Thesis advisor: Josh Seim / In this thesis, I examine the productivity of emulation experiences as they relate to building empathy for systems of oppression by utilizing Dinner in the Dark, a vision impairment simulation dinner, hosted by the Boston College Undergraduate Government of Boston College Council for Students with Disabilities, as a case study. Drawing from semi-structured qualitative interviews with 19 participants of Dinner in the Dark and field notes taken on site of both nights of the dinner, I find that developing empathy or experiencing an increase in empathy following Dinner in the Dark did not always necessarily translate into an inclusive and non-stereotypical understanding of the visually impaired disabled identity. In other words, although simulation may promote empathy, emulating a state of being that one is not naturally in possession of, especially if it is also for a brief period, may provide misleading information as well as prompt discrimination. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

abstract: This paper is seeking to use exploratory factor analysis to construct a numeric representation of Hill Collin's matrix of domination. According to Hill Collins, the Current American matrix of domination, or the interlocking systems of oppression, includes race, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, immigration status, disability, and age. The study uses exploratory factor analysis to construct a matrix of domination scale. The study launched an on-line survey (n=448) that was circulated through the social network Facebook to collect data. Factor analysis revealed that the constructed matrix of domination represents an accurate description of the current social hierarchy in the United States. Also, the constructed matrix of domination was an accurate predictor of the probability of experiencing domestic abuse according to the current available statistics. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Social Justice and Human Rights 2011

In this study I attempt to shed light on the experiences of the teacher researcher and university students who explored social justice issues in an art education course. The primary purpose of this study is to provide insights in teaching practice and students' learning processes when the course is designed to examine systems of oppression through class discussions and art-based assignments. The study delves into what challenges and rewards the teacher and students experience in an art class focusing on social injustice. I conducted this study in a semester-long art education course, where I taught as an instructor, with twelve university student participants. The questions that guided by study were: 1) How do I understand my experience of teaching social justice issues through art in an undergraduate art education course and what do I continue to learn from it?; 2) In what ways do undergraduate students navigate and learn about social justice issues through class discussions, writing and art-based assignments? I utilized two methodologies, autoethnography and case study, in order to provide in-depth descriptions of the participants' and my perspectives. The theoretical frame I used was critical race feminism, which highlights the intersectional experiences of females of color. For the autoethnographic study, I collected data from the artifacts I created during the study period including researcher’s journals, visual journals, and audio narratives. I also collected data from the participants, such as pre-course questionnaires, reading responses, reflection notes, personal narratives, peer interview responses, audio narratives, and final art projects. The findings of the study reflect different challenges and rewards that the student participants and I experienced in the university course on social justice art. Themes included student resistance, the teacher's self-doubt, the students' vague understanding of social justice, a difficulty to understand the concept of privilege, and the lack of hands-on activities. The participants also addressed significant learning moments including, learning about colorblindness, personal reflections about their own social identities in relation to systems of oppression, and various art-based assignments they created during the course. Both the participants and I found strong connections between the teacher and students, a sense of learning community, and student empowerment as the rewarding experiences. These findings suggest the need for teachers to reconsider the meaning of a safe space, student resistance, and the role of emotions when they teach social justice issues. Furthermore, the findings suggest that female teachers of color need to positively acknowledge our racial, sexual, cultural, and linguistic identities and envision our roles as border-crossers and agents of change.

