Individual Thought Patterns: Women In New York's Extreme Metal Music Scene, Joan M. Jocson-Singh

Theses and Dissertations

Extreme metal music (EMM) is both an umbrella term and a sub-category of heavy metal. Although women have a small but steady presence in heavy metal, this number shrinks when applied to the EMM scene. Using ethnographic research, participant-observation and interviews, this study surveys women in New York's EMM scene to address participation, gender performativity and feminist musicology.

Living Subversive Narratives: Shahrazad’S Stories Of Women, Caleb Nicholas

Honors Projects

Though scholars have examined The 1001 Nights’ Entertainments or The Arabian Nights, few have thoroughly explored the function of Shahrazad’s tales as they relate to her position as a woman. Closely reading the stories of the Nights reveals that there are chiefly two types of female characters who emerge in her stories: the heroic, who have no apparent autonomy, and the villainous, who have overflowing autonomy. These depictions of women are problematic from the viewpoint of present-day feminism, but are understandable, and even genuinely subversive, in Shahrazad’s context. Although some scholars have dismissed questions about the function of the …

Final Ma Portfolio, Rebecca L. Sims

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio consists of four projects I selected from various courses I took while completing my Master of Arts in the field of English. The first piece featured in my portfolio is titled “I’m Not Being “Short” With You: Providing Effective Feedback Efficiently Using a Computer Program.” I completed this piece in English 6200: Teaching Writing with Dr. Lee Nickoson. In this essay, I explore the role that feedback plays in the English classroom from both a student and faculty perspective. The second piece in my portfolio is a project I wrote for Teaching Grammar in the Context of Writing …

Prudery And Perversion: Domination Of The Sexual Body In Middle-Class Men, Women, And Disenfranchised Bodies In Victorian England, Ashley Barnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research argues that with the rise of the middle-class, Victorian England saw the development of a power model in which middle-class men, middle-class women and disenfranchised bodies of children and lower-class women suffered from the demands of bodily domination. Because the bodily health of middle-class men was believed to represent national health, it was imperative that he dominate his body, particularly with regard to sexual urges. Consequently, the bodies of women with whom he sought sexual release suffered from forms of bodily domination as well. Through an analysis of journals and private writings of those living in Victorian England, …

Protest Lyrics At Work: Labor Resistance Poetry Of Depression-Era Autoworkers, Rebecca S. Griffin

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation argues that scholarly inquiry into American poetry of the Great Depression is incomplete without a critical understanding of poems produced within the labor movement. Through archival research and methodologies drawn from American studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and labor history, this dissertation demonstrates that autoworkers from 1935-1941 developed a rich poetic discourse that championed their cause. Autoworker poets—including autoworker song lyricists—used humor and borrowed extensively from popular, religious, and “folk” cultures to craft their own poetic styles and trope sets. They wrote about a diverse range of topics from their hopes for the unionization movement, to scab conversions, …

Japanese Pronoun Adventure: A Japanese Language Learner's Exploration Of His Japanese Gender Pronoun, Takumi Nakano

Masters Theses

In Japanese, there are various kinds of first-person pronouns, and some of them express the referent’s gender identity. Gender-neutral pronouns are made in English- speaking world day by day, but there is not any common first-person pronoun which indicates the gender identity that positions the referent’s gender somewhere between masculine and feminine. The present paper conducted a life story research on the “Japanese life” of an advanced learner of Japanese at a university in the United States who has been exploring his gender identity by coining and using a new Japanese first- person pronoun 㛪 ore, which indicates “in the …

Mad Men Of Letters: Advertising, Masculinity, And The American Postmodern Novel, Jennifer Chancellor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation I account for the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of the American postmodern novel that has long puzzled scholars by arguing that the genre must be understood as an expression of dominant masculinity threatened, not by women or people of color, but rather changes in postwar business and consumer culture. I support this claim by examining works by some of the founding American postmodern novelists—Joseph Heller, Don DeLillo, Kurt Vonnegut, and Thomas Pynchon—through the lens of historicism and biography. As advertising and publicity professionals in the postwar period, these men were positioned to offer a “complicitous critique” of …

‘Open, And Always, Opening’: Trans- Poetics As A Methodology For (Re)Articulating Gender, The Body, And The Self ‘Beyond Language’, Lizzy Tricano Kaval

