Дисертації з теми "Feminist reconstruction"

The factions and discourses of feminism and transgender are often perceived as reciprocally exclusive. Those taken to belong to subjectivities associated with each faction have frequently held this perception. This exclusion may operate because each faction is only supposed to be associated with certain sexual subjectivities. The possible alienation between transgender and feminism is the social problem that the researcher addressed, in order to consider what positive outcomes on the law, as it pertains to gender, may emerge from cooperation between the two factions. To assess this emancipatory potential, the researcher compared primary data in the form of online narratives ventured by a group of trans people with secondary data in the form of published texts identified as narratives of 3rd wave feminism. 3rd wave feminism, transgender theory and post-1970s trans narratives showed potential to align with the inclusive philosophy evident in ethics of care while not foregoing focussed rights pertaining to certain ethnic, sexual and social subjectivities. The resulting postconventional ethics promised to facilitate a legal process that could benefit oppressed genders and that could recognise gender as genre and genealogy rather than as fixed essence. Images of fixed gender essence should give way to the transformation of trans and gender variant people from the ‘Others’ of heteronormativity to empowered others whose difference can be valued or, for those who wish to be accepted as men and women, whose similarity can be respected. The research for this thesis found that value and respect for gender, based upon knowledge and not stereotype, can be facilitated by both by woman’s inclusion-ist politics and by the care of maternal relations in order to reveal trans subjectivity and gender variance as legitimately whole subjectivities. This knowledge has revealed how oppressive elements of discourse such as silence/secrecy, infantilisation, interpellation, gatekeeping, separatism and heteronormativity have affected trans and gender variant people’s ability to manifest a social voice.

When Canada took on the leadership role of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (K-PRT) in Afghanistan, the liberation of women and children via multi-departmental collaboration was promoted by the government as a critical goal of the operation. Research from the fields of public administration, international development, and critical security studies hypothesizes that collaborative approaches to governance, particularly in fragile states, ensures that greater resources are available to address human rights issues, including gender equality. It is therefore surprising that the gendered implications of Canada’s collaborative governance commitments within the K-PRT have not been deeply explored. Through a feminist frame analysis, informed by critical and post-structural feminist theory, this dissertation asks whether the Canadian collaborative approach permits more attention to be paid to policy and programming on gender equality. Framing the case of the K-PRT from a feminist perspective, this dissertation identifies the hegemony of masculinity within the policy context that guided the Canadian collaborative approaches in Kandahar, highlighting how international guidelines for collaboration legitimized the leadership of the military and instrumentalized gender for militarized purposes. It also exposes the masculine structure of the K-PRT, identifying how the design of the PRT favoured the might of the military, and presented the exceptionalism of women as the only marker of gender. Finally, this dissertation highlights the narrative of masculinity that is threaded throughout the K-PRT, working to normalize the militarization of civilian departments and actors implicated within the Canadian collaborative approach. The application of a gender lens to the case of the K-PRT reveals the necessity of feminist analysis of collaborative approaches, as these are increasingly being seen as best practices for addressing state fragility worldwide.

Tom Robbins' characterization of the New Testament figure of Salome in the novel Skinny Legs and All is a medley of historical and contemporary reconstructions. Drawn from biblical and early post-biblical discourses around the Salome narrative, and bearing a strong similarity to early Roman histories of the story of Lucius Flamininus, Robbins' Salome is implicitly constructed as a romantic feminist alternative to oppressive sexual norms in Western Christian culture. Robbins' implicit intention is to provide his readers with an alternative and liberatory interpretation of Salome and the Salome narrative. Examining Robbins' reconstruction from radical feminist perspective, however, I contend that his reconstruction reinforces the same oppressive sexual norms and values he is attempting to subdue. Using the theoretical and methodological models of feminist biblical scholars Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza and Alice Bach, I employ a critical feminist literary-biblical analysis to evaluate Robbins' characterization Salome, with an emphasis on the models of divine female sexuality he advocates through his reconstruction of her character.

