The value of diversity in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields has long been a leading topic of discussion among campus administrators and government officials. However, the number of African American women in STEM, and the engineering field in particular, has seen little growth over the past twenty years. To change this trend, there must be enhanced efforts to provide an environment and resources to support the retention of these women, and mentoring can play a key role. To gain a better understanding of the mentoring needs of these women, this research investigates the mentoring experiences of 16 current senior African American female engineering students. What is clear is that African American women have a unique set of experiences based on the multiple sets of identity groups that they claim membership in. Intersectionality emphasizes the implications of the multiplication of these identities and how that multiplication impacts experiences. This research, addresses the intersection by exploring faculty mentoring relationships, with particular focus on the implications of having a matched (same race and gender) or an unmatched mentor. Current research is inconsistent on the benefits of each type. Using phenomenography, this investigation of the various aspects of mentoring relationships that are salient to 16 African American women in engineering uncovered seven categories of mentoring: Guide, Proactive Supporter, Reactive Listener, Nurturer, Just in Time, Caring, and Role Model. Variation across these mentoring categories were reflected in the mentoring aspects that participants perceived. This set of interpersonal (listen, invested, and shared experience) and professional (development, opportunity, advice, and example) aspects depicted a set of mentoring types that varied in comprehensiveness. Additionally, variation in the race and gender of each mentor across each category suggested some trends surrounding the mentor characteristics that most frequently provided certain aspects. However, all of the categories that emerged were perceived to be effective. It is desired that the results of this research will impact the ways in which faculty understand the needs of African American women in engineering. / Ph. D.

Amidst the turbulence of political shifts and the re-emergence of the Taliban, this phenomenological research shines a light on the lived experiences, aspirations, and challenges of female undergraduate students in an Afghan university. Through in-depth, qualitative interviews, this study unravels six pivotal themes shaping their collegiate journey: gender-centric oppression, systemic and structural barriers, academic hindrances, family support, and the motivation to endure and prevail amidst profound adversities, such as enforced gender apartheid and stringent clothing mandates. Within an intersectionality framework, this research not only bridges a critical gap in the literature but also serves as a crucial narrative for global academia and policy-making arenas, underlining the imperative for robust advocacy and policy reforms. The stark findings and nuanced insights gleaned from this study underscore the imperative to foster gender equality and educational access, whilst advocating fervently for the re-establishment of inclusive and supportive educational environments for all in Afghanistan.

The Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia represents a period of social transition, associated with hierarchical social stratification. Evidence for stratification at Karataş-Semayük (i.e., Karataş) (2700 to 2300 BCE) is present through architectural composition and size, privatized storage, and differential mortuary treatment. However, previous research has not interpreted paleopathological conditions with considerations of intersectionality to interpret the lived experiences of individuals and assess the presence of marginalization embodied by the inhabitants of Karataş. Estimated females (n=39) and estimated males (n=60) were observed from a total sample of 170 individuals. Through observations of cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, and periosteal reactions, the ways in which the interactions of age, sex, and socioeconomic status contribute to differential levels of frailty and risk of mortality were explored. Fisher's exact and Kendall's tau-b correlations, ordered probit regression, hierarchical loglinear, Kaplan-Meier, and Cox proportional hazard analysis were employed to address these goals. Females are no more stressed than males in terms of quantity of stress markers or severity when present, which suggests that Karataş may be more reflective of a heterarchical social system. Statistical analyses reveal the interaction between sex and socioeconomic status to be the most influential in predicting frailty and risk of mortality. Hazard analysis results indicate that females of low status are least likely to experience increased frailty and risk of mortality, which rejects the hypothesis that females would exhibit more stress due to previous research indicating Karataş was likely virilocal and that higher ranked individuals generally exhibit greater buffers to stress. Beyond establishing a way to implement intersectionality into bioarchaeological studies of marginalization, this research contributes to the reassessment of past perspectives that hierarchical social systems were well-established and rigid in Western Anatolia during the Early Bronze Age.