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Poetry is a useful medium for exploring the fluidity and possibilities in language beyond the everyday terms of normative language. For trans- and genderqueer subjects, whose identities cannot be articulated within the linguistic boundaries of binary gender, and whose outward appearance challenges the cultural logic of gendered visibility, poetry becomes a valuable and necessary tool for survival, disruption, activism, and personal and public empowerment. Through syntax, word choice, semantic and non-semantic qualities of language, poetry helps articulate the inexpressible, complex, and unstable gender identities and subject positions, even as they change or multiply. It gives names to felt ideas, which …

In Search Of Argentinidad: Identity Affirming Bodies In Movement In Latino-America, Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project is a multi-sited investigation into the production of Argentinidad (the embodied feeling of Argentine national identity) post the economic crisis of 2001 known as el Argentinazo. A special attention is paid to the role of the body as a culturally and socially mediated site of identity formation. Additionally, this project engages with the intersections of cultural and psychoanalytic theories that have influenced Argentinean self-identity in addition to social identities that are negotiated in moments of personal and national crisis. This project examines the roles and relationships of family and migration within Argentinean diasporic communities originating from the Provinces …

Ease On Down The Road: From Diagnosis To Graduation And Beyond, An Auto-Ethnography, Amber M. Alford

Capstone Collection

This study was envisioned following a personal acknowledgement of perceived suppression of the author’s “unorthodox” approach to the research design process resulting in the desire to explore the role of the researcher’s experience in research design and ultimately in higher education. The author began feeling lost and overwhelmed in the pursuit of her Master of Arts degree. She felt that her particular values and methodology were not being validated or supported. Through the use of narrative, the author analyzes her own experience navigating higher education as one of the first in her entire family to do so, with the added …

Ann Radcliffe's Superpaternal: A Study Of The Supernatural In The Romance Of The Forest And The Mysteries Of Udolpho, Lynn Kramer

English Theses

This study proposes a new way to examine the supernatural being in Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho and The Romance of the Forest. Critics have argued that the supernatural being is used in these novels to remind the heroines to think rationally; however, I argue that his purpose is more complex than that of a figment who instills reason. Rather, his role is to make the females realize their sexual vulnerability within the imprisoning, Gothic house. He is able to show the women they are in sexual danger by creating sexually explicit situations with the heroine that occur …

Shaken, Not Stirred: Espionage, Fantasy, And British Masculinity During The Cold War, Anna Rikki Nelson

Master's Theses

This project seeks to define and explore the development of Cold War British masculinity and national identity in response to decolonization. Following World War II, Great Britain experienced a time of political and cultural rebuilding. This project argues that following World War II, Britain had to renegotiate gender and national identity within the context of decolonization, the rise of the welfare state, and Britain’s diminished role in global politics, and the tensions within gender and national identity were expressed in Britain’s interest in espionage narratives both real and fictionalized. British spy novels by Ian Fleming, Desmond Cory, and John Le …

Peacebuilding In The Context Of Displacement: Women’S Groups In Internally Displaced Persons (Idps) Settlements In Kenya, Catherine A. Odera

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Abstract

Following the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya, 650,000 people, comprising men, women, youth, and children, fled their communities, and found refuge in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps. Although the Kenyan Government resettled some of the IDPs later in eco-villages and inner city settlements, seven years later there were still 309,200 in IDPs camps across the country. The objective of this qualitative multi-sited single case study is to explore the role of women’s groups in peacebuilding efforts following the post-election conflict. The study focuses on four grassroots-level local women’s groups in the Bankala and Mambira eco-villages and an inner-city settlement …

The Development Of Chinese Feminism On Weibo, Mengmeng Liu

Global Honors Theses

Developed from Western feminism(s), Chinese feminism is based on a belief in gender equality. This paper unwraps a brief history of the development of Chinese feminism through the aspects of Confucianism and communism, which reinforced patriarchy as the dominant ideology in the society. Under the influence of Confucianism, the traditional culture in China considers women as reproductive tools, and believes that men are superior to women. The patriarchy essentially undermines the development of Chinese feminism that has influenced not only the imbalanced gender distribution in modern society, but also people’s perspectives on Chinese feminism. However, compared to their predecessors, who …

Youtube As A Net"Work": A Media Analysis Of The Youtube Beauty Community, Barbara Casabianca