Thesis (MA (English))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.
In this dissertation the dominant metaphor for the fusion between the feminine and technology, the cyborg, will be examined through various texts to assess the value the cyborg has for feminism as a tool to exposes the constructedness of boundaries of identity and gender, thereby enabling a reconstruction of a new feminine identity in a subversive and transgressive space. The main themes which will be addressed are those that often feature in feminist science fiction: reproduction, sexuality, the construction of identity and gender through science, culture and ideology, and the power relations between men and women. Other related concepts which will be dealt with are language, self and Other, representation and perspective. Feminist science fiction and theory attempt to destabilise conventional boundaries concerned with gender and identity and the texts which this dissertation deals with are all, to varying degrees, concerned with this destabilisation, each offering a unique perspective on feminine identity and the attempted transformation of current gender categories which will be explored in detailed analysis.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Historical fiction is a genre in a constant state of flux: since its inception in the nineteenth century, it has been shaped by cultural trends and has persistently responded to the way in which history is popularly conceptualised. As such, historical novels have always revealed as much about the socio-political context of their moment of production as they do about their historical settings. The advent of feminism was among the most significant movements which shaped the evolution of the women’s historical novel in the twentieth century, prompting as it did a radical shift in historiographic methodology. As feminist discourse became embedded in popular culture in the latter decades of the twentieth century, this shift in turn allowed authors of historical fiction the opportunity to reconsider the ways in which women have been traditionally represented in both historical narrative and fiction. The historical novel thus became a site for exploring the female perspective of history, a perspective that had been denied or ignored by more male-centred historical narratives. This dissertation will assess the impact wrought by the popularisation of feminist discourse on the genre of women’s historical fiction during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. An examination of a selection of contemporary women’s novels set during the Tudor era will prove particularly useful in executing this assessment, not least because of the Tudors’ unprecedented popularity as the focus of literature and film in the last decade. More significantly, the women of this period have proven to be ideal subjects for their authors to imaginatively reconstruct in the mould of third wave feminist icons in the twenty-first century. By examining how Tudor women have been represented in the contemporary historical fiction of Jean Plaidy, Philippa Gregory, Mavis Cheek, Suzannah Dunn and Emily Purdy, this dissertation will demonstrate the ways in which popular feminist discourse has impacted on the development of women’s historical fiction in the last century, focusing specifically on texts published within the last decade. Three key aspects of the genre will be assessed in detail in this regard: the author’s self-conscious feminist intervention in the characterisation of her historical heroines; the shift in the narrative perspective adopted and the deployment of postmodern literary devices; and the representation of female sexuality. The evolution of the genre as a whole will also be examined in some detail, and the shifting parameters of modern feminisms will be interrogated in order to fully understand their manifestations in popular culture.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Historiese fiksie is ’n voortdurend veranderende genre: sedert die ontstaan daarvan in die negentiende eeu is dit beïnvloed deur kulturele neigings en het dit aanhoudend bly reageer op die manier waarop die geskiedenis populêr gekonseptualiseer word. As sodanig het historiese romans altyd net soveel oor die sosiopolitieke konteks van hulle produksiemoment as oor hul historiese milieus onthul. Feminisme was een van die betekenisvolste bewegings wat gedurende die twintigste eeu die evolusie van die historiese roman vir vroue sou beïnvloed, en het sodoende aanleiding gegee tot ’n radikale verandering in historiografiese metodologie. Namate feministiese diskoers in die latere dekades van die twintigste eeu deel van die populêre kultuur geword het, het hierdie verandering op sy beurt die skrywers van historiese fiksie die geleentheid gegun om die maniere waarop vroue tradisioneel in sowel historiese narratief as fiksie uitgebeeld is, te heroorweeg. Die historiese roman het dus ’n terrein geword waarop die vroulike perspektief op die geskiedenis verken is, naamlik ’n perspektief wat deur meer manlik-gesentreerde historiese narratiewe ontken of geïgnoreer is. Hierdie verhandeling sal die impak evalueer wat die popularisering van feministiese diskoers op die genre van historiese fiksie vir vroue gemaak het tydens die twintigste en een-en-twintigste eeue. ’n Ondersoek na ’n seleksie van kontemporêre vroueromans wat in die Tudor-tydperk afspeel, is veral nuttig in hierdie verband, onder andere as gevolg van die Tudors se ongekende gewildheid as die fokus van letterkunde en film in die afgelope dekade. Wat meer veelseggend is, is dat dit blyk die vroue van hierdie tydperk was ideale subjekte wat verbeeldingryk deur hulle outeurs gerekonstrueer kon word in die vorm van derdegolf-feministiese ikone in die een-en-twintigste eeu. Deur te ondersoek hoe Tudorvroue uitgebeeld is in die kontemporêre historiese fiksie van Jean Plaidy, Philippa Gregory, Mavis Cheek, Suzannah Dunn en Emily Purdy sal hierdie verhandeling die impak demonstreer wat populêre feministiese diskoers in die afgelope eeu op die ontwikkeling van historiese fiksie vir vroue gemaak het, met die fokus spesifiek op tekste wat in die afgelope dekade gepubliseer is. In hierdie verband sal drie sleutelaspekte van die genre uitvoerig geassesseer word: die skrywer se selfbewuste feministiese ingryping in die karakterisering van haar historiese heldinne; die verskuiwing in die vertellingsperspektief en die ontplooiing van postmoderne letterkundige tegnieke; en die uitbeelding van vroulike seksualiteit. Die evolusie van die genre as geheel word ook beskou, en die veranderende parameters van moderne feminismes word ondervra sodat hul manifestasies in die populêre kultuur ten volle verstaan kan word.

Orientadores: Sebastião Roberto Taboga, Fernanda Cristina Alcantara dos Santos
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia
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Resumo: A próstata não é um órgão exclusivo do sistema reprodutor masculino, estando presente em fêmeas de diversas espécies de roedores e também na espécie humana. A próstata feminina tem sido considerada homóloga à próstata ventral masculina, sendo composta por um pequeno conjunto de glândulas e ductos entremeados a um estroma fibromuscular. Em fêmeas adultas de gerbilos da Mongólia (Meriones unguiculatus) a próstata apresenta uma localização parauretral, mostrando íntimo contato com a parede da uretra proximal e mediana. Em machos, a atuação dos reguladores hormonais, principalmente andrógenos e estrógenos, que influenciam a fisiologia prostática são bastante conhecidos. Em fêmeas, no entanto, os fatores que influenciam a atividade prostática são pouco conhecidos, embora já se saiba que as alterações hormonais comuns à senescência estejam associadas à instalação de lesões prostáticas. É sabido também que as oscilações hormonais que ocorrem durante o ciclo reprodutivo das fêmeas influenciam a morfofisiologia de vários órgãos do sistema reprodutor. Embora se saiba que a próstata feminina seja um órgão funcional e sensível à ação de hormônios esteróides, não é conhecido, até o momento, se as oscilações hormonais que ocorrem durante o ciclo reprodutivo podem alterar a biologia desta glândula. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar os aspectos morfofuncionais da próstata feminina durante o ciclo estral de gerbilos da Mongólia, o qual é constituído por quatro fases distintas, a saber: proestro, estro, diestro I e diestro II. Para isso, foram empregadas análises morfológicas, morfométricoesterológicas, sorológicas, imunocitoquímicas e enzimáticas. Os resultados obtidos com este estudo demonstraram que as oscilações hormonais que ocorrem durante o ciclo estral alteram a estrutura e funcionalidade da próstata feminina do gerbilo. Estas alterações compreendem um crescente desenvolvimento prostático e aumento da atividade secretória, em relação à secreção do antígeno prostático específico (PSA) e às glicoproteínas PAS positivas, durante as fases de proestro e estro, e uma gradual diminuição da atividade secretória e do desenvolvimento glandular nas fases de diestro I e II. O mesmo ocorreu com a atividade fosfatásica ácida prostática presente em todo o ciclo, a qual mostrou uma menor freqüência de ácinos com ausência de marcação na fase estro e uma maior freqüência nasfases subseqüentes (diestro I e II). Acredita-se, com base nos dados coletados, que estas oscilações cíclicas na morfofisiologia prostática sejam determinadas pelos picos hormonais de estrógeno no diestro II e pelos altos níveis de progesterona no estro, os quais interagem com os níveis constantes de andrógenos durante todo o ciclo estral.
Abstract: The prostate is not an exclusive organ of the male reproduction system, found in females of several rodents' species and also in humans. The female prostate has been considered homologue to the male ventral prostate and it is formed by a small cluster of glands and ducts inserted into a fiber muscular stroma. In adult female Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus), the prostate presents a paraurethral location, showing close contact with the wall of urethra in its proximal and median regions. In males, the hormone action, mainly androgens and estrogens that influence the prostate physiology are well known. In females, however, the factors that influence the prostate activity are little know, although it is known that the hormonal changes, common to senescence, are associated with the genesis of prostate lesions. It is also known that hormonal oscillations that occur during the female's reproductive cycle influence the morphophysiology of several organs of the reproductive system. Although the female prostate is a functional organ and sensitive to the action of steroid hormones, it is not known, until now, if hormonal oscillations that occur during the reproductive cycle can alter the biology of this gland. Thus, the aim of this work was to evaluate the morphofunctional aspects of the female prostate during the Mongolian gerbil estrous cycle, which consists of four distinct phases, considering proestrus, estrus, diestrus I and diestrus II. For this, were employed morphological, morphometricstereological, serological, and enzyme immunocytochemistry analysis. The data showed that hormonal oscillations during the estrous cycle alter the structure and function of the gerbil female prostate. These changes include an increased prostate development and an increased secretory activity, in relation to the secretion of prostate specific antigen (PSA) and PAS positive glycoproteins, during the estrus and proestrus stages, and a gradual reduction in secretory activity and of the glandular development in the diestrus I and II stages. The same occurred with prostatic acid phosphatase activity, present throughout the cycle, which showed a lower frequency of acini with lack of marking in estrus phase and a higher frequency in subsequent phases (diestrus I and II). It is believed, based on collected data, that these morphophysiological cyclical changes in prostate are determined by hormonal peak of estrogen in diestrus II and the high levels of progesterone in estrus, which interact with the constant levels of androgens throughout the estrous cycle.
Mestrado
Biologia Celular
Mestre em Biologia Celular e Estrutural

