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"To Preserve This Much-Injured Race": Techniques Of Neutralization And Indian Removal, 1829-1831, Robert Michael Keeton

Doctoral Dissertations

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 gave the President of the United States the authority to negotiate treaties with the Native American tribes in the east for their emigration to territory west of the Mississippi River. Although the emigration was technically voluntary, in practice, the Native tribes emigrated under coercion and force, the most infamous instance of which was the Cherokee Trail of Tears in 1838, which resulted in the deaths of at least 4,000 Native people. This dissertation applies Sykes and Matza’s (1957) neutralization theory to archival data including the papers of Andrew Jackson and publications documenting the removal …

The Contradictory Nature Of Natural Mothering: A Discursive Analysis, Britni Lee Ayers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In our contemporary sociopolitical rhetoric breastfeeding is something that is natural and something women ought to do because breast is best. The problem with this contemporary discourse of breastfeeding and motherhood is that the dominant medical, political, technological, and patriarchal discourses surrounding breastfeeding have merged to create an highly unattainable definition of what it means to be a "good mother" (Blum 1993). Moreover, upon a close examination, the most pressing political and Social debates of today surrounding the welfare reform, women's employment, reproductive technologies, and abortion, among many others, construct distinctions between "good mothers" and "bad mothers." However, there has …

Communicating Crimes: Covering Gangs In Contemporary Canadian Journalism, Chris Richardson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this integrated-article dissertation, I examine representations of gangs in Canadian journalism, focusing primarily on contemporary newspaper reporting. While the term “gang” often refers to violent groups of young urban males, it can also signify outlaw bikers, organized crime, terrorist cells, non-criminal social groups, and a wide array of other collectives. I build on Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to probe this ambiguity, seeking to provide context and critical assessments that will improve crime reporting and its reception. In the course of my work, I examine how popular films like West Side Story inform journalists’ descriptions of gangs. Though reporters have …

Rewriting The Future: The Construction Of Masculine Subjectivity Within Articulations Of Russia's Post-Soviet National Idea, Arianna L. Nowakowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates the construction, negotiation, and contestation of masculine Subjectivity within articulations of Russia's post-Soviet national Idea. As Russia endeavors to define itself after years of turmoil and strife, gender identities have become deeply enmeshed in understandings of quintessential Russianness. From discourses of the state under Vladimir Putin to those of the Russian Orthodox Church, actors with significant social and political power have constructed particular understandings of what it means to be Russian, and in so doing, have delineated the parameters of normal, or natural gender identities and sexualities for men.

Drawing from the ideas of Michel Foucault, Jacques …

"How Do We Not Go Back To The Factory?" Negotiating Neoliberal Conditions In A Latina-Led Transnational Development Organization In El Paso (Texas), Anthony Michael Jimenez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: As the structure of the global economy shifted the United States' manufacturing base South of the U.S-Mexico in the years up to and post-NAFTA, thousands of women of Mexican descent residing in El Paso (Texas) were displaced from their garment factory jobs and left without social, political and economic support. Subsequently, some of these women joined La Mujer Obrera, an organization committed to fostering community development for low-income women from both sides of the U.S-Mexico border. The organization faces difficulties in receiving economic aid from the local government, which is apparently due to their development model being incompatible with …