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper looks at the YouTube beauty community and how this presentation of beauty gurus and subscribers expresses ideas about femininity and work family balance. Through a media analysis of YouTube videos and commentary, the content of this online community space is discussed to further explore the representations of women in various working roles as YouTubers. The ways select women including Anna Saccone, Michelle Phan, Jewel Sha’ree, and Dani Meza-Hung portray their lives through YouTube videos and speak about their YouTube experience is analyzed to express potential meaning within this unique media presentation. Following the content analysis of these specific …

Lgbtqia Representation In College Media, Alexis Mccoy-Caso

Journalism

This study and project looks at LGBTQIA representation in college media and how there can be more and better. The purpose is to improve LGBTQIA representation college media outlets. The study includes three interviews with experts as well as a review of literature.

A Gilded Cage: A Feminist Analysis Of Manor House Literature, Katelyn Billings

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on women struggling with social rules and gender restrictions in Victorian and Edwardian English manor houses. The culture of the manor home had an incredibly powerful impact on the female protagonists of the literary texts I analyze, and in this thesis, I demonstrate how it stifled the growth and agency of women. With the end of the age of the British Great Houses in the twentieth century, there was the simultaneous rise of the New Woman, an emerging cultural icon that challenged conservative Victorian conventions. With the values and ideologies surrounding the New Woman in mind, this …

#Likeagirl: Realizing The Communicative Potential Of Fourth Wave Feminism, Samantha Keville

Communication Studies

Although the notion of feminism has existed among humanity for centuries, it continues to remain one of the most ambiguous and controversial terms in today's society. Throughout history, there have been numerous efforts enacted among humanity aimed at honing women's rights, typically falling under the categories of first, second, and third wave feminism. Recent discussion has taken place regarding the emergence of a new wave of feminism existing today, known as fourth wave feminism. Fourth wave feminism is a movement characterized by the utilization of technology to enhance feminist ideals. Many companies have developed an association with the feminist movement …

Pornography: Ensuring That Women Are Never On Top, Makenna D. Baker

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Beginning with the history of pornography, this capstone research paper explores the ways pornography has become the hard-core sex industry that it is today. This paper illuminates the ways pop culture and advertising have appropriated ideals from the porn industry and the adverse affects these ideals have on men, women and youth.

Mr. Jonathan P. Berger: Gentle Conflations, Jonathan Patrick Berger, Mr. Jonathan P. Berger

Graduate School of Art Theses

Sentimentality is a critical aspect of human existence because it is human-natural, agendered, and provides ground for gentle conflation of the domestic sphere and the roles within it. As an artist, I am able to utilize sentimentality to open possibilities and welcome, instead of molest, viewers into contemplation with the assumed norms of domesticity.

With its origins founded in the Age of Enlightenment, sentimentality was a praiseworthy endeavor, one based on intelligence and contemplation. I define sentimentality as the emotional intellect’s way of encoding or decoding the soft emotions surrounding and within objects, people, times or ideas. Soft emotions are …

A Performative Script: Play With(In) Me, Erik Patton

Theses and Dissertations

Patton continues his interest in the body, its relation to material, the notion of abstraction (specifically related to queerness), and the phenomenological with this performative script. Enter the bath first; you must wash your dirty asshole, as you shat only two hours ago. Collect your body in the Silver Pond.

Which Side Are You On? : Prosthetic Vaginas, Cross-Dressing Madonnas, And Queer Theology In Virgin Of The Flames And Narcopolis, Nasreen Hannah Khan

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Chris Abani describes a scene where his main character Black and Sweet Girl, a transsexual dancer, have intercourse for the first time. Black hesitates as he begins to penetrate her anally because, “he couldn’t become her this way. He knew this thing, this intimacy he craved wasn’t about love, or even sex, but about filling himself.” (275). Black does not want sex, he wants, as Sweet Girl does, to transcend boundaries of gender and the physical dimensions of sex. Similarly Thayil’s narrator Dimple, a castrated biological male prostitute living as a woman, expounds on the nature of sex after a …

The Turning Point Of Who Shall Be Master: Killer Of Sheep, Naming, Gender, And The Gaze Of African American Women, Sean Davis Watkins

