Coming clean: the treatment of traces
- Authors: Wilmot, Cassandra
- Date: 2013 , 2013-09-13
- Subjects: Salcedo, Doris, 1958- Bereavement in art
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2442 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1006121
- Description: Coming Clean is a mixed media installation which aims to address and express ambivalent feelings or notions of loss arising particularly in the absence of a comprehensive narrative or history by focussing on what remains. By researching the role of indexical signs and strategies, particularly as they are deployed by the artist Doris Salcedo, I explore the capacity for these traces to not only effectively mark and memorialise loss, but to also convey the state of loss as experienced by the bereaved without providing a narrative account of the events which preceded them. The domestic ritual of washing is both alluded to and used as a metaphor in etchings, photographic prints and readymade objects to illustrate my concerns, with particular emphasis on the dialectic between what is revealed or concealed. Using representations or traces of this task of laundry to examine this dialectic between concealment and revelation, I comment on the anxiety of dealing with incomplete narrative inheritances by considering how traces of the past which impose themselves on the present may affect both remembrance and the ritual of loss, while also taking into account the complexities behind the disclosure of sensitive information in families.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Investigating rural Ugandan women's engagement with HIV and AIDS-related programmes on community radio: a case study of Mama FM's Speak out and Listen
- Authors: Kigozi, James Musisi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Community radio , AIDS (Disease) in women -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) and mass media -- Research -- Uganda , AIDS (Disease) -- Social aspects -- Uganda
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3414 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1001845
- Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate how rural Ugandan women engage with discussions of HIV and AIDS on community radio. It explored how this audience may relate such broadcast discussions to their own lived experience of HIV and AIDS. It is explained in the study that, while the Uganda government has an official policy of openly discussing matters of HIV and AIDS, health communication strategies still operate within a context where there is an underlying "culture of silence" that discourages openness about sexual matters. It is also pointed out that there are widespread gender disparities among rural communities, which severely limit women's ability to make use of health communication initiatives aimed at educating them. Against this backdrop, the study sets out to explore audience responses to a particular example of Speak Out and Listen, a weekly programme broadcast on Mama FM, a Kampala-based radio station managed by the Uganda Media Women's Association (UMWA). The study maps out responses to the programme by a particular group of rural women. It is argued that these research participants' comments confirm the importance, noted in literature dealing with health education, of drawing for content on what members of an audience have to say about their own lived context. It is proposed that, despite the existence of a 'culture of silence', the women's comments demonstrate an ability to speak with confidence about their experience of living with HIV and AIDS. Thcy are able, more particularly to discuss the constraints placed by gendered power relations on women's ability to draw on the educational content of programming that targets people living with HIV and AIDS. As such, the comments that such women offer represent a valuable resource for HIV and AIDS related programming. The principal conclusion of the study is that health communication initiatives such as Speak Out and Listen would benefit from facilitating conversations with their target audience about their lived experience of HIV and AIDS, and incorporating such discussion into their programmes
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- Date Issued: 2013
Women in power: the experiences of female administrators at Nelson Mandela bay Metropolitan Municipality
- Authors: Memela, Yoliswa Lourenda
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Women government executives -- South Africa , Women executives -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:9239 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1021105
- Description: South Africa is held up internationally as a beacon of good practice in terms of its efforts to promote gender equality and, the increased number of women in leadership positions in all spheres of government is testament to this. The representation of women in all spheres of government is advocated for and promoted by legislation and policies that aim to promote a gender focus on all government procedures and programmes. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of women leaders, including their reasons for maintaining leadership positions. It also addressed the challenges these women faced on their journeys and described their definitions of successful leadership based on their experiences. The qualitative nature of the research project made it possible to tell the stories of the participants’ experiences in order to understand their career progression and how it pertained to their concept of leadership. The three participants recruited for the study were women in positions of influence within their municipality including managers, directors, and executive directors. Purposeful sampling was used so that the chosen participants would have experience with the central phenomenon being studied. All of the women contacted to participate in this study readily agreed to share their experiences. There was some level of diversity regarding the age, ethnic backgrounds, and education level of the participants. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted to collect the data. Open-ended questions were used so the responses of the participants could guide the development of themes and the direction of the study. Once the data were collected through recorded interviews, codes were assigned to sections of the text to help identify themes. A coding table was developed to illustrate how the themes for the discussion emerged from data obtained during the interviews. The stories of the participants were interwoven based on the themes and also analyzed in terms of the existing research. A discussion of the findings incorporated the literature and provided evidence of connected concepts. Strategies including inter-coder agreement, rich description, and clarification of biases were used to strengthen the study’s findings. Ethical issues were addressed throughout each phase of the study. All participants were asked to sign an informed consent form that outlined the procedures of the study. The identity of the participants was kept confidential through the use of pseudonyms.
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- Date Issued: 2013