Digital Commons Network^™

Trans And Genderqueer Military Service Member-Veterans: An Acculturation Phenomenology Of Civilian Reintegration, Joseph A. Galluzzo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As United States military policy continues to evolve and affirm the accession and retention of trans and genderqueer (TGQ) service members, more TGQ people will join and ultimately separate from military service. Reintegration is a term that represents the experience of beginning to separate from the military and transitioning into civilian life, and those who encounter it are referred to as military service member-veterans (MSMVs). Though empirical knowledge of reintegration for MSMVs overall continues to improve, cultural relevance has only recently been considered, and no research has investigated the reintegration experiences of TGQ MSMVs specifically. The primary purpose of this …

Navigating The Athletic Terrain For Transgender Athletes: Identity, Policy, And The Future, Lia M. Bevins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transgender athletes face scrutiny because they do not fit within the traditional and constructed bounds of male and female. The objective of this study was to discover how to provide advocacy to this marginalized population amidst discriminating policies and transphobic environments. The research included a survey of high school coaches from thirty schools throughout Tennessee along with interviews with five transgender athletes from across the United States. All five athletes reported that leaders were the most impactful allies in their lives and can be the main sources of advocacy for transgender athletes. Survey findings showed that not every coach throughout …

Social Work, Social Justice, And The Causes To Which We Are Called: Attitudes, Ally Behavior, And Activism, Brittanie Atteberry Ash

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a profession, social work has codified within its ethical guidance and educational policies a commitment to social justice. While social justice is enumerated in several guiding documents, social work continues to lack consensus on both the meaning and merit of social justice (Abramovitz, 1993; Funge, 2011; Hong & Hodge, 2009; Specht & Courtney, 1995; Van Soest & Garcia, 2003). Due to the lack of agreement within the profession about the centrality and meaning of social justice, many educational practices, attitudes, and actions of those working within the profession may not align with socially just ideals that are codified in …

Vlogging Truth To Power : A Qualitative Study Of Resilience As Practiced By Transgender Youtube Content Creators., Corey J. Feger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an exploratory account of ways that transgender people’s personal YouTube channels, or “vlogs,” provide new avenues to cultivate resilience as a collective. To make sense of this unstable, contested model of identity and community, I apply a three-part model of “social resilience,” a theory of resilience that transcends the individual and welcomes incoherency, contradiction, and “messiness” into its analysis. In Chapter One, I provide a snapshot of transgender history and present my research objective and justification. Chapter Two consists of a literature review and argues in favor of a hybrid theory of intersectionality and assemblage. Chapter Three …

"We Were Queens": Historical Loss Among Native Hawaiians: Exploring Historical Trauma-Informed Suicide Prevention, Antonia Rose Garriga Alvarez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Native Hawaiian people, and especially lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, māhū and/or queer (LGBTQM) Native Hawaiians, face health and mental health disparities that are disproportionate when compared with other racial/ethnic minorities in Hawai`i, and when compared to the United States as a whole. Native Hawaiians have the highest mortality rates for numerous biomedical diseases, including higher rates of substance abuse, diabetes, and even asthma, of any ethnic group in the state of Hawai`i (Andrade et al., 2006; Liu & Alameda, 2011). Suicide rates, in particular, have been rising since Hawai`i began collecting data in 1908 (Else & Andrade, 2008), and continue …

Identities Without Origins : Fat/Trans Subjectivity And The Possibilities Of Plurality., Mc Lampe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project draws upon the work of Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Donna Haraway to critically analyze the political power and utility of origin stories as they are used within discourses of identity. I specifically examine the dominant cultural and counter-origin stories of transgender and fat bodies and argue that the counter origin stories constructed by both trans and fat studies/activism continue to engage with norms that regulate identity. These regulations create an impossible situation for individuals who are both trans and fat as they are not recognized as intelligible subjects within either category due to their lack of appropriate …

Jotería-Historias: Theories From The Fringes, Robert Mitchell Gutierrez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By collecting the cultural/historical narratives of gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (GBTQ) Chicanos of Colorado, this research project locates theories in the flesh, or theories of resistance and agency, in the forms of cuentos, pláticas, chismé, mitos, testimonios, and consejos to explicate a queer of color performance of intersectional and decolonial politics. To set the context, several historical and political snapshots of GBTQ Chicano experience over the last 500 years are reviewed to demonstrate how communication about, for, and between GBTQ Chicanos operate in a liminal state (nepantla) where violence, marginalization, and oppression are …

Trans Mississippi, Jessi Hotakainen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is the accompanying paper to the documentary thesis Trans Mississippi, which explores the lives of two transgender individuals living in Mississippi. This thesis outlines the theoretical underpinnings, as well as the director's methodology in producing the film and its justification.

Transmission: Premium Television Characters Outside Of The Gender Binary, Daniel L. Ketchum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Five fictional characters have emerged on the U.S. premium-pay-cable channels that blur the traditional male-or-female gender divide. The basics of queer theory (sex, gender, orientation, and transgender) and critical/cultural studies (encoding, decoding, and reading a text) are explained as a basis for the analysis of the characters, which seeks to answer the research question: does the premium-pay-cable television format offer truly empathetic non-binary transgender characters that challenge the dominant American ideologies about gender identity and expression? If so, how? If not, why not?

Shane McCutcheon from Showtime’s lesbian melodrama The L Word (2004- 2010), Lafayette Reynolds from HBO’s supernatural drama-comedy …

The Immaculate Condemnation, Corey Robertson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My work is a continuously evolving self portrait formulated by a combination of past experiences and influences. The Immaculate Condemnation body of work is a cathartic reaction that confronts Catholic Sin and rebels against gender conformity. As both a confirmed Catholic and transgender woman, I speak from an authentic voice that seeks open conversation regarding these topics. I also hope to demystify the transsexual body for the non-transgendered viewer. Additionally, I use allegoric imagery to communicate my interpretation of beauty, power, horror, and sex. I combine performance, photography, sculpture, video, audio, and graphic design to execute my installations. I intentionally …

Male-To-Female Transsexual Individuals' Experience Of Clinical Relationships: A Phenomological Study, Karen M. Scarpella

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study was designed to gain insight into male-to-female transsexual clients' experience of clinical relationships. Transsexual clients who enter into a clinical relationship have an experience that is unique due to their transsexual status in society. Their circumstances warrant attention in research due to the following factors: 1) the nature of being transsexual 2) the gate-keeping requirements necessary for transition 3) their experience in society as a vulnerable and oppressed population, and, 4) the importance of understanding the transsexual individuals' experience of clinical relationships from the perspective of transsexual clients themselves. Twelve transsexual women were interviewed using semi-structured format …