Digital Commons Network^™

Women’S Sexuality And The State: A Beginning Look At Virginity’S Relationship To The Law, Ariana Strieb

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This is a beginning look at the relationship the state has with women's sexuality in the United States, specifically looking at how virginity animate the way rape trials are prosecuted.

Coup De Grâce, Violet Rea Mass

Senior Projects Spring 2023

This project, composed of an introduction and a fiction piece, explores the complex power dynamics at play on the university stage put into perspective of the Human Rights study. The fiction follows young Olive as arrives for her first term at a university in a secluded valley where she must come to terms with a darkness greater than she had ever imagined.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Gender, Emilia Vella

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Women in sport is a territory that is seldom included in politics, yet “woman,” as an identity, is one that comes with political meaning. This thesis will be discussing the inadvertent politicality of women in sport, and the legislation, as well as systems that declare the identity as so.

Why Did The Biggest U.S Democracy Project Fail In Afghanistan After 20 Years Of War And Millions Of Dollars Spent?, Jalil Sadat

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Seeking Sexual Order: Moral Panic And The Politics Of Prostitution During The Progressive Era, Kennadi Yates

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Through Tender Opalescence, Yemi A. Lawrence

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Through Tender Opalescence is an documentary intimately dealing with the possibilities that unfold when one is able to hold space and fall within themselves. Broken up into sections of abstract videos of water paired with poetry, and analysis of the appropriated and re-worked horror films in popular American cinema, this piece attempts to reinterpret popular media and to highlight what that may say about how we as people have come to understand our own gender. This work finds itself being told by an unnamed narrator who has made it a ritual to go by the river to relieve themselves of …

Taking Jazz Singers Seriously: Gender, Race, And Vocal Improvisation, Lauren Anne Ceres

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

When Words Fail: Towards A Subversive Account Of Gender Theory, James Toomey

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Apotheosis, Kira L. Hansen

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Apotheosis invites the viewer to explore the both tensions and the joys of gender expression, love, sex and sexuality, the natural and the constructed worlds, and the body.

Unexpected Modes Of Gendered Inheritance: How Royal Women Bequeathed Knowledge And Power In Sixteenth Century Europe Through Letters, Translations, And Memoirs, Mary Rebecca Reid

Senior Projects Spring 2021

During the sixteenth century, western European women were rarely able to inherit property, money, or titles. Even for noble women privileged with education, monarchies favored male heirs, and women rarely ruled as regents. It was even more rare for a woman to inherit from another woman. Such restrictions required women to work within rigid gender roles and develop more unconventional modes of inheritance. Rather than passing on material goods or a title, women could pass on certain social inheritances, such as personality traits or religious and educational teachings to their daughters. In order to examine these social inheritances, I have …

Feeding Trans-Sense: Gender And Digestion In The Futurist Project, Jackie G. Zeller

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Armor, Finn W. Mcmurray

Senior Projects Spring 2021

I never played sports. It never felt right or good. Sports created a space in which my body would be on display. A display which invited attention to a performance of masculinity. And under that scrutiny, I would fail. Fail to perform with the strength I was expected to exhibit.

Removed from the pressure of performance, I can consider the equipment, the gear, the spaces and re-materialize them. I shift what is on display. Displaying the altered objects rather than the body and its performance. Looking at the objects not as tools for the body to interact with but as …

"Made In Bangladesh", Joya Alia Syed

Senior Projects Spring 2020

The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh was the worst industrial disaster in modern times and began a turning point for change in the garment sector. This paper will uncover human rights violations such as the exploitation of garment workers, verbal and physical abuse as well as the right for workers to collectively bargain. The paper will begin with a brief background of the Bangladeshi garment sector, then the pressure of the “Fast Fashion” demand for the industry and gender dimensions. It will conclude with remediation efforts from local and international levels from social movements, campaigns, and programs such …

Friend Or Foe? Outstanding Peer’S Unexpected Impact On Test Taking Ability, Woanjun Lee

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Many studies have discussed methods of improving individuals’ performance in a variety of fields. Furthermore, studies also have observed how social interactions may have an impact, whether positive or negative, on an individual's performance. The current study aims to expand on this thread and take a deeper scope on the immediate impact on academic test-taking ability of the presence of a confident colleague. Additionally, the current study explores whether the change of performance, if any, impacted by the stimuli is exaggerated depending on the subject’s sex or extraversion. The current study assigned 14 Bard undergrad students to the control group, …

The Preservation Of The Islamic Tradition And How Current Organizations Seek To Prevent Exploitation Of Sacred Texts And Religious Authority Spiritual Abuse And Sexual Abuse Within The Islamic Community, Misbah Awan

Senior Projects Spring 2020

This research project focuses on the ways in which spiritual abuse and sexual abuse show up in religious communities, specifically within the Islamic context. It is important to speak about the spiritual abuse and sexual abuse that happens within the Islamic communities because, while a faith can be percieved to be perfect theoretically, it can be practiced and implemented in improrer ways. The tradition of the faith can be lost along the way due to personal interpretations and decontextualization of religious sacred texts, which is what is meant by spiritual abuse. When these two are paired with abuse, especially when …

Beyond Their Homeland: Understanding The Experiences Of Black Women In Japan, Bernadette Tisha Benjamin

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Understanding how Black women conceptualize the role their racial and gender identities play within their experience in Japan.

