Digital Commons Network^™

Politics Of Refusal: Justice And Liberation For Black Trans Lives, Quincy Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis investigates the challenges faced by Black trans people. In this thesis, I will explore how protest is used to highlight and confront the obstacles faced by the Black trans community. I will also examine the cultural work of Black trans people and what they teach us. The Brooklyn Liberation march and the TV show Pose is an important part of Black trans legacy. They both look at the complications surrounding Black trans lives and contributes to Black trans representation in protesting and fighting marginalization. This thesis will argue the importance of allyship to create safe space for Black …

Overview Of The Intern Position At Sexgenlab And The Importance Of Public Scholarship, Elizabeth S. Chapin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper represents a culmination of my time interning with SexGenLab and addresses the work I did from September 2022 to July 2023. This paper discusses the work that was completed, and why it is important, indicating how it contributes to the world at large outside of academia. I discuss my motivations and intentions relating to the internship, and how I was able to carry out my goals through the work I completed. In addition, this paper discusses the nature and importance of public scholarship, and how this internship contributed to that mission.

Publishing Inequality In Lgbtqia+ Research In Psychology: A Content Analysis, Mackenzie L. Fingerhut

Student Theses

Despite the American Psychiatric Association’s removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1973 and ego-dystonic homosexuality in 1987, nonheteronormative sexual orientations remain stigmatized and underrepresented in scientific literature. To estimate the prevalence of LGBTQIA+ topics in popular psychological research, the author queried more than 20,000 articles from 1987 to 2022 in the two most cited journals in each of four major domains (cognitive, clinical, developmental and social). In addition, the author randomly queried 20% of all empirical articles published from 1987 to 2021 in the top eight empirical journals to understand how often sexuality …

Transgender And Gender Nonconforming Individuals And Intimate Partner Violence Resources In Lgbtq+ Organizations, Claire Herr

Student Theses

A meta-analysis reporting on the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization of transgender populations found transgender people were two to three times more likely to experience IPV than cisgender people (Peitzmeier et al., 2020). The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) (2012) found transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people, particularly transgender women and transgender Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), were more likely to be threatened and harassed by their abusive partners than cisgender people. TGNC people may be at a high risk of IPV due to the lack of services designed for TGNC victims of IPV. Once …

Death Becomes Her: Rejecting The Muse And Reclaiming The Female Body In Leonor Fini’S Skeleton Women, Janna Singer-Baefsky

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is organized through the varied ways Fini incorporated death imagery, like the skeleton, into her art. I trace how she changed her interpretations of death from being a symbol in earlier works to then rendering death as the subject itself and concluding with depicting herself as death.

“Girl Power, Selfies, And Sexiness”: An Investigation Into The Neoliberal And Postfeminist Era Of Influencer Marketing, Amalie A. Werenskiold

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In today’s social media-centered popular culture, fashion, and lifestyle influencers maintain rigid and sexist forms of femininity which are spread to a large consumer base through influencer marketing. Research on postmodern feminism has revealed that the standardized modern woman is supplied with freedom, fun, and sexiness, allowing women to live their lives as they best see fit. Yet not all women are able to experience similar feelings of liberation and gender inequality is still a regular feature of society. This study observes Instagram images, captions, and comment sections of 61 distinct female influencers from the Instagram explore page. The evidence …

Writing As Liberation: Challenging Yemeni Patriarchal Practices, Sheema Alamari

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Patriarchal societies create an environment where men hold power and women are often treated as second-class citizens or are often held as having an inferior status. Throughout history and across cultures, literature has provided a platform for writers to share their stories and express themselves. However, Yemeni women have often been silenced and marginalized due to limited education and censorship. In recent times, Yemeni and Yemeni-American women have turned to storytelling as a means of creative expression and emotional release. This thesis analyzes Zubaida “Jasmine” Sharif’s memoir, Caged in America: One Woman’s Journey Through the Veil, and Nadia Al-Kowkabani's …

An Analysis Of Feminist Care Networks In The Editorial Intern Position At Women's Studies Quarterly, Angela G. Boscarino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper will detail my experience working as an Editorial Intern at Women’s Studies Quarterly from September 2022 to December 2022. I will begin by examining my onboarding process as a new member of an already-established team. This exploration will allow for my observation of how Women’s Studies Quarterly has been forced to adapt to the challenges of the persistent pandemic, and more specifically the challenges brought by grief in the mourning of the late general editor Dr. Brianne Waychoff. This intervention will be an analysis of how care networks are mobilized in the workplace as an essential element in …

Muscling Through: Athletic Women In Victorian Popular Representation, 1864–1915, Julia G. Fuller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Muscling Through” reconstructs an overlooked history of strong female bodies in the nineteenth century. It argues that popular representations of athletic women introduced a new category of identity that was distinct from women’s traditional relational and social roles. The project’s central figure is the hyper-able “Sportswoman,” who bridges the gap between two familiar versions of the Victorian woman’s body: the mid-century ideal of docile, domesticated femininity and the sturdy, capable women who enter universities, professions, and public spaces en masse just before the turn of the century. Representationally, the Sportswoman figures a range of attitudes, from anxious to aspirational, toward …