To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of Scout and her adolescence in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. Her social environment is colored by traditional and contemporary gender roles and the demands and expectations that accompany them. Aunt Alexandra is the character in Scout’s closest circle of influence who embodies such ideals. However, Scout also has the nuanced influence of her father, Atticus, and her neighbor, Miss Maudie, two characters that can act as role models for Scout when it comes to conformity to gendered expectations or the rejection of the same. As such, these characters also demonstrate that agency is a factor, even in such instances as gender. Beauvoir, Butler, Wittig, and Jay, to mention some of the research referenced in this essay, contribute to a reading of the novel and of Scout from the perspective of socially constructed gender, or more specifically, socially constructed femininity. Scout is biologically female, but this essay argues, with the aid of the above-mentioned scholars and their work, that this fact does not mean that there is such a thing as inherent femininity. Instead, Scout personifies the agency within socially constructed gender as she chooses to conform or reject the expectations based on her due to her sex. Furthermore, she is able to do so in part because of her tomboy appearance and the insight she gains regarding the stereotypes surrounding her, as well as the role models she finds in Atticus and Miss Maudie and their androgynous approach to life and their surroundings in turn.

This study explores the oppression faced by 18th-century labouring-class women through poetry and intersectionality. By employing Kimberlé Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality and Beverly Skeggs' theory of respectability, it examines how gender and class intertwine to create unique challenges. Analysing the lives and works of non-canonized women poets, the research unveils enduring patterns of overlapping oppressions, highlighting the significance of intersectionality in understanding women's experiences. This study offers fresh insights into their struggles, contributing to both literary analysis and women's studies.

This study explored how Swedish comprehensive plans formulated visions about planning for the needs of people and how Swedish urban planners interpret those visions into implementations in detailed development plans. The aim was to examine how visions in comprehensive plans address how to plan for the needs of a diverse society and how visions were translated into implementation by planners in Swedish municipalities. The research questions were: How is planning for people with different needs incorporated in the comprehensive plans and how are the visions in the comprehensive plans implemented by urban planners in the detailed development plans? The background was that Motala municipality, which this study was in collaboration with, expressed difficulties in planning with an intersectional perspective. The focus become on the language used in visions of planning for different needs and how the language usage was interpreted by urban planners. The methods used was a discourse analysis called “what’s the problem represented to be”, WPR, developed by Carol Bacchi. In addition, thematic analysis of interviews with urban planners were conducted. The main results from the WPR analysis showed that comprehensive plans were vague in their description of how to plan for people with different needs and that intersectionality was described but the term was not used. The interviews provided with an explanation of why the formulations are vague in the first place, with flexibility being described as underlining why the visions was vague. Yet, vagueness was expressed as being problematic since it opened the visions for interpretation.

