Browsing by Subject "Resistance"

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3D system-circuit-device design methodologies for advanced CMOS
(2021-05-03) Mathur, Rahul; Kulkarni, Jaydeep P.; John, Lizy; Dodabalapur, Ananth; Banerjee, Sanjay; Yeric, Greg; Sinha, Saurabh
The emergence of 5G, automotive, and AI-based applications are creating new capabilities and a huge amount of data that is driving the need for a broad expansion in energy-efficient compute capacities. At the same time, the typical gains in Power, Performance, Area, and Cost (PPAC) that dimensional scaling has brought over the past several decades are slowing down. To o set the slowdown in 2D scaling and continue the trajectory of PPAC improvements, coordinated innovations are needed across the system, circuit, and device abstraction levels. 3D integration may offer complementary gains to transistor density scaling. Meanwhile, 3D expands the design space of SoC adding considerations like partitioning, power delivery, signaling, and thermal management. This dissertation studies these considerations in detail. The work spans thermal analysis of a 3D CPU, system-level design space exploration of 3D ML accelerators, circuit design of a 3D-Split SRAM macro, and novel use of device-level 3D construct of Buried Power Rail (BPR) for SRAM signaling to enable next-generation computing systems in advanced CMOS.
A room of her own : romance, resistance, and feminist thought in modern Urdu poetry
(2015-05) Khan, Imran Hameed, 1975-; Hyder, Syed Akbar; Petievich, Carla; Minault, Gail; Visweswaran, Kamala; Hindman, Heather; Mohammad, Mahboob A
This dissertation examines the ways in which the female figure has emerged, and the ways in which women’s issues have been addressed in Urdu poetry in various ways during the twentieth century. In order to track these changes and shifts in the Urdu poetic landscape I examine five poets: Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), Akhtar Shirani (1905-1948), Kaifi Azmi (1919-2002), Parveen Shakir (1952-1994), and Ishrat Afreen (b. 1956). I argue that each of these poets represents a distinct trend in the way women are discussed in Urdu poetry. While looking at these five poets I will consider the social context in which they were writing and how their poetry engages the canonical aesthetics of the past, along with the socio-political agendas of the present. By analyzing their poetry we can trace how through romance and resistance feminist thought developed in increments throughout the twentieth century. This poetry is a reflection of the social and cultural milieus in which it was written; it can help us understand how these poets understood their roles within their culture, as well as how they tried to push the boundaries of accepted cultural norms. Through these poets we can observe how the subject of Woman, women’s issues, and gender ideology evolved in twentieth century Urdu poetry. Furthermore, studying these poets shows us how the space created by earlier poets eventually led to women using the Urdu poetry landscape for overt feminist poetry, lending authentic women’s voices to women’s issues and movements in South Asia.
A yeast-based assay for protein tyrosine kinase substrate specificity and inhibitor resistance
(2017-12) Taft, Joseph Michael; Iverson, Brent L.; Georgiou, George; Stone, Everett; Marcotte, Edward; Dalby, Kevin
Phosphorylation of tyrosines by protein kinases is a fundamental mode of signal transduction in all eukaryotic cells, leading to a wide variety of cellular outcomes, including proliferation, differentiation, transcriptional activation, and programmed cell death. Perturbations to tyrosine kinase signaling networks by activation, overexpression, or mutation is the driving factor in many diseases, most notably cancers. The development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, 37 of which are currently FDA-approved, has led to a revolution in cancer treatment. Imatinib, the first FDA-approved kinase inhibitor, has drastically improved prognosis for patients with Bcr-abl-positive leukemias. Despite this unprecedented success, however, up to one-third of patients lose response to imatinib due to mutations within the tyrosine kinase domain of Bcr-abl. Subsequent generations of Bcr-abl inhibitors, including dasatinib and ponatinib, have been developed to overcome these resistance mutations, but in each case, novel resistance mutations have arisen. We present a high-throughput yeast-based assay for the prediction of dasatinib- and ponatinib-resistant mutations in the ABL1 kinase domain. Our results not only recapitulate all known dasatinib-resistant mutations, but confirm recent patient data emphasizing the importance of compound mutations in ponatinib resistance. Furthermore, with hundreds of kinase inhibitors in development for the treatment of a wide range of diseases, understanding the cellular pathway of each kinase is critically important to the selection of ideal drug targets and avoiding potentially toxic side effects. Discovery of novel tyrosine kinase substrates is hindered by the presence of 90 human tyrosine kinases, which are often active in the same pathways. Phosphoproteomics, chemical genetics, and in vitro assays have been used to great success, yet only 30% of phosphorylated tyrosines in the human proteome have been assigned to a specific kinase. Recent advances in predicting tyrosine kinase substrates have been made by combining large data sets on kinase domain specificity, cellular localization, and protein-protein interactions in probabilistic algorithms. However, the high-quality data sets required for accurate predictions are often lacking. In chapter 2, we present a high-throughput yeastbased assay for screening millions of putative kinase substrates, which we then use to build a probabilistic model to accurately predict the in vitro phosphorylation of candidate substrates
