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- Creator:
- Schmidt, Kristen
- Description:
- This qualitative research explores the experiences of 10 women military members from three United States (U.S.) military branches: Army, Marine Corps and Navy. Specifically, it looks at how women military members identify and cope with mental and emotional distress created and aggravated by systematic marginalization in the military. Due to the lengthy and drawn-out wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military mental health has become a major point of social and political concern in society. However, the mental and emotional experiences of women military members are being overlooked. Current literature focuses on the socialization of military members, masculine military culture, and war related mental illness and trauma; there is insufficient literature that explores how women military members are impacted by the military institution. I utilize Labeling Theory, Symbolic Interactionism and Feminist Standpoint Theory to understand how stigmatizing labels and social interactions shape the identities of women military members. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 participants who self-identified as women veterans. Findings reveal that cultural masculinity creates an environment in the military that perpetuates and sustains the systematic subordination of women military members. As a result, self-silencing and identity management are frequently used by women military members as tools to help navigate through the military institutional system and to cope with distress.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
- Creator:
- Victory, Alyssa
- Description:
- This ethnographic study explored interactions inside the courtrooms of immigration detention centers, or more aptly described as immigration prisons. The legalized barriers were significant against respondents. The research drew upon humanizing, Critial Race Theory, and social justice approaches of inquiry. Findings include the prison setting of the immigration court; the active prosecution by judges and government attorneys; various courtroom dynamics that impacted cases; and, the hostile environment of the immigration court. Respondents endured injustice when they were unable to hire an attorney, did not have family testimony, and did not speak English. Recommendations include the abolition of immigration prisons and punitive immigration law enforcement. Until then, restructuring the dynamics of immigration courtrooms and true immigration reform that supports the human rights of all people.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
- Creator:
- Ratkoczy, Magdalena
- Description:
- The reauthorization of VAWA 2013 had a long process compared to the other reauthorizations that followed the landmark of VAWA 1994. Its reauthorization process coincided with the 2008 economic recession and the anti-immigrant sentiment. My research question is how the provisions in Title VIII of the VAWA 2013 law affected undocumented immigrant women when they are in a situation of domestic violence, hence, how the Violence against Women Act discursively constructs immigrant women as “worthy” of protection. I used the critical discourse analysis to examine the texts of the hearings and testimonies of the witnesses, that is, the debates, in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. I used the news outlets that emerged during that period of time, more specifically, one of the major circulation newspapers, which was the New York Times in order to know the social trend. The results indicate that VAWA is a vulnerable law since it is affected by the economic, political and social situation. VAWA is affected in its provisions, funds and grants specifically by the less favored groups labeled as the “underserved population” such as the undocumented immigrant women in a situation of domestic violence. I used the intersectionality theory of Patricia Hill Collins (1990) and Kimberly Crenshaw (1989), thus, the intersection of gender, class, race and immigration issues. In addition, Pierre Bourdieu's theory of symbolic power and Foucault's Discipline and Punish theory helped me understand how the policies and procedures established in VAWA shape undocumented women’s life in domestic violence.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
- Creator:
- Ruiz, Angelica
- Description:
- This study explores how Chicana, Mexicana-Peruana, and Puerto Rican grassroots dance performers in the U.S.-Mexico border communities of San Diego use dance as a form of resistance against postcolonialism, imperial borders and U.S. hegemony. This project is from a qualitative methods approach that includes interview research, visual ethnography, and ethnographic experiences with the dancers and performances. My analysis includes five thematic pieces: First, I examine dance as a "decolonial praxis" to reclaim ancestral roots and knowledges Second, I analyze the influences that of the U.S.-Mexico border on women of color dancers and how their dances are resisting and traversing borders. Third, I show how women of color dancers are challenging heteropatriarchal discourses on the body. Fourth, I examine how women of color use dance as a source of healing, and how that healing extends to the communities. Lastly, I conclude with how women of color use their bodies and dance to produce and pass feminist epistemologies of resistance and liberation.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
37005. Militarized Patriarchal Institutionalization and Centering Women Military Members Experiences
- Creator:
- Koeberle, April
- Description:
- Currently, the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF/ Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) cohort of women military members and veterans is the largest percentage of women to serve, in nearly all professions including combat, in history. While the demographics shifted drastically in the last 30 years, research does not sufficiently explore women and their position within the military institution. The goal of this research is to center women and analyze their relationships to the patriarchally structured military. This study adds to research on the military experience, specifically in relation to women and how they interact with, and are affected by, the military as an institution in the context of patriarchal institutionalization, internalized misogyny, and traumas. Women live in a highly isolated and regulated institution where they must continually navigate its contradictions that lead to subordination and objectification. It is imperative to understand their experiences to understand how the military works as an institution.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
