This dissertation coheres together over a hundred insurgent testimonies published from within Arizona State Prison Complex – Perryville, the state’s only prison for women. These testimonies tell a people’s history of Arizona’s largest and most public legal intervention for prisoners’ rights: Parsons v. Ryan. In 2009, after Perryville correctional officers left Marcia Powell to bake to death in the Arizona summer sun, prisoners lit their mattresses on fire to proclaim that their lives were in danger, sparking a wave of resistance, including outside from family members and advocates, which prompted a class action lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, and Re-Entry (ADCRR). After years of prisoners’ calls for a systemic reckoning of the death-producing state punishment system, legal intervention distilled their suffering and demands into a set of discrete allegations. Meanwhile, settlement stipulations continue to implore ADCRR to meet minimum constitutional standards. While the accountability Parsons v. Ryan seeks is limited to the administration of medical care and extreme isolation, testimonies in this people’s history reveal a breadth of systemic violences that encompass and surpass the legal claims. These testimonies, which evidence strategies of care work, protest, and covert documentation, delineate the prison’s function to degrade human dignity and inflict physical and psychological harm in virtually every area of basic survival, including access to food, shelter, hygiene, and personal safety. Through use of the “rebel archive,” the resulting narrative, made possible by virtue of prisoners’ organizing for dignity, invokes a critical analysis of the sublimation of their resistance and demands for a project of liberal carceral care as prison reform.

ABSTRACT This study focused on the experiences of biracial Asian/white young people in Arizona – specifically, their racial identity; the formation of that identity over time; their sense of belonging in their state and nation; their views on the common societal conceptions of what it means to be an American; and their own conceptions of Americanism. Prior research indicates that racial identity formation for biracial people is usually a process over time as they work through prevalent racism, mono-racism, and mono-centricity. Anti-Asian sentiment and legislation, miscegenation laws, and rules of hypodescent (one-drop rules) also have deep historical roots in the U.S. This history has left a wake in which all Americans still live and operate today. However, there is also literature that suggests that current society may be headed in new directions. Multiracial people have been the fastest growing demographic in the last two Census polls, and research suggests (and my study corroborates) that the biracial experience often comes with not only challenges but also myriad benefits, to both self and others. My research is qualitative in nature, and each of the eleven respondents in the study participated in a first interview, a second interview (two weeks later) and a focus group. Abductive coding of the resulting transcripts was around five main themes and twenty sub-themes. The findings both reflected some of this nation’s fraught history (reflected in “American = White” and “Whiteness as Default” subthemes) and provided a hope for the future (especially in the subthemes of “Protean as Strength,” “Dual Perspective,” “Dual Empathy,” and “Self as Quintessential American”). My conclusions indicate that as multiracial people become increasingly common in the U.S. population (as is predicted on a grand scale) and given some of their strengths and unique perspectives on race, their very existence might aid in eradicating racism in society as a whole. Multiracial people may indeed be the quintessential Americans of the future and that may bode well for race relations more generally.

An intersectional analysis of sex education in the U.S. reveals a need for a more nuanced and community-based approach to sexuality education. A Reproductive Justice framed sexuality education program attends to the needs and desires expressed by a community, while interrogating and resisting the interlocking systems of power that work to uphold white patriarchy and white supremacy. Reproductive Justice sexuality education is socially transformational when it centers student creation and community participation. Instead of risk prevention and rights-based sex education programs that often perpetuate oppressive structures and erase students' lived experiences, student-centered sexuality education with a Reproductive Justice framework allows for participants to feel safe and valued. This re/imagining of sex education also allows for pleasure instead of shame to be a product of sexuality exploration. Key words: Reproductive Justice, Sexuality Education, K-12 Sex Education, Community Created Curriculum, Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Intersectionality

Anti-trafficking research recognizes several populations affected by Commercial Sexual Exploitation (CSE) in the United States (U.S.), yet it has not yet recognized long-term survivors, whose experiences of CSE occurred from the 1960s through the 2000s. Rendering long-term survivors invisible erases the history of CSE in the U.S. and prevents an accurate assessment of the true scope of CSE that it extends from infancy through adulthood. The most grievous CSE cultures target both boys and girls beginning at infancy and extending through early childhood. This project provides a foundation for understanding who long-term survivors are, the types of CSE they experienced, and their experiences of survivency in the decades after exiting. This study utilized interviews and surveys to collect data from 35 long-term survivors, regarding their experiences in the years past exiting. In addition, it also included a systematic analysis of 43 survivor-authors who have documented their experiences in 76 published writings. Findings show that long-term survivors display tenacity and resourcefulness in dealing with complex, intersecting issues. Their experiences of creating new, meaning-filled identities, reconnecting with humanity, and building a positive view of the world can help pave the way for a smoother road of restoration for younger survivors.

The primary aim of this dissertation is to make a substantial contribution to the better understanding of the identity formations of Black Caribbean migrant women in Britain. The dissertation outlines a theory of Black female subject formation in Britain. This theory proposes that the process of subject formation in these women is an interrupted one. It further suggests that interruptions are likely to occur at four crucial points in the development of their identities. These four points are: 1) the immigrant identity; 2) the Caribbean identity; 3) “the Jamaican” identity; and 4) the Black British identity.