A-AVOIR Resistance : a cross cultural study of sexual citizenship in North America and France
(2012-05) Batiste, Dominique Pierre; Strong, Pauline Turner, 1953-; Speed, Shannon, 1964-; Johnson, Michael
What forms of resistance are gay men in France and North America enacting against heteronormativity and homophobia? And why are they enacting these particular forms of resistance? To answer these questions, this thesis aims to draw connections between gay men's resistance strategies and larger socio-political phenomena in both France and North American cultures. First I focus on the discursive construction of citizens, both heterosexual and homosexual, in order to illustrate how gay men are relegated to second-class citizenship based on their sexual identities and practices. My focus, here, is cultural citizenship and sexual citizenship, two themes that run throughout this thesis. Next, I use Foucault's theories of knowledge-power to reveal how power relations in society discursively create subject positions, such as 'homosexuals' and 'heterosexuals', utilizing structures of control, norms, rewards, and punishments in order to champion heterosexuality to the detriment of homosexuality. In order to contest exercises of power, gay men engage in acts of resistance. i examine scholarly debates centered on resistance, and create a list of criterion for overt resistance, which I dub A AVOIR Resistance on account that it includes the characteristics of Action, Alternatives, Visibility, Opposition, Intent, and Recognition. Utilizing my rubric for overt resistance, as well as Foucault's notions of power, I analyze interview transcripts from a sample of gay men in North America and France to reveal that some gay men, living outside of large metropolitan areas, are rejecting hegemonic ideals of 'gayness' and integrating into mainstream heteronormative society. These men are creating what I call 'authentic communities' where many individuals from various backgrounds and lifestyles live together harmoniously based primarily on access to resources rather than identity markers such as sexual identity. this research shows a split between the ways that urban and suburban gay men embody their homosexuality. Since research on gay men focuses on those living in urban areas, my research calls, instead, for focus on suburban gay men and their resistance to homo-normative ideologies of what it means to me gay.
Anticolonial landscapes : land and the emergence of Miskitu people's territorial resistance in the Moskitia
(2023-08) Matamoros Mercado, Ruth Herenia, 1980-; Cárcarmo-Huechante, Luis E.; Vasudevan, Pavithra; Ramos-Scharrón, Carlos E; Gordon, Edmund T; Carcamo-Huechante, Luis E
This dissertation investigates the Miskitu people's understanding of land and the natural environment in the Moskitia region of Nicaragua, rooted in indigenous worldviews and shaped by historical and ongoing colonial influences. Central to this exploration is the notion of Yapti Tasba (Mother Earth), a critical component of the indigenous knowledge framework that inspires a communal understanding of land ownership. Using a blend of ethnographic and archival research, the study examines Miskitu perspectives on land and the natural environment, the effects of colonialism and racial structures on these perspectives, and the significance of centering these views in Miskitu territorial struggles, transcending traditional legal paradigms. The investigation is guided by three key questions: how are territorial rights and indigenous identity influenced by specific understandings of land and the natural environment? How do these understandings contribute to life sustenance in the community and, how are gendered forms of knowledge manifested in everyday ecological practices related to Yapti Tasba? This dissertation proposes that despite external pressures reshaping Miskitu people's interactions with their land, their core beliefs are still grounded in traditional values and meanings linked to their landscape, predating colonial impositions. Furthermore, it highlights the unique nature of Miskitu People’s resistance, which is deeply tied to their land, serving as a cornerstone for survival and differentiating from conventional notions of indigenous activism and social mobilization. The insights garnered from this research contribute to the broader discourse on indigenous land relations and environmental stewardship worldwide.
