Browsing by Subject "gender studies"

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    Gendered Coping Mechanisms for Human-Tiger Conflict in Chitwan National Park, Nepal
    (2019-06) Helle, Samantha
    Human-tiger conflict (HTC) threatens both tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) conservation initiatives and the lives of local people who depend on tiger-shared forests for subsistence. In buffer zone community forests around Chitwan National Park, Nepal, incidences of human-killings have increased over the past 20 years resulting in widespread research and programs to mitigate HTC. While previous studies have explored conflict mitigation strategies at the government and institutional levels, this study seeks to understand, through a gendered lens, HTC mitigation methods known and practiced by individuals living in three HTC hotspot buffer zone communities south of Chitwan National Park. We applied Feminist Political Ecology theory, with gender as the central analytical variable along with the consideration of other socio-demographic factors, to understand where tigers rank in perceived wildlife threats, what individual HTC mitigation methods are known and practiced, and what barriers exist to implementing known methods. Individual interviews (n=150), sampling men and women equally, revealed that tigers rank second overall as the most threatening wildlife species to residents, with no difference in mean ranking between women and men. Across the three sampled communities, 31 unique HTC mitigation methods were reported. The three most commonly reported methods were going to the forest in groups, taking a weapon for protection, and not wearing the color red. There was no significant difference in mean number of HTC mitigation methods known between men (μ= 2.57) and women (μ=2.29). However, using a repeated measures ANOVA, a significant difference in mean number of methods known and practiced in the last month of the survey was found between men and women. Men reported significantly more barriers to implementing methods than women. Respectively, the top methods men and women reported not using often were traveling in groups and wearing non-red clothing. Dominant socio-cultural practices coupled with known biological factors associated with HTC may contribute to reported implementation barriers and place men from one out of the three study areas who enter the forest alone at high risk for an attack. Further analysis and understanding of how gender and other social constructs play a role in HTC is needed to reduce incidences of HTC and the removal of tigers from core conservation areas.
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    Post-Gay Television: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," Marriage, and Bullying On and Off Screen
    (2015-06) Elias, Liora
    The 2000-era has been a momentous time for LGBT policy shifts. This dissertation is an interdisciplinary project on these policy changes in the areas of military service, marriage rights, and bullying in schools within the context of post-gay television. I take as a starting point that post-gay politics assumes that civil rights for gays and lesbians have been achieved and continued activism is no longer needed. Since the 1990s post-gay politics has gained currency within important modalities of discourse (news media, television, print media). I investigate a cluster of television shows in which post-gay themes suggest that equality for gay and lesbian individuals has been achieved. Drawing from media studies, feminist studies, critical race studies, queer theory, and cultural studies, this dissertation examines the television shows Army Wives (Lifetime), Modern Family (ABC), and Glee (Fox) as case studies for theorizing the ways in which media facilitates the emergence of post-gay discourse. It does so by situating these shows within the context of, on the one hand, government hearings and documents and Supreme Court decisions, and, on the other hand, the industrial and popular discourse surrounding these TV programs. Post-gay television is often comprised of conservative and assimilationist political values such as the desire for gays and lesbians to openly serve in the U.S. military, same-sex marriage, and "equality"� based initiatives to eradicate bullying in schools. These initiatives often mask structural issues such as the continued prevalence of homophobia in the U.S. Military, the assimilationist qualities of same-sex marriage, as well as the enforcement of heteronormativity and gender policing common in U.S. high schools. These series do not simply represent LGBT lives on screen; they also participate in fundraising and public relations efforts for issues like marriage equality. Following the call to move beyond the politics of representation, my dissertation provides a critical historical and contextual perspective on the way in which the implementation and repeal of policy legislation is productive of what I am calling the politics of norms. It also considers how these policy changes and their treatment on television are informed by post-gay discourse.