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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Feminist epistemology'
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Gilman, Todd Nathaniel. "Communicative Action as Feminist Epistemology." PDXScholar, 1995. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4906.
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This thesis proposes that feminist social and political theory adopt the epistemology inherent in Jurgen Habermas's communicative ethics in order to more coherently work toward the goal of freeing individuals from social oppression. This thesis first examines the fundamental differences that exist between the particular claims for knowledge made by the three major schools of feminist theory; the empirical feminists, the standpoint feminists, and those allied with postmodernism. After illuminating the specifics of these feminist claims, the conception of knowledge central to Habermas's thought is explored and shown to be split into three distinct realms; the objective, the social, and the subjective. It is shown that the three realms of Habermas's knowledge account for the underlying claims of the differing groups of feminist theory, and provide a basis for reconciling the differences between them. Habermas's objective realm of knowledge corresponds to the concerns of empirically oriented feminists. A need for an accurate description of the events and conditions of the actual world is shared by both, as is a trust in the human potential for grasping these objects and events accurately. Standpoint feminism's concern for interpersonal relations, accounting for the context of an individual's or group's existence, is reflected in the type of knowledge that Habermas considers social in nature. Habermas's conception of our capacity for social knowledge, which guides our actions with other human beings, is shown to be dependent upon both social existence and communication. Finally, Habermas acknowledges the human potential for critical knowledge to explain the individual's ability to differentiate herself from the group, a task which a postmodern feminism demands to avoid essentializing any aspect of women. If feminist theory is able to move beyond the entrenched differences that it now finds itself locked within, perhaps then it will be able to continue with the project shared with Habermas, that of providing a meaningful emancipation for human beings.
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Holst, Cathrine. "Feminism, epistemology & morality." Bergen : University of Bergen, 2005. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/77564206.html.
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Särnstedt, Emmie. "Knowing Bodies : Emotive Embodiment in Feminist Epistemology." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Centrum för genusvetenskap, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-162433.
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The aim of this thesis is to examine how the boundaries of the body are renegotiated byapproaching emotive bodies as the power charged foundations of knowledge. Introducing thesubject, I describe the subordination of bodies and emotions in Western thought as gendered andraced. While the dichotomy between bodies and knowledge prevail in many feminist paradigms,the postmodern feminist interest in the mutually constitutive role of bodies and knowledgeproduction is seen as a dissolution of dichotomies such as nature/culture, body/mind andemotion/reason. With embodied reading as a methodological point of departure, I first analyzethe role of emotions in academic writing, and then turn to exploring the concept of the livedbody, as developed in feminist phenomenology. I touch on the intersectional potential ofemotive, embodied knowledge in my concluding discussion, “Intersecting Bodies”.In the first analytical theme, “Emotive Academic Writing”, I explore the chicana feminist MaríaLugones emotive imagery as a renegotiation of the boundaries between the bodies of writers,readers and written text. I describe emotions as materialized through embodied relations betweenwriters and readers, arguing that they are sources of knowledge about the power structures thatgovern knowledge production. I see restructuring the emotive, intersubjective relations betweensubjects of knowledge as a way to change the hierarchical differentiation of bodies in knowledgeproduction. In the second theme, “The Lived Body”, I argue that the phenomenological take onbodies and knowledge as mutually constitutive renegotiates the boundaries within bodies,between bodies, and between bodies and their surrounding world. I argue that the powersensitive approach to embodiment in feminist phenomenology opens up for feminist reliance onembodied experience, without reinstating it as essentially tied to differentiated bodies.
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Strickland, Susan. "Objectivity, perspectivity and difference : issues in feminist epistemology." Thesis, University of Hull, 1993. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:8103.
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Gu, Jing. "Sensing Feminist Epistemology: A Formal and Material Analysis." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/855.
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In this project I outline the current discourse within feminist epistemology and elucidated its limitations of feminist epistemology particularly its lack of formal attention to the modes of theorization and, in complementarity, the generative potential of an analysis foregrounding materiality. The first chapter explores the theories that constitute the field of study and the relationships between both feminist empiricism and standpoint theory illuminate the conceptual concerns of feminist epistemology. Building from this, I present an analysis that examines the rhetorical and disciplinary structures that determine the kinds of arguments and methodologies that are possible within these frameworks. This argument simultaneously presents an analysis of theoretical formation as well as a critique of the lack of attention given to the rhetorical and formal scaffolds which render additional epistemic limitations perceivable. Lastly, I demonstrate a mode of knowledge production that centers materiality and body which exerts pressure on the very frameworks utilized in the analysis of materiality and embodiment. If materiality has the capacity to articulate relationships between knower and knowledges formed by the knower and formal elements of research has the capacity to render the limits of knowledges created from the research, then feminist epistemology should account for the formal and the material in its attempts to explicate the possibilities and limitations of epistemology.
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Hundleby, Catherine. "Feminist standpoint theory as a form of naturalist epistemology." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ58217.pdf.
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Brown, Catrina. "Talking body talk, an analysis of feminist therapy epistemology." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/NQ58644.pdf.
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Barnette, Kara, and Kara Barnette. "Necessary Error: Josiah Royce, Communal Inquiry, and Feminist Epistemology." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12323.
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Feminist epistemologists have often argued that our relationships with structures of power shape the content, expression, and social force of what we know. While feminist standpoint theorists have often maintained that experiences on the margins of social power can lead to better understandings of the roles of systems of oppression in society, more recent writings on epistemologies of ignorance examine the reverse, how experiences from positions of social power limit our understandings. In this project, I draw on the concept of epistemic privilege as it has been formulated by feminist standpoint theorists, criticisms of objectivity and fixed, transcendent truths, and analyses of the relationships between structures of power and concepts of knowing. By considering the works of Sandra Harding, Lorraine Code, and Patricia Hill Collins, among others, I argue that knowledge is situational and contingent and that some individuals possess privileged understandings due to their positions on the margins of power structures. However, I also argue that, in order for feminist epistemology to utilize the concept of epistemic privilege successfully, it must incorporate a concept of error into its considerations of constructions of knowledge.
Thus, throughout this dissertation, I examine how a concept of error could bolster efforts to subvert the dominant approaches to knowledge that have upheld male privilege and undermine the patriarchal power structures that rely on them. I propose a form of feminist inquiry that incorporates a method of error sensitivity, which will enable inquirers to recognize when institutions of power, individual limitations, and cultural myths are restricting knowing subjects' perspectives and leading them to commit errors. This concept of error, and the related approach to error-sensitive inquiry, relies upon a commitment to continuous and ever-expanding inquiry by a community, rather than an isolated individual. Thus, I derive much of my conceptual framework from the work of Josiah Royce and his concepts of the Beloved Community, loyalty to loyalty, and communities of interpretation.
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Todd, Sharon. "The politics of knowledge : a critical theoretical approach to feminist epistemology and its educational implications." Thesis, McGill University, 1992. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=61314.