Between us bread and salt : Battiri cuisine and al-’ūnah
(2018-05-02) Howard, Amber Joy; Atwood, Blake Robert, 1983-; Shirazi, Faegheh, 1952-
Recently food-based reporting form large press agencies, such as the New York Times and others, have favored headlines and instances of resistance emanating from the home or domestic sphere. These timely concepts of the power of food and the kitchen to maintain, reinforce, and create an avenue for engagement with a place of origin and an identity have long informed movements within Palestine. This work focuses on the small village of Battir close to Bethlehem and Jerusalem that has engaged with their agricultural practices and their land-connected kitchens as the platform from which to resist the construction of the Israeli security barrier. Through exploration of local dishes, this work approaches Palestinian resistance through the new avenue of al-’ūnah (collaborative work) as a means of expanding the popular concept of Sūmūd, as well as, to address gender, space, domesticity, and identity. The movements in Battir showcase the efficacy of food practices in community building and the strategies now being engaged to maintain critical space under occupation. The location of the fieldwork also expands the narrative of Palestinian struggle that regularly focuses on destroyed villages and displacement. Battir is one of the few villages that has continuously been inhabited for two millennia and saved from destruction during the Nakbah, the 1967 war, and continual village appropriations and depopulation today. To sit at the Battiri table is to understand the visceral connection its people have to the land that they work and thus the impetus for the struggle to maintain their practices and agricultural legacy.
Civil resistance and digital media in Uganda : hybrid spaces of resistance and expression
(2023-04-19) Moriarty, Daniel Patrick; Adams, Paul C.; Faria, Caroline; Sletto, Bjorn
This research explores the ongoing political resistance in Uganda under the guise of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and its leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine. The NUP, in its efforts to challenge the 37-year long rule of President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM), has mobilized millions of young Ugandans through the adaptive use of various social media platforms. Evolving from a social movement into a formal political organization, the NUP’s resistance strategy has shifted into continued digital engagement and physical outreach into Uganda’s hinterlands. Taking a mixed-methods approach, this work seeks to present a trans-scalar view of the intersections between digital and physical spaces of political expression and resistance inside (and outside) Uganda today. The use of GIS to interrogate the relationship between telecommunications infrastructure and political unrest at a national scale presents an introductory context to the research. Content analysis of newspaper archives on the formalization of the People Power Movement into the NUP and forty surveys on the use of digital media and political action gradually “zoom in” the scale to focus on the emergence of the NUP and the environment which it finds itself. Proceeding to qualitatively focused methods, interviews with several members of the NUP (to include several of Wine’s chief lieutenants) highlights key themes of a digitally mediated resistance movement struggling to ground itself in rural territories. Lastly, a novel attempt at visualizing digital spaces in relation to a resistance movement is operationalized through participatory mapping. This research explores the unique ways in which Uganda’s political history and human geography affects the ongoing struggle for democratic reforms. Thematically, this work also grounds the NUP’s struggle in the global geopolitical competition between authoritarianism and pro-democracy movements, at times aligned or against neoliberal democratic states.
Colistin for multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii from Thailand
(2010-08) Srisupha-Olarn, Warunee; Burgess, David S., doctor of pharmacy; Frei, Christopher R.
Multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii have caused nosocomial infections worldwide. Nowadays, there are no effective regimens to treat MDR- A. baumannii. Therefore, this study’s objective was to find out an effective antimicrobial combination against MDR-A. baumannii. This project consisted of four parts. Part 1 was an in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility test of MDR-A. baumannii collected from Thailand. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were performed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines using a broth microdilution technique. This study found that colistin was the most active against MDR-A. baumannii (MIC50 0.5µg/mL, MIC90 1µg/mL). In addition, 77% of MBL -producing A. baumannii were reported using the MBL Etest strips. This prevalence was higher than previously reported. Part 2 was conducted to compare antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of pre- and post-colistin exposure A. baumannii isolates. After colistin exposure, A. baumannii isolates became resistant to colistin but more susceptible to cefepime, doxycycline, meropenem and rifampicin. These findings suggested the potential of a synergistic activity of colistin combinations. Part 3 was a time-kill study that compared activity of colistin alone and in combination against MDR-A. baumannii. Time-kill assays were performed using a standard inoculum. Colistin monotherapy was rapidly bactericidal against these isolates; however, regrowth occurred at 24 hrs. On the other hand, colistin in combination with cefepime, doxycycline, meropenem or rifampicin demonstrated synergy and maintained bactericidal activity over 24 hrs (100%). Part 4 was designed to optimize meropenem dosing regimens using a PK-PD model. Three MDR-A. baumannii with colistin MICs (0.5-1µg/mL) and meropenem MICs (32-128µg/mL) were tested. The antimicrobial regimens alone and in combination evaluated were: colistin 2.5mg/kg every 12 hrs, meropenem 3g and 6g continuously infused (CI) over 24 hrs. Colistin monotherapy was rapidly bactericidal but regrowth did occur. Both combinations express synergy (100%). Nevertheless, colistin and high dose meropenem (6g CI over 24 hrs) was bactericidal and prevented regrowth over 24 hrs. In conclusion, MBL-producing A. baumannii is more prevalent than previously thought and colistin combined with a high dose meropenem (6g/day) has good potential to overcome multidrug- and carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii. These findings should be further evaluated in animal models and clinical practices.
Conformational dynamics plays a significant role in HIV reverse transcriptase resistance and substrate selection
(2012-12) Nguyen, Virginia Myanh; Johnson, Kenneth A. (Kenneth Allen)
Human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase (HIV RT) is a virally encoded polymerase responsible for replicating the HIV genome. Most HIV treatments include nucleotide RT inhibitors (NRTIs) which inhibit HIV RT replication by serving as a substrate for the polymerase reaction but then blocks subsequent polymerization after incorporation. However, resistance to these NRTIs may occur through specific mutations in HIV RT that increase the discrimination of HIV RT for natural nucleotides over NRTIs. The role of enzyme conformational dynamics in specificity and substrate selection was studied using transient kinetic methods on HIV RT enzymes that have been site-specifically labeled with a conformationally sensitive fluorophore, to measure the rates of binding and catalysis. First, HIV RT with the mutation of lysine to arginine at the residue position 65 (K65R) was examined for its resistance against the NRTI tenofovir diphosphate (TFV), an acyclic deoxyadenosine triphosphate (dATP) analog. It was found that HIV RT K65R resistance to TFV was achieved through decreased rates of catalysis and increased rates of dissociation for TFV over dATP when compared with the kinetics of wild-type HIV RT. Moreover, global fitting analysis confirmed a mechanism where a large conformational change, after initial ground state binding of the substrate, contributed significantly to enzyme specificity. This led to our investigation of the molecular basis for enzyme specificity using HIV RT as a model system. Again, transient kinetic methods were applied with the addition of molecular dynamics simulations. The simulated results were substantiated by the corroborating experimental results. It was found that a substrate-induced conformational change in the transition of HIV RT from an open nucleotide-bound state to a closed nucleotide-bound state was the major determinant in enzyme specificity. The molecular basis for substrate selection resulted from the molecular alignments of the substrate in the active-site, which induced the conformational change. When the correct nucleotide was bound, optimal molecular interactions in the active-site yielded a stably closed complex, which promoted nucleotide incorporation. In contrast, when an incorrect nucleotide was bound, the molecular interactions at the active-site were not ideal, which yielded an unstable closed complex, which promoted substrate dissociation rather than incorporation.
Contesting the mark of criminality : resistance and ideology in gangsta rap, 1988-1997
(2009-08) McCann, Bryan John; Cloud, Dana L.
