Women's Studies Commons^™

The Divine Collaborative Effort: Agency As A Tool For Examining Power And Relationship In The Exodus Narrative, Harley Burgess

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Excerpt from Introduction

The character of Moses as seen within the Old Testament is perhaps the most dynamic and powerful character within the biblical text. Continually throughout the Exodus narrative, Moses faces opportunities for growth and development that lead him toward becoming the archetype for leadership. Moses’ journey is rife with choice. Though many would place Yahweh at the forefront of the narrative, it is truly Moses whom the audience witnesses generating change, making decisions, and even influencing the decisions of his God.

Review Of United States Abortion Policy, Allison Guenther

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The ruling of Roe v. Wade was a key point in the establishment of abortion policy in the United States, sparking controversy that is still prevalent politically and socially. Prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion was banned throughout the majority of the United States with very few exceptions. In the years since this historical ruling, civilians and politicians have taken sides over what abortion policies are morally and ethically correct. Pro-life and pro-choice activists have spent over 40 years competing for their ideology to be reflected in policy. The efforts by either movement have impacted United States’ economics and …

Predictive Relationships Between Cultural Coping Strategies, Intimate Partner Violence, And Depression In African American Women, Tiffany Wiggins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women has been linked to long-term, negative health consequences such as depression, PTSD, and suicidal ideation. There is a growing perception that African American women are the most affected by IPV, but the current literature does not confirm this perception. The purpose of this nonexperimental, correlational study was to examine the predictive relationships between the independent variables (spiritual coping, religious coping, and levels of IPV) and the dependent variable (level of depression). The ecological systems theory provided the framework for the study. The research question addressed how well variables such as religious coping, spiritual coping, …

The Role Of Motivation In Financing Women-Owned Businesses, Severine C. Bryan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women-owned small businesses contribute significantly to the U.S. economy, accounting for 55% of all new ventures; however, women entrepreneurs receive only 2% in external financing. The growth of small businesses is contingent on business owners receiving adequate financing. Business leaders should consider how obstacles, such as lack of motivation, impede the pursuit of external financing. Grounded in Vroom's expectancy theory of motivation, the purpose of this correlational study was to analyze the relationships among valence, instrumentality, expectancy, and the desire to seek business financing. The study included women small business owners in the United States. Data were collected from a …

Women's Perceptions Of Flourishing Through Quilting As A Leisure Activity, Cathy Lynn Ferrarese

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Quilting is a self-chosen leisure activity for millions of women in the United States. Previous research on quilting suggested that quilting is influenced by the emotional state of the quilter. However, the emotional experiences generated during quilting have not been fully explored. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore quilters' perceptions of what quilting as a leisure activity does to enhance their well-being and increase flourishing. Positive psychology well-being theory was the theoretical foundation for the study. Semistructured interviews with 12 adult women who quilt as a leisure activity were the basis of the narrative inquiry. Data …

Work-Life Balance Of Women Employed Within State Government, Luisa Cunanan Martinez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women in the U.S. workforce have been a focus of scholars since the onset of the 21st century, when work-life balance skewed in favor of the term work-life integration because professional working mothers found that balance was an unachievable ideal in the fast pace of the contemporary world. Accordingly, this research study examined the work-life challenges and career choices of women working in the public sector through the framework of the Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM). While research has been conducted on women in corporate America, there have been limited studies exploring the work-life challenges and career decisions of women working …

A Photo Illicit Study Of Black Women's Sense Of Belonging At A Predominately White Institution, Kayla Alexandria Slusher

Masters Theses

This qualitative study sought to examine how Black women define and create their sense of belonging while attending a predominately White institution using a photovoice approach. The women took photographs of spaces that they frequently occupy and then engaged in a face-to-face interview to discuss the photographs. The researcher also investigated four Black women, ranging from junior to graduate level, to identify how they developed a sense of belonging at the research site institution. Results of the study showed that a feeling of comfort was most important when identifying belongingness in a space. The participants were able to create a …

Rural Space As Queer Space: A Queer-Ecology Reading Of Fun Home, Debra J. Rosenthal, Lydia Munnell

2018 Faculty Bibliography

Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic has quickly joined the ranks of celebrated literary graphic novels. Set in part at a family-run funeral home, the book explores Alison's complicated relationship with her father, a closeted gay man. Amid the tensions of her home life, Alison discovers her own lesbian sexuality and her talent for drawing. The coming-of-age story and graphic format appeal to students. However, the book's nonlinear structure; intertextuality with modernist novels, Greek myths, and other works; and frank representations of sexuality and death present challenges in the classroom.

