Sociology Commons^™

Gender Neutral Parenting: Raising A Generation Outside The Gender Binary, Toni Noelle Martinez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, the social and cultural reality remains organized around the gender binary. The binary legitimizes itself on the widely held belief that gender is determined by biology and, therefore, is “natural.” By exploring and firmly placing gender as a cultural construct, this thesis looks at the possibilities of fracturing the binary. Borrowing from Stephan Hirschauer (1994) and Judith Butler’s (2004), this thesis theorizes what a gender neutral world could look like and examines how Gender Neutral Parents contribute toward a gender revolution. Gender Neutral Parents, a community that is mostly found online, represent a small group that …

Kaboom, Karstin Margaret Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This document is a collection of original poems written between Fall 2018 and Spring 2022.

A Rhapsody Wild, Corey Davis

Honors Theses

This thesis is a fictional novel which explores themes of morality and tragedy within the society of a crime-and-murder-ridden city called Spekender. The mayor, Ev Edison, has become a disgraced recluse as a result of the tragic deaths of his wife and unborn child a year and a half prior to when the story takes place. His remaining children (three boys and a girl named Nimble) are left to navigate their disaster-torn worlds in isolation from their father and from each other. All of this changes one day when Nimble encounters a dangerous supernatural character that seems to know everything …

“Go West Young Man, And Grow Up With This Country”: Settler Colonialism, Gender And Property, Connor Van Alstine

Sociology & Anthropology Theses

As a theoretical starting point, this paper takes up Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity which posits that gender configurations are shifting and determined by whichever expectations best motivate behaviors that reinforce a hierarchical and complementary relation between genders. This hierarchical structure, following theorizations by Maria Lugones, is itself a product of the colonial encounter. With this in mind, this paper compares historical shifts in American gender configurations to the material demands of settlement. Utilizing existing research into settler gender identity between 1760 and 1870, it finds that the increasing emphasis on domesticity in gender discourses concretized gender configurations in the …

Reversing Borrón Y Cuenta Nueva: The Curative Power Of Family Memory In The Novels Of Loida Maritza Perez And Nelly Rosario, Ivonne Gonzalez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I examine two novels, Geographies of Home by Loida Maritza Perez and Song of the Water Saints by Nelly Rosario, written by Dominican American authors, to determine how they present identity with relation to family history in conjunction with an analysis of my life and the circumstances that have helped define my identity. I explore how the characters in the texts are affected by the loss of family history, the role that gaze and family memory play in reclaiming that which is lost, and how these all shape identity. The families in the novels seem destined to lead desolate lives; …

Thanks To You, I'M Alive, Antonio Scott Nichols

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Antonio Nichols

Artist Statement:

In this project I am using figurative painting to explore the meaning of relationships/emotion and my connection to the people I am painting. I question what this means and how each individual’s identity ties to mine and why it may or may not matter. “Thanks to You, I’m Alive,” the title of this project, encompasses the message I am sending not only to the individuals I painted but also to the viewer because there is a certain exclusivity in who I decided to paint.

I want the connection I have with these people to not only …

A Labor Of Love: Women's Perspectives On Gender And Identity In Informal Caregiving, Kirby O'Hara Hurd

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The elderly population (adults 65 and over) is larger than at any time in history, thanks to improved access to healthcare, advances in medical technology, and health services focused on addressing the needs of aging adults. However, support for this growing population remains insufficient; the costs of in-home and residential care are high, and consequently, family members often become providers of informal, unpaid care. Presently, there is inadequate literature regarding the academic study of family members providing informal caregiving, especially from a perspective that emphasizes sociological principles and theories. Existing studies of the family caregiver phenomenon show that middle-aged adult …

Desire And Fantasy Between Commercialism And Personal Room, Yukimi Otagiri

Theses and Dissertations

I apply two aspects of my life history to my art; my childhood experiences and my advanced studies in sociology. My work therefore combines a highly personal reading of my experiences of social interactions and my ongoing analysis of the nature of capitalism and socialism, commodification and media, especially in regard to the experiences of women in particular and consumers in general.

