This study examined the unique leadership experiences of queer women in collegiate recreation, focusing on joy as a critical aspect of their professional journey. Employing a narrative inquiry methodology, the research documented the lived experiences of queer women in executive-level roles, exploring the complex intersection of gender, sexuality,…

The intricacies that negotiate human sexuality and sex-negativity customary in school-based sexuality education programs in the United States contribute to sex-negative notions that inform current models of sexuality education as heteronormative and cisnormative, which assumes all students are heterosexual and cisgender. This fact essentially…

In this study, I centered the experiences of individuals who identify as polyamorous or ethically non-monogamous. My purpose was to explore how polyamorous students at one institution made meaning of their polyamorous identity and how they described the relationship between the postsecondary environment and their meaning-making. The philosophical…

Much of the current work on bodies in schools and classrooms is, appropriately, focused on a critical examination of the docile bodies (Foucault, 1995) of students and the violence inflicted on them. But teachers' bodies are also subjected to surveillance, management, and control by larger systems of power, and thus get marked, erased, and…

I explored the socialization and experiences of older adolescents and young adults who were involved in three extracurricular dance organizations at a large Midwestern university. I conducted a six-month, comparative ethnographic study using observations, interviews and a survey. I identified three key themes through which I explored the meanings…

This study responds to a need for research in a fast-growing and significant area of study, that of exploring, understanding, and documenting the numerous ways that multiply marginalized LGBTQ youth between the ages of 14 and 17 use social media. The primary research question examined whether social media provide safe spaces for multiply…

In this dissertation I examine the patterns and uses of transgressive humor and sexual talk that male traders from Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) indulge in when at their leisure from trading. I investigate how cultural conceptualizations or ideologies are brought into the present moment through discursive interaction and how the cultural signs…

This dissertation is a qualitative study of early 21st century American female college students' experiences of their gender, sexuality, and racial identities, and of institutional politics as their single-sex college transitioned to co-education. It is an ethnography that utilizes feminist theorizing to understand tensions between feminists…

Using qualitative research methods, this dissertation closely examines discourses and representations of disability from the cinematic images of disabled characters and their families in two South Korean films, "Oasis" (C. Lee, 2002) and "Malaton" (Y. Jung, 2005) as well as from the responses of nineteen Korean graduate…

This study explored how Black men make sense of the masculine aspect of their identity and adult development juxtaposed with the ideology of leadership within the realms of a Black, Greek-letter fraternity on a predominantly White college campus in the South. Historically, administrators of colleges and universities have accepted those who…

Since the mid-twentieth century, a shift in demographics of those attending higher education institutions has resulted in increased attention to underrepresented students and their development, specifically their social identities, including race (Cross, 1991), gender (Gilligan, 1982), and sexual orientation (Cass, 1979; D'Augelli, 1994;…

This dissertation responds to the question: How is sexuality organized in elementary schools? I argue that despite the absence of overt discussions on sexuality in elementary schools, sexuality is "organized" through social processes that are recursively linked to ideology. Due to the widely held belief that "children" and…

This dissertation examines the discourses around gender present among a cohort of preservice secondary social studies teachers (n = 25) and how gender discourses manifested throughout their preparatory year with particular interest paid to their thoughts about curricula, schools, and students. Using ethnographic study design, the author presents…

This dissertation, as a qualitative sociolinguistic analysis, focuses on the use of narrative in identity transformation and sustainment. In particular, it examines the language of those involved in the fashioning of "ex-gay" sexual identity. Such identity work is conducted largely within religious ministries. Particular to evangelical…