Mémoire en recherche-création / Considérant le peu d’espace fait aux artistes s/Sourd-es et handicapé-es dans les milieux culturels (Leduc et al. 2020b) et le potentiel d’autodétermination de l’autogestion, cette recherche-création propose comme création le centre DC - Art Indisciplinaire (dc-art-indisciplinaire.com), autogéré par des artistes de la diversité capacitaire, et ce mémoire théorique réflexif des enjeux qui l’ont (in)formée. De ma posture autiste mad queer de classe ouvrière, j’aborde les signifiances dominantes de la création formant une culture d’exceptionnalité artistique hiérarchisée. Je démontre comment l’agentivité épistémique des personnes de la diversité capacitaire est décrédibilisée par les institutions culturelles et d’enseignement. Je définis ma pratique comme une méthodologie indisciplinaire et neuroqueer, des affordances always-in-the-making (Dokumaci 2017) afin de répondre à la question : Comment diriger nos énergies dépensées à performer des normes institutionnelles inatteignables et épuisantes, dans la création de possibilités émancipatrices collectives crip? A partir d'une réappropriation d'un mécanisme de survie connu des personnes autistes et queer, ma pratique de création de situations me permet de répondre à ces discriminations en imitant les normes capacitaires, neuronormatives et hétéro/homonormatives afin d’hacker les milieux dans lesquels j’évolue. Je soulève le « pour et par » comme insuffisant à l’émancipation de nos communautés, elles aussi régies par des rapports de pouvoirs multiples. Enfin, ce projet a cherché longtemps à faire ce que Remi Yergeau pointe comme l’impératif de pirater de manière « criptastique », un hack qui « […] s’insurge contre la normalisation forcée, celle qui passe de l’ajustement corporel à quelque chose de collectif, d’activiste et de systémique » (Yergeau 2012, ma traduction). / Considering little room given to d/Deaf and disabled artists in cultural circles (Leduc et al. 2020b) and the potential for self-determination in self-governance, this research-creation enables the creation of the disabled led artist-run center DC - Indisciplinary Art (dc-art-indisciplinaire.com). Furthermore, the following written essay constitutes a theoretical thought about the issues that have (in)formed the center’s creation. From a working-class queer mad and autistic perspective, I study the major meanings associated with the notion of creation and the way they form a hierarchical artistic exceptionality culture. I demonstrate how the epistemic agency of people from the ability diversity is discredited by cultural and educational institutions. I define my practice as an undisciplined and neuroqueer methodology, always-in-the-making affordances (Dokumaci 2017) to answer the question: How to redirect the energy spent performing unattainable and exhausting institutional standards, by creating possibilities for a crip collective emancipation? With the reappropriation of a known autistic and queer survival mechanism, my creation of situations practice allows me to respond to these discriminations by imitating able, neuronormative and hetero/homonormative norms in order to hack the environments in which I evolve. I question the “for us and by us” as insufficient for our communities’ emancipation because they are also governed by multiple power relations. Finally, this project has long sought to do what Remi Yergeau points out as the imperative to hack in a "criptastic" way, a hack that "[…] protests against forced normalization, that which goes from bodily adjustment to something collective, activist and systemic" (Yergeau 2012).

En s’inscrivant dans la perspective du féminisme intersectionnelle et en mobilisant des méthodes mixtes, cette recherche tente de mieux comprendre la violence domestique envers les femmes au Mexique, à la fois à travers une analyse du discours des féministes mexicaines et d’une analyse statistique multidimensionnelle de données d’enquête identifiant les facteurs institutionnels, économiques et socioculturels associés au risque de vivre de la violence domestique. Cette thèse se démarque des réflexions féministes traditionnelles faites au Mexique puisqu’elle approche les rapports de genre en lien avec d’autres systèmes d’oppression et de subordination, fondés notamment sur les rapports de classe et l’ethnicité. Ainsi, elle appréhende la violence faite aux femmes en lien avec le patriarcat, sans réduire ce dernier à quelques indicateurs sociodémographiques et comportementaux mesurés au niveau individuel, mais en tenant compte du contexte d’inégalité de genre au niveau régional. Ce faisant, la recherche tente de réconcilier les deux grandes perspectives théoriques qui expliquent la violence conjugale, soit les approches de la violence familiale (qui s’attardent à des facteurs au niveau microsocial) et les approches féministes (qui mettent l’accent sur la structure patriarcale, c’est-à-dire le contexte plus large des inégalités de genre). Les résultats des entretiens réalisés avec des féministes représentant les trois branches du féminisme mexicain (féminisme hégémonique, populaire et autochtone) ont révélé les fractures existantes à l’intérieur du mouvement féministe au Mexique (antagonisme entre l’institutionnalisation et l’autonomie du mouvement féministe). De façon générale, l’analyse des entretiens a montré que l’engagement des féministes envers la cause des femmes est en accord avec les «idéaux types» des trois branches du féminisme mexicain. Les féministes hégémoniques mettent