Many international graduate students serve as teaching assistants at US universities. As teaching assistants, they carry out significant responsibilities such as leading lab sessions, grading student work, holding office hours, and proctoring exams. When these international teaching assistants (ITAs) cross national boundaries to teach at US universities, they may experience significant differences in the educational cultures. Teaching in a new educational culture offers ITAs both challenges and opportunities for growth. To better understand the experiences of this population within engineering, data were collected from seven engineering ITAs using a multiple-case study approach with each ITA representing a case. Data were collected in the form of weekly reflections and in-person interviews at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester, at an R1 university representative of national averages in terms of international graduate student population in the US. The participant pool represented diversity in the form of nationality, gender, prior teaching experience with the same course, and engineering discipline. Data were analyzed using both a priori codes and inductive coding emerging from the data, with particular attention given to experiences specific to engineering. Based on data analysis, codebooks were developed that operationalize ITAs' experiences and navigational strategies in the context of engineering. While illuminating the intersections of ITAs' teaching experiences with their international and GTA identities, the results point to the complexity and variations in participants' experiences based on various social and contextual factors such as gender, cultural background, prior exposure to the English language, prior engagement with the course material, and interaction with the teaching team. The results point to several contributions, and implications for engineering departments and universities, faculty, and ITAs to better engage ITAs in the process of undergraduate engineering education. In terms of contributions, this study uses intersectionality, a critical framework, which accounts for the complexity of engineering ITAs' experiences to provide systematic accounts of their experiences and navigational strategies while illuminating the nuances related to social, cultural, and disciplinary identities. Implications for the engineering departments and universities include creating an educational environment that values the cultural and linguistic diversity brought by ITAs, and collaborating with ITAs to organize training programs that help ITAs strengthen their communication, workload management, and intercultural skills; those for faculty include helping ITAs manage their teaching and research requirements by allowing for flexibility in ITAs' schedules, and treating ITAs as budding colleagues by using ITAs' existing pedagogical knowledge and scaffolding them when needed; those for ITAs include resisting the institutional pressure to "fit" into the US educational norms by using the pedagogical and cultural knowledge they bring from their home countries to better support student learning, and develop students' intercultural skills; and those for undergraduate students include engaging with ITAs to learn the engineering course content and simultaneously develop intercultural competence. / Ph. D. / In light of the pivotal role played by international teaching assistants (ITAs) in undergraduate education at US universities, particularly in engineering, this research explores the experiences of engineering ITAs. When ITAs cross national boundaries to teach at US universities, they may experience differences in teaching and learning practices. These differences present both rewards and challenges to ITAs. Prior research has explored the rewards and challenges of the ITA experience more generally, but this work has not addressed the unique experiences of ITAs in engineering. Hence, it is important to understand ITAs’ experiences and navigational strategies from a viewpoint that highlights both the issues faced by ITAs and their strengths so that adequate steps can be taken to better engage them in undergraduate engineering education in the United States. To this end, this research focuses on exploring ITAs’ teaching experiences, navigational strategies, and the influence of ITAs’ social identities on their experiences. To address these research problems, data were collected from seven engineering ITAs at a large research-focused university for a semester of their teaching. Data were collected from these ITAs in the form of weekly reflections and periodic interviews. Data were analyzed using existing work on ITAs’ experiences as the starting point. The starting framework was then modified to capture the themes emerging from the data, with additional attention given to engineering specific nuances. The findings point to several contributions and implications for practice. In terms of contributions, this research illuminates the complexities of engineering ITAs’ experiences by highlighting both advantages and disadvantages experienced by them while expanding on our existing understanding of ITAs’ experiences. In terms of implications, the findings of this research suggest that efforts should be made at the institutional level to create an environment that values the cultural and linguistic diversity brought by ITAs, and collaborate with ITAs to improve their communication, workload management, and intercultural skills through focused training programs. Faculty working with ITAs should build flexibility into ITAs’ schedules so that ITAs can pay attention to other personal and professional responsibilities. Also, faculty should treat ITAs as budding colleagues by using ITAs’ pedagogical inputs and scaffolding them when needed. ITAs should use the pedagogical and cultural knowledge they bring from their home countries to better support student learning and develop students’ cross-cultural skills, and thus resist the urge to assimilate into the US educational culture. Finally, undergraduate students should see the presence of ITAs in their classrooms in positive light and engage with ITAs to learn the engineering course content and simultaneously develop intercultural skills.

Over the last few decades, forensic anthropological research has made significant strides in developing better methods for decedent identification and increasing the accuracy of time since death/postmortem interval (PMI) estimations within medicolegal contexts. Until recently however, there has been little emphasis placed on how socioeconomic considerations might be connected, especially regarding recovery times for individuals from various demographic backgrounds. Using intersectional and biocultural frameworks and data collected from forensic anthropologists and medicolegal labs throughout the Southeastern US, this research aims to decipher the role that inequality, through instances of social vulnerability and structural violence, plays in recovery time data throughout the region. Considerations of how systematic violence can impact socioeconomic and sociopolitical factors for a demographic groups' recovery times could highlight disparities in how politics, law enforcement, and medicolegal personnel assist and conduct casework based on sociocultural and socioeconomic factors.

