"Throughout history, there have been various gaps: racial, gender, income, education, skills gaps...society today is not any different"(Andrews, 2017). Despite advances to close these gaps, a large gap still remains in communications leadership: the gender gap. Approximately 75 percent of practitioners are female and female practitioners only make up 20 percent of senior-level positions (Oakes & Hardwick, 2017). Existing research suggests there are several reasons why a gap exists: an unconscious bias that favors male leaders (Devillard, Hunt, & Yee, 2018), only 60 percent of women have the confidence they can advance into leadership positions (KPMG, 2018), lack of mentorship (Place & Vardeman-Winter, 2018), lack of exposure to female leaders (Arvate, Galilea, & Todescat, In Press), and the balance of personal and work responsibilities (Krivkovich, et al., 2017). This study employed 32 qualitative in-depth interviews with senior level communications leaders to understand the journey that women and men go through to become communications leaders, perceptions of communications leaders, factors contributing to the gender gap, and ultimately what can be done to close the gender gap. Participants of this study are among some of today's most senior-level communications leaders, with the average participant having 29 years of work experience in the field of communications. Multiple themes were identified for when and why individuals begin aspiring for communications leadership but it usually begins sometime during high school, college, or in the first few jobs after college once they have be experienced some form of leadership for the first time. There are certain factors such as unequal expectations for women and men and organization culture that can make a woman's path more difficult than a man's path. The majority of participants agreed that women and men are viewed differently in the workplace and that there are key differences such as sensitivity to and involvement of others that differentiate women from a men. There were seven primary themes identified as factors that contributing to the gender gap: relationships, unique challenges to women, issues in the communications field, a long history of male dominance, the pay gap is fueling the gender gap, lack of awareness of the gender gap, sexual harassment and sexual assault. Additionally, this study introduces multiple ways to help mitigate factors that are contributing to the gender gap. There were three primary thematic areas identified on ways to mitigate the gender gap: organizational mitigating factors, cultural mitigating factors, and personal mitigating factors. In summary, there are a number of reasons why a woman's journey into communications leadership is more difficult than a man's journey; however, there are many actionable things that communications leaders believe can be done to make it easier for future leaders.

The intersection of disability and sexuality remains a taboo topic. Along with this taboo, people with intellectual disabilities are rarely afforded the opportunity to share their experiences and desires when it comes to their intimate lives. This research examines the romantic and sexual lives of adults with intellectual disabilities in Ontario, Canada, by putting into conversation theories from the sociology of sexualities and critical disability studies. It uses a sexual fields analytic framework (Green, 2014) to explore the consequences of sexual stratification on the experiences of disabled people. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 46 adults with intellectual disabilities, this research explores how they are kept out of sexual fields through a series of disabling social processes. It also examines how participants make sense of their gender and sexual identities based on gender habitus acquired in their lives and how they are often confined to “hetero-romantic” forms of sexual expression and traditional gender roles. Finally, this project explores how participants navigate the sexual fields available to them and their strategies for negotiating those fields. This research brings to view previously unexplored sexual fields within the existing sexual fields literature. I discuss what I call intellectual disability sexual fields, spaces exclusively for people with intellectual disabilities, as well as more mainstream sexual fields. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In this paper, I have conducted a study of what perspectives educational drama has in theory and practice. The study aims to show an example of how and out of what perspectives educational drama is a part of the school’s activity at a geographically distinct school, from kindergarten on to primary and secondary school years. The general attitude of the faculty and their arguments for and against drama constitute the major aspects of this study, which has been carried out through qualitative interviews at a school in Skåne. The results were that pre-school focuses on teaching drama to develop communicative abilities amongst the students (art educational perspective) while secondary school seemingly abandoned this approach and focuses more on using it for personal development, increasing empathy and understanding of other people by taking it to a more emotional level in order to affect for example moral values of the students. Though I find that the faculty in general has a positive attitude towards drama, they expressed they do not wish to increase it either as it would steal focus from the traditional “core” subjects. It is a fact that the national school plans for kindergarten, primary and secondary schools (LPFÖ98, LPO94) do not give any specific guidance on to what extent drama should be used in practice or any directions on how to bring in drama as an integrated part in any particular subject. This, in conclusion, leads to that the responsibility to use drama as an integrated part lies solely on the teachers and drama is used in the education at their discretion, which in turn tend to weaken drama as a prioritized subject. In a highly competitive global environment it is of great importance that the Swedish school system adapts and focuses on progressive and dynamic tools such as drama to inspire pupils and student to higher ambitions.