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Stemming from the dialectical concepts of critical epistemology developed by feminism and Critical Theory (specifically, the Frankfurt School), this thesis attempts to articulate the political dimension of knowledge and to demonstrate how this dimension is incorporated into the liberatory pedagogical theory of Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux and various feminist authors. Hence the epistemological significance of domination and oppression is explored in relation to the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity held by critical epistemology.In ultimately aiming at liberation from social oppression, both Critical Theory and feminist epistemology provide theoretical insights into the social construction of knowledge, the intersubjective character of knowledge and the depth psychological dimension of the knower. It is maintained that a synthesis of these insights can provide the groundwork for a liberatory educational theory based on the interrelation between experience and knowledge. Also, in dialectical interaction, a liberatory educational theory provides a means for actualizing the liberatory aim of critical epistemology.
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Pernrud, Björn. "Explorations of a Sex Therapy Question in Feminism : Feminist Interventions in Sex Therapy." Doctoral thesis, Karlstad University, Faculty of Social and Life Sciences, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-784.
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This study aims to investigate the consequences for feminist sex therapy that it is promoted as an alternative to a mainstream approach. Analytically I focus on the relation between normativity, claims to knowledge and professional legitimacy. I study sex therapeutic academic texts, and the material is approached through a framework developed by combining Donna Haraway’s concept of situated knowledges with elements from Karen Barad’s agential realism
My analysis starts in feminist sex therapists’ criticism of how masculine norms in mainstream sex therapy lead to a flawed theory of sexual matters. Feminist sex therapists, however, allege that it is specifically feminist norms that grant a more complete theory of sex and sexual problems within feminist alternatives in sex therapy. To that effect, feminists discern sexual problems in relation to the impact a patriarchal society has on particularly women’s sexualities, and treatment is articulated as seeking to liberate women from constraints associated with gendered social positions.
In mainstream sex therapy, allegedly value-neutral insights into human physiology are called upon for the establishment of professional legitimacy. Nevertheless, normative investments are relied upon implicitly to discern sexual problems and sexual well-being with the consequence that sexual problems are understood as conditions that interfere with the ability to have sex, largely equated with coitus, and with the motivation to form coupled sexual relations. By alleviating sexual problems, these abilities and motivations are allegedly restored in the form of natural, already present, capacities for sexual functioning. Comparing my analysis to feminist critiques, I argue that the latter have not fully theorized the significance of normative investments, and have left unchallenged assumptions in mainstream therapy that enable a restorative and liberationist construal of sex therapy’s objective.
Although feminist alternatives contain a markedly different theorization of sexual problems, they have retained, from the mainstream approach, the notion that sex therapy seeks to liberate its clients. This notion stands in conflict with feminist theorizations of sexual problems, and in my conclusion I argue that feminist sex therapy would benefit from abandoning its liberationist element.
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Hobson, Amanda Jo. "Envisioning Feminist Genre Film: Relational Epistemology, Catharsis, and Erotic Intersubjects." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1604074749500538.
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David, Kasandra L. ""Feminist Empiricism and the Livestock Industry"." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1396605631.
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Campbell, Kirsten. "From this one to an other : Jacques Lacan and feminist epistemology." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.310442.
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Barr, Jean. "Women, adult education and really useful knowledge : an essay concerning feminist pedagogy, epistemology, research, etc." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2183.
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The thesis offers a post hoc account of three pieces of research relating to women's adult education which were camed out by the author over a penod of about fifteen years. In the process the thesis engages with a number of themes and issues in and around feminist theory and practite and adult education theory and practice. Radical traditions in adult education - particularly femimst-inspired traditions - are examined as spaces for the democratic production of "really useful knowledge". Changing meanings of feminist research and radical adult education are explored, as is the relationship between abstract knowledge and everyday knowledge. Developments in feminist epistemology are drawn on and related to a social justice agenda for adult education Through a critique of my own practice. I suggest that feminists and adult educators are well-placed to pursue a democratising project geared to including previously excluded groups in the production of legitimated knowledge. The thesis argues that we need to develop an understanding of our practices which combines historical, contextual understandings with an appreciation of what changed social and cultural conditions mean for the pursuit of any democratic knowledge-producing project.
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Ahmed, Jamilah. "Quitting the substance for a shadow : an exploration of embodiment and female subjectivities." Thesis, Goldsmiths College (University of London), 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.248203.
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Cesar, Tamires Regina Aguiar de Oliveira. "“GÊNERO, PODER E PRODUÇÃO CIENTÍFICA GEOGRÁFICA NO BRASIL DE 1974 A 2013”." UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE PONTA GROSSA, 2015. http://tede2.uepg.br/jspui/handle/prefix/565.
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Previous issue date: 2015-02-12This research aims to understand the gender relations as an element of the geographic scientific production in Brazil. The path of understading this phenomenon was drawn by a gathering of 90 online scientific journals undercontrol by geographic entities and available to be accessed with the classification of Qualis System – CAPES between the layers A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, B4 and B5, based on the three-year period 2013 – 2015. The collected papers found in these journals presented an universe of 13.990 papers. For comprehension of the current configuration of the postgraduate studies in Brazil, it was made a data collection on the 55 universities with postgraduate studies programs in Geography, which allowed the composition analysis of the teaching and student staff from theses programs, reflecting on the publication of papers. In the same way, it was realized a search in editorial boards of 90 online journals released for access. The dada presented show that the scientific field of the brazilian geographic science is marked by these structural elements that are inserted in daily practices of the legal and institutional systems, keeping a productivity hierarchy of the scientific knowledge. Even if the brazilian geographic science presents a relevant female participation when compared to the male, the women have a less significant participation. It is evident that the gender and sexuality thematics, even inhibited by hegemonic geographic patterns, still has researchers that dare and challenge the fixed borders in scientific field.
Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo compreender as relações de gênero como elemento da produção científica geográfica no Brasil. A trajetória de inteligibilidade do fenômeno foi traçada em torno de 90 periódicos on line científicos mantidos por entidades geográficas e disponíveis para acesso com classificação no Sistema Qualis – CAPES entre os estratos A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, B4 e B5, com base no triênio 2013 - 2015. A coleta dos artigos encontrados nesses periódicos apresentou um universo de 13.990 artigos. Para entender a atual configuração da pós-graduação no Brasil, foi realizado um levantamento nas 55 universidades com programas de pós-graduação em geografia, o que possibilitou a análise da composição do corpo docente e discente destes programas, que refletem nas publicações dos artigos científicos. Da mesma forma, foi efetivado um levantando nos corpos editoriais dos 90 periódicos on line liberados para acesso. Os dados apresentados comprovam que o campo científico da ciência geográfica brasileira é marcado por seus elementos estruturais que estão inseridos nas práticas cotidianas dos sistemas legais e institucionais, mantendo uma hierarquização da produtividade do conhecimento intelectual. Assim, ainda que o campo científico geográfico brasileiro, apresente uma significativa participação feminina, quando comparada à masculina as mulheres tem uma participação menos significativa. Comprova-se que a temática de gênero e sexualidades mesmo inibida pelos padrões geográficos hegemônicos ainda conta com pesquisadores (as) que ousam e desafiam as fronteiras fixadas no campo científico.
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Bucciarelli, Karina. "A Feminist Epistemological Framework: Preventing Knowledge Distortions in Scientific Inquiry." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1365.