This dissertation situates the emergence of gangsta rap from 1988-1997 within the historical trajectory of the American criminal justice system and the mass incarceration of African Americans. Specifically, it examines how the genre enacted the mark of criminality as a gesture of resistance in a period of sustained moral panic surrounding race and criminality in the United States. The mark of criminality refers to a regime of signifiers inscribed upon African American bodies that imagines black subjects as fundamental threats to social order. Drawing upon the theoretical resources of historical materialism and cultural studies, the project locates the mark of criminality within the social structures of capitalism, arguing that hegemonic fantasies of racialized criminality protect oppressive and exploitative social relations. The project concludes that while gangsta rap has many significant limitations associated with violence, misogyny, and commercialism, it nonetheless represents a salient expression of resistance that can inform broader interventions against the American prisons system. A number of questions guide this project. Chief among them are the following: In what ways does the criminal justice system operate as a site of rhetorical invention and hegemonic struggle? To what extent does gangsta rap enable and disable rhetorical and political agency? To what extent does it enable and disable interracial political practice? What are the implications of gangsta rap for a gendered politics of criminality? Three case studies demonstrate how specific gangsta rap artists inverted the mark of criminality toward the constitution of affirmative and resistant fantasies of black criminality. While the work of these artists, I argue, was significantly limited in its emancipatory potential, it nonetheless offered important insights into the contingency of race and crime in America. The project also considers how other rhetors responded to gangsta discourse, frequently toward the end of supporting hegemonic notions of race and criminality. The dissertation concludes that criminality functions as a vibrant site of rhetorical invention and resistance provided it is articulated to broader movements for social justice. While the often-problematic discourses of gangsta rap do not constitute politically progressive rhetorics in their own rights, they provide resources for the articulation of righteous indignation and utopian desires capable of challenging the prison-industrial complex.
The corporeality of trauma, memory, and resistance : writing the body in contemporary fiction from Chile and Argentina
(2014-05) Tille-Victorica, Nancy Jacqueline; Lindstrom, Naomi, 1950-; Domínguez-Ruvalcaba, Héctor; Heinzelman, Susan Sage; Robbins, Jill; Wettlaufer, Alexandra
This dissertation looks at the representation and impact of gendered violence in the novel Pasos bajo el agua (1986) and in the short stories in Ofrenda de propia piel (2004) by Argentine author and former political prisoner Alicia Kozameh (b. 1953), as well as in Jamás el fuego nunca (2007) and Impuesto a la carne (2010), two novels by Chilean writer Diamela Eltit (b. 1949). By examining the particular expressions of physical and psychological pain in the aforementioned texts, I demonstrate that Kozameh and Eltit write the female body to simultaneously represent a corporeality that, until recently, has rarely been expressed in literature, and reconstruct a body that has been traumatized by state-sponsored violence and by what could be considered economic violence. Both of them denounce violence, torture, disappearances, exile, and indifference to justice as painful events that not only damage the spirits of the victims, but that are also inscribed upon the physical body. I also show how each author addresses the overlapping of individual and collective traumatic memories and how these are felt in the body as well. Finally, I argue that writing the materiality of the lived body, from its vulnerability to its resilience, provides for Kozameh and Eltit valuable insight into the ways in which female bodies are able to resist and reassess the meaning imposed on them by legally-endorsed and non-official systems of oppression. Their work thus has direct viii social relevance that goes beyond feminism's countering of male dominance and women's rights. Yet, I also show that they manifest their feminist commitment by using the voice and body of female subjects to incorporate marginalized Chilean and Argentine bodies into the linguistic realm in order to provide a fuller understanding of female corporeality in Latin America.