Mumbai is currently one of the most prolific and lucrative film centers in the world. Its production of the "Bollywood" popular film has attracted billions in audience members outside the nation of India, many of whom do not belong to Indian culture in the Diaspora. The significance of this influence draws from the cross-cultural borrowings increasingly present in Bollywood cinema. The advent of Western investment in the production center has coincided with the diversification of the standard Bollywood film from "masala" musical to more genre specific action, horror and even romantic comedy musical. Within this genre expansion, a nod to a classic—and specifically Western—cinema form has occurred. By borrowing the Femme Fatale from Film Noir and recreating her as the City Siren, Bollywood has achieved liberation for the heroine and from cultural emasculation in one. In this liberation, Bollywood has taken the Western implication of Eastern femininity and used a Western film form to turn that implication on its head. They have declared that the East may be masculine or feminine, easily utilizing either trait, as it is now fluent in both.

Écrivaine prolifique, anticonformiste, rebelle et provocatrice, Doris Lessing est considérée par la critique comme ayant été à l'avant-garde du féminisme, du communisme, de l'anticolonialisme et de la lutte contre l'apartheid. En lui accordant le prix Nobel de littérature en 2007, l'académie suédoise récompensait une « conteuse épique de l'expérience féminine, qui avec scepticisme, ardeur et une force visionnaire, scrute une civilisation divisée ». Cependant, ne retenir de Doris Lessing que des combats politiques d'ordre public, c'est oublier un thème essentiel et omniprésent dans ses écrits, celui de la quête de soi et du désir de connaissance de soi qui anime le sujet féminin. Pour atteindre ce but et au bout du compte se reconstruire, celui-ci passe d'abord par la déconstruction. C'est pourquoi ce travail se propose d'analyser l'approche déconstructionniste de Doris Lessing vis-à-vis de la question de l'identité féminine. Cette déconstruction ne doit pas être comprise au sens strictement derridien du terme, mais dans une perspective plus large qui est celle de la vision universelle et prophétique de l'auteure. En effet, Doris Lessing tente de déconstruire une conception essentialiste qui renverrait à une conception universaliste de l'identité féminine. Elle nie toute pensée logocentrique et remet en cause l'unité et le fixisme identitaire, et partant la généralité de la quête. Ceci révèle le nomadisme d'une pensée qui doit s'entendre, dans le sens deleuzien, comme une conception de l'identité de la femme comme fluide, changeante, sans frontières, ouverte à de nouvelles possibilités et avec un grand potentiel pour se re-désigner et se re-définir
A prolific, anti-conformist, rebellious and provocative writer, Doris Lessing has been considered by critics as the forerunner of feminism, communism, anti-colonialism and anti-aparteid. By attributing to her the Nobel Price for Literature in 2007, the Swedish Academy rewarded an « epicist of the female experience, who, with skepticism, fire and visionary power subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny ». Reducing her work, however, to political issues means overlooking a crucial and omnipotent theme related to the quest for selfhood and the desire for self-knowledge animating the female subject, In order to gain this goal, it is first important to go through the experience of deconstruction. This is why this work will analyse Doris Lessing's deconstructive approach to the female identity. This deconstruction is not to be understood in the strict Derridian sense but in a broader persepective residing in the writer's universal and prophetic vision. In fact, Doris Lessing endeavors to deconstruct an essentialist conception which would lead to a universal apprehension of the female identity. She denies all logocentric thinking and questions fixed and unified identities, and by the same token, the universality of the quest. This reveals a nomadic thought, which in Deleuzian sense, entails that the female identity is fluid, changing, without frontiers, open to all possibilities and with a great potential to re-construct and re-define itself

The central question guiding this study is, how can Liberia's historical context of colonial state formation and reformation help explain public discourses surrounding gender violence in the postwar decade, 2003-2013? This question is addressed using original data from mixed qualitative methods including participant observation, visual methods, and semi-structured interviews. The research identifies narratives and meta-narratives produced by liberal institutions (including the Government of Liberia and international agencies), as well as informal discourses from adult Liberians of different backgrounds living in Greater Monrovia. Using critical discourse analysis, the argument identifies connections between the narratives that recur, the social realities they recall, and the power dynamics they perpetuate. These discourses are best understood in reference to liberal and colonial/imperial dynamics from Liberia's settlement period. Liberal institutions addressing gender violence in the postwar period face dilemmas in which universalist humanitarian ideals work in tandem with, and provide justification for, imperialism as a set of discursive and material relations. Nonelite Liberians instrumentalise and subvert both privileged donor discourses as well as long-standing colonial hierarchies of 'civilised' and 'country'. Additionally, the thesis examines how liberal institutions, traditional institutions, and Liberian citizens interact as agents of discursive construction. It will be shown that this pattern of discourse production is at times harmonious, as in the interactions around promoting male head-of-household responsibilities, and at other times adversarial, as in conflicts surrounding excision as an initiation practice for girls. Liberal institutions, non-elite Liberians, and traditional authorities both collude and compete in this era of dynamic normative contestation. Both the major discourses and the interactions that produce them can be explained in part by the liberal imperialism and its specific form of settler colonialism that propelled the founding and subsequent stages of state formation in Liberia. The consequences of that residual history indicate inherent - though, not irredeemable - structural limitations to a robust institutional response to gender violence. In this manner the study demonstrates the utility of historicising Liberia's contemporary gender violence discourses, and how doing so can address the longstanding bifurcation between rights and culture in international development and transnational feminist geography.