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This thesis explores what to have distorted scientific knowledge claims due to socially constructed conceptions of gender. Using the paradigm example of the explanation of human fertilization misrepresenting knowledge as it maps on stereotypes about the passive female and the active male onto the scientific participation of the egg and the sperm. Exploring arguments presented by feminist epistemologists, I argue that in order to produce knowledge free of distortions due to problematic social conceptions we must engage in a specific epistemological framework with three main components: 1) critically and systematically examine the subject of knowledge in relation to the object of knowledge, 2) make efforts to diversify inquirers as the perspectives of marginalized identities are important to informing where dominant narratives are failing to be objective and 3) actively acknowledge the role that values play in inquiry and promote feminist values. The framework presented is specifically applicable to knowledge distortions present in scientific inquiry but, importantly, can also inform individual epistemic relationship.
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SHERRON, CATHERINE ELIZABETH. "CRITICAL VALUES: FEMINIST PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND THE COMPUTING SCIENCES." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1054218563.
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Guzman, Dahlia. "The Strategic Naturalism of Sandra Harding's Feminist Standpoint Epistemology: A Path Toward Epistemic Progress." Scholar Commons, 2018. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7626.
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This dissertation considers the “strategic naturalism” of Sandra Harding’s standpoint theory in the philosophy of science, and it should be applied to epistemology. Strategic naturalism stipulates that all elements of inquiry are historically and culturally situated, and thereby subject to critical reflection, analysis, and revision. Allegiance to naturalism is de rigueur, yet there is no clear agreement on the term’s meaning. Harding’s standpoint theory reads the lack of definition as indicative of its generative possibilities for epistemic progress. The driving question is why Harding’s approach has not been considered a viable candidate for determining progress in epistemology. Beyond the fact that epistemic labor, in its scientific and non-scientific forms, is a social activity, Harding’s approach recognizes that it is situated in and reinforced by a broader network of social institutions, beliefs, and practices. Harding’s strategic naturalism would invigorate epistemology by increasing the awareness, acceptance, and respect for epistemic difference and drive epistemic progress that not only acknowledges pluralistic ways of knowing but also gives a more accurate account of the knowing subject.
Chapter one is a discussion of non-naturalized epistemology and Quinean Naturalized Epistemology (QNE), framed by Harding’s historical account of the related projects of modern epistemology and science. This chapter highlights two important issues. The first issue is that epistemology is more complex than the story Quine offers. The second, and decisive issue is that the shared history of modern epistemology and science demonstrates the influence of social and cultural values on that history, and the long shadows they cast on naturalism debates in epistemology, science, and philosophy of science.
Chapter two is an exegetical account of the origins of and motivations for critical feminist responses to both the received epistemological theory and QNE discussed in chapter one. The justifications for the feminist critiques and the problematic issues that motivate these critiques provide the backdrop for the initial, positive response to QNE, as well as their disenchantment with Quine’s influential proposal. Ultimately, feminist epistemologists and philosophers of science assess QNE as not naturalized enough to address their concerns.
Chapter three considers several feminist standpoint theories to show that they are more naturalistic and better at providing a multi-faceted theory that is based on actual scientific practice, and re-introduces social values and interests as having a positive influence on epistemology and philosophies of science. This chapter shows that given the closely shared histories and assumptions of modern epistemology and science, FSE would be a viable resource for a more naturalistic epistemology.
The final chapter argues that the project of naturalizing epistemology could incorporate FSE insights and the positive role FSE’s controversiality would play in naturalizing epistemology and philosophies of science. If we are to take seriously the concept of situatedness and what that entails, then naturalism must also be situated, and revisited with a critical and reflective eye. The implications on both our epistemic theories and our accounts of what kinds of knowing subject we are would foster epistemic progress.
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Björkman, Christina. "Crossing Boundaries, Focusing Foundations, Trying Translations : Feminist Technoscience Strategies in Computer Science." Doctoral thesis, Karlskrona : Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-00296.
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In this thesis I explore feminist technoscience strategies in computer science, starting in “the gender question in computer science”, and ending up in communication and translation between feminist technoscience research and computer science educational practice. Necessary parts in this work concern issues of boundary crossings between disciplines, and focusing on the foundations of computer science: what it means to “know computer science”. The point of departure is in computer science (CS), in particular CS education. There are at this starting point two intertwined issues: the gender question in computer science (often formulated as “what to do about the situation of women in computer science?”) and the foundation question: “what does it mean to know computer science?”. These are not primarily questions looking for answers; they are calls for action, for change and transformation. The main focus and goal of this thesis concerns how to broaden the meaning of “knowing computer science”; to accommodate epistemological pluralism and diversity within the practices and among the practitioners of CS. I have identified translation as fundamental, to make feminist research and epistemological perspectives communicable into the community of computer science practitioners. In this, questions of knowledge and how knowledge is perceived and talked about are central. Communication and translation also depend on the ability and willingness to cross boundaries, to engage in “world- travelling” (Lugones). Additional issues of importance are asking questions open enough to invite to dialogues, and upholding critical (self) reflection. An important goal for feminist research is transformation. Because of this, interventions have been part of my research, interventions in which I myself am implicated. The work has been based in feminist epistemological thinking, where the concepts of positioning and partial perspectives (Haraway) have been of particular importance. After an introduction, the thesis consists of three parts, each part relating to one of the three issues in the title, issues identified as important for feminist technoscience work in computer science. In part A, I investigate and discuss what it means to be simultaneously an engineer/computer scientist and a feminist technoscience researcher. What boundary crossings, challenges, conflicts, negotiations and issues of being inside and outside are involved? This part also focuses on what the implications of these boundary crossings and different “mind-sets” are for transformatory work in science and engineering education, as well as a discussion of what feminist technoscience research can be and how it can be used for interventions and transformations. Part B focuses on foundations of computer science. This part consists of studies of texts, which I critically read and query from a feminist technoscience perspective, in order to challenge existing approaches and concepts within computer science. The texts are about the gender question in computer science; foundational topics of “what is computer science”, as well as epistemological questions concerning approaches to knowledge in computer science: “what does it mean to know computer science”? Part C deals with a concrete intervention project aiming at establishing conversations with computer science faculty. In this project, the issues of communication and translation appear as central. The focus in this part is communication between computer science educational practice and feminist technoscience research, language as a carrier of epistemology, and a discussion of translation.
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Jennrich, Jessica. "A Life Lived in Classrooms| A Feminist Personal Narrative." Thesis, University of Missouri - Columbia, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10629011.
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This project offers a counter narrative to some accepted theories regarding graduate learning practices. By using Scholarly Personal Narrative to present my classroom experience I consider how knowledge is produced in higher education. I suggest that the use of feminist theory, postmodernism, and disability studies combined with other higher education theories may expand the limits of current graduate education. This project suggests that my story is useful to the field of higher education and graduate studies, and that by making intentional connections between higher education and feminist theory as well disability studies, new perspectives can emerge about how higher education practices regarding instruction, administration, and policy can be created.
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Morales, Carolyn J. "Intersectionality: Engaging the Epistemology of Leadership Theory." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1569507340956926.
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Gruwell, Leigh C. "Multimodal Feminist Epistemologies: Networked Rhetorical Agency and the Materiality of Digital Composing." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1436810721.