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

Charles Burnett’s 1978 award-winning film Killer of Sheep directly responded to the then-popular Blaxploitation genre, holding a mirror up to post-Watts, 1970s America, while exposing and exploring gender and race issues. Moreover, intentionally or not, Burnett, with this film, effectively demonstrated the lack of recognition that Black women faced in domestic, activist, and employment spheres; simultaneously, Burnett conspicuously reified the relegation of women into that silent, domestic sphere while challenging stereotypes of Black men, elevating them and establishing them as humans, capable of hubris, humanity, and vulnerability. This neo-realistic film masterfully rebirthed the African American male identity; unfortunately, though, neglected …

Identité, Genre, Et Proto-Nationalisme Chez Christine De Pizan Et Alain Chartier, Matthew Lee Blair

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Lullaby For The Burning Ear: How Intersectional Feminism Can Help Decolonize The Latino Consciousness, Donovan E. Hernandez Garcia

Senior Theses

People exist with their own religions, cultures, and practices, which illustrate the ingenuity of humanity. Yet, because of major events that altered the fate of the Americas, a certain societal structure was created to maintain power. Due to colonization, the prolonged exposure to numerous cultures, and the continuation of oppressive systems, people have been forced to band together based on similar characteristics, be it race, gender, or sexual orientation, creating divisions within society. It is because of such colonial mentality, subliminal and apparent, political and cultural movements, such as Feminism and intersectionality, have been created to combat the harmful effects …

The Glass Ceiling Is Not Broken: Gender Equity Issues Among Faculty In Higher Education, Jillian Wood

Educational Studies Dissertations

Gender discrimination is an ongoing topic, including discrimination that occurs in higher education. Previous studies have shown female faculty experience a variety of workplace discrimination including sexual harassment/bullying, salary disparities, and lack of worklife balance. This dissertation aimed to analyze equity issues for female faculty at a private university. The researcher utilized a narrative inquiry methodology, conducting interviews with five full-time female faculty. The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the participants’ everyday stories and lived experiences. The researcher utilized critical feminist theory and leadership theory to examine the notion of equity at this campus. The findings, shown through …

Including Men And Boys In Programming Of Violence Against Women And Girls: A Case Study Of The Safe Schools Program In Ghana And Stepping Stones Program In Uganda, Nana A. Ampofo

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Violence against women and girls and its potential solutions increasingly garner international attention in the media and find themselves at the center of development agency portfolios. Program interventions aimed at eradicating violence against women and girls must create solutions that examine the socio-cultural values and normative expectations that boys and girls, men, and women place on one another. Many scholars argue that changing social norms or beliefs is an inter-generational process, as they are entrenched in and reproduced through social institutions such as the family, schools and religion (Enloe, 2013). Over the past decade, scholars and practitioners have noted violence …

Break The Internet: Gendered Image Manipulation And Political Subject Formation, Sarah Bolden

Honors College Theses

Image manipulation is ubiquitous: in the twenty-first century, it seems that “everyone knows” that the images presented in the media, from magazine covers to product advertisements, have been edited to seamlessly and effortlessly convey contemporary social norms. The recognition of this image manipulation is evident throughout popular culture: a Google search of “Photoshop fails” will return thousands of articles cataloging the most outrageous retouching disasters.

Claude Cahun, Marcel Moore, And The Collapse Of "Surrealist Photography"., Elizabeth Ann Driscoll Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis probes the photographic oeuvre of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore and their interpretation of Freudian fetishism. Cahun and Moore rework Freud’s theory to disrupt and invalidate various symbols conventionally associated with sexual difference, examining social, fictional, and historical dimensions of gendering and the shift that occurs when their parameters disintegrate. The first section examines the lovers’ portraiture and use of clothing—specifically the androgyny of early-twentieth century Paris fashion—in order to demarcate same-sex gaze, desire, and fetish. The second section covers the four years in which Cahun and Moore’s participation in the Paris Surrealist circles can be traced—from 1933 …

Check The Box Marked Other: Exploring Gender In Family Life, Serenity E. Dougherty

All NMU Master's Theses

The concept of a traditional family structure has been fading over the last 50 years and with this decline the notion of responsibilities being determined by gender is also losing ground, though it still has a long way to go. This short story collection works to continue to normalize the increasing variety of family structures, especially variety that has its roots in new notions of gender challenging old conventions. The stories are all set in Nebraska, an ideal landscape for exploring tradition versus modernity. Though there are major cities in NE, most of the state is composed of smaller rural …