Within the context of economic history, this case study discusses “separatist cooperation” as an organizational and economic strategy for addressing multiple forms of alienation and inequality. Unique in the European cooperative movement at the time, The Women’s Cooperative Society Swedish Homes (Kvinnornas Andelsförening Svenska Hem), active in Stockholm 1905-1916, is a case in point. Using a theoretical framework drawn from social and economic reconstruction as well as critical perspectives inspired by intersectionality, the study analyzes how arguments, practices and choices of Svenska Hem are manifested in terms of three themes/strategies of de-alienation: democratic participation, asset-building and narrative representation. Cutting through each of these themes/strategies, explicit and implicit conceptions of gender, class and group solidarity are critically analyzed. The results show that the separatist strategy in combination with cooperative organizing generated considerable movement energy and capital accumulation e.g. in the face of an organized boycott from competing (male) traders. Further, the women’s cooperative constituted a space for asset-building while negotiating the changing social role of women generally and housewives in particular. The analysis shows that Svenska Hem’s organization and narrative was marked by class bias, while striving to become a cooperative relevant to “women of all classes”, invoking the housewife-as-consumer as a collective with a shared interest.

This study investigates the first Woman's Department at a World's Fair in the Deep South. It documents conflicts and reconciliations and the reassessments that post-bellum women made during the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, the region's foremost but atypical city. It traces local women's resistance to the appointment of northern abolitionist and suffragist, Julia Ward Howe, for this “New South” event of 1884-1885. It also notes their increasing receptivity to national causes that Susan B. Anthony, Frances E. Willard, and others brought to the South, sometimes for the first time. This dissertation assesses the historical forces that goaded New Orleans women, from the comfort of their familiar city, to consider radical notions that would later strengthen them in civic roles. It asserts that, although these women were skilled and capable, they had previously lacked cohesive force and public strategies. It concludes that as local women competed and interacted with women from across the country, including those from pioneering western territories, they began to embrace progressive ideas and actions that, without the Woman's Department at the Exposition, might have taken years to drift southward. This is a chronological tale of the journey late-nineteenth-century women made together in New Orleans. It attempts to capture their look, sound, and language from their own writings and from journalists' interpretations of their ideals, values, and emotions. In the potent forum for exchange that the Woman's Department provided, participants and visitors questioned and revised false notions and stereotypes. They influenced each other and formed alliances. Although individuals spoke mainly for themselves, common themes emerged regarding education, jobs, benevolence, and even suffrage. Most women were aware that they were in a defining moment, and this study chronicles how New Orleans women seized the opportunity and created a legacy for themselves and their city. As the Exposition sought to (re)assert agrarian and industrial prowess after turbulent times, a shift occurred in the trajectory of women's public and political lives in New Orleans and, perhaps, the South more broadly. By 1885, southerners were ready to insinuate their voices into the national debate on women's issues.

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Introdução: O tratamento da deformidade na parede abdominal resultante do emagrecimento após a cirurgia bariátrica é a abdominoplastia, a qual pode induzir anemia pós-operatória. Além disso, a cirurgia bariátrica promove uma tendência a deficiência de ferro. Baixas reservas de ferro comprometem a eritropoese. Não há estudo avaliando o grau de anemia e sua evolução após a abdominoplastia pós-bariátrica. Objetivo: Avaliar a anemia e sua evolução após a abdominoplastia pós-bariátrica. Métodos: Os valores de hemoglobina, reticulócitos, ferro, ferritina, e índice de saturação da transferrina foram mensurados na véspera da abdominoplastia e na primeira, quarta e oitava semana de pós-operatório. A hemoglobina também foi mensurada com 48h de pós-operatório. Vinte mulheres adultas foram operadas e tiveram seus dados comparados com 12 controles. Resultados: Os níveis de hemoglobina caíram, em média, de 12,98g/dL para 10,8g/dL com 48h. Houve um aumento significante da hemoglobina no sétimo dia com correção de um terço do déficit, sem aumentos significantes posteriores. Houve um aumento dos reticulócitos na primeira semana. O ferro sérico e índice de saturação de transferrina caíram na primeira semana e mantiveram-se baixos. Os níveis de ferritina apresentaram aumento não significante na primeira semana e posteriormente caíram. Nenhuma das pacientes foi transfundida. Conclusão: Os níveis de hemoglobina caíram após a abdominoplastia e demonstraram um aumento na primeira semana de pós-operatório, com correção de um terço do déficit de hemoglobina, porém, não recuperaram por completo na oitava semana. Ao término do seguimento, 45% das pacientes desenvolveram deficiência de ferro e apresentaram déficit de hemoglobina maior que as pacientes que mantiveram estoques de ferro normais
Background: The treatment of the abdominal wall deformity resulted from weight loss after bariatric surgery is a mixed type of abdominoplasty, which can induce post-operative anemia. In addition, bariatric surgery itself promotes a tendency to iron deficiency which could compromise erythropoiesis. To our knowledge, there is no study evaluating the degree of anemia and its recovery after post-bariatric abdominoplasty. Methods: The values of hemoglobin, reticulocytes, iron, ferritin and transferrin saturation index were measured the day prior to abdominoplasty and the first, fourth and eighth weeks after surgery. Hemoglobin was measured within 48h after surgery. Twenty adult women underwent surgery and had their data compared with 12 controls. Results: Hemoglobin levels dropped significantly from 12,98g/dL to 10,8g/dL within 48h. Hemoglobin increased significantly to 11,5g/dL by day seven, with correction of one third of the deficit, without significant increases thereafter. There was an increase in reticulocytes in the first week. Serum iron and transferrin saturation index fell in the first week and remained low. Ferritin levels showed no significant increase in the first week and subsequently fell. None of the patients received blood transfusion. Conclusion: Hemoglobin levels fell from 12,98 g/dL to 10,8 g/dL after abdominoplasty and showed an increase in the first week after surgery, with correction of one third of the deficit, but did not completely recover in the eighth week. At the end of the follow-up, 45% of the patients developed an iron deficiency and had a hemoglobin deficit higher than the patients that maintained normal iron stores.
TEDE
BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