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Wieseler, Christine Marie. "A Feminist Contestation of Ableist Assumptions: Implications for Biomedical Ethics, Disability Theory, and Phenomenology." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6433.
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This dissertation contributes to the development of philosophy of disability by drawing on disability studies, feminist philosophy, phenomenology, and philosophy of biology in order to contest epistemic and ontological assumptions about disability within biomedical ethics as well as within philosophical work on the body, demonstrating how philosophical inquiry is radically transformed when experiences of disability are taken seriously.
In the first two chapters, I focus on epistemological and ontological concerns surrounding disability within biomedical ethics. Although disabled people and their advocates have been quite vocal regarding their views on disability and in critiquing bioethicists’ approaches to issues that affect them, the interests, knowledge, and experiences of disabled people have had minimal impact on discussions within biomedical ethics textbooks. The risks of making problematic assumptions about disability are high within this subfield insofar as bioethicists impact practices within medical facilities, public policy, and, through student engagement with their texts in biomedical ethics courses, the views of potential health care professionals. All of these, in turn, affect the care provided to disabled people and potential/actual parents of disabled children.
Chapter three raises ontological issues related to disability theory, examining the role of the impairment/disability distinction in framing discussions of the body as well as the status of experience. I discuss two approaches to incorporating subjective experiences of the body in disability, arguing that neither is sufficient. I examine debates within feminist theory on questions related to experience. I argue that a feminist phenomenological approach that builds on Merleau-Ponty’s work offers the best way to address bodily experiences in disability theory. The assumptions that disability theorists and Merleau-Ponty make about disability are often at odds. Chapter four points out the ableism in Merleau-Ponty’s use of a case study and considers some of the oversights within Phenomenology of Perception. In spite of my critique, I argue that his approach to phenomenology—with appropriate modifications—is useful not only for theorizing the experiences of disabled people but also for addressing other types of marginalized embodiment. Chapter five applies this method to body integrity identity disorder (BIID), arguing that combining Merleau-Ponty’s insights with those of disability theory allows us to address lived experiences of BIID and to identify assumptions about disability within research on this condition.
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Bentley, Vanessa A. "Building a Feminist Philosophy of Cognitive Neuroscience." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1447691278.
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Markey, Bren April. "Feminist methodologies in moral philosophy." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9107.
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This thesis develops a critique of the methodology of mainstream academic moral philosophy, based on insights from feminist and more generally anti-oppressive political thought. The thesis consists of two parts. In the first, I loosely characterise a certain dominant methodology of philosophy, one based on giving an important epistemological role to existing, 'pre-theoretical' moral attitudes, such as intuitions. I then argue that such methodologies may be critiqued on the basis of theories that identify these moral attitudes as problematically rooted in oppressive social institutions, such as patriarchy and white supremacy; that is, I identify these attitudes as ideological, and so a poor guide to moral reality. In the second part, I identify and explore of a number of themes and tendencies from feminist, anti-racist, and other anti-oppressive traditions of research and activism, in order to draw out the implications of these themes for the methodology of moral philosophy. The first issue I examine is that of how, and how much, moral philosophers should use abstraction; I eventually use the concept of intersectionality to argue for the position that philosophers need to use less, and a different type of, abstraction. The second major theme I examine is that of ignorance, in the context of alternative epistemologies: standpoint epistemology and epistemologies of ignorance. I argue that philosophers must not take themselves to be well placed to understand, using solitary methodologies, any topic of moral interest. Finally, I examine the theme of transformation in moral philosophy. I argue that experiencing certain kinds of personal transformation may be an essential part of developing accurate ethical views, and I draw out the political implications of this position for the methodology of moral philosophy.
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Pfahlert, Jeanine Ann. "THE SOCIOLOGICAL HITCH." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1150841109.
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Timeto, Federica. "Diffracting representation : towards a situated aesthetics of technospaces." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/1579.
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My research for this thesis focusses on the concepts of representation and space in order to demonstrate their theoretical and practical co-implications. Discussing various theorists of space in the first part and analyzing a number of artists and artworks as case studies in the second part, I elaborate a critique of the representational imaginary in order to articulate an alternative notion of representation by means of which a relational, qualitative and performative spatiality can emerge. I specifically focus on technospaces, which I consider a privileged field for observing the intersections of representation and spatiality; it is a field in which the use of spatial metaphors abounds, very often relying on a series of dichotomies (such as location and mobility, the real and the virtual) that have employed and, in most cases, reinforced the traditional idiom of representational. Drawing on the lessons of feminist theory, particularly on approaches to the politics of location, from Adrienne Rich‘s initial formulation to the situated knowledge theorized by Donna Haraway, I elaborate a situated aesthetics of technospaces in which the observer‘s engagement with representational practices replaces the view from a distance of traditional representation, so that her/his position is accounted for together with the history of the production of space and its multiple representations. For this reason, I also formulate an articulatory turn in representation based on Haraway‘s semiotics in order to propose a non-reflexive notion of representation in which invention and factuality eventually meet.
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Gibeault, Amanda. "Toward an Engaged Account of Objectivity: Contributions from Early Phenomenology." Thesis, Boston College, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/730.
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Thesis advisor: Richard Cobb-StevensIn this dissertation, I develop an engaged understanding of objectivity, or good knowledge practices. I argue that for knowledge practices to be good, they must both be truth-conducive and engaged, that is, explicitly implicated in the critical appraisal of background values and assumptions. I pursue this argument in six stages. First, I consider work in epistemology that countenances a place for values in objectivity. I conclude from this that truth-conduciveness is not sufficient for objectivity, and that a social approach to knowledge is called for. Second, I consider standpoint theory, a prominent feminist approach to objectivity. This allows me to show the possible insights available to marginalized perspectives, while indicating that this will be a component of rather than itself offering an account of objectivity. Third, I consider a more comprehensive approach in Helen Longino's critical contextual empiricism, which locates objectivity in the social features of inquiry. Her approach is promising, but requires the insights of early phenomenology in order to develop that potential. I develop the phenomenological framework in Chapter 4, where I consider Husserlian phenomenology. Fifth, I bring the insights of phenomenology to the challenges presented by critical contextual empiricism, and develop my positive view, critical phenomenological objectivity. On this view, inquiry is objective when individuals and communities foster critical perspectives, seek transformative epistemic experiences, build coalitions, foster diversity, and pursue empirical adequacy. In the final chapter, I consider a case study that enables me to defend the merit and warrant of these features of objectivity
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Philosophy
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van, der Riet Jane. "'Astride a dangerous dividing line': Preschool teachers' talk about childhood sexuality." University of Western Cape, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/7495.
