Digital Commons Network^™

Marginalization In The Future Of Work: The Role Of Intersectional Identities And Platforms In The Trajectories Of Online Freelancers, Isabel Munoz

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines how platforms and identity attributes such as gender, race and occupation mediate individuals’ evolving participation and outcomes in online freelancing. I approach the investigation through an intersectionality lens to build insight into the dynamics of workers’ identity attributes and how these are embedded in online freelancing platforms. The research design draws on a longitudinal panel study with 108 online freelancers, working on Upwork.com. More than 400 interview and survey responses as well as secondary platform data are incorporated in the study’s analysis. Findings illuminate that platforms reinforce and exacerbate gender, race and occupation stereotypes. Data also demonstrate …

Exploring The Metaphysics Of Grief, Carolyn Garland

Dissertations - ALL

The goal of this dissertation is to develop an understanding of grief utterances: expressions of grief that in losing a loved one, the bereaved lost a part of herself. Grief utterances are commonplace, and their accompanying phenomenology suggests they are true. That gives us reason to think they are true. But if they are, what makes them true? I establish two potential answers to this question, ultimately favoring one according to which when a loved one dies we lose parts of our practical identities.

Chapter One introduces and sets up this topic it. It then focuses on the extent to …

Exploring The Metaphysics Of Grief, Carolyn Garland

Dissertations - ALL

The goal of this dissertation is to develop an understanding of grief utterances: expressions of grief that in losing a loved one, the bereaved lost a part of herself. Grief utterances are commonplace, and their accompanying phenomenology suggests they are true. That gives us reason to think they are true. But if they are, what makes them true? I establish two potential answers to this question, ultimately favoring one according to which when a loved one dies we lose parts of our practical identities.

Chapter One introduces and sets up this topic it. It then focuses on the extent to …

“Because I Did What She Told Me To Do.” Understanding The Identity Work Of Elementary Students Of Color In The Science Classroom And How A Teacher’S Positionality Impacts Student Learning, Terrance Burgess

Dissertations - ALL

This study examines how a classroom of elementary students of color constructed their science identities at a time in which the Next Generation Science Standards were taking root within their school’s science program. While the standards were developed under the paradigm of science being representative of a body of knowledge informed by student experiences, this study chronicles how elementary students reconciled their multiple identities (as a student, a person of color, and a scientist—their identity work) within the bounds of their classroom and community. In addition, the teacher’s positionality and the curriculum materials were studied to understand how they tended …

Some Reservations: Food Tourism, The Food-Selfie, And Everyday Life Performances On Instagram, Alexander Charles Breth

Theses - ALL

Food is the very lifeblood of who we are; it brings us together, defines our cultures, and provides us the vital nourishment we need to survive. However, with the rise of social media platforms that encourage image-sharing, images of food have become increasingly significant in regard to how we understand our communicative choices and habits online. In this project, I trace a lineage of popular food media aesthetics from cable and streaming television shows through the online social media platform Instagram, to argue that an expanded understanding of the “food-selfie” helps one articulate how and why they share images of …

Challenging Our Sense Of Ourselves: Teacher Leaders' Transformative Learning Experiences, Karen Marie Humphrey

Dissertations - ALL

It is important to understand the ways teacher leaders undergo a transformation of their professional selves as they move from being a teacher to teacher leader. This qualitative study examined the ways teacher leaders made sense of their teacher leadership experiences, thus, exploring the changes in their beliefs, values, and perspectives as they expand their educational capacity in that role. This study used transformative learning theory as the framework to explore the phenomenon. Transformative learning theory is a theory of adult learning and is understood as a way of making meaning of our experiences that “transforms problematic frames of reference …

Narrating Political Disability Identity, Steven J. Singer

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation documented the political disability identities of nine disabled adults. It also explored how these disabled adults enacted their political disability identities. I used narrative analysis to analyze the data, which included life history interviews and the authoring of memoirs. From these memoirs, the participants (Narrators) and I selected critical moments in the formation of the political disability identities. The findings show Narrators shifted or shaped their political identities when strangers pushed them beyond their personal limits by spouting ableist norms. Narrators also developed their political disability identities when they had access to political discourse and the relative freedom …

