Thesis advisor: Alyssa Goldman / Thesis advisor: Sara Moorman / How do lesbian, gay and heterosexual couples experience emotional intimate partnerviolence (IPV) and relationship satisfaction? And how are these associations affected by differences in power, stress and discrimination? This research aims to fill the gap in literature by examining how emotional IPV and relationship satisfaction may be differently shaped by power, stress and discrimination among gay, lesbian and heterosexual couples. To address this research question, I use data from the Health and Relationships Project, in hierarchical linear models to explore the differences between gay (N=248), lesbian (N=342) and straight (N=248) respondents' experiences of emotional intimate partner violence and relationship satisfaction within couples. Using dyadic data, the actor-partner interdependence models also test the mediating roles of stress, discrimination and feelings of equal power. Findings indicate that overall, lesbians experience the least amount of emotional intimate partner violence and the greatest amount of relationship satisfaction, while straight respondents experience the most amount of emotional intimate partner violence and the least amount of relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, feelings of equal power mediate this relationship. These findings contradict past literature, which suggests that same-sex couples would experience more emotional IPV than their heterosexual counterparts. This indicates that more research is needed to explore the numerous variables at play for same-sex and different-sex emotional IPV and relationship satisfaction, as there are unique differences in power, stress and discrimination between these groups. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

This study explores the private and public experiences of Black/White interracial lesbian and gay couples. Drawing from the theoretical frameworks of critical race theory and intersectional feminism, this research focuses on how the intersections of gender, race, and sexuality influence relationship experiences and family processes in both private and public spaces for interracial same-sex couples. This study is based on 19 in-depth interviews with individuals in Black/White lesbian and gay relationships. Participants’ stories highlight intersectionality in terms of the ways interracial lesbian and gay couples navigate these interpersonal and public spaces. Participant experiences suggest that the dichotomy of private/public is often blurred, and these two spaces frequently overlap and intersect. Often what participants experience in public is then discussed and interpreted within private spaces. It is in the private space that participants work through complex issues in order to present themselves as a couple in public. Participants frequently used their public and interpersonal experiences with their partners to be reflexive of their own understandings of the social world, relationship processes, and love. Given the lack of research on same-sex, interracial families, this study makes an important contribution to sociological research on families, LGTBQ studies, and race studies.

Detta är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av Sveriges styrdokument för svensk grundskola, med fokus på samisk representation. Analysen är avgränsad till tidsperioden 1962-2022 då denna tidsperiod innefattar alla läroplaner för den obligatoriska allmänna grundskolan. Arbetet tar en historiekulturell teoretisk ansats med postkolonial teori som ytterligare en byggsten i analysen. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka samernas representation i svensk skolundervisning under tidsperioden 1962-2022 och varför den sett ut som den gjort.  Tidigare forskning utförd i Kanada har visat att när elever lär sig om urfolk gynnar det inte bara eleverna i sig, utan även urfolken i landet. Samerna är Sveriges enda urfolk och Europas enda urfolk. Med denna kanadensiska forskning i ryggen går det att hävda att det bör ligga i allmänhetens intresse, och även samernas intresse, att elever lär sig om urfolk. Detta gav ytterligare skäl att utföra denna undersökning med fokus på urfolket samerna i Sverige, då det skulle kunna gynna alla. Resultatet av denna undersökning är att samernas representation i svenska styrdokument har ökat ganska stadigt över tid sedan 1962 fram till 2022, med en minskande representation i 2011 års läroplan, Lgr11. Störst representation fanns i 1994 års läroplan Lpo94 och det var också enda läroplanen som talade om hur samisk historia och kultur hänger ihop med svensk och nordisk historia och identitet. Anledningen till att representationen har ökat är att samernas rättigheter också ökat under samma tidsperiod. Samerna har under tidsperioden blivit erkända som urfolk, blivit grundlagsskyddade som ett eget folk samt bildat en egen statlig myndighet, Sametinget. Även om samernas representation har ökat under tidsperioden är den fortfarande inte stor, samt har samisk kultur och historia blivit förbisedd i den senaste läroplanen Lgr22. Detta verkar bland annat bero på, baserat på det material som undersökts, att Sverige fortfarande bedriver kolonialism.