This volume offers strategies for teaching Fun Home in …

Wonder Woman: A Case Study For Critical Media Literacy, Adriana N. Fehrs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

To better grasp the messages Wonder Woman is sending to its audience, a Critical Media Literacy (CML), ideological, and feminist framework is used to examine whether, and if so how, Wonder Woman succumbs to stereotypes that are often portrayed in the media. These theories will be used in the ensuing project to build a curriculum aimed at high school students.The curriculum positions students to examine the hegemonic ideologies that are represented in pop culture, specifically Wonder Woman.

Radical Black Drama-As-Theory: The Black Feminist Dramatic On The Protracted Event-Horizon, Jaye Austin Williams

Faculty Journal Articles

In this essay, I elaborate my present project, grounded in what I call drama theory, the critical theoretical dimensions of dramatic writing, and address the deeply troubling intramural tensions across Black Studies, between those who read blackness, and black cultural production, through largely futurist, celebratory lenses; and those who apply a structural analysis to blackness as the site against, upon, and through which the world coheres its soci(et)al apparatuses and machinations. I situate myself within the latter constellation, and sample here two plays by Suzan-Lori Parks to demonstrate how I translate the analyses of antiblack violence by black feminist …

Spectators, Sponsors, Or World Travelers? Engaging With Personal Narratives Of Others Through The Afghan Women's Writing Project, Bethany Mannon

English Faculty Publications

This article studies the Afghan Women’s Writing Project and proposes three conceptual tools for examining the ways readers and editors of digital storytelling projects interact with writers and texts. The author advances discussions of personal narrative and the role this form of writing plays in transnational feminism and forms of humanitarian activism that increasingly take place online. Digital storytelling projects effectively circulate these personal accounts, but they benefit from scholarship that advises self-critical approaches to representing their subjects.

The Meaning Of A Woman's Work: Refugees, Statelessness, Nationality, And The Women's International League For Peace And Freedom, 1918-1931, Monica Burney

Masters Theses

This work analyzes how the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) sought to influence how the League of Nations approached questions of nationality and statelessness between 1918 and 1931. Especially important were the WILPF's efforts to aid women and children who remained in Turkey following the Armenian genocide, as well as the organization's efforts to address the statelessness crisis that arose following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Their activism helped to pressure the League of Nations into creating the Commission of Enquiry on Deported Women and Children in Turkey and Asia Minor. Their efforts to end statelessness culminated in …

Ua19/16/2 Tennis Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

Press releases regarding WKU's tennis teams for 2018

Ua19/16/2 Softball Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

Press releases regarding WKU's softball team for 2018.

Teaching To Empower, Carrie N. Baker

Study of Women and Gender: Faculty Publications

This essay offers strategies for balancing teaching about injustices with strategies to empower students by looking to the past, the present, and the future. Learning about past organizing for social justice using primary archival documents offers lessons in perspective, strategy, and inspiration. Learning about present activists and organizations teaches students cutting-edge strategies for social change and opens up possibilities for their future activism. Finally, teaching students the importance of envisioning a better future, especially through the creative arts, can help them clarify their values and develop affirmative, constructive goals. This essay describes specific activities and exercises for doing each of …

The Best Story: Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald's Return To The South Revealed Through The Analysis Of Her Articles And Fiction Published Between 1920 And 1932, Kemry H. Farthing

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald’s writing published between 1920 and 1932. To date, biographers and scholars have largely failed to carefully examine and understand Zelda’s publications. During this period Zelda critiques the materialism and generational lack of respect she finds in the North in her articles, while using her imagination to discuss the possibilities of the South in her short stories. All of her works during these years culminate in her novel, Save Me the Waltz, in which much of her life and return to the South is mirrored by her heroine, Alabama Knight. This thesis examines Zelda’s …

Embedded In These Walls, Trish J. Gibson

Theses and Dissertations

Embedded In These Walls uses photographic imagery, archival ephemera, and written text to examine a specific history of generational trauma through the lens of a singular family of a southern tradition to point to a larger systemic breakdown of accountability and truthfulness regarding abuse

Moving Experiences: Women And Mobility In Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth-Century American Literature, Amy Simpson Birk

Theses and Dissertations--English

This project recovers and revises late nineteenth and early twentieth-century narratives of mobility which invoke female protagonists who move from stifling, patriarchal domestic settings in the rural and suburban United States to the more symbolically emancipated settings of New York City and even Europe to reveal both the limitations and possibilities for women’s lives in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. By challenging popular American fiction’s preoccupation with urban white slavery myths and the lingering proscriptive standards for women’s behavior of the Victorian era, the Introduction argues the selected works of this dissertation mark a significant, …

Ua19/16/1/5 Lady Topper Golf 2017-18 Season Statistics, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

Statistical analysis of the 2017-18 women's golf team season.

Ua19/16/1 2018 Volleyball Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Archives Records

Athletic media guide for volleyball team.