Operating Outside Of Empire: Trading Citizenship In The Atlantic World, 1783-1815, Mark Dragoni

Dissertations - ALL

Operating Outside of Empire: Trading Citizenship in the Atlantic World, 1783-1815, looks at markets and ships as spaces for negotiation between merchants and the state. The dissertation follows the experiences of former British colonists in America who won independence and then immediately tried to find a way to get back into the British empire. For American merchants, such as Nicholas Low, William Constable, and Thomas Handasyd Perkins, the inconsistently-governed Caribbean provided an entry point to the greater British Atlantic and the markets of the empire. These merchants won access by exploiting the opportunities offered by environmental catastrophes, slave rebellions and …

"I Am Not A Hijra": Transgender Women Claiming Citizenship In South India, Liz Mount

Dissertations - ALL

Through an 18-month ethnographic study conducted with hijras (gender non-conforming people assigned male at birth), newly emerging transwomen, and Dosti, a large NGO in Bangalore, India, this dissertation argues that transgender women claim citizenship by drawing distinct borders between themselves and hijras and positioning hijras as undeserving of the rights of citizenship, thus bolstering their own citizenship claims. This exploration of gender non-conforming people’s citizenship claims in the global South responds to a call for queer studies scholars to consider how citizenship operates among sexual and gender variant people in global South contexts (Richardson 2017). While the identity rubric of …

Que Salgamos Más Adelante: Identity, Community, And The Desire For Development In Oaxaca, Mexico, Lori Klivak

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines how the desire to salir adelante, to improve oneself and one’s community, motivates townspeople to participate in development projects that promise to support and strengthen their pueblo. More specifically, I examine the material, social, and moral dimensions of progress and development, and the various ways indigenous people claim their place in the modern world. I am interested in the ways Zapotec people in Oaxaca, Mexico engage with development strategies and make them amenable to their own cultural practices and values. I am likewise interested in the extent to which the skills, habits, orientations and identities generated through …

Identity Creation And World-Building Through Discourse In Video Game Narratives, Barbara Jedruszczak

Dissertations - ALL

An exploration of how characters develop identity through language use in a video game’s narrative, specifically in video games that do not allow for players to make narrative-altering choices. The concept of literacies is used to create a critical framework through which to view video games themselves as a literacy, as well as to view them as a discourse. This thesis analyzes how dialogue is used to develop and showcase gender, sexuality, personality, moral identity in characters in and out of the player’s control, as well as how dialogue builds the narrative world in which these characters exist. This thesis …

Meeting At Mom's: The Crisis Of Identity Within The Black Community In Syracuse, New York, Anne-Margaret Childress

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

This thesis uses a multi-sited ethnographic methodology based on interviews conducted in Syracuse, New York to examine the multiracial identity and living conditions of persons of African descent. The theorization in this project utilizes the Black Arts Movement and African Conscious theater frameworks to create an analytical play in which the black community becomes aware of itself through artistic expression that centers on what Larry Neal once described as the &;#8220;black aesthetic.&;#8221; Moreover, it examines identity within the black community &;#8211;identity that is not the product of mainstream societal conceptions of race and color, but is the result of …

Privileged Resistance: Prisoners Of Conscience In The United States, 1980-2013, Anya Stanger

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation tells the story of modern anti-war prisoners of conscience in the United States-people who are incarcerated for six months or more as a result of nonviolent resistance. It explores how they intentionally use and learn about their own privilege in solidarity actions that land them in the belly of the imperial beast; the prison. It traces the lives of forty three such prisoners of conscience, from discernment of action through release, to show how "who they are" (in terms of their visible identities and private senses of self) impacts their experiences, the ways they are understood, and their …

Is Faith On The Campus Tour? Rural, Public College Students' Exploration Of Spiritual And Religious Identity, Tamara Durant

