Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond The Hands: Exploring Intersectional Identities Of Black American Sign Language Users, Tatum Turner

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

There is a significant gap in research related to the impact of intersectionality on linguistic identity performance among individuals negotiating multiple marginalized identities. This gap is especially significant among deaf Black and African American individuals who use the American Sign Language (ASL) variety deemed Black American Sign Language (BASL) (Hairston & Smith, 1983). This research aims to identify and discuss the use of the eight distinguishing features of BASL (McCaskill et al. 2011) as indexes of intersectional identities.

My data consists of videos sourced from YouTube, each chosen according to the following criteria: must have at least one self-identifying Black …

A Fat Imposter: The Embodied Intersection Between Race, Body Type And Fatness In Margaret Cho’S Comedy, Julia Cox

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Margaret Cho is a comedic goddess who, in her mockery, serves flaming hot social commentary about race, body image, and fatness. Within this thesis, I used critical discourse analysis to understand how Margaret Cho embodies Asianness, whiteness, and the body types and images prescribed respectively. While working on data analysis, I came across a common media trope of fat women: the use of indexically Southern (United States), Appalachian, and Working class indexicals in speech and lexical items. I connected the ideologies surrounding Southern and Appalachian language to the inequalities that fat women face. This voicing had not previously been written …

Unboxing The Japanese Sojourning Mom’S Pediatric-Going Experience: A Phenomenlogical Study Of Culturally And Linguistically Appropriate Health Services, Carolyn Oldham

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This study explores how twelve former Lexington-area Japanese sojourning mothers define culturally and linguistically appropriate services and how culture, gender and language shaped their health care beliefs, behaviors and experiences in pediatric settings. It is a naturalistic, pragmatic line of inquiry born in collaboration with Japanese sojourning moms across cups of matcha 末茶 and mugicha 麦茶. Framed by constructivist and intersectionality research lenses, this phenomenological study seeks to understand how study participants perceived the cultural and linguistic appropriateness of their interactions with Lexington-area pediatric offices and to begin to ascertain the meanings they created based on their subjective experiences. Its …

Students On The Margins: Intersectionality And College Campus Sexual Assault, Margaret Irene Campe

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This three-paper dissertation quantitatively identifies and examines three different substantive areas using data from the American College Health Association’s Fall of 2016 National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA). Specific areas of inquiry include, marginalized populations and college campus sexual assault, intersectional analyses of risk factors for college campus sexual assault, and drinking protective behavioral strategies as prevention tools for college campus sexual assault. Paper one, titled, “College Campus Sexual Assault and Students with Disabilities,” explores a particular marginalized group of students that have been largely left out of college campus sexual assault studies: female college students with disabilities. The logistic regression …

Women Into Advanced Manufacturing: Can Community College Open This Door?, Carissa Bradley Schutzman

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Women still rarely choose to seek employment in advanced manufacturing. Lack of familiarity with manufacturing jobs and education programs, lack of role models, and too few experiential opportunities contribute to women not choosing manufacturing jobs as well as other jobs traditionally held by men (Reha, Lufkin, & Harrison, 2009; St. Rose & Hill, 2013; Starobin & Laanan, 2008). Nontraditional jobs for women often provide higher wages and more opportunity for advancement than traditional jobs for women. This study is a qualitative thematic narrative analysis of factors that influenced women who chose an advanced manufacturing program at a community college to …

From Athletes To Astrophysicists: Gender Differences In Patterns And Predictors Of Career Aspirations In Pre-Adolescence, Brea L. Perry, Edward W. Morris, Tanja C. Link, Carl G. Leukefeld

Sociology Faculty Publications

This paper adds to research on girls’ growing educational advantage by examining gender differences in career paths. Using baseline data from an intervention study (TRY-IT!) targeting 265 sixth-graders in Title I schools, our research traces adolescent career aspirations by gender, race and class. Additionally, we investigate whether girls and boys exhibit differential sensitivity to environmental risk and protective factors that shape career and educational aspirations. We find that the career choices of boys vary more widely by social context, including socioeconomic status, race, and academic resources. Specifically, among youth with fewer social and academic advantages, girls aspire to more practical …

Social Categories And Health Care Outcomes: African American Women And Hiv Survival In The Urban South, Alyson J. O'Daniel

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This ethnographic research examines the daily life and institutional conditions under which low-income Black women in urban North Carolina perceived and attended to HIV health-related needs. I focus specifically on the interplay among women’s living conditions, programmatic service needs, and their strategies for navigating the local system of care to explore and refine the categorical label “low income.” I found that there were significant differences among study participants in terms of their monthly incomes and financial resources, housing quality and status, and personal experiences with incarceration and substance abuse. The economic differences among women translated into social differences within the …