surtout l’accent sur la structure patriarcale de la société mexicaine et sur les inégalités de genre lorsqu’il s’agit de trouver des causes à la violence faite aux femmes. Pour les féministes du secteur populaire, la violence faite aux femmes s’explique autant par les inégalités de genre, que par les effets du système économique capitaliste. Le discours des femmes autochtones semble, quant à lui, tenir davantage compte de l’articulation des rapports de genre, des rapports ethniques, ainsi que des rapports socio-économiques. Néanmoins, nous constatons que les féministes de la branche hégémonique et populaire semblent de plus en plus sensibles à l’entrecroisement de systèmes de domination et d’oppression. Par ailleurs, l’analyse multiniveau effectuée à partir des données de l’Enquête nationale portant sur la dynamique des relations dans les ménages (2006), a révélé plusieurs résultats importants qui méritent d’être soulignés. D’abord on constate que les différences de prévalence des violences entre les municipalités mexicaines sont en grande partie expliquées par leur composition sociale, c’est-à-dire par des caractéristiques des femmes et de leur couple (niveau micro), plutôt que par des différences entre le niveau des inégalités de genre dans les municipalités mexicaines mesurées par l’ISDH (Indice Sexospécifique du Développement Humain). Les résultats des analyses montrent que les femmes autochtones ont en général des taux de violences moins élevés que les femmes métisses (groupe majoritaire). Enfin, en ce qui a trait à la relation entre le contexte d’inégalité de genre et la violence conjugale, les résultats suggèrent que plus l’ISDH d’une municipalité est élevée, plus il y a de femmes qui subissent les formes de violences. Cela va à l’encontre des postulats habituels des théories féministes et suggèrent que les progrès récents de la situation de la femme en matière de santé, d’éducation et de revenu n’ont pas bouleversé les rapports de genre encore très patriarcales qui continuent à privilégier la suprématie des hommes (Casique, 2004). / By adopting the intersectional feminist approach and mobilizing mixed methods, this research seeks to better understand partner violence in Mexico, both through a discourse analysis of the Mexican feminist movement and a quantitative multidimensional level of analysis by identifying the institutional, economic and socio-cultural factors associated with the risk of experiencing domestic violence. This research differs from the traditional feminist reflections made in Mexico because it takes into consideration gender inequality in interaction with other systems of oppression and subordination, mainly based on social class and ethnicity. Thus, it captures partner violence in relation to patriarchy, without reducing it to sociodemographic and behavioral indicators measured at the individual level, but by taking into account the structural context of gender inequality at the regional level. By integrating individual and contextual factors, this research attempts to reconcile the two major theoretical perspectives that explain partner violence, which are the family violence approach (that linger to factors at the micro level) and feminist approaches (which focus on the patriarchal structure, in other terms the broader context of gender inequality). The results of the discursive analysis from the interviews with the feminists representing all three branches of the Mexican feminism (hegemonic, popular and indigenous feminism) revealed existing fractures within the feminist movement in Mexico (antagonism between institutionalization and autonomy of the feminist movement). In general, this analysis showed that the feminists’ gender struggle and their demands are consistent with the "ideal types" of the three branches of the Mexican feminism. Hegemonic feminism focuses mainly on the patriarchal structure of Mexican society and gender inequality when it comes to finding the causes of violence against women. For the popular feminism, violence against women is explained by both gender inequalities and the vulnerable economic situation. The discourse of indigenous women emphasizes the articulation of gender, ethnic and socio-economic inequalities. However, we found evidence that hegemonic and popular feminism seem increasingly sensitive to the intersection of systems of domination and oppression. In addition, multilevel analysis using data from the National Survey of Dynamics of Relationships within Households (2006) revealed several important findings that deserve to be highlighted. Firstly, we show that differences in the prevalence of partner violence among Mexican municipalities are largely explained by their social composition, that is to say, by the characteristics of women and their relationship (micro level), rather than differences between the level of gender inequality in the Mexican municipalities measured by the GDI (gender-Human Development Index). In addition, the results show that indigenous women generally have lower rates of violence that the rest of mestizas Mexican women (majority group). Finally, in regard to the relationship between the context of gender inequality and domestic violence, and contrary with what would be expected, violence is higher in municipalities with higher GDI. This result seems to contradict feminist assumptions. It would seem that despite recent progress in women’s situation in areas such as health, education and income in Mexico, it has not been able to transform the gender order.