Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Interpretive Analysis: Black Men, Masculinities, And The Field Of Tropic Play, Mario D. Lewis

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While much has been written about the participation of Black Men in higher education, such scholarship has often been predicated on empirically derived insights that have privileged phenomenological experiences as a primary point of departure for analysis. While this literature has done much to illuminate how higher education scholars and practitioners understand what Black men pursuing higher education experience, I use this study as an opportunity to think differently about this demographic and those experiences.

With the aim of not only providing nuanced understanding of Black men in college, but also a general methodological shift in how they are studied …

Cooking Up Inequality: An Ethnographic Study Of Racial Hierarchies In Miami's Restaurant Industry, Judith C. Williams

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Racial inequality is a significant problem in the US Restaurant Industry. In Miami, a tropical tourist destination with a majority Latinx population, restaurants serve as a site of multiculturalism, and are promoted by officials as a place where visitors can enjoy ethnic food and culture. However, these same locations of diversity are also spaces where whiteness is normalized as superior and racial hierarchies ensue. Previous studies have documented racism in the restaurant industry but fail to address the intersectional complexities that arise when race is layered with gender, class, nationality, language, and sexual orientation.

Drawing from a 13-month ethnographic study …

Mediators And Moderators Of The Associations Between Unstructured Socializing With Peers, Substance Use, And Handgun Carrying Among Adolescents, Anna Leimberg

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to provide an important addition to previous research on unstructured socializing with peers, adolescent substance use, and handgun carrying while also adding to future policy by providing new avenues by which to better identify the predictors of drugs use and handgun carrying.

The study contributes to knowledge in four ways. First, identifying variables that moderate and/or mediate the association between unstructured socializing and substance use and handgun carrying have theoretically relevant implications. Second, using a fine-grained measure of unstructured socializing with peers provides more precise results and greater insight for the line of research focusing on gender …

Gender Politics And Policies In Post-Communist Democracies, Vera N. Beloshitzkaya

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation investigates why variation exists in gender policies that challenge traditional power hierarchies across central and eastern European (CEE) countries and the role of political parties in this process. I first ask how gender issues get onto party agendas and then test whether parties in government that have campaigned on gender issues ultimately deliver on their promises. I examine three policy domains, marginally affected by the EU and international "soft" norms, affirmative action in the labor market, father's leave, and anti-domestic violence policies.

I argue that parties are least responsive when it comes to altering gender power hierarchies at …

Persistence Among Emerging Adults With Traumatic Brain Injury In Postsecondary Settings, Ardith A. Clayton-Wright

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal study sought to investigate the demographic and socio-psychological factors associated with predicting persistence in postsecondary education among emerging adults with traumatic brain injury. The predicting variables in this study were: (a) gender (sex), (b) socioeconomic status (SES), (c) employment, (d) years of education; (e) age at onset of injury, (f) existence of familial capital/parental involvement, and (g) hours spent studying for a class.

Data were obtained from a secondary dataset collected by the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Data and Statistical Center longitudinal database. There were 2436 participants with TBI in the study. Ages ranged from 16 …

The Notions Of The "Closet" And The "Secret" In Oscar Wilde's, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Jessica Maria Oliveira

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will discuss the notions of the “closet” and “secret” within Oscar Wilde’s, The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as offer a clear and precise definition of queer theory to assist in elucidating many of the concepts being discussed. Close reading techniques will be utilized to further uncover the metaphoric, symbolic, and otherwise figurative importance of certain aspects of The Picture of Dorian Gray and supporting texts. Through Judith Butler’s conceptualization of sex and gender, as well as Jacques Derrida’s interpretation of the “secret”, this paper will explicate the intricacies of Wilde’s work and unveil queered aspects …

Silenced Bodies: (En)Gendering Syrian Refugee Insecurity In Lebanon, Jessy Abouarab

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While there has been a shift in security studies from the security of states to that of people, realpolitik still takes place under the banner of an emerging discourse of ‘refugee crisis.’ Refugee insecurities are (en)gendered and experienced where their depth and breadth pose significant challenges to asylum seekers, neighboring host-states, and humanitarian agencies. To this end, this research captures the unique dynamics of a South-South refugee crisis in Lebanon, in which Syrians residents make up nearly one-third of its population. It applies a transnational feminist framework to trace how refugee security norms get defined, are managed, and how they …

Seeking Friends With Benefits In A Tourism-Based Sexual Economy: Interrogating The Gambian Sexscape, Mariama Jaiteh

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation engages with the driving motivations behind the actions of all those involved in The Gambia’s tourism-based sexual economy: the Gambian and other West African male and female sex workers, the Global North (habitually European) male and female tourists, the Gambian and expatriate Lebanese bar and restaurant owners, the Gambian state, and the semesters (members of the Gambian diaspora on vacation in The Gambia). It presents thick ethnographic accounts of interactions with Gambians and tourists, as they form temporary couples or friendships for the duration of tourists’ vacations, and sometimes for longer. This ethnography-rich dissertation pays careful attention to …

Examining The Relationships Between Gender Role Congruity, Identity, And The Choice To Persist For Women In Undergraduate Physics Majors, Bronwen Bares Pelaez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Persistent gender disparity limits the available contributors to advancing some science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. While higher education can be an influential time-point for ensuring adequate participation, many physics programs across the U.S. have few women in classroom or lab settings. Prior research indicates that these women face considerable barriers. For university students, faculty, and administration to appropriately address these issues, it is important to understand the experiences of women as they navigate male-dominated STEM fields.