Porno-Putinism: The Politics Of Sex In The Kremlin’S War Against Gender Progress, Sarah Pavlovna Goldberg

Senior Projects Spring 2020

In this paper, I analyze the political legitimation of Russian President Vladimir Putin through sexualized media avenues and the resulting challenges this poses to producing effective women's policy. I examine the spectacle of Putin and the Duma in their handling of womens’ public health and economic issues, as well as female representation in spheres of power, by continuing the Soviet tradition of symbolic submission. I seek to answer the question of how these widely-produced images of the nastoyashiy muzhik, the real Russian man, influence political consciousness in contemporary Russia; and determine whether there are inroads to policy change outside of …

The Gender Wage Gap In Sports: Explaining The Pay Gap In Sports, David Streeter Runcie

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Beyond Repair: An Investigation Of The Experiences, Interpretations, And Self-Construction Of Black Women Welfare Recipients In The Deep South, Eniyah C. Willingham, Eniyah Willingham

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Based on six in-depth interviews with Black women in the Metro-Atlanta area who have at some point in the past ten years received welfare assistance, this project serves to understand how Black women relate to the welfare system in the current moment. To best understand their circumstances, I set forth a three-part question: how do Black women welfare recipients experience the welfare system in the current moment?; how do they interpret these experiences?; and lastly, how do these experiences and interpretations lend to how they conceptualize, construct, and/or manage their identities as Black women welfare recipients? I argue that my …

Still Sitting On Men: Understanding The Continuities Of Indirect Rule Through Pre-Colonial Forms Of Female Resistance, Ethnic Power Politics And Economic Violence In Southeast Nigeria, Evan Richardson

Senior Projects Spring 2019

This project exposes that Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria has had direct, significant ramifications on the Political Economic Development of Nigeria through the present day.

Baby Adrian: Not An Autobiography, Adrian Catrin Retzl

Senior Projects Fall 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Health As An Individualized Project: Gender Bio-Authenticity And Responsibilization Governance In Functional Medicine, Emma E. Radich

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Different Voices And Views Of Zimbabwe: A Comparative Analysis Of Charles Mungoshi’S Waiting For The Rain And Noviolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names, Kina Carney

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Zimbabwean literature written by black authors share the same national identity, yet differ in form, style and content. Uncovering the depth of this black nationalist literature form, this paper compares novels written by two different black Zimbabwean authors. Differing in time period, Charles Mungoshi’s Waiting for the Rain (1975) reflects on traditional life in rural Rhodesia, while NoViolet Bulawayo’s more modern text We Need New Names (2013) sheds light on life in recent rural Zimbabwe. Although both novels were written by authors from separate generations, they share similar themes such as gender, religion, and alienation. These themes distinguish how similar …

“Brother Can You Spare A Friend?”: Documents, Masculinities, And Histories In A Masonic Lodge, Hayden Franklyn William Hard

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Flashdance, Rebecca Zeiger

Senior Projects Spring 2018

With each day of isolation, I delve further into myself, along with a mild dissociation from reality and self as formed in relation to others and gaze. The majority of this time is spent without seeing a full body; when a body is alone, there is no one to see it in its entirety. I can’t be sure what my body looks like, so I must choose a body because passivity leads to invisibility. I have been looking for a body that encapsulates a multiplicity of self and dynamic spirit, the kind I could fall in love with. When two …

Une Salade, Cora Della Katz

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

They Always Do What They Ought To Do: A Historical Analysis, And Exploratory Examination Of The “Woman Problem” And The Function Of Gender In American Psychology, Willa G. Baigelman

Senior Projects Fall 2018

The “woman problem” in America psychology refers to, “...the underrepresentation of women in the highest offices of psychology’s professional organizations and women’s general lack of eminence compared to men,” (Rutherford, 2015). It is a problem that seems to have existed from the beginnings of American psychology to the present day. This piece of writing seeks to better understand this problem, the function of it within American psychology, its origins and where it stands today. Through a historical analysis of Edwin Boring, Edward Titchener, Alice Bryan, Margaret Washburn, Eleanor Gibson, Mary Whiton Calkins and Mamie Phipps Clark, we can begin to …

Gender In Contemporary Iran In The Works Of Abbas Kowsari, Domantas Karalius

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College

Gender Empowerment In The Development Economics Literature: The Language Of Choice, Preferences And Agency, Pranay Panday

Senior Projects Spring 2017

In my project, I try to trace how our present understanding of gender empowerment is formed, and how mainstream economics literature has accommodated feminist contributions to the concept. I look at neoclassical household models, feminist critiques of the same models, foundational ideas on gender empowerment, and finally the current development economics literature on empowerment. I find that the concept of choices and preferences, and in particular the formation of preferences, is central to understanding gender empowerment. I deduce that a) empowerment is both a process and an outcome, b) that the end goal of empowerment is the access to resources …

“Shutting Her Up:” An Exploration Of The Madwoman And The Madhouse In Victorian Literature, Savannah Jane Bachman

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.