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Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych)The focus of this thesis is preschool teachers' talk about childhood sexualities. A literature review of empiricist, psychoanalytic, feminist, social constructionist and post-structural approaches to childhood sexuality suggests that it is a marginalized research topic. Moreover, emphasis tends to fall on the problems associated with childhood sexuality, rather than regarding it as part of everyday life. In this study, I facilitated a focus group discussion with eight preschool teachers. The complexities of analyzing a text produced by participants with multiple identities are acknowledged: The discussion was hinged around vignettes and questions about childhood sexuality, and was transcribed into a written text. Using discourse analysis, I explore some of the 'taken-for-granted' assumptions about childhood sexuality, within 15 extracts from the text. I argue that multiple, paradoxical constructions of childhood sexuality position children 'astride a dangerous dividing line', which can be read on many levels. This unstable positioning both creates and is created by multiple discourses of 'taking charge'. The discourses of 'taking charge' impel preschool teachers to police 'dangerously' sexual children and protect 'innocent' children from corruption. These discourses are gendered: girl children are constructed as more vulnerable to corruption; boy children tend to be constructed with 'sexdrives' needing to be tamed; and adult women are constructed as the monitors of childhood sexuality. Furthermore, silences or taboos about childhood sexuality are integral to these discourses. Although there are hints of childhood agency, I suggest that the teachers themselves have limited access to or use for feminist and other liberatory discourses. More subtle resistance may be evident in many examples of laughter in the text. While this is project situated on the margins of psychology, by virtue of its subject, epistemology and methodology, I conclude by discussing various limitations .
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Dean, Hannah. "(Re) Visiting Female Entrepreneurs: An Emancipatory Impulse." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/6920.
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This thesis aims to emancipate female entrepreneurs from the metanarrative of economic growth which has created a false dichotomy of successful male entrepreneur versus an unsuccessful female entrepreneur. This aim is pursued through a multidisciplinary and critical inquiry that destabilises this metanarrative conceptually and empirically. A critical interrogation of economic studies reveals the embeddedness of the metanarrative in neo-classical economic growth theory. Far from being a true reflection of the entrepreneurial experience, the theory has silenced the innovator entrepreneur in economic theory and replaced him/her with an economic rational manager. Concurrently, a re-analysis of Schumpeter’s theorising suggests that his theories do not subordinate female entrepreneurs as claimed by a number of critical theorists. In contrast, his theorising is emancipatory and offers an alternative theoretical framework to the oppressive neo-classical economic growth theory. Oral history methods are used to capture the voices of female entrepreneurs which have largely been excluded from the literature. The oral history narratives challenge the oppressive homogeneity imposed by the metanarrative of economic growth and illustrate the negative influence of the theoretical foundation of neo-classical theory upon the entrepreneurial experience. The study offers theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to female entrepreneurship studies by presenting a fresh interpretation of Schumpeter’s theorising; including the voices of the female entrepreneurs; and applying research approaches that break away from positivism which dominates entrepreneurial studies. The study has implications for policy makers and practitioners as it generates knowledge that takes account of the current social and economic changes.
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Brendon, Laura Katherine. "WOMEN AS INFORMATION SEEKERS DURING INITIAL ENCOUNTERS WITH THE WORLD WIDE WEB." The Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1043790196.
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Istomina, Julia. "Property, Mobility, and Epistemology in U.S. Women of Color Detective Fiction." The Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429191876.
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Lipman, Alexia. "Epistemic Injustice and Communities of Resistance." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1937.
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Epistemic injustice is a relatively new philosophical term for a rather old phenomenon. A situation is said to be epistemically unjust when someone is wronged in his capacity to possess or convey knowledge. While anyone can be the victim of a testimonial injustice, the epistemic injustice that occurs in an exchange of testimony, people with marginalized identities systematically suffer from this kind of injustice. By relying on negative identity prejudices, a person in a position of power consciously or subconsciously undermines a marginalized individual’s capacity for knowledge.
In this paper, I argue that persistent testimonial injustice can inhibit the formation of one’s identity. Then I explore the role that communities may play in ameliorating this harm. I suggest that communities are conceptualized differently depending on their purpose (e.g. psychological melioration or political resistance). In the final part of this paper, I examine two conceptions of communities put forth by María Lugones and Iris Marion Young and determine whether they can provide both psychological and political resources for resistance.
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Molin, Rebecka. "A Sight/Site for Transparency or Opacity? Notes on Knowledge Production and Feminist Technoscience." Licentiate thesis, Karlskrona : Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:bth-00486.
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The objective for my research has been to put forward and discuss some aspects of knowledge production in relation to the epistemological positions of feminist technoscience, which lay emphasis on the contextual and the social embeddedness of both research and technology. My main inquiry has been how the relation between the subject and the surrounding context can be perceived epistemologically and how this in turn can be connected to and found relevant to the supposed new mode of knowledge production termed Mode 2. The licentiate thesis is built on three essays which together form my main arguments around the epistemological questions of if and how it is possible to gain and attain knowledge, and how its value might be ascertained. In the three essays I have attempted to illustrate some aspects of and possible hindrances to understanding and knowledge, while addressing what a feminist technoscience epistemology could signify for knowledge production. My intention in these three essays has also been to emphasize the ideological foundation of epistemological understandings, its implications both on what is viewed and valued as knowledge, and on what purpose knowledge production and research should have for and in society. In relation to these discussions I have tried to underline how feminist technoscience, as a research field, should be open to ongoing discussions about its own methodological, epistemological and ideological stances and its effects on research and society.
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Luff, Tracy L. "The construction of social problems and the experience of human service programs: contradictory relations in a support group for adolescent mothers." Diss., Virginia Tech, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/40469.
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The patterned interactions in a support group for adolescent mothers are analyzed in the context of the specific construction(s) of adolescent pregnancy and motherhood that legitimate the program's existence. Particular attention is paid to the way in which staff and clients are positioned vis a vis one another through the typification of the program's mission and goals. Data analyzed include field notes recorded during ten months of participant observation with the group, program documents describing the history, mission, and goals of the program, and an in-depth interview with the Program Director. Changes in funding patterns led to an increased emphasis on the prevention of child abuse as a goal of the program. The resulting expectations of program staff and assumptions about adolescent mothers cast these two groups of women into social identities containing inherent contradictions. Differences of social class further complicate the relationship between the groups. Varying strategies of self-presentation are employed by clients and staff as they struggle with these contradictions. The young mothers present themselves in ways that maintain distance between themselves and staff. While the staff are never completely successful and breaking down the barriers between themselves and the young mothers, one style of self-presentation has the potential to bridge the gap. The findings have practical implications for the design and implementation of human service programs, particularly those which address stigmatized categories of women. The findings also have theoretical implications relevant to ongoing discussions of feminist epistemology, and the intersection of gender and social class.Ph. D.
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Tai, Yu-Chen. "(W)holistic Feminism: Decolonial Healing in Women of Color Literature." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1459357822.
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Shardlow, Teri. "Problematising Conceptualisations of Gender in Feminist Studies : The Place of Age and Children in the Concept of Gender." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Tema Genus, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-154807.