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Domestic Violence In The Legal System: The Importance Of Victim Advocates, Joanna Chalifoux

Honors Theses

Domestic violence is an aspect of the legal system where there typically is a lack of communication among the institutions involved. Therefore, the benefit of an interdisciplinary approach to domestic violence in the legal system is assessed by emphasizing the importance of the presence of victim advocates in the courtroom. In this dissertation, the issue will be evaluated through a feminist point of view— with the belief that domestic violence is a gendered phenomenon in which the majority of the perpetrators are male and the victims are female. In order to research this, several judges, lawyers, and victim advocates who …

East African Perspectives Of Family And Community, And How They Can Inform Western Ecclesiology, Ben Strait

M.A. in Family Ministry

East African families and communities function day-to-day as a single living organism. As one participant said, “Life is common.”[1] What he meant by that was that life is shared among the members of a community, whether biologically related relatives or those who live in close proximity with others. Throughout this research, close interaction with several native East Africans took place, and insights were made into how this view of communal living works itself out in daily life.

[1]. Yusufo, interview by author, Grand Rapids, March 31, 2014.

Currency, Elisha M. Emerson Mfa

All Student Scholarship

The privileged Watters family, David, Winnie, and their 14-year-old daughter, Faye, struggle to adjust their suburban Charlotte lifestyle to fit a much-reduced income. Their fast failure leads them down separate paths: David after enlightenment through Transcendental Meditation, Faye after the power she feels in the company of her handsome Earth Science teacher, and Winnie in a romantic foray to Alaska after buried gold. Currency probes that moment when everything changes size, when initial annoyances shrink and reality resumes a new and disturbing sense of proportion.

Explorations In The Domestic Space: How Hollywood Made A Home In Film Melodrama, Elana Katz

Honors Theses

This thesis utilizes the Hollywood domestic melodramas and sex comedies of the 1950s as a lens to discover the evolution of family and home from Eisenhower’s America to modern day. As a mode of expression with roots in nineteenth-century theater, melodrama serves as a primary genre for tracking historical and social shifts in twentieth-century American society. However, as the narrative form has evolved over time, what satisfies melodrama is difficult to define as its boundaries have been redrawn. Historians and film scholars examine melodrama through three overarching schools of thought: melodrama as a genre, a mode, or both. Film melodrama …

"All The Single Ladies:" Single College-Educated Black Women's Perceptions Of Marriage And Intimate Relationships, Brittany Henderson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This project, ""All the Single Ladies:" Single College-Educated Black Women's Perception of Marriage and Intimate Relationships," is an exploratory study that gathers single heterosexual college-educated Black women's perceptions of intimate relationships. Using semi-structured interviews, the women disclosed how their family structure, career and education goals, race, location and standards influence their perceptions of forming and obtaining intimate relationships. This particular cohort of women brings an interesting perspective, as they have experience in higher education and as career women, but maintain a "single" marital status. This research was done because there was a deficit in the research on Black women's perceptions …

Ordinary Families: Queer Sexuality And Adoptive Parenthood In Central New York, Sean H. Wang

Theses - ALL

This thesis argues that geographers must consider sexuality and family together as integral parts of social life. Although sexuality already entered the lexicon of geography in the 1980s, and a burgeoning field of the geography of sexuality exists today, too often it is still considered peripheral in geographic scholarship. Similarly, family either remains consigned either as merely a place for social reproduction by studies of political economy, or is relegated entirely as an object of inquiry for only feminist geographers. Drawing from sociology, feminist and queer studies, this thesis makes an important intervention by relating sexuality and family in the …

Una Perspectiva Multigeneracional En La Representación Teatral De La Familia Mexicana, Abigail Calish

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the representation of the Mexican family in plays from the three major generations of playwrights in contemporary Mexican theater. These generations are the Generation of 1950, the New Dramaturgy, and the New Theater. The family is a central unit in society, and so it is a recurring theme in many plays. Playwrights use their daily lives as inspiration for their works, and family is a constant in daily life; no matter where one lives, the family is an unavoidable part of their life. All audiences can relate to problems and issues that families experience, and so playwrights …

La Representación De La Familia En Épocas De Transformación: Un Análisis De La Carreta (1953) De René Marqués Y Noche Cubana (2009) De José Luis García Rodríguez, Alyssa Feldman

