White Memory and the (Counter)Stories We Might Tell examines public history narratives to explore how Virginia Tech, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), tells stories about its relationships with marginalized communities. I ask what we should do with archives that exceed institutional progress narratives. Specifically, I foreground White memory, a process through which (mis)remembering public history creates a network of meaning-making practices that undergird and support hegemonic storytelling and worldmaking. To explore White memory, I constructed two case studies of Virginia Tech public history events. Using queer and decolonial archival methodologies, I practice what Mira Shimabukuro (2015) called "rhetorical attendance"; then, I construct counterstories to call storytellers to account for flattening and compression in progress narratives. First, I examined 1872 Forward, VT's sesquicentennial celebration, held in March 2022. Then, I explored Denim Day Do-Over, a 2019 event in which White memory obscured queer protests. Through juxtaposition, I discovered and highlighted narratives in tension. These tensions make clear the struggle for equity at a PWI and challenge the notion that progress is linear. Successful institutional diversity work with and for marginalized people requires three key characteristics: ongoingness, accountability, and relationship. One-time diversity events are not enough to change the conditions of institutional inequity. Rather, to combat tendencies towards White memory, Virginia Tech must create ongoing, accountable relationships by working in coalitions with marginalized communities. Ultimately, I argue that institutional work with marginalized communities must continue beyond special events to make material, in addition to symbolic, changes. / Doctor of Philosophy / White Memory and the (Counter)Stories We Might Tell examines public history narratives to explore how Virginia Tech, a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), tells stories about its relationships with marginalized communities. I ask what we should do with archives that exceed institutional progress narratives. Specifically, I foreground White memory, a process through which (mis)remembering public history creates a network of meaning-making practices that undergird and support hegemonic storytelling and worldmaking. To explore White memory, I constructed two case studies of Virginia Tech public history events. Using queer and decolonial archival methodologies, I practice what Mira Shimabukuro (2015) called "rhetorical attendance"; then, I construct counterstories to call storytellers to account for flattening and compression in progress narratives. First, I examined 1872 Forward, VT's sesquicentennial celebration, held in March 2022. Then, I explored Denim Day Do-Over, a 2019 event in which White memory obscured queer protests. Through juxtaposition, I discovered and highlighted narratives in tension. These tensions make clear the struggle for equity at a PWI and challenge the notion that progress is linear. Successful institutional diversity work with and for marginalized people requires three key characteristics: ongoingness, accountability, and relationship. One-time diversity events are not enough to change the conditions of institutional inequity. Rather, to combat tendencies towards White memory, Virginia Tech must create ongoing, accountable relationships by working in coalitions with marginalized communities. Ultimately, I argue that institutional work with marginalized communities must continue beyond special events to make material, in addition to symbolic, changes.

This research is investigating how one can use narrative tools in the field of interior architecture. Its projects explore different approaches of communicating about and with interiors. Communications, imaginable in the form of conversations, which can take place between the interiors, the interior architects and the users. It’s about learning from an existing space. A knowledge I think we should have before we start to change it. A knowledge that can lead to a deeper understanding and respect towards the interiors and their previous history. It’s about expanding the interior architect’s toolbox with narrative tools. Tools we can use on our own but also in form of workshops, involving the users. It’s about an additional type of understanding of interiors. An understanding that goes beyond the materials, colours, forms and objects it is composed of. It’s about the stories and characters behind the interiors, the narratives. / <p>The full thesis contains copyrighted material which has been removed in the published version.</p>

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The aim of this research was to explore the alternative stories of a group of black adults who survived the apartheid years in South Africa. In common parlance it is held that there are two sides to a story and surely, there must have been alternative stories of how people in the black community survived the apartheid years, other than only the dominant stories of suffering that came to the fore during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. It was surmised that the lives of many of the black adults, who experienced the atrocities of the apartheid years, might have been shaped by the dominant stories of hardship and that alternative stories of survival may not have played the important role in the shaping of their lives, that they should have played. The motivation for this research is that the data that were elicited may lead to further research and the possible planning of programmes to help people that experienced the atrocities during the apartheid era to incorporate their alternative stories of survival with their dominant stories of suffering. Fifteen black participants, aged thirty-seven and older participated in the research project. A qualitative research design, more specifically narrative analysis, was used in the form of the categorical-content approach. Two methods were used to obtain data, namely a question in the biographical questionnaire, as well as an unstructured individual interview with the participants. Analysis of the data yielded eight prevalent themes, namely support, religion, role models, education, the struggle, culture, positive experiences facilitated hope, and acceptance. Results indicated that the eight themes are closely linked Suggestions for future research projects were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

