Graduation Year
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Degree Granting Department
Communication
Major Professor
Aubrey Huber, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Keith Berry, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Mahuya Pal, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Michael Broderick, Ph.D.
Keywords
Autoethnography, Kosovar Women, Kosovo War, Organizational Communication
Abstract
The goal of this dissertation is to foreground Kosovar women’s narratives and organizing properties during the Kosovo War. I examine the overlooked gendered roles and day-to-day lived experiences of Kosovar women, survivors of the Serb genocide, political violence, and oppression, and investigate their organizing properties during the Kosovo War (1998-1999). In acknowledging women’s plurality of experiences and perspectives, I challenge the currently pervasive and monolithic narrative of women as passive victims of war present in scholarship in organizational communication and instead make overt the narrative of women as critical organizational actors that sustain lives during and after the war. Using autoethnography and in-depth interviews, I seek to answer the following research questions: (1) How do Kosovar women communicate their everyday lived experiences during the Kosovo War? (2) How do Kosovar women communicate their organizing strategies during the Kosovo War? This dissertation study seeks to contribute to the recent trend in organizational communication that incorporates perspectives from marginalized and non-U.S. voices to challenge the dominance of U.S.-centered theories in the field. These perspectives are valuable and serve as a possibility for the generation of ideas for better decision-making and the creation of new democratic and participatory methods of organizing. They are also important as they connect individuals from marginalized communities across the globe and depict how people in non-Western places organize. The findings from this study will extend existing research in the communication field, specifically in the realm of feminist organizational communication and alternative modes of organizing. Engaging with how Kosovar women communicatively organized for survival during the Kosovo War allows me to create a platform for their voices to be heard and organizing efforts to be appreciated by rendering them visible.
Scholar Commons Citation
Gashi, Erjona, "Uprooted, Displaced, Resilient: Kosovar Women’s Narratives of Organizing for Survival During the Kosovo War" (2024). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10511