Honors Theses

This project investigates the dramatic works La carreta (1953) by René Marqués and Noche cubana (2009) by José Luis García Rodríguez to analyze the playwrights’ utilization of the family to represent the conditions of their respective nations. La carreta describes a Puerto Rican family during the island’s transition to a Commonwealth of the United States. Marqués uses the disintegration of the family to show his opposition to Puerto Rico’s colonial status and dependency on the United States. The struggles of the family in La carreta also express Marqués’ condemnation of Puerto Rico’s industrialization and abandonment of agrarian society. Noche cubana …

Frank Lloyd Wright: Influences And Worldview, Brock Stafford

M.A. in Philosophy of History Theses

Wright was uniquely qualified to see the changing face of America. Born two years after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the end of the Civil War, Wright lived to nearly ninety-two years of age. During his lifetime, he lived through the American Industrial Revolution, both World Wars, the Wright Brothers flight, the invention of television.... Architecturally, he straddles the gap between the neoclassical period of the 19th century, marked by the admiration of Greek and Roman architecture, and the modernism of the 20th. Philosophically, he was a product of the early 19th century Romanticism, but followed his own, often …

A Mother's Love: A Narrative Analysis Of Food Advertisements In An African American Targeted Women's Magazine, Janine Danielle Beahm

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how food advertisers contributed to the cultural identity of the "good mother" in the 1990s and 2000s. It expands on previous research that investigated traditional gender ideologies in food advertisements by narrowing in on the specific stories presented to African American women. It highlights a time when advertisers were responding to the demands of African American activists to recognize the African American consumer, and depict African American characters in a positive light. A narrative method of inquiry is utilized to deconstruct the stories in 117 food advertisements running in Essence magazine (an African American targeted women's magazine) …

Movie And Television Fathers: A Positive Reflection Of Positive Changes, George J. Mcgowan

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Certain films and television programs depicting fathers have both enduring popularity and have reflected the advances in the institution of fatherhood. This has happened because of a symbiosis that has delivered positive results: popular films and television shows that earn money for producers and advertisers have depicted fathers who have changed to reflect the popular example. These depictions have contributed in their way to mending the family dynamic, specifically related to the father’s essential role in the family. Such family-oriented films and television shows have effectively showed fathers (and men that would become fathers) that they could be much more …

Inside Nfl Marriages: A Seven Year Ethnographic Study Of Love And Marriage In Professional Football, Rachel Anne Binns Terrill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When women marry NFL players and subsequently become NFL wives, they are thrust out of the lives they have known and into a form of secondary socialization among other NFL wives. In this dissertation, I use ethnography and narrative inquiry, the first- person narratives of four NFL wives, interactive interviews with dozens of NFL wives, friendship as method, and my personal autoethnographic experiences to describe the social interactions between NFL wives, the themes of their marriages, and the trajectories of their identity formation and transformation of NFL wives during their time in the league.

I also use autoethnography and writing …

The Perspectives Of African American Nonprofit Female Executives From The Northeastern Region Of The United States About The Work-Family Balance, Tammy Evans-Colquitt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although many studies have been conducted on the increased pressure and stress facing women who are trying to fulfill work and family demands, little is known about African American women in executive positions and their perspectives about work-life balance. A particular gap in the research literature exists on the lived experience of African American nonprofit executive women in maintaining work-life balance. The conceptual framework of this phenomenological study was the bidirectional frame of both work interfering with family and family interfering with work. Data were collected through semistructured telephone interviews of 12 African American women ages 30 to 45 and …

Modern Day Mary Poppins : Uncovering The Work Of Nannies And The Expectations Of Employers, Laura Ann Bunyan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Throughout the past few decades the number of parents relying on child care has risen. Most research on parental use of child care focuses on relationships between employers and employees of differing racial-ethnic, social class, and educational status. This dissertation was designed to examine the experiences of those who perform nanny work, the process of selecting care, and understand the experiences of those who do not seek to maximize social space between employee and employer.