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

This dissertation examined how students of diverse spiritual or religious beliefs or worldviews at a rural, public college interpreted, made meaning of, and drew upon their spirituality in relation to other aspects of their identity (e.g., race, gender, sexual identity), focusing particularly on the intersections of students' multiple marginalized identities. It was a single-site, qualitative study involving 20 participants attending a rural, mid-sized, predominantly-White northeastern public university. The researcher used semi-structured, in-person interviews, gathering and analyzing data using symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969) with the critical stance possible from applying the lens of the Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of …

Khwaja Sira: Culture, Identity Politics, And "Transgender" Activism In Pakistan, Faris Ahmed Khan

Dissertations - ALL

In 2009, the Pakistani Supreme Court began granting rights to gender ambiguous people who are locally known as khwaja siras. The Court organized this population into taxonomic groups and ordered the government to `mainstream' them. These actions were based on certain cultural assumptions and occurred amid uncertainties about who khwaja siras really were. Meanwhile, khwaja siras began to mobilize in an effort to control their public image. Based on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork on the identity politics of khwaja siras in Karachi, this dissertation seeks to understand the ways in which gender ambiguous people constructed, negotiated and represented themselves …

Aspiring Literacy Specialists' (Un)Certainty: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Elizabeth Years Stevens

Dissertations - ALL

The purpose of this study was to explore the identities and discourses of 10 students who were completing their Literacy Education MS studies to gain certification as literacy specialists. More specifically, it asked: 1) What do beginning literacy specialists' discourses reveal about their evolving identities? 2) On what discourses do they draw? 3) How are situational, institutional, and societal contexts implicated?

A sociocultural view that context, history, culture, discourse, power, and ideologies influence literacy, instruction, and teacher identity grounded this study. The analysis drew on Gee's (2000) notions of identity and discourse. It used critical discourse analysis to consider the …

Experiencing Citizenship In A Globalizing World: The Impact Of Off-Campus Programs, Ryan Owen Williams

Political Science - Dissertations

College serves as a critical time in the lives of young adults in the formulation of their identification with citizenship, of their sense of belonging or affiliation. In an era of increasing globalization, this psychological dimension of citizenship requires further research and elaboration. This project seeks to determine if and how the academic and off-campus choices students make in college impact their worldview, their loyalties and sense of responsibility toward others. How far do students' allegiances extend and what experiences in college help to create these bonds and commitments? This study asks whether international experience via study abroad is a …

Becoming Artifacts: Medieval Seals, Passports And The Future Of Digital Identity, Mawaki Chango

School of Information Studies - Dissertations

What does a digital identity token have to do with medieval seals? Is the history of passports of any use for enabling the discovery of Internet users' identity when crossing virtual domain boundaries during their digital browsing and transactions? The agility of the Internet architecture and its simplicity of use have been the engines of its growth and success with the users worldwide. As it turns out, there lies also its crux. In effect, Internet industry participants have argued that the critical problem business is faced with on the Internet is the absence of an identity layer from the core …

Chinese American Women, Identity And Education: A Qualitative Study, Qing Li

Cultural Foundations of Education - Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study explores how Chinese American women, as American-born children of new Chinese immigrants, have perceived and interpreted who they are, and how they become who they are while adapting to American society and negotiating with the interplay of race, ethnicity, class, and gender. Drawing on in-depth interviews with twenty-seven Chinese American women from two universities located on the East Coast, I argue that their segmented assimilation processes involving ongoing negotiations between maintaining ties with their ethnic and cultural backgrounds and selective integration into the mainstream of the society, which, to some extent, are subject to and predetermined by …

Intimate Allies: Identity, Community, And Everyday Activism Among Cisgender People With Trans-Identified Partners, Avery Brooks Tompkins

Sociology - Dissertations

This dissertation blends traditional ethnographic data from interviews and observations with digital ethnographic data from blogs and YouTube videos to present stories of identity, community, and activist-oriented experiences from white cisgender women who are partnered with trans-identified people on the FTM spectrum. The project addresses the following broad questions: How does being the cisgender partner of a trans person inform complexities around the ability to articulate sexual identity? How are cisgender partners finding community and organizing themselves into new forms of community when they often lack language with which to describe their relationships? In what ways are cisgender people allies …