Bi Erasure And Bi Invisibility In Media And Medicine: Moving Beyond, Lacy M. Telles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the bisexual erasure and invisibility that is found in film, television, literature, and in the field of reproduction. Even though bisexual people make up a large portion of the LGBTQ community, because of bi invisibility, they tend to get lost in the cause. This website offers information about bi invisibility, highlights obstacles faced by bisexuals, provides resources for bisexuals, and includes some fun topics for bisexual people. It also has a page of bisexual testimonies: real bi people with real bi stories. There is evidence of erasure and invisibility, especially in children’s books and the field of …

The Queer Life Of Lorena Hickok, Samantha D. Leyerle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the life of Lorena Hickok, a remarkable woman whose story has been glossed over throughout history. Hickok was an accomplished journalist and writer, and her life offers a fascinating glimpse into being queer in the early twentieth century. While much has been written about Hickok’s relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, this thesis aims to go beyond their connection to examine Hickok’s entire life and experiences in greater detail. Through analyzing her work as a writer, as well as her personal correspondence and unpublished autobiography, this thesis illuminates the quiet details of defining moments in history, including the Great …

Reclaiming Narratives Of Sexual Assault: An Examination Of The #Metoo Movement And Social Media, Katherine V. Marano

Student Theses and Dissertations

Untruths depicted by American media has shaped narratives about sexual assault and negatively affected the credibility of female sexual assault victims. Since women began the viral #MeToo movement in 2017, there is a need for research about the shifting sexual assault narratives in the United States. My project examines how this movement and use of social media has allowed women to reclaim narratives about sexual assault, spanning from October 2017 to April 2023. Specifically, my project analyzes ways in which the media responded to the #MeToo movement and how female created social media videos amplify sexual assault stories. I argue …

Whose Imagination Are We Living In?: An Examination Of Feminist Utopia Through The Lens Of Pragmatism, Mia A. Gindis

Student Theses and Dissertations

Pragmatic feminism is a philosophy which utilizes and merges the fundamental concepts of pragmatism, such as its emphasis on pluralism and lived experience, with feminist theory in hopes of inciting social change. The main goals of pragmatic feminism are to recover the work of women who were influential in the popularization of American pragmatism but were also excluded from the history of philosophy, to analyze the “canon” of lauded pragmatist philosophers through a feminist lens, and to yield pragmatist philosophies as a weapon for contemporary feminist activism. In my study, I argue that feminist utopian literature can be a serviceable …

Woman Flytrap, Brianna Jo Hobson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Woman FlyTrap is a short story zine collection that explores the topic of sexual violence through the perpetrator and victim relationship with an explicit lens. Replete with cultural and entomological themes and motifs, Woman Flytrap seeks to remind survivors that we are not alone. In our bodies or in our lives. Neither in the world. There are over a million insects to every human, proving that there is strength in numbers. All five stories in the collection present different abstracts: revenge, transformation, justice, healing, body image, self-harm, mourning, etc. There is also a playlist and a section about the author. …

Diasporic Women’S Mutability In South Asian Postcolonial Literature, Tasnim S. Halim

Theses and Dissertations

Though Western scholarship tends to homogenize South Asian experiences, researchers and novelists shed light on different classes of South Asian postcolonial and migratory women who experience mutability, or the internal and external changes as a trauma response after British colonial rule ended and the 1947 Partition abruptly fractured national identity. Though this mutability has positive and negative transformative qualities, it also allows women characters the power to remove themselves from cycles of oppression, work towards healing, and transforming their physical bodies from sites of repressed trauma to sites of expression and agency. What binds them is not only their physical …

For What Is A Man?: Towards Languaging Contemporary Dance In A Black, Queer, Male-Presenting Body, Thomas Ford

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines Queering Blackness: Solo on a Theme of Reconciliation, a performance event that invokes movement, spoken text, projections and sound to explore the mechanisms of identity. Engaging performance, Black, queer and dance studies, the paper contextualizes cultural identity markers, towards an understanding of what it means to be Black, queer and male-assigned in Black spaces.

Someone Will Remember Us / I Say / Even In Another Time, Paul Anagnostopoulos

Theses and Dissertations

Paul Anagnostopoulos’s paintings and vases use mythological melodrama in a contemporary context to portray vivid images of queer life in the wake of homophobic erasure and tragic loss. “someone will remember us / I say / even in another time” traces his aggregate interests in Greco-Roman cultures and art history.

Gloria Rehearsal (Excerpt) A Feminist Mechanism For Metabolization, Eleanor Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Weaving embodied trauma studies with feminist theory, non-hierarchical creative structures, and research in dance improvisation, this thesis paper written by Eleanor Smith contextualizes the dance performance gloria rehearsal (excerpt). The performance piece was choreographed and performed by Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith, who have been co-choreographing feminist dances since 2006.