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Using a feminist poststructuralist approach as a guide, I begin this thesis with the workinghypothesis that gender may be an adult-centred concept in feminist studies. This leads me toask: If the concept of gender in feminist studies is adult-centred, how is this centring formedand maintained? To answer this question, I begin by splitting my analysis into three analyticalsections: age, children, and gender. Although I include age, children, and gender into eachsectional analysis, my main priority in the first two sections is to look at how feminist scholarsdiscuss and use the terms age and child(ren). In the gender section, I use three canonical gendertheory texts as the basis of my analysis, where I see how gender is discussed and conceptualisedand how both children and age figure in these conceptualisations.One of the main concerns of feminist poststructuralist theory is tackling binaries. However,with the category of age having been often taken for granted in feminist studies, and thereforeunder-theorised, the adult/child binary in the category of age remains largely unchallenged.Instead, where age has been investigated in terms of tackling binaries, the young/old binary hasdominated but has remained centred around the adult; leaving children underacknowledgedand under-theorised in feminist studies age discourse. This under-theorisation of childrenmeans that “child” remains a master status with seemingly unshakeable connotations ofinnocence, vulnerability, and incompetence. Children are those who are not adults and not-yetsubjects. They are understood as being in constant need of care from the competent andcomplete adult. In this thesis, I show how these points, among others, contribute to both theformation and maintenance of the concept of gender as adult-centred.
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Oliveira, Elismênnia Aparecida. "Produção de conhecimento feministas em universidades brasileiras." Universidade Federal de Goiás, 2015. http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/6477.
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In this thesis is discussed and examined the introducing of the feminist production of knowledge in Brazilian University. I am concerned about the challenges, frequency and feminist influences in universities. I achieved, by a qualitative methodology, a reflective research based on possible ways to study the issue which, after a laborious path, led up to the use of three procedures: 1 ) the analysis of the study group leaders programs and research centers found on the Diretório de Grupos e Núcleos CNPq research centers, taking into account the registered groups; 2) the arrangement and analysis of Brazilian feminist literary production concerning to the introduction of feminism in the universities of the country; 3) the analysis of interviews with leaders of seven research centers already scanned. Taking into account the methods, the analyzes were conducted from contemporary social theory, with emphasis on: the feminist theory and epistemology, especially: post-structuralist, including the production of the ‘Third World’ feminists and post and decolonial thought and Subaltern Studies Group and post-structuralism. The union of these options are discussed issues concerning the creation of universities and access to them by the rise of feminism in Brazilian universities. The analysis points out the influences of the permanence of the colonization process, still in force and the consequence that, among others, is the invisibility of feminist knowledge production in Brazilian universities. Also, this process exhibit the difficulty of the rise of both women researchers in general and feminist researchers in particular until the most prestigious positions in various areas of science, this event occurs in Brazil and other countries. Finally, the research shows that there is a homogenization in the production of knowledge which hinders the spread of new looks and new epistemologies.
Nesta dissertação abordo e analiso a inserção da produção de conhecimento feminista em universidades brasileiras por feministas brasileiras. Atentando-me para os desafios, recorrências e influências feministas nas universidades realizei, por metodologia qualitativa, uma pesquisa reflexiva a partir dos caminhos possíveis para estudar o tema que, após um árduo trajeto, resultou no uso de três métodos: 1) análise curricular de líderes de grupos e núcleos de pesquisa mapeados no Diretório de Grupos de Pesquisado CNPq, tendo em conta os grupos cadastrados; 2) mapeamento e análise das produções bibliográficas de feministas brasileiras sobre a inserção do feminismo nas universidades do país e; 3) análise de entrevistas com líderes de sete núcleos de pesquisa mapeados. Tendo em vista os métodos, as análises foram realizadas a partir da teoria social contemporânea, com ênfase em: teorias e epistemologias feministas, destacando-se: epistemologia feminista e estudos descoloniais, incluindo a produção de feministas ‘terceiro-mundistas’, estudos subalternos e pós-estruturalismo. Da junção dessas escolhas são tratadas problemáticas em relação à criação das universidades e ao acesso a elas junto ao emergir do feminismo nas universidades brasileiras. As análises apontam para a permanência de influências do processo de colonização, ainda vigente e cuja consequência, entre outras, é a invisibilidade da produção de conhecimento feminista nas universidades brasileiras. Este processo se expressa também na dificuldade de ascensão tanto de mulheres pesquisadoras em geral quanto de pesquisadoras feministas e pesquisadoras feministas negras em particular às posições de mais alto prestígio nas diversas áreas das ciências, fato que ocorre tanto no Brasil quanto em outros países. Por fim, a pesquisa mostra que há uma homogeneização na produção do conhecimento, dificultando a disseminação diversificada de olhares e epistemologias.
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Ashford, Shetay Nicole. "Our Counter-Life Herstories: The Experiences of African American Women Faculty in U.S. Computing Education." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6171.
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The purpose of this life history qualitative study was to explore the Counter-Life Herstories of African American women faculty in U.S. Computing Education. Counter-Life Herstories are derived from Counterstories, life histories, and herstories as powerful social justice tools to uncover hidden truths about marginalized groups’ experiences. Through the collection of timelines, counter-life story interviews, and reflective journal writings, I co-constructed and interpreted the Counter-Life Herstories of five participants using an integrative conceptual framework that included critical race theory and Black feminist thought as interpretive frameworks, and Afrocentric feminist epistemology to govern my knowledge validation process. As an emerging African American woman scholar, with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, I have a “unique angle of vision” to situate African American women’s distinctive educational experiences in the social-political context of U.S. Computing Education. In this study, I build upon limited knowledge about African American women’s experiences throughout U.S. Computing Education. My discoveries indicated unequivocally that my participants’ persistence in U.S. Computing Education was not solely based on their early positive reinforcements or strong academic preparation, but their resilience and ability to bounce back from insurmountable barriers, such as negative stereotypes and biases. This inquiry directly supports the U.S.’ national interest to diversify the Computing workforce, while revealing hidden truths about African American women’s experiences in U.S. Computing Education.
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O'neill, Megan Elizabeth. "From Reflection to Reflexivity: Challenging Students' Conceptions of Writing, Self, and Society in the Community Writing Classroom." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/77360.
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This dissertation, "From Reflection to Reflexivity: Challenging Students' Conceptions of Writing, Self, and Society in the Community Writing Classroom," examines the disconnect that characterizes much of the discussion of reflective writing in community writing studies and argues for the potential of reflexivity as a concept to further develop the kinds of reflective writing assigned in community writing classrooms. Many practitioners and scholars view reflective writing as a potentially powerful tool that may help students learn challenging or abstract theories and practices from their own community writing experiences. With such potential, it can be disappointing when student reflective writing does not achieve teacher expectations of critical thinking and analysis, stopping before critical engagement and understanding is achieved. Instead, it often centers on students' personal feelings and motivations that shape or arise from their community experiences. This dissertation argues that one reason for such a disconnect between teacher expectations and actual student writing, comes from the word "reflection" itself. While a traditional understanding of reflective writing asks students to look back on their experiences, observations, feelings, and opinions, community writing teachers use the term "reflection" with qualifiers like "critical," "sustained," or "intellectually rich." In qualifying their expectations for reflective writing, teachers are in fact asking for something very different from reflection, namely, reflexivity. When reflexive thinking is presented to students as "qualified reflection" it loses the considerable theoretical grounding that makes it a particularly unique way of using experiences as the foundation for inquiry. Building on theories of epistemological reflexivity for researchers in the social sciences, this dissertation highlights the methodological reflexivity theorized and practiced by feminist researchers. Feminist reflexivity specifically affords researchers more nuanced ways of looking at issues of positionality, social transformation, and agency. Such strategies have the potential for moving student reflections from private writings toward writings that impact students' understandings of the rhetorical and theoretical issues that community writing hopes to illustrate. This combination of feminist reflexivity and community writing reflections can provide community writing theorists and practitioners with alternative ways to solve reflective writing's challenges.Ph. D.
