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Constellations of Feeling: The Affective Resistance of Non-Binary Transgender College Students

Johnson, Alandis Ann
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9166-7905
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1510831206584434

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, Educational Leadership.
Despite growing literature about LGBTQ populations and prominence of transgender people within popular media, the lives of college students who identify as non-binary/transgender have received little attention, nor in-depth study into their complex lives. This study addressed this lack of literature by inquiring into the ways in which non-binary transgender collegians enacted resistance in response to binary genderism on college campuses and the affective impact it had on them as individuals. I conducted narrative and arts-based inquiry with nine non-binary transgender-identified college students (both undergraduate and graduate level). Through two in-depth interviews focused on their stories and experiences, followed by a photo elicitation and a combined debriefing interview, I investigated the “constellations of feelings” and emotions evoked from resistant behaviors that participants employed. Eight of the nine participants participated in the full set of three interviews and shared photos from their respective campuses and corresponding stories related to the photos. One participant participated in two in-depth interviews. Participants attended different institutions, with different institutional types, and also represented different regions of the United States. Using poststructural and critical theories, primarily affect theory, I synthesized common emotional dispositions (affects) tethered to the process of resistance. Although they shared distinct stories, prevalent affects came through their discourse, behaviors, and feelings that they shared, although these affects differed in relation to the context, objects, people, and their own identities. Affects that I specifically analyzed were unhappiness, anger, ambivalence, despair, and love. This study carries implications for higher education. Namely, I explore affect theory’s utility for studying marginalized populations within higher education, love as a means to promote productive resistance, strategies for individuals engaged in resistance and activism, and implications for inclusion of non-binary transgender students on college campuses. I end with a question that I asked participants, and I share one of their responses, which I feel is representative of the direction in which transgender inclusion should consider as the number of transgender people within higher education continues to grow.
Stephen Quaye (Committee Chair)
Elisa Abes (Committee Member)
Lisa Weems (Committee Member)
Stefanie Dunning (Committee Member)
205 p.
Educational Leadership; Gender; Gender Studies; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration
non-binary; transgender; college students; resistance; activism; affect theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Johnson, A. A. (2017). Constellations of Feeling: The Affective Resistance of Non-Binary Transgender College Students [Doctoral dissertation, Miami University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1510831206584434

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Johnson, Alandis. Constellations of Feeling: The Affective Resistance of Non-Binary Transgender College Students. 2017. Miami University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1510831206584434.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Johnson, Alandis. "Constellations of Feeling: The Affective Resistance of Non-Binary Transgender College Students." Doctoral dissertation, Miami University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1510831206584434

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

miami1510831206584434
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© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Miami University and OhioLINK.