碩士
中原大學
宗教研究所
91
Abstract During the 1960’s, following the revival of the second wave of the changing tide of feminist philosophy, Christian theology also confronted the feminist theology challenge. Due to the long oppressive era that women had endured, they, justifiably, questioned the cultural traditions, as well as previously unchallenged theological traditions. In the church, the awakening of female self-consciousness, started to challenge the strong the patriarch, which had long been implanted by the traditional church, by re-interpreting the scripture, by disclosing the hidden female voice, by re-reading the scripture in accordance with the aspect historical critique, or by discovering the female segment of the Heavenly Father. Thus, these efforts essentially based on the Bible, it did not totally disregard the Bible or overturned its authority, but purposefully opposed to making the Scripture dogmatic, using of so-called sanctified words, and authoritative teachings in order to consolidate a male-define interpretation, thereby, ignoring the harm and domination perpetuated towards the patriarchal history of women. Owing to this concept, my thesis is based on the context of Christian faith, and is aimed at examining old faulty images and attitudes expressed towards female Christians, under the twin aspects of biblical interpretation and patriarchal culture. However, it is obviously that the illustration of Eden Eve is the core problem. The wrongfully long held image of the first Biblical female has adversely influenced Christian theology towards gender, redemption, and towards the theological discourse and practice of Institution. In order to illustrate my point, in relation to the question in chapter three of my thesis has developed dialectic and reconstruction from the main verses in Chapter One to Three of the Genesis. My thesis also criticizes and reexamines the prejudiced expressed towards Eve that has been conveyed by patriarchal traditions, resulting in the image and status of women unfairly suffering within the Christian culture. Eventually through the recording of Jesus’ life and words, written by his disciples, we comprehend how Jesus revolutionized and overturned the female image under the patriarchal cultures. On the arrival of the Incarnation One, he erected the model of equality of men and women. However it has had a great meaning to feminist theology. Therefore, the coming of Christ, has become the authentic promise of faith, the truth will set you free (John 8:32b).

This dissertation examines the relationship between built environment education and the discourse which focuses on women in the built environment. It critiques the major built environment education programs in Britain, the United States and Canada, from a feminist art teacher's perspective, showing, with one minor exception, that the spatial and structural needs of women are not taken into account; it presents an overview of the literature concerning women in the built environment; and finally, it demonstrates how community-based women-centred initiatives and issues, as documented in the literature, can, and should be incorporated into built environment elementary and secondary school programs. The principal argument of this dissertation is that the built environment exists predominantly as the expression of an ensconced and inequitable social order. As such, the built environment has resulted, and continues to result in the oppression and subordination of women. By not including the spatial and structural needs of women, within a community-based curriculum, and thereby denying the special circumstances of female students, most built environment education programs reproduce and entrench these exclusionary practices.

Leprosy in biblical times was a stigmatised skin disease. It was not an easily recognisable skin disease because any skin disease was suspected of being leprosy . However leprosy as a skin disease could not be hidden , because it showed quite easily . People who had contracted leprosy were considered impure and unclean and were cast out of society. Today however, we have a cure for people with leprosy and it is not considered a terminal disease. However, we have indeed an incurable disease, namely AIDS. My question is, how do we consider people with AIDS today, especially women. Are they being treated as unclean, even though we cannot see the disease, or are they also the outcasts of our society today? My guess is that women are the victims today, as much as they were in biblical times, rather than the perpetrators. Women living with AIDS today is what motivated me to investigate the ancient biblical times to see how women at that time coped with an incurable disease in a society that treated them as outcasts. Thus , my study will focus on women with leprosy in ancient biblical times , but also will include a section on women with AIDS today for the sake of relevance.
Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

In “The Wooing of Choice: prosimetric reconstruction of the female journey in Irish mythology”, I examine the representation of female characters in Irish mythological tales where the woman chooses her lover in contravention of social expectations. In the traditional versions, the woman recedes into the background as the narrative develops around the male hero. I ask what happens to the discourse of the narrative when it is subverted so that the focus is placed upon the female experience. This is explored through a creative component, called ‘Meet Me in My World’, a prosimetric reconstruction of three Irish tales in which the woman chooses her lover and compels him to follow her. The three tales are: Aislinge Óengusso (The Dream of Óengus); Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne (The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Gráinne); and Longes mac nUislenn (The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu). The exegetical component, comprising 50% of the thesis, is composed of two sections. In the first, I examine theories of feminist writing and remythologizing, and develop a new model for feminist reconstruction, which I apply to the creative product. In the second section, I explore the relationship between narrative and poetry, from medieval prosimetric translations to contemporary hybrid texts, and consider which form provides the best framework for my female-centred narrative and the verse. This exploration includes consideration of the traditions of Irish poetics and Irish women’s poetry, the principles of which are then incorporated into the poetic mythography that is ‘Meet Me in My World’.

碩士
國立花蓮教育大學
多元文化研究所
95
“Returning home” is everyone’s pursuit and desire of life. “Home” is not merely the signification of dwelling, but where the heart is. It could be a smell, an atmosphere, or even a place where one’s emotions belong and could recall one’s unforgettable thinking and hopes. All of these are the feelings of searching “way to home.” Once, I was a person who, at every second, yearned to run away from home and escape from the principles, the controls, and the expectations of family. While, in my journey of leaving home, I faced people’s questions that I didn’t fit in with the traditional feminine image of gentleness and grace. Through the process of self-narration, I not only gradually clarified and realized my doubts about woman’s role and my intolerance toward others, but also developed different perspectives of what I used to perceived. During the inquiry process, although I constantly faced the issues of ethics that made me involve in the dilemma of betraying families, my mother and I learnt to understand and respect each other by our sincere interaction and communication. The baptism of graduate program opened my eyes to see the ideology which hides in campuses and subvert my past learning experiences of being accustomed to obey. In the series of self-criticism and practical feedback, it generated positive values and energy that helped my action; besides, I could also feel the restrictions and the compromises of the structure. To put these experiences back to my family and life, it opened the conversation between my families and me. From the isolation to the close, I knew other persons’ experiences of growth and their limitation and also realized that the voice-out must be based on the understanding of conditions. The construction of subject is a sort of communicating, understanding, opening, and transcending; between the dialectics of deconstruction and construction, it reconstructs another new view that points me “the way to home.”

