceive certain social situations and their options for negotiating social norms and issues. Not only has the intersection of race and gender been under-theorized in research on interracial couples, racialized gender ideologies have been virtually absent. In particular, these racialized ideologies of gender result in situational privilege at different times for Black women and Black men, thus nuancing our understanding of how racism operates. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

This paper discuses three different freakshow-attractions at the amusement park Gröna Lund in Stockholm during the 20th century; two tribes from the African continent, the exhibit of people with dwarfism and all female striptease. These attractions have been examined with international and intersectional perspective aswell as their effect on the possible heritage status of the amusement park Gröna Lund and their part in creating a so-called dissonant heritage. The thesis does not examine individual freaks or the amusement often refereed to as burlesque that also was an important part of the amusement park Gröna Lund. By studying the amusement park Gröna Lund’s company archive at the Centre for business history in Stockholm I found the main source material for this thesis. This material consisted of pictures, commercial flyers given out at exhibitions, advertising banners and articles from various Swedish newspapers. The material has then been exposed to both textual and image analysis. The result is that the human attractions at Gröna Lund can, and should, be seen as a part of an international freakshow market - although influenced by social and political trends and institutions. I also argue that the amusement park, and the human attractions are a part of a dissonant heritage, a more intersectional Swedish heritage. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

The world today is globalized like never before and with countries becoming more multicultural it is important to strive towards an intercultural society. This essay aims to answer the question “In what ways can one teach representation in the intercultural classroom through fantasy literature?”. That is, to illustrate and exemplify how one can use fantasy literature in the English classroom to give students intercultural knowledge through discussions on representation and intersectionality. The discussions in the essay are based in the democratic values stated in the Swedish course curriculum for upper secondary school (Gy11) in relation to the theoretical background. With examples from the book Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor, the essay breaches both difficult and sensitive subjects that can be discussed to make certain issues less alien for the reader. Cultural diversity is magical and it is important that students get the right tools to form deep relationships across cultural borders, and the fantasy genre is a great tool to use in the classroom to lessen these bridges between different cultures since the genre creates an arena for intercultural meetings where ‘the other’ is in focus, which reduces the alienating aspect of different cultures and identities.

Domestic violence is a global issue, and despite awareness of the issue increasing, the prevalence to which women are being physically and mentally abused is increasing. This study aimed to qualitatively investigate the impact of cultural barriers on the provision of aid to victims of abuse from the perspectives of social workers within a domestic violence care organisation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Social workers within the organisation were interviewed to examine their personal experiences of working with clients from different cultural backgrounds and the results were analysed using the ecological model and the intersectional theory, as well as using earlier research conducted on the issue. The findings showed that the culture of a client can have an effect with regards to abused women seeking help, though the practices of the organisation were generally not impacted based on the cultural background of a client.

Birka is Sweden’s first urban settlement during the Viking period and its growth is mainly because of the settlement’s extensive trade. The area has many graves and the female graves in Birka are a good source for interpretation of the Viking woman and the variety of roles and work she had. Archaeologists are assessing graves and interpreters them from the material remains found, such as jewelry, weapons, and gifts. Researchers often have a predetermined interpretation on certain items that are considered feminine or masculine and the gender is determined from this. After the gender is decided it is commonly that the individuals are categorized into groups, and women tend be grouped together into one, regardless that the archaeological data and material shows that they have different attributes, and should be categorized as such. Men on the other hand have a variety of activities and jobs from which they can be determined by, whilst women’s work tends to be highlighted as chores, rather than work, as their doings usually are in the private sphere. To put women together as one simply because they are women is not only problematic regarding what the material shows, but it is also preventing the development in research of women. There will be a gap in the narrative due to the lack of female activities which occurred but are either ignored or reduced. During the last few decades, there has been an increase in research regarding women in all fields of research and a development of several theories on how to interpret various factors. One of them is intersectional theory, which will be used in this paper. A selection of female Viking graves from Birka are used with this theory to develop a greater picture of what women were doing, rather than just being women, and what needs to be considered to do so.

Uppsatsen är en motivstudie av hur den skrivande kvinnan skildras i romanerna Ingen manskvinna (1919) av Ulla Bjerne, Kärlek i Europa (1981) av Birgitta Stenberg och Grand final i Skojarbranschen (2011) av Kerstin Ekman. Motivet av den skrivande kvinnan och hur hon förhåller sig till sitt skapande utifrån könsnormativa förväntningar, analyseras utifrån ett genusteoretiskt perspektiv med Beverly Skeggs respektabilitetsteori som ramverk. Jag använder även ett intersektionellt perspektiv som analysverktyg. Uppsatsen använder sig också av genreteori utifrån konstnärsromanen och dess konventioner, som behandlas och undersöks i förhållande till de valda romanerna. / The paper is a study of how the female writer is portrayed in the Swedish novels Ingen manskvinna [No man’s women] (1919) by Ulla Bjerne, Kärlek i Europa [Love in Europa] (1981) by Birgitta Stenberg and Grand final i skojarbranschen [Grande finale in the humbug game] (2011) by Kerstin Ekman. The analysis of the novels portrayed female writer and how her writing interacts with society’s gender roles, are based on a gender theory, with Beverly Skeggs theory of respectability as the theoretic framework. I also make use of an intersectional theory as an analytic tool. The purpose of the paper is also to apply genre studies and investigate the form and conventions of the artist novel and how the selected novels relate to the genre.

The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine the libraries' view of their own role and its relation to democracy, to identify any obstacles to the library's mission on being an inclusive public space. We do this through a qualitative content analysis, based on intersectional theory, on the proposal for a National Strategy for Libraries, The Treasure Trove of Democracy. We conclude that depictions of libraries and librarianship represented in the empirical material limits the ability to break down discriminatory structures within the institution.

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