The aim or this research was to explore a group of black South Africans' experiences of telling their untold stories of survival about the apartheid era. The expectation was that if they did become more aware of these alternative stories, it could have a far-reaching effect on their lives. Research indicates that when attention is given to these narratives they may be a powerful tool in not only recovering the story but also in focusing on the survivors' own consciousness and growth. Consequently personal meaning may be elicited by focusing on memories, and that which can be narrated afterwards. This may mean that by sharing these narratives the narrator may be enabled to construct a happier future via a positive rather than dissociative perspective simultaneously supplying the researcher with multifaceted data. A qualitative study was conducted with a group of seven black South African survivors of the apartheid era, ranging in age from 42 - 62 years. These participants formed part of an earlier study of Van der Merwe (2005) investigating their perceptions regarding factors that helped them to survive the apartheid era. For the present study, unstructured interviews were conducted focusing on their subjective experiences after the initial study. Analysis of the data yielded seven prevalent themes namely, a positive experience that made a difference, gaining of a positive attitude, not all white people are bad, transcending the past and moving on, awareness of personal strengths, forgiveness and starting to talk to family and friends. Recornmendations are made concerning future research. / Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007

This thesis is about death, grief and bereavement counselling in the North East of England. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out over a period of three years. I have three main objectives in this thesis. Arguing that the anthropology of death has neglected grief, I seek to describe and explain how people in the North East of England experience grief; how they make sense of the death of their loved ones, and their own reactions to those deaths. Working with interviews with bereaved people and drawing upon work in narrative analysis about the importance of stories in how we think, interact and relate to other people, I focus especially on the stories that bereaved people tell in their grief. I seek to illuminate, too, how grief is managed in the North East. In particular, I focus on bereavement counselling which has, I suggest, assumed something of an authority over how people should grieve. Seeking inspiration from the anthropolo gy of emotion and the Foucauldian notions of discourse and 'technologies of the self', I examine how grief is constituted in bereavement counselling both in training and practice. Finally, I compare how bereaved people experience grief with the construction of grief in bereavement counselling. In bereavement counselling the focus is upon the emotions the bereaved is experiencing in the present; grief is understood as an emotion that has its origin and location inside the individual mourner now. For bereaved people, grief is a part of their ongoing relationships and interactions with their loved ones, and other people around them, and as such it is a feature of the history of those relationships and interactions. The difference between the experiences of the bereaved and the workings of bereavement counselling IS explained by placing the latter in the context of modem govemmentality.

The purpose of this study was to explore the work-related experiences of the newly qualified nurses and their views about their own performance adequacy, in clinical area in a Public Hospital in Gauteng Province during their first year of clinical professional practice. The objectives of this study were to explore the work-related experiences of the NQNs and their views about their own performance adequacy in clinical practice during their first year of clinical professional practice, and to describe the work-related experiences of the NQNs and their performance adequacy in the clinical area during their first year of clinical professional practice. An exploratory, descriptive and interpretative qualitative research was selected using a narrative approach to data collection. Benner‟s model of novice to expert guided the research. The research was conducted with thirteen newly qualified professional nurses. NQNs, who trained in the nursing college that is associated with the selected hospital, and who were in their first year as professional nurses, were consciously and purposefully selected using the snowballing method. Ethical considerations were maintained throughout the study. In line with the story theme, Owen (1984)‟s model of data analysis was used. Five major themes and five sub-themes emerged from the data. Two levels of analysis were used in developing meaning from the narratives. The results revealed that transitioning from student nurse to becoming a newly qualified nurse is challenging, shocking and humiliating.

Magister Artium - MA / Not all disabilities are the same and the way that society may respond to people with disabilities depends on their “disability” and how their body deviates from the appearance norms of society. People with disabilities constitute a significant portion of the South African population. A body of research and physical evidence shows that people with disabilities may face certain obstacles or limitations in fulfilling a normal life. Obstacles include perceptions of disabilities, negative stigma and attitudes, barriers to an environment which is accessible for people with disabilities, and constructions of ableism. In a way, these obstacles influence the way people with disabilities construct their identity. Beyond this, the voices of people with disabilities are not always heard and their personal experiences are not always given political recognition. This research aimed to explore how a group of students living with a physical or visual disability constructed their identities in their environment or society. A feminist qualitative method was conducted. The study focused on the experiences and perceptions of nineteen to twenty-seven year old female and male students with disabilities. Out of the six participants, two were coloured, three were black and one participant is classified as coloured, but identifies as biracial. A semi-structured interview was used for data collection and a Qualitative Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the data. Social constructionism and intersectionality were useful theoretical approaches adopted in exploring the lived experiences of students with disabilities. The results of this study revealed that students with disabilities find living with a disability as not being a barrier to living a fulfilling life. Students with disabilities construct their identities in a way that frees them from ideologies which shape the experience of disability in a negative way. However, the study revealed that negative barriers to identity construction still exist. These barriers come in the form of negative perceptions and stigma of disability, ableism and the medical model. The study further revealed that when the lived experiences of students with disabilities are understood through the lens of gender, race and class, these social divisions overlap and are cumulative on the effects of student’s experiences. The one major barrier in identity construction that the study revealed is the negative social perceptions of disability. The way in which students feel that they belong in their society is representative of how they respond to negative social constructions of disability.

Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.