碩士
國立臺東大學
兒童文學研究所
99
Angela Carter was one of the most important writers of feminism in England. Because of that, her rewritings of fairy tales were considered as “feminist fairy tales .” As a result, many researchers used the the perspective of feminism to analyze how the power in her works functions to overthrow or subvert the patriarchal ideology. This kind of research approach might be problematic in its excessive explanation. This thesis aims to re-examine the meanings of Angela Carter’s rewritings and see if she really is a writer of feminism. Through the theory of Jacques Derrida, this thesis analyzed the relations between the opposite binaries in Carter’s fairy tales. Carter changes the fixed ending in the traditional fairy tales. She showed how relations with the opposite sex in reality are different from that in the traditional fairy tale. In this way, she gave the subordinate side in the traditional fairy tale power to overthrow or critique the binary oppositions. Although Carter’s works forcefully questioned the hierarchy of binary oppositions and showed her ideas of feminism, she remained in the frame of binary oppositions.

碩士
國立臺北藝術大學
藝術跨域研究所
104
As archives of body images, photography shapes the way contemporary societies understand and view the body. Many feminist artists have been attempting to reconstruct or deconstruct the body codes, continuously undermining the vision we take for granted and the boundaries of desire or taboo, and challenging the myth about female bodies in mainstream culture. The thesis will re-explore postmodern feminist literature on body studies, such as the theory of abject, gender parody and maternal space (chora). The theories will be used to not only analyze feminine art works but also guide my personal art project. In the context of my personal project, I create the narrative images of real-time body responses through scenario creation, spontaneous movement, selfie, etc. In order to develop body self-awareness and explore unconscious memories, I focus on the complicated mechanism of desire and fear of women who reject her selves, and the concept about cleanness or dirtiness constructed by the civilized body. I attempt to fully capture the self-perception through subjective experience, environment creation, and spontaneous movement. In addition, I manage to transform the abject codes to increase possibilities of feminine writing and perform more diverse self-interpretation of feminine subjective.

Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and isiZulu
There has been considerable debate amongst feminist scholars as to whether the normalization of cosmetic surgery positively impacts women, empowers women by promoting agency and choice (Gimlin 2002, Kuczynski 2006), or oppresses women by propagating patriarchal ideologies that confine women’s bodies and consequently inhibit their voice (Blum 2003, Blood 2005, Heinricy 2006, Clarke and Griffin 2007, Tait, 2007). Rather than entering this debate my argument proceeds from a premise that the normalization of cosmetic surgery is a form of implicit and exclusive violence. Using a selection of post‐structuralist, feminist, and psychoanalytic theories, I analyze the manner in which this form of violence confines women’s bodies and structures the psyche. Using Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler, and Michel Foucault’s argument on pastoral power, I deconstruct the formation of the normalized self, the conscience, and the act of confession as it translates in the context of the cosmetic surgical body itself. Furthermore, I highlight liberal feminism’s role in this form of oppression. In so doing, I theoretically show the continual and effective functioning of pastoral power in the context of an individualization technique that oppresses women in the second decade of the twenty‐first century. I argue that the normalization of cosmetic surgery provokes a silencing of woman’s voices, an exploitation and oppression of the individual’s psyche, and an invalidation of the living body by a less visible, less explicit, mode of incarceration that is concealed by an aesthetic and moral veil. It is in this context that I present a counter discourse to the oppression that underlies the normalizing discourses promoted by the cosmetic surgical industry, a destabilization of patriarchal norms embedded within cosmetic surgical discourses, and a theoretical reconstruction that involves an inscription of what I refer to as an authentic feminist voice in contemporary consumer culture – a mode of intimate unconscious insurgence. I advocate a return to Julia Kristeva’s theory and the intimate revolt promoted by her ethical approach. Furthermore, I present a voice that demonstrates an intimate revolt – a voice that challenges patriarchal norms and is not exclusively confined by the mechanisms of normalization that shape the twenty‐first century woman with emphasis on the cosmetic surgical industry and its superincumbent discourses – the South African poet Antjie Krog. It is Krog’s skillfully structured poetic texts that facilitate my theoretical reconstruction. Applying Kristeva’s theory on semanalysis, I theoretically show that Krog’s work fabricates an excess to the confines of the law of the Father and the mechanisms of normalization itself. In addition, I present an “originary attachment” as an adaption of Kristeva’s argument on the chora and my proposal of an “originary ideal” challenges Kristeva’s emphasis on phonetic grams in the context of that which underlies the realm of the paternal metaphor. Using Louise Viljoen’s analysis of Krog’s work and Bridget Garnham’s research on emerging designer cosmetic surgical discourses as support, I then present Krog’s poetic texts as a counter discourse to the “moral” cosmetic surgical discourses that exploit the ageing individual in the second decade of the twenty‐first century. In addition, applying Kristeva’s theory on paragrams to Krog’s poetic text(s), I present a destabilization of the patriarchal norms implicit within cosmetic surgical discourses. Furthermore, I extend Kristeva’s theory on the principle of negativity to present a re‐translation of the act‐of‐confession in Krog’s poetic text(s), an extension of Foucault’s pastoral power and Butler’s argument on the exclusivity of normalization, and a reclamation of her ageing body in Verweersrkrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).
Feministiese geleerdes voer al geruime tyd 'n warm debat oor die kwessie of die normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie vroue positief beïnvloed, vroue bemagtig deurdat dit volmag en keuse vir hulle in die hand werk (Gimlin 2002; Kuczynski 2006), of vroue onderdruk deurdat dit patriargale ideologieë voorstaan wat die vroueliggaam inperk en gevolglik die vrou inhibeer om haar stem te laat hoor (Blood 2005; Blum 2005; Clarke en Griffin 2007; Heinricy 2006; Tait 2007). In plaas daarvan om by hierdie debat betrokke te raak, gaan ek van die veronderstelling uit dat die normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie 'n vorm van implisiete en eksklusiewe geweld is. Aan die hand van post-strukturalistiese, feministiese en psigoanalitiese teorieë ontleed ek die manier waarop hierdie vorm van geweld vroue se liggaam onderwerp en hul psige vorm. Ek dekonstrueer die vorming van die genormaliseerde self, die bewussyn en die daad van belydenis, soos dit in die konteks oorgebring word, aan die hand van Jacques Lacan, Judith Butler en Michel Foucault se beskouings van herderlike oftewel pastorale mag. Hierbenewens onderstreep ek die rol wat liberale feminisme in hierdie vorm van onderwerping speel. Sodoende demonstreer ek teoreties hoe die voortdurende en effektiewe funksionering van pastorale mag in die konteks van ’n individualiseringstegniek vroue in die tweede dekade van die een-en-twintigste eeu onderdruk. Ek maak die aanname dat die normalisering van kosmetiese chirurgie daartoe bydra dat vroue die swye opgelê word, die individu se psige uitgebuit en onderdruk word en die lewende liggaam ontkragtig word deur middel van ’n inkerkering wat minder sigbaar en minder eksplisiet is en agter ’n estetiese en morele sluier verdoesel word. In hierdie konteks bied ek ’n teendiskoers aan vir die onderwerping wat onderliggend is aan die normaliseringsdiskoerse wat die kosmetiesechirurgiebedryf ondersteun, en ek bepleit dat die patriargale norme wat in diskoerse oor kosmetiese chirurgie vassit, gedestabiliseer word. Ek demonstreer verder ’n teoretiese rekonstruksie wat ’n inskripsie insluit van wat ek ’n geloofwaardige feministiese stem in die eietydse verbruikerskultuur noem – ’n modus van intieme, onbewuste opstandigheid. Ek bepleit 'n terugkeer na Julia Kristeva se teorie en die intieme oproer wat deur haar etiese benadering voorgestaan word. Afgesien hiervan stel ek ’n stem voor wat ’n intieme opstand demonstreer – ’n stem wat patriargale norme uitdaag en nie uitsluitlik onderdruk word deur die normaliseringsmeganismes wat vorm gee aan die vrou van die een-entwintigste eeu nie, waar die klem op die kosmetiesechirurgiebedryf en die boliggende diskoerse daarvan val – Antjie Krog, Suid-Afrikaanse digter. Dit is juis Krog se kunstig gestruktureerde digterlike tekste wat my teoretiese rekonstruksie fasiliteer. Aan die hand van Kristeva se teorie oor semanalise toon ek teoreties dat Krog se werk ’n ruimte daarstel wat "uitstyg" bo die grense wat die wet van die Vader en die normaliseringsmeganismes stel. Hierbenewens stel ek ’n "originêre gehegtheid" as aanpassing van Kristeva se beskouing van die chora voor, en my voorstel van ’n "originêre ideaal" daag Kristeva se opvating oor paragramme uit in die konteks van dit wat ten grondslag lê aan die gebied van die paternalistiese metafoor. Op grond van Louise Viljoen se ontleding van Krog se werk en Bridget Garnham se navorsing oor opkomende diskoerse oor ontwerpers- kosmetiese chirurgie bied ek Krog se digterlike tekste aan as ’n teendiskoers vir die "morele" diskoerse oor kosmetiese chirurgie wat die verouderende individu in die tweede dekade van die een-en-twintigste eeu uitbuit. Daarby, deur Kristeva se teorie oor paragramme op Krog se digterlike teks(te) toe te pas, demonstreer ek 'n destabilisering van die patriargale norme wat implisiet in diskoerse oor kosmetiese chirurgie teenwoordig is. Hierbenewens brei ek Kristeva se teorie oor die negatiwiteitsbeginsel uit deur middel van ’n heroorsetting van die belydenisdaad in Krog se digwerk(e), ’n uitbreiding van Foucault se pastorale mag en Butler se opvatting oor die eksklusiwiteit van normalisering, en ’n opeising van Krog se verouderende liggaam in Verweerskrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).
Sekubekhona izingxoxo-mpikiswano eziningi kwizifundiswa zama-feminist ukuthi ngabe ukwenza isurgery yohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka ngokwemvelo (cosmetic plastic surgery) kunomphumela omuhle yini kwabesimame, ngabe kuhlinzeka ngamandla kwabesimame ngokuphakamisela phezulu ukuthi umuntu azenzele akufunayo kanye nokuzikhethela (Grimlin 2002, Kuczynski 2006) noma kuyinto ecindezela abesimame ngokuqhubela phambili indlela nama-idiyoloji abekwa ngabesilisa ukuthi imizimba yabesimame kumele ibukeke kanjani, kanti lokhu kucindezela izwi labesimame (Blum 2003, Blood 2005, Heinricy 2006, Clarke and Griffin 2007, Tait, 2007). Kunokuthi iphuzu nami ngingenele kule ngxoxo-mpikiswano, elami iphuzu lona liqhubeka ukusukela kwisimo sokuthi ukwamukela uhlujzo olungajulile lokuzitshintsha ukubukeka kwabesimame (cosmetic surgery) kuyindlela yodlame olungaqondile ngqo kanye nolukhipha inyumbazane abesimame. Ngokusebenzisa amathiyori epost-structuralist, awe-feminist kanye nawepsychoanalytical, ngihlaziya indlela le nhlobo yalolu dlame ecindezela ngayo imizimba yabesimame kanye nokuhlela indlela okumele bacabange nokuzibona ngayo. Ngokusebenzisa iphuzu likaJacques Lacan, Judith Buttle kanye noMichel Foucault lamandla okukhokhela ngokomoya, ngiqhaqha indlela okubumbeka ngayo isithombe sokuzibona, unembeza kanye nomoya wokuhlambulula ngokuzidalula (confession) lapho kubhekwa izinto ngaphansi kwesimo somzimba wokuhlinzwa okungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka ngokwakho. Nangaphezu kwalokho, ngigqamisa indima ye-liberal feminism ngokwayo kule nhlobo yencindezelo. Ngokwenza lokho, ngikhombisa ngokwethiyori ukuqhubeka nokusebenza kwamandla esikhokhelo ngokomoya ngaphansi kwethekniki yokuzazi komuntu eyedwa okucindezela abesimame kwiminyaka elishumi yesibili, yesenshuri yamashumi amabili nanye . Ngiqhubela phambili iphuzu lokuthi ukwenziwa kohlinzo olungajulile lokuzishintsha ukubukeka kuqala umoya wokucindezela izwi labesimame, ukuxhashazwa kwabo, kanye nendlela umuntu azibona ngayo ngokwengqondo, kanye nokucindezela umzimba ophilayo ngezindlela ezingazibonakalisi obala, ezifihlekile, indlela yokubopha efihlwa yindlela yokubukeka kanye nokwembozwa umoya. Kungaphansi kwalesi simo lapho ngethula khona i-discourse yencindezelo eyenza ukuthi imboni yohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka kwabesimame kube yinto ephakanyiswayo nokubonwa iyinhle, ukuphazamiseka kwama-norm endlela yengcindezi yabesilisa, ngaphansi kwama-discourse okuhlinzwa okungajulile ukushintsha ukubukeka, kanye nokwakha ithiyori ebandakanya ukubona izinto ngendlela ethize, engikuchaza njengezwi okuyilo elifanele le-feminism, kwisimo sosiko esiphila ngaphansi kwaso samanje - okuyindlela abantu abazibuka ngayo ezingqondweni ngendlela engekho obala. Ngigcizelela ukubuyela kwithiyori kaKristeva, kanye nokuthi abantu babhoke indlobana ngezindlela eziphansi, okuyinto ayiphakamisayo yenkambiso yokwazi okulungile nokungalunganga (ethical approach). Naphezu kwalokho, ngiveza izwi elibonisa ukubhoka indlobana kwabesimame ngendlela engekho sobala - izwi elifaka inselele kuma-norm okubhozomelwa ngumqondo wokulawula kwabesilisa, kanti futhi leli zwi aligcinanga nje kuphela umumo wabesimame ngendlela ejwayelekile njengowesimame wesenshuri yamashumi amabili-nanye ngokugcizelela kwimboni yohlinzo olungajulile lokuzishintsha ukubukeka, kanye nendlela lokhu okuyisihibe ngayo – ngokusho kukasonkondlo waseNingizimu Afrika, u-Antjie Krog. Imibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog ezinobungcweti yiyo eyenze ukwakha kwami kabusha ithiyori. Ngokusebenzisa ithiyori kaKristeva ye-semanalysis, ngibonisa ngokwethiyori ukuthi umsebenzi kaKrog uqambe okweqele ngaleya kwizihibe zomthetho kubaba kanye nezindlela zokwenza izinto zibukeke ngendlela evamile noma zingavamile. Nangaphezu kwalokho, ngifakela i-"originary attachment" njengokwenza ukuthi kube kwesinye isimo, iphuzu likaKristeva ku-chora kanti isiphakamiso sami se-"originary ideal" sifaka inselele kusigcizelelo sikaKristeva ngamagremu efonethiki ngaphansi kwesimo esigcizelela umfanekiso ngasohlangothini lobaba. Ngokusebenzisa ukuhlaziya kukaLouise Viljoen kumsebenzi kaKrog kanye nocwaningo lukaBridget Garnham ngokuvela kwama-discourse ohlinzo olungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka njengesisekelo, ngase ngethula imibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog njenge-discourse yokuphikisa ama-discourse e-"moral" yama-discourse ohlinzo olungajulile lokuzishintsha ukubukeka, elixhaphaza abantu abagugayo ngeminyaka eyishumi yesibili kwisenshuri yamashumi amabili-nanye. Naphezu kwalokho, ngisebenzise ithiyori kaKristeva kumapharagramu kwimibhalo yezinkondlo zikaKrog, ngaphazamisa imibono yokuphatha kwabesilisa equkethwe kuma-discourse ohlinzo ulungajulile ukuzishintsha ukubukeka. Ukuqhubekela phambili, nginwebe ithiyori kaKristeva ngesimiso se-negativity ukwethula ukuhumusha kabusha umoya wokuzihlambulula ngokuzidalula otholakala kwizinkondlozikaKrog, ukuwukunweba amandla umbono kaFaucault wamandla okuthi abantu bazibone ngenye indlela kanye nephuzu likaButler wlkuthi into engavamile engaphandle ibonwe njengento efanele, kanye nokwamukela umzimba ogugayo kwinkondlo ye- Verweerskrif/Body Bereft (Krog 2006).
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil.(Theory of Literature)