This thesis seeks to understand and explain gendered everyday life in the village of HatNyao in Northwestern Laos, specifically in relation to rubber cultivation, by using an ethnographic approach and methods. The ‘rubber boom’ is changing the landscape of Northern Laos, and in the process is reshaping gendered everyday life. Gender relations in the village of HatNyao are undergoing various transformations whereby previous gender structures start to erode. Additional changes will probably continue to occur, largely due to increasing labour shortages. Gendered everyday life in HatNyao is therefore ‘bending’ with the changes associated with rubber cultivation, as well as in relation to different spaces of the everyday and household diversity. The concept of ‘paradoxical gendered spaces’ is invoked to capture the ways in which the dimensions and activities of the everyday vary with, in particular, ethnicity and age. Most households in HatNyao have improved their living conditions due to rubber cultivation. Nevertheless, inequalities are increasing within the village: better-off households have improved their situation, while for others it has been more difficult to adapt to the new conditions of everyday life and rubber cultivation. As the number of villages introducing rubber in Laos is increasing, alongside the number reaching the crucial tapping stage, it is essential to understand how rubber cultivation in smallholder communities interacts with gender relations and the division of labour. There are thus both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ outcomes from introducing rubber in Laos, since it depends on the context, as well as on the diverse spaces of the everyday.

Background: In 2014, 1.2 million people died from HIV related causes around the world. Colombia ranks second in HIV prevalence in Latin America and the number of people infected with HIV in Colombia increases. One of the reasons for the increase is the stigmatization and discrimination against patients infected with HIV that exists. Nurses are human beings, influenced by their surroundings, with personal beliefs and preconceptions and may, if not being aware of these preconceptions and personal beliefs, help supporting stigmatization and discrimination.  Aim: The aim with this study was to describe how Colombian nurses view upon caring for patients with HIV.  Method: A qualitative approach was being used in this empirical study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with six Colombian nurses at an infection unit in a university hospital. The interviews were transcribed and later analysed by using a qualitative content analysis.  Results: The findings resulted in three major themes: Nurses’ reflections on attitudes towards HIV, The role and responsibilities of a nurse and Nurses’ thoughts regarding the patients, the disease and the profession. The first theme illustrates how the nurses reflect upon the attitudes within the society, the patients’ family and the patients’ attitudes towards themselves. The second theme describes how the nurses worked with patients with HIV. In the third theme, the nurses reflect upon their previous experiences, the future and the profession.  Discussion: Based on the result from the interviews, the factors influencing ones’ values and preconceptions were discussed. Some of these factors are religious and moral beliefs, lack of education and experience. / Bakgrund: 2014 avled 1,2 miljoner människor i världen av HIV-relaterade orsaker. Colombia återfinns på andra plats i Latinamerika vad gäller antal personer smittade med HIV och antal smittade i Colombia ökar. En orsak till ökningen är den stigmatisering och diskriminering av patienter smittade med HIV smittade som existerar. Sjuksköterskor är människor, influerade av sin omgivning, med personliga åsikter, värderingar och förförståelse. Om sjuksköterskan inte är medveten om sina värderingar och sin förförståelse, kan det bidra till stigmatisering och diskriminering. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva sjuksköterskors syn på att vårda patienter med HIV.  Metod: En kvalitativ ansats användes i denna empiriska studie. Data samlades in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex colombianska sjuksköterskor på en infektionsklinik på ett universitetssjukhus. Intervjuerna transkriberades och analyserades sedan med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys.  Resultat: I resultatet framkom tre huvudteman: Sjuksköterskors reflektioner angående attityder till HIV, Sjuksköterskans roll och ansvarsområden och Sjuksköterskors tankar angående patienterna, sjukdomen och professionen. Det första temat behandlar hur sjuksköterskorna ser på attityderna i samhället, i patients familj, samt patientens egna attityder. Det andra temat beskriver hur sjuksköterskorna arbetade med patienter med HIV. I det tredje temat reflekterar sjuksköterskorna kring tidigare erfarenheter, framtiden samt professionen.  Diskussion: Baserat på resultatet från intervjuerna, diskuterades de faktorer som påverkar ens värderingar och förförståelse. Några av dessa faktorer är religiösa och moraliska värderingar, brist på utbildning och erfarenhet.