- Creator:
- Sportsman, Kelsey
- Description:
- This qualitative study works to sociologically examine the ways in which white supremacy is reproduced contemporarily. Existing literature focuses primarily on how the suburbs have endured as sites of segregation, moral panic, and social control. Although little research has been done on how technological advancement has bred new social control tactics in this way, my research aims to unearth how online social networks, such as Nextdoor assist in the perpetuation of white supremacy in the everyday context. A discourse analysis of the Crime & Safety tab on Nextdoor was conducted in which I analyzed 138 original posts and their corresponding 3,931 comments made between November 2017 and March 2019. I used Critical Race Theory (CRT) as the primary theoretical framework in this study which helps to inform how colorblind racism and whiteness bolster white supremacy today. Additionally, Goffman’s (1963) research on symbolic capital and spoiled identity helped me to explain how this manifests in the suburbs, in particular. I found that suburban Nextdoor users first laid ideological foundations of white supremacy, then recommended social control tactics at legal, virtual, and physical levels. Finally, Nextdoor users also demonstrated different types of resistance to challenge harmful and/or oppressive ideology present in the online forums. My findings indicate the need for additional sociological studies on how Nextdoor, and potentially other online social networks, meet the status quo and uphold white supremacy in the suburbs and beyond.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
- Creator:
- Ochoa, Ana
- Description:
- This study explores the lived experiences of Salvadorian individuals and how they navigate life in Southern California. An in-depth exploration of the social impacts of the Salvadorian Civil War on both individuals who experienced it in first persona as well as their children who received the second-hand effects. Also, Mexican hegemony was explored in conjunction with dominance and power, which led to the constantly mistaken identity of interviewed participants. The low population count of Salvadorians in Southern California was widely excluded along with the yearning of cultural representation. Self-pride indicated a sense of self-fulfillment through resistance against wrongful labeling from the media and individuals in society. The significance of this study derived from the participants’ constant fight to prove their dignity and resiliency.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
- Creator:
- Lopez-Barron, Filiberto
- Description:
- Through qualitative research, this thesis explores the experiences of adult Mexican immigrants with diabetes that live in the United States. Health inequities among persons of Mexican descent are influenced by social factors such as education level, social status, income level, gender, nationality status, culture, and race/ethnicity. The Mexican immigrants in this ethnographic study illustrate the need to travel across the US-Mexico border at times on a regular basis, to access affordable medical services for their diabetes and overall health. Furthermore, I found that the transnational SIMNSA (Sistemas Medicos Nacionales, S.A. de C.V.) health insurance through U.S. employers financially offers insurance coverage, which covers all aspects of medical care across the US-Mexico border for diabetes. Also, this study demonstrates that adult Mexican immigrants with diabetes have concerns regarding the medication that they are given by U.S. doctors for their diabetes. Lastly, family and community are important to these individuals due to the social support that is offered to them through cultural knowledge in managing diabetes such as eating native healthy foods, alternative medicines, and for some, the importance of the Catholic religion.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
- Creator:
- Criswell, Lexus
- Description:
- This qualitative research paper explores the opioid epidemic specifically focusing on the structure of for-profit healthcare and the relationship that connects pharmaceutical companies, prescribers, and patients. In this structure of medical care, most people are only being treated for their symptoms rather than the root causes. Using the theoretical frameworks of Capitalism and Foucault’s Power-Knowledge Relationship, I examine how the power of physicians and pharmaceutical companies in the US decide what is best for treatment of pain and addiction. To complete this, I completed eight qualitative interviews with opioid prescribers and people with a history of opioid use. The power and knowledge discourse of physicians eliminates the ability for patients to take control of their own healing. This study covers five main themes which highlights issues within the structure of for-profit healthcare that perpetuate epidemics. These issues are overprescribing, lack of time, education, and resources, neglect of mental health and stress, and the capitalistic gain that is directing the decisions made for patient care.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice
- Creator:
- Canseco, Luis
- Description:
- This qualitative study examines how criminality, the “criminal” identity, is a covert category of inequality. Like other categories, it is use to facilitate the discrimination of people based on their identity to exclude them from reaching personal goals. Once ushered into a categorical identity of criminality, people can be legally excluded from employment, education, government aid, and voting rights. When the state criminalizes people, they experience social detachment including from their own families. It takes an emotional toll on people due to both social and personal influences. I deploy face-to-face interviews with ten participants to illustrate how being pushed into this classification affects their daily lives. I argue that being labeled by the state as a “criminal” is a covert category similar to other categories of inequality, such as race, gender, age, disability. I pay special attention to how the category of “criminal” intersects with other categories of oppression, leaving the poor, especially people of color vulnerable. Keyword: criminality, hyper-criminalization, hyper-surveillance, youth control complex, school to prison pipeline, convict criminology, social exclusion
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Sociological Practice