This research journey investigated the ways in which (1) the lives of adolescents have been influenced by parental divorce and subsequent remarriage, (2) exploring the relationships participants have with biological, nonresidential fathers and (3) to collaboratively present ways of doing family in alternative. Four adolescent girls took part in group conversations where they could were empowered to have their voices heard in a society where they are usually marginalized and silenced. As a result of these conversations a family game, FunFam, was developed that aimed to assist families in expanding communication within the family. Normalizing prescriptive discourses about divorce and remarriage were deconstructed to offer participants the opportunity to re-author their stories about their families. The second part of the research journey explored the problem-saturated stories that these four participants had with their biological, nonresidential fathers. They deconstructed the discourses that influenced this relationship and redefined the relationship to suit their expectations and wishes.
Practical Theology
M.Th.

This case study investigates gender-sensitive institutional reforms in post-war Liberia. It applies key concepts developed by the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State to explore the extent to which the emergent theory of state feminism might be applicable to countries outside of the West. Preliminary findings suggest that Liberia is a feminist state insofar as both the women’s machinery and the Sirleaf Administration are allied with feminist and women’s movement actors outside the state, and that they grant these actors access to policymaking fora. Policy content also appears to reflect many of the goals identified by women’s movement actors. However, given the lack of state capacity and the degree of state penetration by international organizations, it is difficult to determine the drivers of ostensibly state-led gender equity initiatives in the country. Because multi-level governance is the norm in areas where the capacity of the state is severely circumscribed, this research introduces the concept of “supra-state feminism” to demonstrate the major limitation of state feminist theory in Liberia. This notion of feminist policy transfer in areas of limited statehood adds to the comparative literature on engendering political transitions in sub-Saharan Africa.

This dissertation is concerned with pastoral care with men in the Anglican Church. It is grounded in the rapidly changing post-apartheid years in the East Rand region of South Africa. It seeks to explore through participatory action research the negative effects of patriarchy as a discourse of power and entitlement on the lives of men of differing cultures in South Africa as victims and perpetrators of abuse. It also seeks to explore ways of pastorally caring with men through the creation of participative care groups that enable personal stories of men to be told, invitations to responsibility for abuse made, and the negative effects of patriarchal cultural and theological discourse deconstructed, and alternate understandings of masculinity constructed and performed. The work is done from a contextual theology, pro-feminist perspective, and collaborating with postmodern philosophers Derrida and Foucault, the social anthropologist Bruner and the narrative therapists White, Epston and Jenkins.
Practical Theology
M. Th. (Practical Theology, Specialisation in Pastoral Therapy