There are numerous video games that depict mental health conditions, and Hellblade: Senua'sSacrifice (Hellblade) stands out as a remarkable example. This thesis studies the impact thisgame has on players’ own perceived awareness regarding mental health conditions by viewingthe subject through the lens of Transformative Play. Furthermore, the following study can informgame designers and researchers about design choices made to represent mental health conditions.Qualitative data gathered through two sets of semi-structured interviews, was analyzed todetermine whether players’ perceived mental health awareness had changed as a result of playingHellblade, and what transformative experiences arose. The results from this study found theplayers’ perceived awareness of mental health conditions to have changed after playingHellblade. Seen within the context of Transformative Play, this was due to players’ abilities toimmerse themselves into the main protagonist, resulting in the fictional character’s experiencesand perspectives spilling over to the player.

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This study aimed to examine power among professionals in preschools who work with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Furthermore, the study examined divisions of labor between different professionals, as well as professionals’ experiences and competence in relation to working with children with ASD. According to previous research, there are different forms of power and division of labor between different professionals working with children with ASD suggesting that the professionals who have education, competence, and knowledge in the field of ASD have the ultimate responsibility and power over the design of the work. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were used in the current study to investigate the perspectives of professionals. Eight professionals working in pre-schools were interviewed. The interviews were analyzed with interpretive phenomenological analysis to understand the participants’ individual thoughts and reflections. To interpret and discuss the results, theories of power and jurisdiction were used. The phenomenological analysis resulted in five themes: Diagnosis of ASD and professionals, Power over the identification of children with a diagnosis of ASD, Power over the design of work with children with ASD, Collaboration and division of labor, Challenges in working with children with ASD. Based on the results, the conclusions emerged that special knowledge about ASD was needed among professionals, for the children to receive a good education in preschool. Such knowledge was not acquired through preschool teacher or childcare training, but the participants gained it through courses that were specifically aimed at the area of ASD. All professionals in the present study described different positions of power in relation to working with children with ASD, and how power was manifested in preschool activities, in a way that was largely consistent with previous research. The majority of the participants in this study described that even though they had a lot of knowledge, different professionals had different amounts of power and, thus, the participants’ knowledge was not experienced as equally valuable. Especially professionals who did not have a preschool teacher diploma described that they had less power. Most believed that there were hierarchies of power based on knowledge and education; the person who was most competent and held a preschool teacher diploma was felt to be entitled to more power over the design of the work with children with ASD than other professionals were. The present study contributed with knowledge about how power is exercised by professionals, in relation to the work with children with ASD, and with knowledge about collaboration and division of labor between professionals in the work with the children.

This study examines whether the social media platform BeReal can change user behavior related to self-representation and expectations of oneself linked to social norms. The research is analyzed based on the theory about presentation of self in everyday life founded by sociologist Erving Goffman. A netnographic method combining six qualitative interviews supplemented by diary-notes regarding the same respondents' BeReal usage during seven coherent days constitute the material. The material provided a multilateral representation of these BeReal users’ reflections regarding the manner in which they represent themselves online. The study shows a somewhat consistent narrative aligned with the applied theory based on users presenting themselves in a specific way due to what they think is expected from the audience. Impression management is exercised regardless of what social media platform is used, although BeReal provides a less stigmatized online environment and mitigates the internalized pressure on users. However, the respondents found loopholes in BeReals concept giving the app users authority to create norms of how to perform on the app and thereby reintroduce some of the said pressure.

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