Solidarity, safety, and online sovereignty : an inquiry into the social media sharing practices of indigenous and chicana women

This dissertation contains a cultural, digital rhetorics inquiry into the social media sharing practices of Indigenous and Chicana women. Working alongside three women from her local community, I investigated how these women navigate concerns about online safety, intellectual property, and surveillance. To conduct my study, I integrated cultural rhetorics research methods into my research design, which informed how I collected data through hosting a talking circle and conducting follow-up interviews. Then, using grounded theory to analyze my data, I found that: 1) though these women experience various social oppressions within social media spaces, they find and create community to collectively act in resistance; and 2) the acts of resistance in which these women engage expand scholarly understandings of how social media platforms are designed to asymmetrically oppress users from marginalized backgrounds. Together, these findings dispel the myth that women-and particularly women of color-have had no stake in the development of online platforms. I argue, rather, that despite how these platforms are designed, women of color critically enact cultural sovereignty in online spaces through asserting their identities, fighting for political rights, and creating community in acts of not only resistance, but survivance.