Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Trial & Error: Royal Authority & Families In The Colonization Of The British Floridas, 1763-1784, Deborah L. Bauer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation will examine the relationship between families, the British Crown, and colonization patterns in mid-eighteenth-century Florida. Agents of royal authority, such as colonial governors, and White, European, Protestant families, would serve as the bulwark upon which the Crown would design and implement its ideal colonization scheme. Carefully created by royal officials, adherence to the plan would result in the successful establishment and growth of loyal and productive colonies. Noncompliance ultimately foreshadowed failure. The state used the social unit of families in East and West Florida as a "tool of empire” to ensure the political, economic, and military success of …

The Progressive Transformation Of Medellín- Colombia: A Successful Case Of Women's Political Agency, María Auxiliadora González-Malabet

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Medellín, Colombia, once one of the most corrupt and violent cities in the world, is now one of the most progressive and democratic cities in South America. This transformation was due to the mobilization of women’s movements and the influx of women in the city’s executive branch. Female political agency and new urban development programs reshaped democratic practices for the citizenry. This research examines the robust association between women’s organizations, women from Compromiso Ciudanano (CC), and a solid and active civil society. The theoretical framework covers democratization, good governance, and Latin American/Indigenous Feminism. The sources include interviews, polls, news articles, …

Pathways To Parenthood: Attitudes And Preferences Of Eight Self-Identified Queer Women Living In Tampa Bay, Fl, Emily Noelle Baker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This small-scale ethnographic study looks at the how queer women living in Florida imagine navigating family building decisions under the current climate of policies such as a lack of federal non-discrimination protections and the largely unregulated use of assisted reproductive technologies. Despite the federal legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States in 2015, state and county legislations continue to vary greatly on the extent of support they will provide for LGBTQ families. The goal of this research is to evaluate parenting desire, intentions, and preferences for queer women living in Tampa Bay since the passage of the Marriage Equality …

On Her Own: A Qualitative Study On The College-To-Career Transition Of Black Second-Generation Alumnae, Ladessa Y. Mitchell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the college-to-career transition of Black second-generation alumnae in the development phase of emerging adulthood using Schlossberg’s (2011) Transition Model. As the researcher, I collected data from Black second-generation alumnae of predominantly White public universities in Florida to examine how their intersecting identities (i.e., race, gender, and educational status) and use of metaphorical capital (i.e., social, cultural, and human capital) influence their transition. The conceptual framework for this study is based on the 4 S’s of Schlossberg’s Transition Model as well as emerging adulthood, forms of capital, and the intersecting identities of …

Examining The Effect Of Context On Responses To Social Interaction, Renee R. Hangartner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ambiguous nature of social interactions between coeds may lead to under reporting of sexual harassment. Sexual harassment has been studied using mostly cross-sectional methods for over 30 years. However, despite decades of research, prevalence rates of sexual harassment have been found to vary considerably across and within studies. This inconsistency in findings makes drawing conclusions about the prevalence of sexual harassment challenging. Thus, the focus of the field should shift to identifying what behaviors are perceived to be sexual harassment and how that perception may vary by context. To reduce the ambiguity surrounding the labeling of an interaction as …

Queer Authority In Old And Middle English Literature, Elan J. Pavlinich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I argue that select early English texts queer normative authorizing conventions to authorize Old English and Middle English literatures. During the European Middle Ages, Latin cultures and literatures were privileged with authority that extended to and subverted the cultural capital of the inhabitants of England at the edge of the known Western world. I identify four exceptional English texts that employ authorizing conventions to disrupt normative networks of power that traditionally privilege Latin and to authorize English literature instead. The Norman Conquest had altered the English language and social structures; still, these altered networks of power continued to marginalize English …

"Roll" Models: Fat Sexuality And Its Representations In Pornographic Imagery, Leah Marie Turner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to use specific fat pornographic imagery as a means to help us understand fat tropes and fetishization. The goal is to use our understandings of masculinity and race within fatness to create a possible launching point for further study within the field of fat sexuality studies. My rationale for writing such a paper is because fat sexuality studies is a field which has very little content, but potential for incredible scholarship which can impact not only our understandings of fat bodies, but of all bodies. The method for this thesis involves looking at specific …

Palatable Shades Of Gender: Status Processes At The Intersections Of Race, Gender, And Team Formation, Jasmón L. Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the importance of studying how race and gender influence partner selection processes of team formation. Stratified social systems influence the choice and decision-making behaviors that shape group and team formation (Hechter 1978). By testing Skvoretz’s and Bailey’s (2016) formal theory of team formation choice processes derived from expectation states theory, the dissertation aims to understand how race and gender influence a person’s choice and decision-making with respect to forming a group of problem-solving teammates. Through a quasi-experimental research design, subjects participate in simulated interactive environments in which they can select and personalize self-represented avatars and then choose …

“The Most Muscular Woman I Have Ever Seen”: Bev Francisperformance Of Gender In Pumping Iron Ii: The Women, Cera R. Shain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The question of what constitutes femininity has been widely debated, not only in gender studies, but also in the broader social world. A venue for this debate is the 1985 documentary, Pumping Iron II: The Women, in which gender and femininity in particular become part of the central plot of the film when Bev Francis, a woman bodybuilder more muscular than any other competitor, enters the competition. While feminist scholars have analyzed gender and sport from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, little attention has been paid to female bodybuilding in particular. To fill this gap, this thesis will examine the …

Ain't I A Woman, Too? Depictions Of Toxic Femininity, Transmisogynoir, And Violence On Star, Sunahtah D. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the rate of the murder of Black trans women at the hands of Black cisgender men rises steadily every year (HRC, 2017), discourses regarding the detrimental impact of toxic masculinity within Black communities continue to increase within different branches of feminist literature. However, the role that Black cisgender women and toxic femininity play in the violent and systematic subjugation of Black trans women is largely ignored in feminist literature. In this thesis, I conduct a cultural analysis of the representations of the Black trans character Cotton Brown (from the Fox show Star) to examine how the show illustrates toxic …

‘If He Hits Me, Is That Love? I Don’T Think So’: An Ethnographic Investigation Of The Multi-Level Influences Shaping Indigenous Women’S Decision-Making Around Intimate Partner Violence In The Rural Peruvian Andes, Isabella Li Chan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how the intersections of gender, ethnicity, place, and class shape indigenous women’s risks for and experiences of intimate partner violence and related decision-making in Carhuaz province, an underserved, resource-poor setting in the Peruvian Andes. This dissertation applied a mixed-methods, community-based approach to 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Peru, which included 82 face-to-face surveys using the World Health Organization’s Multi-Country Study Instrument, 38 semi-structured interviews with survivors, community members, and IPV-related service providers, and 6 participatory action research workshops (n=64).

Through this dissertation, the voices of indigenous women struggling with intimate partner violence illuminate the lived realities …