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(Dis)Invested Bodies: The Neoliberal Crafting of Disability
Get PDFUsing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a unifying text, my dissertation explores the relationship between cultural production and the neoliberal crafting of humanity, the term I use to describe how social dimensions—including the construction of the textual and material body—become reorganized and governed through market relations. While many disability scholars and activists frame the ADA’s failures through social misunderstandings of disability, few have seriously attended to the limits of the ADA as a neoliberal fusing of economic governance and classical liberal individualism.
Tracing convergences between the ADA and earlier US disability legislation to socioeconomic and political reforms enacted after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreements, (Dis)Invested Bodies asks: How might the timing of the ADA—following the Cold War and immediately preceding the first Gulf War—allow us to theorize a relationship between the neoliberal crafting of humanity and labor, war, and capital production? How can the ADA—as the first comprehensive law to prohibit disability discrimination, and the model by which other states and the United Nations (UN) developed their own human rights laws—help us to understand relationships between economic governance and debilitation both in the US and elsewhere? How might producing “encounters” between the ADA and bodies constructed in cultural productions like literature, photography, and film facilitate access to the neoliberal crafting of disability, debility, and capacitation?
To answer these questions, I primarily apply Jasbir Puar’s biopolitics of debility to contemporary transnational American cultural productions. These include, for instance, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit (2019), Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly (2004), and disability technology produced by the government and private, government-contracted companies. I argue that these cultural productions expose how the neoliberal crafting of humanity involves contradictory processes of investments and disinvestments that unevenly (re)capacitate and produce debility and death. By demonstrating how contemporary economic relations simultaneously construct and depend upon a currency of bodies deemed expendable in the US and elsewhere, my dissertation adds to recent attempts to pivot from prevailing directions within disability studies that negate or elide historical-material processes of debilitation and death
Baby Dust: A Narrative Analysis of Infertility Journeys on YouTube
Get PDFInfertility is a distressing experience for those diagnosed and often exacerbated by engagement with biomedical treatments. This thesis is an exploration of infertility “journeys” posted on YouTube. Through a narrative analysis of 8 YouTube channels, several key themes were identified, specifically embodiment of the infertility label, barriers to treatment, and agency. This work uses the mindful body framework to look at how the individual body, social body, and body politic shape and reinforce these themes in the context of biomedical infertility treatment. These findings suggest infertility is a dynamic and distressing experience but by engaging in the narrative process, through the creation of video blogs and connecting with a community, the creators were able to mediate their distress. Recommendations from this research encourages additional attention be paid to patient-generated narratives as well as filling gaps in the literature around those not currently represented in the infertility, and especially treatment-seeking, community
A Comparative GIS Analysis of United and Southwest Airlines Route Networks
Get PDFThis GIS project explores the relationship between airline route networks and flight delays for two U.S. Airlines. Using data obtained from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), route networks were created for United and Southwest Airlines showing all flights that each carrier reported in 2023. The airlines of interest were selected due to their opposing route network types; commonly referred to as a hub-and-spoke (HS) and a point-to-point (PTP) route network, respectively. Link charts were created to calculate centrality metrics quantifying these networks, and flight delay data were manipulated and summarized to develop an ArcGIS Dashboard with which any ArcGIS Online (AGOL) account holder may explore interactively. The results of this analysis found quantifiably significant differences in route network centrality and flight delays across the airlines of interest
Military, Political, Cultural, and Societal Implications of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Passive Defense Strategy
Get PDFWhy did the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) adopt a passive defense strategy? This dissertation is the first to trace the institutional development of the IRI’s passive defense strategy and its two Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-led executive bodies: the Permanent Committee for Passive Defense (PCPD) and the National Passive Defense Organization (NPDO). Passive defense can be defined simply as defense without weapons, which includes all precautionary actions other than using weapons to minimize the effects of enemy hostile operations that increase deterrence, reduce vulnerability, sustain essential activities, promote national stability, and facilitate crisis management in the face of enemy threats. Passive defense is a comprehensive strategy, but in Iran, it was not applied simultaneously nor uniformly across all military and civil sectors. Therefore, this dissertation also seeks to determine why Iran prioritized passive defense in some fields over others. This within-case critical junctures analysis utilizes the process tracing method to examine how the IRI’s passive defense strategy developed from 2002 to 2024. It also overlays the process tracing examination on a neoclassical realist model rooted in defensive realism to determine what prompted the Islamic Republic to adopt new policy measures and then explores other variables to explain Iran’s defense strategy outcomes – external