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study explored undergraduate female physics majors’ experiences with their male-dominated academic and research spaces in the U.S. …

"I Am A Teacher, A Woman's Activist, And A Mother": Political Consciousness And Embodied Resistance In Antakya's Arab Alawite Community, Defne Sarsilmaz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Often pointed to as the region’s model secular state, Turkey provides an instructive case study in how nationalism, in the name of conjuring ‘unity’, often produces the opposite effect. Indeed, the production of nationalism can create fractures amongst, as well as politicize, certain segments of a population, such as minority groups and women. This dissertation examines the long-term and present-day impacts on nationalist unity of a largely understudied event, the annexation of the border-city of Antakya from Syria in 1939, and its implications on the Arab Alawite population. In doing so, it deconstructs the dominant Turkish narrative on the annexation, …

Gender And Authority In The Public Sector: The Case Of Local Government Chief Administrative Officers In The United States, Sebawit G. Bishu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2016, women represented 16.6% of all Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) in local governments across the United States. Previous studies have investigated gender disparities in managerial representation, which is explained by the glass ceiling phenomenon; however, little is known about whether the women that occupy these male dominated positions have the similar levels of responsibilities as their male counterparts. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to understand if gender disparities in levels of work authority manifest as a new form of the glass ceiling. Work authority in this study is operationalized as CAOs’ sanctioning authority (control over personnel operations) …

You Crit Like A Girl: The Performance Of Female Identity In The Virtual Gaming Community World Of Warcraft, Connie M. Viamonte

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how gender is expressed and performed in the virtual gaming community of World of Warcraft. Players were approached through the medium of the game and through various on-line bulletin boards to answer surveys and open-ended interview questions about their experiences as a female player or with female players in this virtual society. In addition to answering questions, this project involved participant observations within several different types of realms or servers in World of Warcraft in order to gain a better understanding of community dynamics. The premise for this research is working through an idealistic notion that virtual …

Association Between Childhood Sexual Abuse And Hiv-Related Risk Factors For Hiv-Positive Haitian Women, Marie Sandra Severe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is one of the least studied HIV-related risk factors in Haiti although research in the United States and Europe has clearly established the link between childhood trauma and HIV risk behaviors. Understanding the role and impact of CSA on HIV-positive Haitian women is likely to strengthen future HIV prevention and treatment efforts aimed at this vulnerable group.

The current study was a cross-sectional examination of baseline data collected during a randomized trial of a cognitive-behavioral stress management (CBSM) intervention in Haiti. The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between CSA and sexual risk …

Trans Terrains: Gendered Embodiments And Religious Landscapes In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, David B. Esch

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transgendered Indonesians live in the fourth most populated nation in the world with more Muslims than any other country. This thesis summarizes an ethnography conducted on one religiously oriented male-to-female transgender community known in the city of Yogyakarta as the waria. This study analyzes the waria’s gender and religious identities from an emic and etic perspective, focusing on how individuals comport themselves inside the world’s first transgender mosque-like institution called a pesantren waria. The waria take their name from the Indonesian words wanita (woman) and pria (man). I will chart how this male-to-female population create spaces of spiritual …

Gnosticism, Transformation, And The Role Of The Feminine In The Gnostic Mass Of The Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.), Ellen P. Randolph

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Gnostic Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.) suggests a heterosexual gender binary in which the female Priestess seated on the altar as the sexual and fertile image of the divine feminine is directed by the male Priest’s activity, desire and speech. The apparent contradiction between the empowered individual and the polarized gender role was examined by comparing the ritual symbolism of the feminine with the interpretations of four Priestesses and three Priests (three pairs plus one). Findings suggest that the Priestess’ role in the Gnostic Mass is associated with channeling, receptivity, womb, cup, and fertility, while the Priest’s …

Gender In Motion: Negotiating Bengali Social Statuses Across Time And Territories, Mayurakshi Chaudhuri

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hindu Indian Bengalis as an ethno-linguistic and transnational group have negotiated their social locations historically, contemporaneously, and transnationally. In this dissertation, I examine and argue how transnational migration is the most recent in a long line of Bengali strategies to negotiate their social location vis-à-vis other populations in India. Since the early years of the nineteenth century, in Bengal specifically, a series of socio-political dynamics have reshaped and reconstituted Bengali social status. These dynamics can be observed across various geographic scales - national, regional, and local -- and have continued to inform their contemporary gender relations. En route to this …

Imah On The Bimah: Gender And The Roles Of Latin American Conservative Congregational Rabinas, Valeria N. Schindler

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of gender on the work of Latin American rabinas within Conservative congregations in Latin America. The fact that women’s roles in Latin America and in Judaism have been traditionally linked to nurturing and caring serves as the point of departure for my hypothesis, which is that the role rabinas play within their congregations is also linked to those traits. In this research I utilize a social scientific approach and qualitative methodology, conducting personal interviews with the rabinas. While this work proves that Conservative congregations in Latin America are gendered, my …

The Effects Of The Use Of Technology In Mathematics Instruction On Student Achievement, Ron Y. Myers

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the use of technology on students’ mathematics achievement, particularly the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) mathematics results. Eleven schools within the Miami-Dade County Public School System participated in a pilot program on the use of Geometers Sketchpad (GSP). Three of these schools were randomly selected for this study. Each school sent a teacher to a summer in-service training program on how to use GSP to teach geometry. In each school, the GSP class and a traditional geometry class taught by the same teacher were the study participants. Students’ mathematics …