Skin Echoes, Andreia Santana

Theses and Dissertations

Santana’s explores the intersection of biology and identity, incorporating living matter and performative gestures into installations to reflect on social constructs of history and gender. By observing water and its qualities of defying Western dichotomies, Skin Echoes focuses on the material interchanges across bodies and the wider material world.

Made In Italy: Gli Effetti Della Musica Italiana (T)Rap Sulla Società E Sulla Lingua, Paraskevi Z. Gkana-Alberico

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the history of Italian (t)rap music, and uses the lyrics of famous songs in an attempt to examine the effects the sometimes vulgar and explicit themes, which are usually accompanied by the use of foreign languages, could have on society and the Italian language.

Naming Venus: An Exploration Of Goddesses, Heroines, And Famous Women, Kavya Beheraj

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Humans have been observing and romanticizing Venus for more than 5,000 years. However, mapping its surface has nearly always been impossible, since the planet is shrouded in thick clouds. A breakthrough came just fifty years ago with the invention of radar imaging, leading to the discovery (and naming) of hundreds of new features in a relatively short length of time.

The rapid naming of Venus is a case study on the impact of planetary nomenclature — the process of naming features on other worlds. While the act of naming streamlines communication and humanizes alien landscapes, it is subject to bias, …

Examination Of Korean Feminism From The Intersections Of Colonialism, Modernity, And Nationalism In Colonial Korea (1910–1945), Yae Hee Choi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis aims to investigate the politics of Korean feminism during the time of Japanese colonization (1910-1945) from the perspectives of colonialism, modernity, and nationalism. The study illustrates how Korean women perceived themselves in terms of individuals, colonial subjects, and Korean nationals during a period of significant societal changes. It also intends to broaden the boundaries of gender inquiries in colonial Korea, which often focus on binary constructions of Japanese repression versus national resistance. This study argues that a nationalist paradigm oversimplifies the intricate dynamics and varied experiences of colonized subjects, specifically women. The logic of nationalism places all forms …

How The U.S. Mainstream Media Perpetuates Cis White Masculine Hegemony, Yelena Dzhanova

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The news is important because it helps individuals understand their place in the world and make the best decisions for themselves. Throughout its strong history and presence in the United States, the journalism industry has prided itself on delivering fact-based news using an objective framework, meaning that there is an expectation that journalists communicate the news impartially and without bias. Through an examination of gendered language and visual representations published in and by recent mainstream U.S. digital and print media outlets, this paper explains how the media plays a major role in the perpetuation of cis white masculinity. This paper …

A Female Pharaoh And The Emperor’S Wife: Hatshepsut, Julia Domna, And Female Authority In Antiquity, Gabriella E. Ramalho

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes how historical notions of masculinity and femininity shaped perceptions of power between the Egyptian female pharaoh Hatshepsut and Roman empress Julia Domna. Both rulers carefully created visual narratives of masculinity and femininity to leverage respect from their citizens, in accordance with what was contextually appropriate for their respective societies.

It will be shown that there are blatant disconnects between how others perceived them and how they wished to be portrayed. Hatshepsut, a rare female pharaoh, depicted herself in the regalia of a male king with a false ceremonial beard, scepters and crowns. Domna was described as the …

“Tell Them About The Dream Martin!”: The Retelling, Reframing, And Re-Examination Of The Civil Rights Movement Through A Black Feminist And Postmodern Lens, Damele Elliott-Hubbard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research seeks to explore the intersectionality of race, gender, and class that existed during the Civil Rights Movement, and the tensions that were a result of that intersectionality. This is accomplished through a re-examination of The Movement through a post-modern and Black feminist lens. Post-modern theorist Jean Francois Lyotard proposes the necessity of throwing off the grand narratives or metanarratives of well-known historical events, with the intention of creating micronarratives that depend heavily on the experiences of those who lived during those times. The aim of this research is to conduct a gendered study of the CRM, while investigating …

Ornamentalism: Costuming And The Portrayal Of The Chinese Woman In Film, 20th-21st Century, Andrea Yepez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis aims to analyze the concept of “Ornamentalism,” a term created by Anne Anlin Cheng. In Ornamentalism (2019), Cheng proposes the term—a combination of Orientalism and ornament—as a new way to study Asiatic femininity. Cheng applies the term to a case study of the career of Anna May Wong, the first Asian-American actress to feature in Hollywood films. Throughout her career, which began in the 1920s, Anna May Wong held the status of it-girl and muse to designers such as John Galliano. However, Wong was also subjected to playing stereotypical Asian roles in films and was consistently the victim …

Metamorphis, Luca Lee Sobarzo Faust

Theses and Dissertations

Web3D interactive experience that explores time, communication, and transformation, from a personal storytelling perspective. Hosted on a web platform, the experience displays three environments: Metamorphis, Cuir AI, and Hain. These spaces propose a fragmented narrative that seeks to interrogate both the characters and the viewer’s perception on the linearity of time