COLONNA, SARAH ELIZABETH, Ph.D. There’s More to It than Just Girl Power: A Case Study Exploring a Women’s and Gender Studies Class Taught with The Hunger Games. (2016) Directed by Dr. Leila Villaverde. 303pp. In this qualitative case study dissertation, the researcher explored students’ perspectives on young adult dystopian fiction in the feminist classroom. Through the lens of popular culture and storytelling, the researcher considers the powerful pedagogical possibilities that lie within these stories. Using a single class as a case study, students were interviewed about their experience in a class taught using The Hunger Games trilogy. Data was also collected from student assignments, class documents, and the researcher’s field journal. The results of this study include five categories that exemplified the students’ experience learning with young adult dystopian fiction: the power of storytelling; students’ reflections on class experiences; the need for imagination; fiction as educational space; and continuing to think with The Hunger Games. Further, this study showed there is room for additional study of the intersection of young adult dystopian fiction and feminist pedagogy and highlights the place of imagination and storytelling in higher education. THERE’S MORE TO IT THAN JUST GIRL POWER: A CASE STUDY EXPLORING A WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES CLASS TAUGHT WITH THE HUNGER GAMES by Sarah Elizabeth Colonna A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2016 Approved by _______________________________ Committee Chair For PJ Colonna because you have always believed in me. For mom and dad, Kathy and Ralph Johnson, who modeled what it meant to be a reader. And Wanda Horvath. In memory of my godparents, Chris and Debbie Reynolds, my biggest cheerleaders. ii APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation written by Sarah Elizabeth Colonna has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair ___________________________________ Leila Villaverde Committee Members ___________________________________ Glenn Hudak ___________________________________ Tracy Nichols ___________________________________ Danielle Bouchard ___________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee _________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Leila Villaverde for her support, patience, and encouragement as both a professor and my dissertation chair. I have learned so much. For my dissertation committee, thank you for your patience in the face of my own obstacles. Dr. Glenn Hudak - Your classes pushed me to ask new questions Dr. Tracy Nichols - In your classroom and in the community, I am grateful for your knowledge, perspective, and insight. Dr. Danielle Bouchard - As a Master’s student, WGS 650 introduced me to the academic home I was looking for. During that first week, I showed up during your office hours unsure of myself as a student and scholar. Thank you for seeing what I could not. This project would not exist without the support of the UNCG Women’s and Gender Studies program. Thank you for supporting a course about The Hunger Games. And, to Ms. Beth Walker who planted the seed for teaching using feminist science fiction with Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s (1915) Herland. I would especially like to thank the students who took the Spring 2014 The Hunger Games and feminist education (WGS 450) class. Your questions, ideas, laughter, and words are the heart of this dissertation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1 Problem Statement .......................................................................................6 Research Questions ......................................................................................7 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................8 Postmodern Theory ..........................................................................9 Feminist Postmodernism ................................................................11 Feminist Pedagogy .........................................................................16 Critical pedagogy ...............................................................22 Critical Literacy .........................................................................................27 Positionality ...............................................................................................32 Positionality as Teacher and Researcher........................................35 Summary ....................................................................................................42 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................43 What is Popular? What is Culture? ...........................................................43 Importance of Reading Fiction ..................................................................53 Why Young Adult Literature? ...................................................................55 Why The Hunger Games? ..........................................................................60 Gender ............................................................................................65 Real or Not Real.............................................................................66 Love and Community ....................................................................66 Science Fiction ...........................................................................................68 Preoccupation with Process ...........................................................69 Using Science Fiction to Think about the Present .........................70 Necessity of Space and Limits .......................................................71 Science Fiction as an Analytic Category .......................................73 Prismatic Understanding ................................................................74 Feminist Pedagogy .....................................................................................75 Feminist Pedagogy and Dystopian Literature ................................80 Considering Reality .......................................................................84 Dystopian Fiction in Unexpected Places .......................................87 Politics of Dystopian Fiction .........................................................87 Dystopian Fiction at West Point ....................................................90 Ways to Think with Dystopian Fiction ..........................................91 v III. METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................95 Epistemology .............................................................................................95 Interpretivist Paradigm.................................................................101 Postmodernism .............................................................................105 Feminist Theory ...........................................................................113 Gender is a social concept................................................115 We know in community with other people ......................116 Epistemology is not neutral .............................................116 Knowing is a process .......................................................117 Methodology ............................................................................................118 Research Strategy.........................................................................118 Understanding case study research ..................................119 Class Demographic Description ..................................................122 Participant Selection ....................................................................122 Participant Profiles .......................................................................123 Jubilee ..............................................................................124 Amber ..............................................................................125 Marie ................................................................................127 Harper ..............................................................................128 Pom ..................................................................................129 Elizabeth ..........................................................................131 Data Collection .......................................................................................132 Interviews .....................................................................................133 Observations ................................................................................134 Document Reviews ......................................................................134 Data Analysis .........................................................................................135 Interviews .....................................................................................137 Observations/Field Journal ..........................................................140 Document Reviews ......................................................................142 Researcher Trustworthiness .........................................................144