Ecology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections
(2017-05) Dees, Justine Lynn; Whiteley, Marvin; Alper, Hal; Barrick, Jeffrey E.; Fast, Walter; Marcotte, Edward; Hunicke-Smith, Scott
The Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa infects many different tissues types of immunocompromised individuals, especially the soft tissues and lungs. Despite the prevalence of P. aeruginosa in multiple infection environments, many of the mechanisms controlling this bacterium’s ability to thrive during infection remain unexplained. Therefore, I explored two facets of the ecology of P. aeruginosa infections: 1) the presence of co-infecting bacterial species and 2) the disturbance by antimicrobial treatment. The fitness-based genomic approach, Transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) was used to identify P. aeruginosa fitness determinants during chronic wound infection with the common co-infecting species, Staphylococcus aureus. The Tn-seq data revealed several genes that P. aeruginosa requires during co-infection with S. aureus. In particular, I demonstrated that the ability of P. aeruginosa to biosynthesize glutathione is a crucial determinant of P. aeruginosa fitness during chronic wound co-infection with S. aureus, potentially to relieve oxidative stress. To explore how the disturbance by antimicrobial treatment affects P. aeruginosa, I combined expression- (RNA sequencing) and fitness-based (Tn-seq) genomic techniques and identified genes involved in P. aeruginosa in vitro resistance to various antimicrobials.
Expansion, adaptation, and exclusion : Texas and the eastern North American borderlands, 1763-1845
(2023-12) Cox, Sheena Lee; Buenger, Walter L., 1951-; Smith, Foster T; Bsumek, Erika; Zamora, Emilio
This dissertation examines the process of American Indian removal across eastern North America and into Texas from 1763-1845. I examine treaties, personal letters, diaries, legislation, and government documentation to show how American Indian removal was an essential component of American expansion in the 18th and 19th centuries. After the first Treaty of Paris, American Indians, and native Mexicans, like all groups who encountered chaotic circumstances, resisted, or adapted to the changing nature of relationships in their regions as the borders and power dynamics fluctuated. I argue that the theft and sale of American Indian land contributed to the rapid economic development of the United States and became more aggressively violent after the 1815 Creek War, which eliminated significant Indigenous resistance in the Old Northwest and the South at the same time the European competition became severely weakened and removed from much of North America. Furthermore, I show how the theory of Indigenous incorporation into American society was never meaningfully attempted, and methods of exclusion were supported and more common practice by the time Americans first settled in Texas.
Expressions of Maya identity and culture in Los Angeles : coloniality of power, resistance, and cultural memory
(2010-08) Batz, Giovanni; Hale, Charles R., 1957-; Arias, Arturo
The migration of thousands of Guatemalan-Maya due to political violence and poverty since the 1970s led to the establishment of various diasporic communities throughout the United States. A frequent destination for the Maya is Los Angeles, California, where they are confronted with pressure to adapt within an environment that is predominately Latino/Hispanic. Maya identity expressed through the use of traje (Maya clothing), language, literature and spirituality is challenged by Euro-American culture such as western style of dress and the practice of English which discriminates against these customs. These conditions are more severe for Maya children who face the difficulties in preserving their heritage as a result of institutions such as public education which socializes them into US culture and history. Despite the presence of many indigenous communities in Los Angeles, such as the Maya, Mixtecos and Zapotecs, indigenous identity is almost non-existent in many public spaces and institutions. Discrimination against the Maya by their compatriots and other Latinos coupled with high rates of undocumented immigration statuses have contributed to this invisibility. Some Maya parents view the lack of a strong indigenous identity among their children as problematic and the source of negative cultural qualities such as disrespect towards elders, violence, individualism and misbehavior. In this study, I seek to examine Maya identity and culture in Los Angeles. What does it mean to identify as Maya in Los Angeles? What are the consequences of doing so? How do Maya immigrants respond to discrimination and what implications does discrimination have for the ethnic identity formation of their children? Why has Maya identity survived in some children of Maya and not in others? I found that while some Maya immigrants have assimilated into the Latino community in response to racism and fear of deportation, others have adopted strategies such as the use of marimba to preserve Maya identity which also serve to deal with a life of displacement and exile. Maya identity among children is highly influenced by factors such as the educational system, class and their parent’s willingness and ability to transmit Maya culture. Thus, while some children of Maya have been able to preserve and express their identity through various channels such as music and language, others may be unaware of, ashamed by or apathetic toward their indigenous roots and history.
