Smart girls : a deconstructive discourse analysis of smartness

This project is a deconstructive discourse analysis of smart girlhood. From a feminist post structural framework, with a focus on discourse and performative identity, I scrutinize three dominant discourses of smartness that are prevalent and academic and popular press. These constructions frame smart girls as being either Losers, Have-It-All Girls, or Imposters. By conducting semi-structured group interviews with six self-identified smart girls, I explore the question of how smart girls perform their smart girl identities in their current sociocultural context. After analyzing the data from the group interviews, I outline five themes that seem to be prevalent in the stories told by the smart girls in this thesis. Finally, I discuss how the performative identities of the smart girls in my thesis appear to be much more complex, multiple and rhizomatic than the discourses under review allow.

Christopher Newton Collection, 1955-1998 (non-inclusive)

Christopher Newton was born in England in June of 1936. He received his education at Sir Roger Manwood’s School in Kent, the University of Leeds, Purdue University in Indiana and the University of Illinois where he received his M.A. He founded Theatre Calgary in 1968 and was the artistic director there until 1971. He was appointed as the artistic director of the Vancouver Playhouse where he established the Playhouse Acting School with Powys Thomas. Mr. Newton has also performed and directed at Stratford Festivals and on Broadway. He became the artistic director at Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1979 and remained there for 23 seasons until 2002. Mr. Newton has many television, radio and film credits to his name as well as having written many stage plays. Mr. Newton has received honorary degrees from Brock University (1986), the University of Guelph (1989), Wilfrid Laurier University (1997) and Buffalo State University. He was made an Honorary Fellow at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto (1993) and of Ryerson Polytechnic University (1995). He has won the Governor General’s performing arts award (2000), the Molson Prize and the Thomas DeGaetani Award from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology. In 1996 he was made an Honorary Life Member of the Association for Canadian Theatre Research and in the same year he received the M. Joan Chalmers Award for Artistic Direction. In 1995, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and he won a Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2000. Christopher Newton is currently the Artistic Director Emeritus at the Shaw Festival. Sources: http://www.shawfest.com/the-ensemble/christopher-newton/ http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/christopher-newton