An exploration of female leadership language:case studies of senior women in Bahrain

This is a multiple case study of the leadership language of three senior women working in a large corporation in Bahrain. The study’s main aim is to explore the linguistic practices the women leaders use with their colleagues and subordinates in corporate meetings. Adopting a Foucauldian (1972) notion of ‘discourses’ as social practices and a view of gender as socially constructed and discursively performed (Butler 1990), this research aims to unveil the competing discourses which may shape the leadership language of senior women in their communities of practice. The research is situated within the broader field of Sociolinguistics and the specific field of Language and Gender. To address the research aim, a case study approach incorporating multiple methods of qualitative data collection (observation, interviews, and shadowing) was utilised to gather information about the three women leaders and produce a rich description of their use of language in and out of meeting contexts. For analysis, principles of Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) were used to organise and sort the large amount of data. Also, Feminist Post- Structuralist Discourse Analysis (FPDA) was adopted to produce a multi-faceted analysis of the subjects, their language leadership, power relations, and competing discourses in the context. It was found that the three senior women enact leadership differently making variable use of a repertoire of conventionally masculine and feminine linguistic practices. However, they all appear to have limited language resources and even more limiting subject positions; and they all have to exercise considerable linguistic expertise to police and modify their language in order to avoid the ‘double bind’. Yet, the extent of this limitation and constraints depends on the community of practice with its prevailing discourses, which appear to have their roots in Islamic and cultural practices as well as some Western influences acquired throughout the company’s history. It is concluded that it may be particularly challenging for Middle Eastern women to achieve any degree of equality with men in the workplace because discourses of Gender difference lie at the core of Islamic teaching and ideology.

'A Kind of Logic, A Kind of Dominant Logic': Navigating Colonialism, Honoring Black Mobility, and Thinking on Moving Through

My thesis thinks through the ways Newtonian logics require linear mobility in order to produce narratives of progress. I argue that this linear mobility, and the resulting logics, potentially erases the chaotic and non-linear motions that are required to navigate a colonial landscape. I suggest that these non-linear movements produce important critiques of the seeming stasis of colonial constructs and highlight the ways these logics must appear neutral and scientific in an attempt to conceal the constant and complex adjustments these frameworks require. In order to make room for these complex motions, I develop a quantum intervention. Specifically, I use quantum physics as a metaphor to think through the significance of black life, the double-consciousness ofland, and the intricate motions of sound. In order to put forth this intervention, I look at news coverage of Hurricane Katrina, Du Bois’s characterization of land in Souls of Black Folks, and the aural mobilities of blackness articulated in an academic discussion and interview about post- humanism.

Bland byggtjejer och småbarn : - En genusstudie om pedagogers förhållningssätt och normer i förskolan

I denna studie har vi undersökt fyra förskolepedagogers förhållningssätt, normer och tankar kring genus samt om deras uppfattning stämmer överens med deras agerande i den praktiska verksamheten. Syftet med denna studie var att få mer kunskap om hur genusmedvetenheten kan se ut på förskolan idag samt att ta reda på om alla barn ges samma förutsättningar i vår studerade leksituation; bygg och konstruktionsleken. En framträdande frågeställning har varit att få fatt vilka normer som råder bland pedagogerna och hur de tar sig uttryck i verksamheten. Som teoretisk ansats har vi använt oss utav feministisk poststrukturalism och data har vi samlat in genom observationer av verksamheten samt intervjuer med pedagogerna. Resultatet visar på att det finns en motsättning mellan pedagogernas egna uppfattningar om sitt förhållningssätt och deras agerande i det praktiska arbetet. I resultatet framkom även att pedagogerna såg sig själva som genusneutrala, trots detta framträdde en viss könstraditionell syn på föreställningen kring barns agerande och fysiska uttryck. Gällande alla barns likvärdiga förutsättningar visar ett av våra huvudresultat på en tydlig diskriminering gentemot de yngsta barnen på förskolan.

Estéticas de la hibridación, del cuerpo transhumano al cuerpo posthumano

Estéticas de la hibridación. Del cuerpo transhumano al cuerpo posthumano, es una investigación que evidencia la crisis de la razón desencadenada por la posmodernidad. Inmersas las nuevas narrativas utópicas y distópicas del cuerpo humano, su complejidad, sus coordenadas en tiempo y espacio y su despliegue multidimensional como soporte artístico. Aporta en la discusión académica sobre el transhumanismo y posthumanismo como procesos de hibridación corporal a través de la intervención de las nuevas tecnologías y el despliegue de otras realidades replicadas en el ciberespacio. Vincula estas teorías trans-/posthumanistas establecidas recientemente con discursos y gestos artísticos generados en la globalidad y el entorno a través de la propuesta de un canon emergente.