In order to understand the racial and gendered dynamics of identity formation in these women, I hypothesized that the structure of institutional racism in Britain has taken the form of a “double wall” or a “double portcullis”, which much be scaled by these “immigrants”. My research, based on interviews with 15 Black professional women who identify with a Caribbean ancestry, confirmed very strongly the existence of this double portcullis. It further supported the hypothesis that the above points of identity transition were also points of possible interruption. My research also revealed that through a variety of social movements, cultural and political mobilizations, it has been possible to get over the negative stereotypes of the immigrant identity, the Caribbean identity, “the Jamaican” identity and to succeed getting over the first or the Black British wall of the double portcullis. For me, the most interesting findings of my research, are the continuing difficulties that the women I interviewed have faced in attempting to climb over the second portcullis to achieve the Black English identity. The dissertation concludes with some suggestions about the future of this “unfinished” Black British identity and its prospects for easier access to the Black English identity, and thus to “life success”.

This study sought to create a holistic picture of Ethnic Studies as it relates to education through the voices and experiences of scholars who bridge Ethnic Studies and education. It examines Ethnic Studies through the conceptual lens of Safety Zone Theory (Lomawaima & McCarty, 2006). At the heart of Safety Zone Theory (SZT) is the concept that historically the U.S. federal government (and to an extent society as a result of this governmental framing) has designated certain elements of minority cultures as “safe” and other elements as “divisive.” SZT was originally applied to examine federal Indian education policy in the U.S. In this study, I expand that application to other minority and immigrant cultures within the United States. This research is significant because despite the minority population growth in the United States public school curricula typically only make reference to such groups and their histories a minimal side note (Loewen, 2007; U.S. Census, 2013; Zinn, 2003). For example, in 2010 the Arizona state legislature declared Ethnic Studies illegal on the grounds that it allegedly promotes “anti-American sentiments" (A.R.S. §15–112).

Using Seidman’s (2013) three-part interview protocol, leading figures in the field of Ethnic Studies as it relates to education were interviewed to gain their perspectives on the “life story” of this field. Again following Seidman’s (2013) protocol, narrative profiles were crafted for each participant. The profiles were analyzed individually for emerging themes; this was followed by a cross-case analysis. This multilevel qualitative analysis yielded a larger narrative of Ethnic Studies that helps us to understand its past and envision its future. My hope is that this research impacts future policy on Ethnic Studies and current curricula, particularly in states and school districts making decisions on the importance and need of Ethnic Studies as a part of the curriculum. Also, the research can aid preservice teachers and principals in learning to see the fullness of their students, the places they come from, and the value and funds of knowledge that they bring to the classroom. I also hope that this is the beginning of more studies on the impact of individual stories and the stories as a collective in regards to race and ethnicity. Demographics within the United States are changing at a rapid pace, and school is children’s introduction to society. As a mini-society/community, there is a responsibility to model what they are going step into in real life.

The purpose of this study was to answer the following question, How does one's conceptualizations of misbehavior account for the way classroom misbehavior is constructed, interpreted, and negotiated between teachers and students? The literature on school disciplinary inequities from 2000 to 2010 was systematically reviewed. Utilizing qualitative research methods, this study drew insights from sociocultural theory and symbolic interactionism to investigate discipline inequities in moment-to-moment interactions between students and teachers during classroom conflicts. Fieldwork lasted approximately one school year and involved five male students and their two respective teachers. Data collection procedures included surveys, face to face and stimulated recall interviews, and direct and video observations. Findings revealed misbehavior is a ubiquitous notion in classroom everyday life; it is also malleable and dependent on contextual factors. In addition, classroom disciplinary moments between teachers and students are greatly influenced by intra and interpersonal factors. The situated intricacies and sophistication of teachers' and students' interpretations of negotiated classroom disciplinary moments are also reported. This study also sheds new insights into the situated nature of misbehavior as it arises from teachers' and students' sense making of classroom disciplinary moments and the findings have implications for teachers, school administrators, policy makers, students, and parents/guardians.

This study sought to analyze the messages being conveyed through the discourse utilized in presenting the public face of The Arizona Early Childhood Development and Health Board, popularly known as First Things First (FTF) and to reveal how the different discourses and ideologies within FTF have been in the past and currently are "contending and struggling for dominance (Wodak, 2007)." FTF is located within the policy realm of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The people and the system have been very influential in guiding the course and policies set forth in Arizona since the citizen initiative, Proposition 203, passed in 2006, which allowed for the creation of the Early Childhood Development and Health Board. Lakoff's techniques for analyzing frames of discourse were utilized in conjunction with critical discourse analysis in order to tease out frames of reference, shifts in both discourse and frames, specific modes of messaging, and consistencies and inconsistencies within the public face presented by FTF.

Accounts in the media often demonize teachers and misrepresent what is happening in schools. Meanwhile, teachers' voices are largely absent from the national and international debates on school reform. This dissertation privileges the voices of nine participating Kindergarten through second grade teachers from a variety of public schools, including affluent schools and schools receiving full and partial Title I funding. Through observations and interviews teachers shared their narratives of classroom joys and challenges while also describing how policy has affected these experiences. A preliminary discourse analysis of these narratives was performed, identifying narratives related to nodes of the activity system of schooling. Further discourse analysis of these identified narratives revealed how these teachers' classroom experiences position them within an activity system strongly influenced by tensions between maternal relationships and the patriarchal project of schooling. A critical feminist theoretical perspective is utilized to respond to these tensions and to describe possibilities for future studies in education and the future of education in general.