Same sex couples around the nation have continually fought for their right to marry and in thirty-six states they have been given that right. What same-sex couples did not think to fight for was the right to divorce. There has been a considerable lack of focus on one such issue often left out of the public discourse over marriage equality: determining parental rights for the purposes of child custody/visitation in the context of a homosexual relationship that has broken down. The choice to have a child in a same-sex couple, with the exception of adoption, usually only allows for one parent to serve as the biological parent to the child. These options include: surrogacy, in vitro fertilization, and artificial insemination. What that means is that it leaves the other parent as the nonlegal and nonbiological parent in which they would be given no rights to the child if the relationship were to dissolve. After looking at many cases in Florida, the courts place a significant emphasis on biology in determining child custody in dissolution of marriage or relationship proceedings. In this thesis, we offer solutions in order to allow same-sex couples the equal parental rights they deserve even when they are not the biological parent of the child. Florida statutes have not been updated to reflect the changes in the law such as the recognition of same-sex marriage and the right for same-sex couples to adopt. Although restrictions on adoption and same sex marriages have been found unconstitutional, the implications of these changes in the law regarding custody and parental rights have not changed. Once the proposed solutions have been adopted, same-sex couples will be able to dissolve their relationships and marriages without fear of losing the custody and/or visitation rights to their child while still applying the best interest of the child standard used in heterosexual dissolution of marriage cases.

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No / According to leading sociological theorists we have now entered a 'late modern' epoch of 'de-traditionalisation' and 'individualisation'. Families are crucial in this vision, where the social ties of kinship and marriage are weakened, increasingly replaced by the project of self. In this paper we take three geographical indices of central elements of the individualisation thesis, examining the distribution in Britain of same sex couples, births to cohabitants, and mothers' withdrawal from the worker role. Analysis of all three indices give support to two levels of criticism of individualisation theory. First, pre-existing social structures have not gone away; the prevalence and the effect of the components of family form and change examined here seem deeply influenced by pre-existing local structural conditions. Secondly, the analysis supports the criticism that while people might indeed have more room for manoeuvre in late modern society, and may well be less constrained by older traditions, this does not necessarily mean individualisation. The behavioural components of individualisation theory may be a non-sequitor from the observation of changing family forms. We conclude that it seems likely that individualisation may be better conceptualised as one part of pre-existing social and structural processes, and that its behavioural assumptions are unjustified.

Increasing evidence suggests that overlapping genes is a common phenomenon in eukaryotic genomes too and are not restricted to prokaryotes alone. Here we determined overlapping genes in a set of orthologous genes in the genomes of human, chimp, mouse, rat, and dog and contrasted the patterns of overlapping between two principal types of overlapping genes, the same-strand-overlapping genes and different-strand-overlapping genes. The two types of overlapping genes are compared with respect to their frequencies, overlap lengths, region of overlap, and conservation of overlap in five species. Our results suggest the following: different-strand-overlaps are more common, both types show different patterns with respect to overlap lengths and regions of overlap, different-strand-overlapping genes are more evolutionarily conserved, and 3'-UTR evolution plays an important role in transitions between non-overlapping genes and overlapping genes. The thesis also presents a review of related work in terms of history, origin, types, biological significance of overlapping genes, human diseases associated with them, and their comparison in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. / Master of Science

Research investigating how same-sex military couples conjointly experience the deployment process is absent. This study employed transcendental phenomenological methods (Moustakas, 1994) to explore the lived experiences of same-sex military couples and the deployment process. In-depth, conjoint interviews were conducted with eighteen individuals: five female couples and four male couples, representing four military branches, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. Three thematic categories emerged that revealed the essence of the couples' experiences of deployment: deployment experience is context-dependent, challenges associated with sexual minority status, and learned resilience. Though couples experienced a host of unique challenges related to their minority status and restrictive policies, couples developed adaptive coping strategies that served to mediate the impact of distinctive barriers and restrictions. Findings demonstrate the vulnerability and resilience of same-sex military couples during deployment. Political, clinical, and research implications are discussed. / Master of Science