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Pecero, Veronica Flores. "Rise Up: Exploring the First Year Experiences of Latina Doctoral Students at Predominantly White Institutions." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1480646788839175.
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Chatman, Lara. "Keeping my Sistas through the Storm: Counterstories of African American Women Graduate Students Seeking Good Mentorship in Troubling Spaces and Places." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1321891057.
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Shahid, Kyra T. "Finding Eden: How Black Women Use Spirituality to Navigate Academia." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1398960840.
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Svedmark, Eva. "Becoming Together and Apart : technoemotions and other posthuman entanglements." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för informatik, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-120195.
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Using social media and norm-breaking material as an empirical touchstone this thesis elaborates, investigates and explores the entangled relationships between humans and technology in social media settings. Guided by uncomfortable, emotional and bodily online sharing the thesis gives voice to stories that are seldom heard, by people whose lives are rarely spoken of. By exploring the performative entanglements of/with/through technology, design and human intent the overall aim is to offer a critical and new understanding of our online togetherness and posthuman becoming. The conceptual framework throughout the thesis is based on posthuman theory and feminist technoscience, two closely connected theories providing a new onto-epistemological way of understanding the world’s becoming. The thesis should be seen as the product of an empirical practice of making theory about digital things, culture, humans and non-humans. By exploring diffraction and touch as not only theoretical standpoints but also hands-on methodology the thesis contributes to the development of new ways of doing research. Important findings arising from the practice of diffraction and touch are Technoemotions – conceptually agents built on a posthuman understanding of how emotions are entangled between and within the phenomenon, becoming important agents in the apparatus creating the phenomenon. Four Technoemotions seem particularly prominent in the material: Trust, Truth, Time and Embodiment. The thesis concludes by providing a discussion on critical alternatives for ethics, politics and power in relation to social media and the norms and norm-breaking practices most of us participate in. The responsibility and ability to respond are addressed, as well as social justice and hope for the future to come.Sociala medier har för många människor blivit en naturlig del av vardagen där den digitala gemenskapen är lika viktig som den analoga. På platser så som Facebook, Twitter, bloggar och Instagram kommunicerar vi genom att dela med oss av tankar, händelse och åsikter i vår vardag. Vi varvar bilder från vår semester med politiska artiklar, delar vidare kloka citat eller resultatet från ett test av något slag, skryter på våra barn, filmar våra husdjur, delar med oss av sjukdomstillstånd och barnafödande och allt annat som en vardag kan vara fylld av. Just själva delandet är ett viktigt fundament i sociala mediers blivande och dess design är ofta optimerad för att kunna dela samma inlägg till flera olika sociala plattformar med ett enkelt klick. Denna avhandling handlar om hur vi genom sociala medier blir tillsammans på nätet, hur vi formar varandra men även hur vi formas av de tekniska scripts och den design som sociala medier är uppbyggt av. I avhandlingen får läsaren ta del av ett stort normbrytande empiriskt material. Med avstamp i detta normbrytande undersöker sedan författaren hur feministisk teknovetenskap och posthumanistisk teori kan användas som konkret metod för analys. Genom att applicera både närhet och diffraktion till det normbrytande empiriska materialet finner författaren det hon valt att kalla Teknoemotioner – konceptuella agenter som har sitt ursprung i sammanflätningar av digitala, sociala, mänskliga och icke-mänskliga material och kompositioner. Fyra teknoemotioner är särskilt framträdande, dessa är: förtroende, sanning, tid och förkroppsligande men författaren nämner också friktion och frusna berättelser som viktiga för att förstå fenomenet normbrytande delningar i sociala medier. Förtroende, sanning, tid och förkroppsligande är teknoemotioner som befinner sig i mellanrummet mellan skilda delningspraktiker i sociala medier. Dessas teknoemotioner skapar förutsättningar och påverkar upplevelser, ger indikationer om möjliga skillnader och likheter som är av betydelse för hur vi blir tillsammans med digitala material genom sociala medier. Författaren ger exempel på att det visserligen ofta är först i sin frånvaro som teknoemotioner blir uppenbara och får agens. Därmed konstaterar författaren att teknoemotioner också ofta är sin motsats. Analysen visar vidare att användare ofta uppfattar teknoemotionerna som valbara, exempelvis sanning. I sociala medier är sanning ofta en komplex agent, som ifrågasätts eller behandlat som något var och en får/kan avgöra på egen hand. Förtroende likaså. Med teknoemotionen, förkroppsligande, framgår också en tvetydighet, där kroppen (den fysiska) saknas i det virtuella rummet även om digitala kroppar är högst närvarande. Kan det vara så att känslan av anonymitet växer sig starkare om jag kan välja att vara i eller utanför min kropp? Slutligen, tid. Tid är inte detsamma på internet som vi är vana. Där är tid ett högt arbiträrt begrepp och vi befinner oss i vår historia, samtid och till viss del även får framtid simultant. Avhandlingen avslutas med en metareflektion över hur det är möjligt att skapa kunskap om komplexa posthumanistiska fenomen där mänsklig handlingsförmåga vävs samman med digitala material och dess skilda rationaliteter. Genom att efterfråga alternativa ideal för kunskapsutveckling och design där etik, politik och makt är viktiga inslag hoppas författaren på en kritisk och alternativ förståelse av den verklighetsproduktion som sociala medier (och andra posthumana fenomen) bidrar till.
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Haro, Zelda. "Narratives of Successful Navigation: A Sociocultural Study of Self-identified Latin@ Undergraduate Students." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/20699.
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Narratives of successful navigation are the personal stories of 13 Latin@ undergraduate students who navigated the public school system and completed high school in the United States. Their words recount their individual journeys resulting in their enrollment at a 4-year research university in the Pacific Northwest as opposed to a 2-year community college. More than half of the study respondents begun their postsecondary studies at a community college. The navigation of these particular individuals were experienced differently than those respondents whose trajectory led them straight into the university. Three categories corresponding to the study’s three research questions were analyzed. First, common challenges produced two themes, low social economics status (SES) and ethnic identity. Second, the category on persistence characteristics formulated only one construct, academic self-efficacy. Third, three interlocking themes of supportive factors fostering academic success were identified, the support of parents/ family members/peers, non-familial agents in the form of teachers, and lastly college readiness including AP or honors coursework. The thematic analysis of the respondents’ stories was influenced by the literature that documents challenges historically impeding Latin@ academic achievement and by the research on both persistence and supportive factors. The analyses of the individual navigational experience of the study participants found similarities within their experiences, but it also revealed the complexity of their own singular stories. The study centered more on the aspirations of Latin@ students rather than the damaging effects of their schooling experiences. While some of the respondents’ stories contain examples of challenges, the premise was in representing examples of successful navigation of the Chican@/Latin@ education pipeline (Solórzano, 1998).
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Nilsson, Aila. "INCLUDING HERSTORY IN HISTORY -A gender-based policy analysis of Participatory Rangeland Management in relation to Participation, Influence and Empowerment." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-85168.
