Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Storied Bodies In Motion And Stillness: Shifting Meanings Of Physical Activity In Women's Life History Narratives, Shellie Mcparland

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Gender is a rarely studied social determinant of health. Qualitative methodologies, while underutilized in health promotion, may facilitate understanding of the gender and health relationship. The purpose of this work is to determine if narrative inquiry is a meaningful approach to study the relationship between femininity and physical activity and to examine this relationship within women’s life histories. Five women between 30 and 40 participated in two semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed holistically, structurally, and categorically.

This dissertation is comprised of five integrated articles, in which I locate myself epistemologically as researcher through a discussion on the feminist underpinnings of …

“Okay So Remember, This Is A Drape – Not A Sheet”: A Critical Autoethnography Of (Per)Forming The Practice(D) Body Of A Gynecological Teaching Associate, Jodi C. Hall

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this autoethnographic study, I utilized my past experiences as a Gynecological Teaching Associate (GTA), along with data collected within a particular pelvic teaching module, to critically explore the ‘silences’ and taken-for-granted assumptions embedded within the performances of pelvic teaching. Theoretically informed by (post)critical feminist theories, I considered how the ‘culture’ of pelvic teaching, as enacted within this specific setting, simultaneously (re)produced and resisted particular normative discourses about women, and how the performances of GTAs, medical students and program administrators were reflective of larger social-political and biomedical discourses. Data collection methods included participant observation, field notes, reflexive journaling, and individual …