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All Subjects: Activism
Creators: Anderson, Lisa

Practicing Freedom: An Auto-ethnographic Account of a Liberation Praxis

Description

Black Americans and Black folks across the globe continue to proclaim variousunfreedoms we experience specifically due to our Blackness. As we struggle against and survive through the unfair structures, ways of being, and conditions that are killing us, we have been creating new survival strategies for living. One of our primary arguments is that state entities and the anti-Black carcerality embedded in them (e.g., policing, prisons, hospitals, welfare systems, military, the foster care system educational institutions etc.) are the primary arbitrators weaponizing violence, injustice, and unfreedom in our lives. Since the Black Lives Matter uprising in 2013 due to the murder of Trayvon Martin, leading up to the largest global uprising in 2020 due to the murder of George Floyd, and the ongoing activism around anti-Black police violence, we who are organizers and activists have found ourselves seeking out alternative ways to be principled in our struggles for abolition, transformative justice, and Black liberation. A part of being in principled struggle is building a praxis (when theory meets practice) of how to conduct oneself in community with others, and with the state in a way that is aligned with stated values and beliefs. Much of the organizing work geared towards eradicating anti-Black violence pulls from the theoretical and practiced interventions of the Black radical tradition, Black feminist thought, and abolitionism(s) to inform their praxis. This dissertation will seek out a Black radical queer feminist praxis by conducting an auto- ethnography using critical art-based Black feminist-womanist storytelling to measure data collected from my lived experiences as an organizer and activist to uplift the liberation strategies of an era.

ContributorsAraya, Miriam (Author) / Anderson, Lisa (Thesis advisor) / Duarte, Marisa (Committee member) / Alhassan, Shamara (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2024

Being sad online: creating a digital support community informed by feminist affect theory

Description

The secret Facebook group ////sads only/// was formed in October 2015 to provide a safe space for women and trans and nonbinary people to express their emotions, a sort of digital support group. Members can post individually about things happening in their lives, comment on other members’ posts with advice or support, and contribute to discussion threads. Common subject matters include mental health, relationships, sexuality, gender identity, friendships, careers, family, art, education, and body image. The group’s location on Facebook adds to its utility – it can be an alternative site of community-making and communication, away from the often toxic, triggering, or just plain negative posts that clog up social media news feeds and the unsolicited comments that get appended. The group is informed by principles of affect theory, and in particular, sad girl theory, which was developed by the artist Audrey Wollen. She suggests that femme sadness is a site of power and not just vulnerability. In her view, sadness isn’t passive existence, but instead, an act of resistance. Specifically, it uses the body in a way that is crucial to many definitions of activism, incorporating the violence of revolution, protest, and struggle that has historically been gendered as male. This thesis examines the history and future directions of the ///sads only/// group as well as its theoretical underpinnings and the implications of its intervention, considering such perspectives as cultural studies, gender performance, identity formation, digital citizenship, mental health, and feminist activism.

ContributorsKoerth, Kimberly (Author) / Ward, Mako (Thesis advisor) / Anderson, Lisa (Thesis advisor) / McGibbney Vlahoulis, Michelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2019

Impact of Shade on Outdoor Thermal Comfort: A Seasonal Field Study in Tempe, Arizona

Description

Shade plays an important role in designing pedestrian-friendly outdoor spaces in hot desert cities. This study investigates the impact of photovoltaic canopy shade and tree shade on thermal comfort through meteorological observations and field surveys at a pedestrian mall on Arizona State University's Tempe campus. During the course of 1 year, on selected clear calm days representative of each season, we conducted hourly meteorological transects from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and surveyed 1284 people about their thermal perception, comfort, and preferences. Shade lowered thermal sensation votes by approximately 1 point on a semantic differential 9-point scale, increasing thermal comfort in all seasons except winter. Shade type (tree or solar canopy) did not significantly impact perceived comfort, suggesting that artificial and natural shades are equally efficient in hot dry climates. Globe temperature explained 51 % of the variance in thermal sensation votes and was the only statistically significant meteorological predictor. Important non-meteorological factors included adaptation, thermal comfort vote, thermal preference, gender, season, and time of day. A regression of subjective thermal sensation on physiological equivalent temperature yielded a neutral temperature of 28.6 °C. The acceptable comfort range was 19.1 °C-38.1 °C with a preferred temperature of 20.8 °C. Respondents exposed to above neutral temperature felt more comfortable if they had been in air-conditioning 5 min prior to the survey, indicating a lagged response to outdoor conditions. Our study highlights the importance of active solar access management in hot urban areas to reduce thermal stress.

ContributorsMiddel, Ariane (Author) / Selover, Nancy (Author) / Hagen, Bjorn (Author) / Chhetri, Nalini (Author)

Created2015-04-13