Schooling for self-determination through a justice politics of Indigenous representation

This paper presents data from a study of secondary school for girls, the majority of whom identify as Indigenous Australian. ‘Gamarada’ High School is located in a suburban area of Queensland (Australia) and was established to provide quality education for disadvantaged girls. The paper draws on student and teacher interview data from a broader study that was concerned with examining how the school addressed the economic, cultural and political dimensions of Indigenous girls’ disadvantage. The focus here is on issues of political justice in relation to Indigenous representation and, more specifically, how such representation at the school supports the key Indigenous equity priority of self-determination. Feminist post-colonial theories are drawn on to argue the importance of educators engaging with a politics of representation that initiates theory from the social location of Indigenous experience, reflects an anti-racist/anti-colonial agenda and recognises and values the central role relationality plays in Indigenous lives.

Unbelievable Bodies: Audience Readings of Action Heroines as a Post-Feminist Visual Metaphor

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2013

Gender inequality and education : changing local/global relations in a ‘post colonial’ world and the implications for feminist research

This article explores the relationship between education reform and gender equity, both within and between nation states. Utilising feminist critical policy analysis and post-colonial theory, it examines how education reform over the past decade has impacted on gender equity, and how educational reform is itself gendered. It considers the nature of gender restructuring; maps significant shifts in gender equity policy in the wider context of educational and social inequality debates; and through an analysis of recent research on gender identity, schooling and leadership argues that gender can no longer be privileged when identifying and responding to educational inequality. Key assumptions underpinning how social change and education reform delivers equity are questioned, concluding with feminist theorising about how social justice may inform equity policy and practice in culturally diverse educational contexts.

Gender inequality and education: changing local/global relations in a ‘post-colonial’ world and the implications for feminist research

This chapter explores the relationship between education reform and gender equity, both within and between nation states. Utilising feminist critical policy analysis and post-colonial theory, it examines how education reform over the past decade has impacted on gender equity and how educational reform is itself gendered. It considers the nature of gender restructuring, maps significant shifts in gender equity policy in the wider context of educational and social inequality debates and, through an analysis of recent research on gender identity, schooling and leadership, argues that gender can no longer be privileged when identifying and responding to educational inequality. Key assumptions underpinning how social change and education reform deliver equity are questioned, concluding with feminist theorising about how social justice may inform equity policy and practice in culturally diverse educational contexts.

The implementation of feminist law reforms: the case of post-provocation sentencing

In 2005 the Australian State of Victoria abolished the controversial partial defence of provocation. Part of the impetus for the reforms was to challenge provocation’s victim-blaming narratives and the defence’s tendency to excuse men’s violence against intimate partners. However, concerns were also expressed that these narratives and excuses would simply reappear at the sentencing stage when men who had killed intimate partners were convicted of murder or manslaughter. This paper analyses post-provocation sentencing judgments, reviewing cases over the 10 year period since the reforms in order to determine whether these concerns have been borne out. The analysis suggests that at the level of sentencing outcomes they have not, although at the level of discourse the picture is more mixed. While sentencing narratives continue to reproduce the language of provocation, at the same time, post-provocation sentencing appears to provide opportunities for feminist judging – picking up on the spirit of the reforms – which have been taken up by some judges more than others.

Critical Reflections on Feminist Criminologies

This chapter provides an overview of the substantial and often neglected contribution of feminist theory and research to critical criminology. There are an array of feminist approaches to studying crime, violence and victimisation ( see Naffine 1997:29; Young 1996:34. this field of study has bourgeoned and diversified so much over the last decade that it would be a disservice to caricature it as simply "feminist". A range of influences and approaches from literary theory, jurisprudence, legal studies, cultural studies, postmodernism, neo-liberalism, post-colonialism and neo-Marxism are apparen across this large disparate body of work.

Book review: Leaky Bodies and Boundaries. Feminism, Post-modernism and (Bio)ethics. Shildrick, M. (1997)

This thoughtful book is a much needed contribution to feminist ethics that is brimming with detailed and insightful analyses of the positioning of women in contemporary health care and particularly in relation to new reproductive technologies (NRTs). The clearly written and structured chapters provide accessible points to modern ethics, post-modernism, and feminist ethics. Margrit Shildrick takes on these areas with authority and vigour, building an argument for women to enter the relations of reproduction on terms more expressive of feminine desire...

Portrait of the artist as a feminist, practice-led researcher

Becoming a researcher, like any process of cultural initiation, is a complicated negotiation of processes and identity. While it is tempting to imagine that a researcher is just 'one who researches', the reality is far more complex and can be thought of as a journey rather than a sudden change of role. In practice-led research there is often a final and difficult assessment that needs to be made of that journey, and this requires the collation and integration of seemingly schizophrenic elements into one coherent body of findings. This paper attempts to outline the underlying “system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity” that have defined my research journey. It discusses the various elements that have informed and directed this enquiry, which include, but are not limited to: practice-led research, reflexivity, and post/academic writing, all underpinned by a feminist approach.

Cuando el miedo invade la ficción. Análisis de Perdidos (Lost) y de otros quality dramas de la era Post 11S.

521 p.