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This thesis examines how preparatory, policy and review documents of the Participatory Rangeland Management (PRM) in East Africa, problematize and represent the ‘problems’ which resulted in the design of the development program. The focus is on how these problematizations can hinder or facilitate participation, influence and empowerment of women and marginalized groups in decision-making processes. The findings are based on a gender-based policy analysis undertaken of five documents written by the NGOs involved in the planning and implementation of PRM in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. A conceptual framework measuring the level of participation, empowerment and influence was constructed to assess the policies and their possible outcomes. The document analysis showed that the implicit ‘problem’ themes identified appeared to be that communities were unmodern, undeveloped, and had under-representation of women and pastoralists in rangeland management. These problematizations seem to originate from a development discourse characterized by solutions focussing on ‘modernization’ and ‘technical fixes’. These pre-conceived ideas of the ’problems’ call for more communication and inclusion of community groups in problem formulation and program design. The analysis further revealed that expert-assisted and gender-mainstreaming initiatives such as the PRM could have a positive impact on the level of participation, influence, and empowerment of women. When training was carried out for both women and men by the PRM to raise awareness of women’s rights, it resulted in an increased number of women participating in activities. However, gender-mainstreaming should not stop with participation, it should be further developed towards influence and empowerment. The PRM could consider promoting a change of power relations by combining efforts to demonstrate the benefits of meaningful consultations to decision-makers and efforts to enhance the knowledge and skills of marginalized groups so that they can better engage with these decision-makers. Furthermore, there is a need to expand the discussion on how to design gender-mainstreaming policies and practices, without labelling women as one.
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Singh, Robyn. "Exploring psychological distress among a sample of pregnant women from a low income area who self-identify as being distressed." University of the Western Cape, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6256.
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Magister Artium - MA (Psychology)Psychological distress during pregnancy has been a fairly neglected phenomenon and has only recently started emerging as an area of research interest. The existing body of scholarship on distress during pregnancy has largely been conducted from a positivist paradigm, emphasising the identification, incidences and risks. There is thus a dearth of qualitative inquiry into pregnant women's experiences and accounts of distress. In an attempt to address these gaps within the literature, my study explored psychological distress among a group of pregnant women from socio-economically disadvantaged contexts. The specific objectives of my study was to explore how pregnant women conceptualised psychological distress within the context of pregnancy; the feelings or symptoms of psychological distress; what pregnant women perceived as its causes; and the psychosocial needs of pregnant women in relation to antenatal distress. This study was guided by a feminist approach and a feminist standpoint epistemology in particular. This lent itself to exploring the phenomenon while departing from a clinical, decontextualised position which translated into an investigation with pregnant women who subjectively perceived themselves to be distressed.
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Caretta, Martina Angela. "East African Hydropatriarchies : An analysis of changing waterscapes in smallholder irrigation farming." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Kulturgeografiska institutionen, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-120591.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the local waterscapes of two smallholder irrigation farming systems in the dry lands of East African in a context of socio-ecological changes. It focuses on three aspects: institutional arrangements, gender relations and landscape investments. This thesis is based on a reflexive analysis of cross-cultural, cross-language research, particularly focusing on the role of field assistants and interpreters, and on member checking as a method to ensure validity. Flexible irrigation infrastructure in Sibou, Kenya, and Engaruka, Tanzania, allow farmers to shift the course of water and to extend or reduce the area cultivated depending on seasonal rainfall patterns. Water conflicts are avoided through a decentralized common property management system. Water rights are continuously renegotiated depending on water supply. Water is seen as a common good the management of which is guided by mutual understanding to prevent conflicts through participation and shared information about water rights. However, participation in water management is a privilege that is endowed mostly to men. Strict patriarchal norms regulate control over water and practically exclude women from irrigation management. The control over water usage for productive means is a manifestation of masculinity. The same gender bias has emerged in recent decades as men have increased their engagement in agriculture by cultivating crops for sale. Women, because of their subordinated position, cannot take advantage of the recent livelihood diversification. Rather, the cultivation of horticultural products for sale has increased the workload for women who already farm most food crops for family consumption. In addition, they now have to weed and harvest the commercial crops that their husbands sell for profit. This agricultural gender divide is mirrored in men´s and women´s response to increased climate variability. Women intercrop as a risk adverting strategy, while men sow more rounds of crops for sale when the rain allows for it. Additionally, while discursively underestimated by men, women´s assistance is materially fundamental to maintaining of the irrigation infrastructure and to ensuring the soil fertility that makes the cultivation of crops for sale possible. In sum, this thesis highlights the adaptation potentials of contemporary smallholder irrigation systems through local common property regimes that, while not inclusive towards women, avoid conflicts generated by shifting water supply and increased climate variability. To be able to assess the success and viability of irrigation systems, research must be carried out at a local level. By studying how local water management works, how conflicts are adverted through common property regimes and how these systems adapt to socio-ecological changes, this thesis provides insights that are important both for the planning of current irrigation schemes and the rehabilitation or the extension of older systems. By investigating the factors behind the consistent marginalization of women from water management and their subordinated role in agricultural production, this study also cautions against the reproduction of these discriminatory norms in the planning of irrigation projects.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.
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Webster, Natasha Alexandra. "Gender and Social Practices in Migration : A case study of Thai women in rural Sweden." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Kulturgeografiska institutionen, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-134565.
Full textAbstract:
Set within discussions of gender, migration and social practices, this thesis explores the ways in which Thai women migrants to Sweden build connections between rural areas through their daily activities. Arriving in Sweden primarily through marriage ties, Thai women migrants are more likely to live in Swedish rural areas than in urban areas. Rural areas are typically not seen as a site of globalization or as receivers of international migrants. In contrast to these perceptions, the case of Thai women migrants in the Swedish countryside reveals a complex and vigorous set of social practices that connect rural Sweden across spatial and temporal scales. The aim of this study is to explore the ways in which Thai migrant women construct and implement social practices spatially and temporally. Drawing on the life stories of 16 Thai women living in Sweden, along with other sources of empirical data analysed within feminist epistemologies, this thesis discusses: In what ways does gender shape migrant social practices? How are social practices constructed within individual migrant micro-geographies? By what means are migrant social practices contextualized by spaces and places? Thai women migrants are gendered agents of these social practices and are utilizing specific resources, objects and networks to bridge the distances found in their daily lives. The empirical material examined in this thesis points to the importance of women’s everyday social practices in connecting and linking rural areas globally at different spatial and temporal scales. The results highlight the importance of a translocalism perspective to understanding gendered social practices. This study adds to the translocal discussion by demonstrating that social practices are embedded in multiple geographic sites and scales. Thai women migrants, in this study, emerge as significant actors in global countrysides and do the functional work of bringing spaces and places together daily and through their life course. This thesis consists of an introductory chapter and five papers. The introductory chapter outlines the context and theoretical approaches to understanding Thai migration flows to Sweden. The papers share an emphasis on local sites: homes, workplaces and community. They examine different ways that women construct and build social practices – for example, through food, community projects and in developing their businesses.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Submitted. Paper 5: Submitted.