Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
Search Results
Item UNCOVERING THE SILENCES: GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AT A LARGE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN INDIA(2024) Saini, Ruchi; Klees, Steven Professor; Zaharia, Zeena Associate Professor; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Gender-based violence in universities is a complex and persistent problem that is under-reported and under-researched across the globe. Despite scholarly, advocacy-based, and policy consensus around the need to provide safe learning environments to college students, in-depth qualitative evidence about GBV in universities exists in an amorphous form, particularly when it comes to India. My dissertation is a narrative inquiry that employs an intersectional feminist framework to address this research gap. It draws on two years of field study involving focus group discussions with women bystanders (n=50), and art-based narrative interviews with self-identified victim-survivors (n=10) of GBV at a large public university in India, henceforth called the Indian University. Study I, “What do we know about gender-based violence in formal education institutions in India? A scoping study” is a scoping review that maps the key themes and synthesizes the policy/prevention recommendation within existing empirical qualitative literature on GBV in formal educational institutions in India. Findings show the critical role played by intergenerational hierarchies, gendered sociocultural norms linked to masculinity and femininity, conservatism within families, and intersections of caste and class with gender in shaping both the actions of perpetrators and the experiences of victim-survivors. The findings demonstrate the need for scholars and policymakers to go beyond theoretical conceptualizations of GBV that exclusively focus on interpersonal manifestations of abuse to also include within it structural and cultural manifestations of violence. Study II, “Manifestations of Gender-Based Violence at a Large Public University in India: Voices of Women Students from India” investigates the diverse manifestations of GBV at the Indian University. In the study, I employ the frameworks of the continuum of violence (Kelly, 1988) and structural/cultural violence (Galtung, 1986) to show how students experience a range of abusive behaviors within interpersonal relationships, public spaces, and inside classrooms. Based on the findings, I assert the need for scholars and policymakers to adopt a model of “continuum thinking” that acknowledges and address the “grey areas” of student’s experiences with GBV. I also theorize how specific institutional characteristics, such as the omission of mental health services for queer students, encompass a form of structural violence because it exacerbates the harm suffered by those already marginalized, thereby translating into unequal life opportunities for them. Study III, “How Universities Shape Students’ Experiences with Gender-Based Violence in India: An Intersectional Decolonial Narrative Inquiry” adds to the growing conversation about how universities’ structural and cultural characteristics shape students’ experiences with GBV. In the study, I employ the theoretical framework of “institutional betrayal” (Smith & Freyd, 2014), and foreground the perspectives of bystanders and victim-survivors of GBV at the Indian University. Findings reveal that cultural aspects linked to high-power distance (Hofstede, 1985), the influence of Hindutva politics on the campus, and the prevalence of a chalta hai (literal translation: “anything goes”) attitude sustained GBV on the campus. At the structural level, the findings illuminate that the hiring practices linked to the employment of ad-hoc professors, along with the lack of formal guidelines around the establishment of student-led societies and the tokenistic nature of GBV prevention and redressal services sustained GBV. Study IV, “A Creative and Art-Based Approach to Narrative Inquiry: Decolonizing Gender-Based Violence” explicates how I employed creative and art-based methods in tandem with narrative inquiry in my research to foster a decolonial ethics of care geared towards minimizing participant harm, fostering participant agency, and facilitating co-construction of knowledge. In the study, I make use of participant testimonies and my own observations to demonstrate how the use of vignettes in the FGDs, and art-based research in narrative interviews helped prevent re-traumatization of my participants, facilitated a deeper exploration of the hidden power structures, and supported creative avenues for the dissemination of findings. I end the dissertation by highlighting six key lessons derived from these studies. These lessons focus on the need to 1) identify and name those unspoken and unheard-of forms of GBV that are often shrouded in secrecy, 2) recognize and address the stunning adaptability of GBV 3) prioritize primary prevention strategies, 4) diversify and strengthen secondary and tertiary interventions, 5) disrupt generational and workplace hierarchies, and 6) hold institutions accountable without ignoring individual complicity.