Individualized Intimacy? : The Negotiation Of Self And Other In Heterosexual Relationships, Daniel Santore

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Sociologists working in various scholarly traditions posit an individualization of contemporary romantic relationships occurring in Western societies over the passed several decades. This dissertation uses North American and European theoretical perspectives on "individualized intimacy" as the basis for a qualitative interview study of 45 women and men involved in heterosexual relationships. In keeping with the theoretical perspectives that ground the study, the interviews focus on how concepts of self-development, communication, gender and social class collide with one another in, and serve to shape, respondents' narratives of self and other in intimacy. Findings demonstrate that: (a) regarding gender, women and men …

The Longterm Effects Of Television Mediation On Lds Young Single Adults: An Exploratory Study, Jennia Parkin

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examines what Latter-day Saint young single adults remember about their parents mediating the television and its use, and how those recollections contribute to their current attitudes and values toward the media, as well as their media choices. A stratified random sample of 267 LDS young single adults across the United States and outside the state of Utah responded to a cross sectional mail or online survey. The three mediation styles established by Valkenburg, Krcmar, Peeters, and Marseille (1999)—Restrictive, Instructive, and Coviewing—were used as the independent variables while scales assessing television offensiveness levels, attitudes, orientation, and usage were …

Time-Based Work-Family Conflict: Myth Or Reality?, Karyn H. Bernas

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The present study examined a time-based model of work-family conflict for a sample of 176 working women with childcare responsibilities. Building on the work of Edwards and Rothbard (2000) and role theory, a model was proposed to test the specific variables that define time-based work-family conflict. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the proposed hypotheses. Contrary to assumptions about time-based conflict, the results suggest that role time has a very limited impact on work-family conflict. Variables that were related to role performance and satisfaction included traditional gender role expectations, family involvement, family instrumental support, leader-member exchange, role overload, and …

Balance And Conflict: Variation In Attaining Work-Family Fit Among A Homogeneous Population, Laura C. Koch

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of work-family fit has recently emerged in the work and family literature, comparable to work-family balance in that it represents interactions between work and family, and yet distinct from balance in its sense of universal ownership and responsibility. Using Barnett's (1998) model of the work-social system interface as a framework, this study explores the relationship between and predictive factors of work-family fit and work-family balance. Data are from a survey of Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management (MSM) graduate school alumni (n = 273). Findings indicate that fit and balance are indeed two separate constructs, with fit …

Family Stress And The Role Of The Mormon Bishop's Wife, Marguerite Irene Adams

Theses and Dissertations

A national survey of bishops' wives was conducted to determine whether Reuben Hill's "Roller Coaster" model of family stress following a stressor event should be modified to include a honeymoon period when the precipitating event is viewed positively by the family. The honeymoon period was expected to be within the first year, and too few respondents were in their first year to give statistically significant evidence of such a pattern. Several measures did give non-significant evidence of a honeymoon phase, though.

Other factors found to have an important effect on the stressfulness of the position of bishop's wife were: age …

Cohesion In A Utah Sample Of Latter-Day Saint Couples, Joe Edgar Glenn

Theses and Dissertations

It was hypothesized by Olson and his colleagues (Olson, et al., 1983) that "Mormons" were more likely to be enmeshed than many other cultural/religious groups. The purpose of this study was to determine if individuals affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) scored significantly more often in the enmeshed category of the cohesion dimension of the Circumplex Model, using FACES III data, than the norming sample for the FACES III instrument. The study also examined the level of satisfaction that the Mormon sample expressed for their level of cohesion. Data from 61 L.D.S. married couples living …

The Relation Of Mormon Parental Religiosity And Family Size On Children's Educational, Occupational And Income Success, Marvyn William Hogenson

Theses and Dissertations

There have been several significant studies during recent years concerning the relationship between parental socioeconomic background and achievement. This research examines religious influence, parental control, family size, support, and educational encouragement which in turn influence educational and occupational attainment.

Data were obtained from questionnaires completed by 843 married Mormon men from Canada.

Only respondent's religious activity, parental support, and educational encouragement were significant in determining the occupational and educational attainment of the respondent. Family size and parental control were not significant.

Religious And Secular Correlates Of The Lds Family Home Evening Program, Gordon E. Mauss

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe and explore three phenomenon of the L.D.S. Family Home Evening Program: (1) the nature of religious commitment in an L.D.S. sample, (2) the degree of participation, (3) the relation of certain religious and secular variables.
The data for the study were made available to the researcher by A. L. Mauss, as part of a larger study designed to measure the impact of Urbanism upon Mormonism. The instrument, modeled after the Glock and Stark studies, was adapted to a random sample of 958 members of the L.D.S. Church in Utah.
The nature of …