Gang reppin’ : revolutionizing resistance- critical discourse analysis of Colors, American Me & Straight Outta Compton
(2016-05) Mariscal, Kathy Isabel; De Lissovoy, Noah, 1968-; Urrieta, Luis
This thesis aims to unpack the discourse of Black and Latinx gangs in popular film. The (mis)representation of Black and Latinxs in films has damaging implications for how they are perceived and understood in discourse, education, and in knowledge production. I build from Critical Race Feminism, which is an intersectional and race-gendered feminist lens that is needed in theorizing and unpacking traditional malestream gang discourse. Critical discourse analysis guides the methodology used to discuss the implications of the following three films: Colors (1988), American me (1992), and Straight Outta Compton (2015). By using popular film and critical media analysis as tools, there is a possibility to (re)define and understand gang resistance with hopes to decolonize existing discourses.
Genital power : female sexuality in West African literature and film
(2011-05) Diabate, Naminata; Moore, Lisa L. (Lisa Lynne); Hoad, Neville Wallace, 1966-
This dissertation calls attention to three important contemporary texts from West Africa that resist the tacit cultural taboo around questions of sexuality to imagine empowering images of female sexuality. Using postcolonial feminist approaches, queer theory, and cultural studies, I analyze two novels and a film by T. Obinkaram Echewa, Frieda Ekotto, and film director Jean Pierre Bekolo to retrieve moments in which women characters turn the tables on denigrating views of their sexuality and marshal its power in the service of resistance. I show how in these texts, women bare their nether parts, wield menstrual cloths, enjoy same-sex erotic acts, sit on men's faces, and engage in many other stigmatized practices in a display of what I call "genital powers." These powers are both traditional to the cultures analyzed here and called into new forms by the pressures of decolonization and globalization. Through more complex representations of female sexuality, these texts chart a tradition in which stale binaries of victims and oppressors, the body as an exclusive site of female subjugation or as a site of eternal female power are blurred, allowing a deeper understanding of women's lived experiences and what it means to be a resisting subject in the postcolonial space. By broadly recovering women's powers and subjectivities, centering on sexuality and the body, I also examine the ways in which this mode of female subjectivity has thus far escaped comprehensive theorization. In this way, my project responds to Gayatri Spivak's call to postcolonial intellectuals to unlearn privileged forms of resistance in the recognition of subjectivity, and to develop tools that would allow us to "listen" to the voices of disenfranchised women - those removed from the channels of knowledge production. However, my study cautions that the recognition of genital powers should not be conflated with the romanticized celebration of female bodies and sexuality, since West African women continue to struggle against cultural, political, existential, and physical assaults.
Her own works praise her : an investigation into the development of ambitious feminist teachers and their resistance to neoliberal mechanisms of curricular and pedagogical control
(2017-05) Johnson, Heather Scott; Salinas, Cinthia; Brown, Anthony; Grant, S.G.; Payne, Katherina; Wetzel, Melissa
The purpose of qualitative case study was to examine the development of activist feminist teachers, their viewpoints and understandings of the current neo-liberal educational system and their methods of resistance to the curricular and pedagogical controls placed upon them. This research was built upon a three part conceptual framework. First of all, that feminist consciousness needs to be nurtured in teachers rather than assumed to be present. Second that the enactment of feminism can take on many forms and is affected by the contexts of era, region and class. Lastly, to recognize as legitimate and effective, feminized forms of resistance which frequently veer from traditional ones and as such tend be dismissed and marginalized. Using a feminist post-structural theoretical lens, I explored the multiple pathways by which teachers reach a point of feminist consciousness and what were the important factors, which led them to apply these understandings to their work in the classroom. The data analysis revealed the many roads to feminist consciousness and its manifestations. Additionally it also uncovered common threads such as the importance of critical coursework in college, mentors and support networks. Teachers, using their feminist frameworks understood, responded to and resisted the mandated curriculum in a variety of ways. The first was through their content knowledge of both the dominant and counter-narrative. Secondly, they employed feminist pedagogies and fostered strong relationships with their students, which helped create space and acceptance for critical thought. Finally they used their understandings of the current values of the neo-liberal educational system to not only navigate but to leverage this fluency into change for themselves, their curriculum and their students. The goal was not to merely critique the system, but to illustrate real life examples of successful feminist teacher resistance that teachers and teacher-educators could recognize, understand and apply to their own work.