assistance, urgency, threat assessment, capacity, and factional politics. This dissertation finds that IRI senior leadership interpreted two events as existential threats – post-9/11 U.S. military operations and hostile foreign and economic policy; and the 2009 Green Movement protests – which explain why Iran first implemented passive defense in the military sector after 2003, in the economy under Ahmadinejad, and in the fields of cyber operations and cultural security after 2009. In 2003, the supreme leader ordered the IRGC to implement a passive defense strategy and apply its principles to first protect military facilities and operations. He later ordered Iran to pursue a “resistance economy” based on passive defense principles, and charged the PCPD and NPDO to evaluate and mitigate all other areas of vulnerability that might be exploited by Iran’s enemies, especially the United States. This process was sometimes facilitated and frustrated by different Iranian presidents and their ministries. Consequently, over the next two decades the supreme leader and the parliament granted the PCPD and NPDO greater authorities to force all government ministries, provinces, and cities to comply with passive defense regulations affecting every civil sector, including biotechnology, communications and cyberspace, culture, the economy, education, the energy sector, and urban planning. This dissertation finds that military and cultural threats prompted Iran to adopt a passive defense strategy and spurred its further development. It also finds that factional politics account for differences in the way sections of the IRI’s elected and unelected leadership perceived threat levels and urgency, ultimately affecting the pace and trajectory of passive defense development. Perhaps most importantly, it finds that Iran’s passive defense strategy is a key mechanism that accounts for the IRGC’s ascent to the top of Iran’s political hierarchy between 2002 and 2024
Upending Tradition Through Strategic Change: The Evolution of Archival Processing at the BYU Library
Get PDFOrganizational change is challenging. At the heart of this challenge is an attachment to the status quo. Both employees and managers tend to prefer the status quo because it is known and, unless shown otherwise, enables them to successfully accomplish their responsibilities. They often use tradition as a way to maintain the status quo. This case study provides an example of organizational change in the Brigham Young University (BYU) Library and discusses how tradition was used to both promote and resist change
Youth Offending in Denver: The Increasing Trend and Essential Elements to Successful Intervention
Get PDFRecent years have witnessed an alarming increase in youth offending across Denver, necessitating a thorough analysis of factors influencing the surge, as well as areas of improvement for current intervention methods. Juvenile delinquency is largely affected by complications associated with the transition to adulthood, such as the development of personal identity or a decrease in parental supervision. A full understanding of at-risk individuals must consider risk, promotive and protective factors, as well as the interaction between these three components. Past successful prevention and intervention methods have included relationship-building implementation, therapeutic strategies, and consistent measures of quality and accountability. Despite many Denver programs utilizing these essential elements, youth offending continues to rise. To combat this trend and strengthen existing organizations, Denver must concentrate resources to neighborhoods most in-need, reevaluate programs for areas of improvement and aid, and create an online system of data collaboration. Addressing the issue of youth offending in Denver will require a proactive, multidisciplinary approach. By implementing the recommended policies, the city and county can work towards creating a more promising environment for our youth, and a safer overall community
Bridging the Geometric and Quantum Information of Structured Light
Get PDFIn this Dissertation, we review the several advances we have developed for preparing and measuring the geometric and quantum information of structured light. The geometric phase acts as a memory of transformations undertaken by physical processes; quantum entanglement underpins quantum information science which explores the theoretical and technological applications of nonclassical correlations. Beginning with classical light, we demonstrate novel experiments and measurements of geometric phase that are enabled by spatially structuring laser beams. We then extend those concepts to complement the richer possibilities within quantum optics. Our work covers new abilities in tailoring and measuring the phase content of spatially-structured entangled photons, including the incorporation of geometric phase as an additional parameter for control of quantum states
The Foundations of Civilian Supremacy: Civil-Military Relations During the American Civil War
Get PDFThe American Civil War was the defining event that shaped civil-military relations in the United States. This master\u27s thesis explores the multifaceted dynamics between civilian and military leadership during this crucial period in American history. It examines the relationship between civilian political authority and the military establishment, while incorporating the related roles of Congress, public opinion and international influences. The research explores the decision-making processes, the balance of power, and the impact of leadership styles and personalities on civil-military interactions during times of armed conflict.
This thesis explores in particular the significance of President Lincoln\u27s leadership, his ability to manage divergent military personalities, and the challenges of maintaining civilian control over the armed forces while adapting to the unprecedented demands of total warfare. The findings generated by this thesis will contribute to the scholarship surrounding the American Civil War and the interactions between civilian and military authorities during an existential national crisis, shedding light on the evolution of these dynamics in subsequent conflicts within the broader framework of American civil-military relations
