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- All Subjects: Girls
- Creators: Gonzalez, Gabriela A.
Description
Using arts-informed ethnographic approaches, theatrical techniques and a feminist/performance studies lens, this study analyzes the construction of US girlhood from the perspective of girls ranging in age from fourteen to seventeen by examining their original artistic creations and performances. Placing the artifacts of girl-created culture and the girls' representations, which I view as a performative practice, at the heart of my study, I connect girlhood studies to Butler's gender performance theories and to the larger field of performance studies. Rather than strictly analyzing these original works myself, I involve the girl participants as co-theorists in the analysis of the resulting artistic creations as a performance of girlhood. Through our theory building sessions, we aim to discover a nuanced understanding of girlhood and how gender identity can be performed by adolescent girls, as well as how artistic and theatrical practices can serve to assist youth in exploring complex issues. The adolescent female participants serve as active writers and performers of girlhood and through their writing and performances demonstrate their understanding of what it means to be a girl in contemporary US society. In viewing the girls as theorists, I demonstrate their capabilities while honoring their experiences and knowledge, an approach I believe should be more often employed in academia and in everyday life. Specifically, my study's central research question asks: how do US girls consume mass media representations of girlhood and reproduce or subvert these representations? In what ways do girls perform their understandings of their own identities and what it means to be a girl in contemporary US society through their creations of original art and literature, live theatrical pieces, and digital cultural practices? These works include theatrical performances, creative writing, self-portrait sculptures, and blogs/journals. Additionally, I conduct and analyze both solo and group interviews. I assert the importance of creative space and theatrical/artistic practices as tools with which girls can examine and challenge girlhood and gender discourses.
ContributorsMinarsich, Teresa (Author) / Etheridge Woodson, Stephani (Thesis advisor) / Saldana, Johnny (Committee member) / Melo, Carla (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
U.S. non-profit organizations (NPOs) offering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programming, particularly those serving minorities and women, are becoming guideposts that assist academic, government and corporate institutions alike to steer their efforts and investments towards achieving their diversity and inclusion goals. Despite multi-year, multi-billion, and multi-resource investments in broadening STEM access and inclusion, the inequitable representation of young women and girls of color actively participating in school and out-of-school STEM programs continues to persist. The primary aim of this study was to validate a feminist theoretical framework grounded on the constructs of intersectionality, collective impact, and accountability systems, to help inform and disrupt persistent trends for women graduating in engineering and computer science through the third sector’s facilitation of STEM programming. A secondary objective was to understand the history and trajectory of the change and emergence of non-profit STEM Girl-Centered Organizations (SGCOs) and their profiles as a comparative measure of their relative status within the third sector ecosystem, how they serve, and who they serve. By leveraging over twenty-five years of practical experience and applying a mixed-methods research methodology, the research findings pointed to 1) an early adoption of intersectionality concepts into program outreach efforts by integrating cross-elements of race/ethnicity, geographies, and socioeconomic markers of identity; 2) emerging interest in, and incorporation of, culturally responsive programming that is better matched to the needs of diverse program beneficiaries; 3) an increase in equitable program access for participants residing in under-resourced communities; 4) a growing appreciation for the value of partnerships as a precursor to more authentic collective impact collaborations; and 5) priority shifts in systems of accountability from funders to primary programs’ beneficiaries.
ContributorsGonzalez, Gabriela A. (Author) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Thesis advisor) / Switzer, Heather (Committee member) / Vega, Sujey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021