"Hips don't lie" : Mexican American female students' identity construction at The University of Texas at Austin
(2012-08) Portillo, Juan Ramon; Straubhaar, Joseph D.; Hogan, Kristen
While a university education is sold to students as something anyone can achieve, their particular social location influences who enters this space. Mexican American women, by virtue of their intersecting identities as racialized women in the US, have to adopt a particular identity if they are to succeed through the educational pipeline and into college. In this thesis, I explore the mechanics behind the construction of this identity at The University of Texas at Austin. To understand how this happens, I read the experiences of six Mexican American, female students through a Chicana feminist lens, particularly Anzaldúa’s mestiza consciousness. I discovered that if Mexicana/Chicana students are to “make it,” they have to adopt a “good student, nice Mexican woman” identity. In other words, to be considered good students, Mexican American women must also adopt a code of conduct that is acceptable to the white-centric and middle-class norms that dominate education, both at a K-12 level and at the university level. This behavior is uniquely tied to the social construction of Mexican American women as a threat to the United States because of their alleged hypersexuality and hyperfertility. Their ability to reproduce, biologically and culturally, means that young Mexican women must be able to show to white epistemic authorities that they have their sexuality and gender performance “under control.” However, even if they adopt this identity, their presence at the university is policed and regulated. As brown women, they are trespassers of a space that has historically been constructed as white and male. This results in students and faculty engaging in microaggressions that serve to Other the Mexican American women and erect new symbolic boundaries that maintain a racial and gender hierarchy in the university. While the students do not just accept these rules, adopting the identity of “good student, nice Mexican woman” limits how the students can defend themselves from microaggressions or challenge the racial and gender structure. Nevertheless, throughout this thesis I demonstrate that even within the constraints of the limited identity available to the students, they still resist dominant discourses and exercise agency to change their social situation.
Indigenous Resistance to Spanish Hegemony in Colonial Mexico
(2020-05) Cook, Scott; Kirkman, Kurt
Students will examine the Spanish colonization of Mexico through the lens of Indigenous ‘resistance’—physical resistance, religious resistance, and socio-cultural resistance—using primary source documents. Students will gain and develop an understanding of the concepts of hegemony and transculturation, ultimately applying that understanding by connecting Indigenous influences on modern Mexican culture.
Investigating sociomicrobiology by integrating micro 3D printing with quantitative analytical techniques
(2019-02-05) Fitzpatrick, Mignon Denise; Shear, Jason B.; Brodbelt, Jennifer; Anslyn, Eric; Roberts, Sean; Hoffman, David
Antibiotic resistant polymicrobial infections have become a source of great concern in recent years both in clinical settings as well as in basic and medical research. Incidence of resistance and increased virulence, which typically emerge within small, dense cellular ensembles on picoliter scales, is on the rise and scientists are just beginning to understand the complexity of these dangerous bacterial populations. To that end, the research in this dissertation has sought to analyze the complex social interactions of micro 3D (µ3D) printed bacterial colonies with a variety of analytical techniques. Through characterization of the µ3D printed hydrogels themselves, and by pairing this technology with fluorescence and confocal microscopy, electrochemical studies, and mass spectrometry, important insights regarding the sociomicrobiology of these bacterial communities emerge. The Shear lab has previously employed µ3D printing of bacterial aggregates to study microbial populations in environments that reproduce attributes associated with complex spatiotemporal in vivo conditions to a much greater extent than traditional culture techniques. Combining this technology with advanced imaging approaches has enabled a detailed investigation into properties of intra- and inter-species cooperation, including factors that influence antibiotic resistance and virulence. The goal of the work presented here is to integrate quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques with µ3D printing technology to enable novel approaches for studying interactions, both within and between small bacterial aggregates in complex microbial environments. This information will be vital in the next steps toward designing better and more efficient strategies for combating complex pathogenic communities that exist within polymicrobial infection environments.