Digital Commons Network^™

Roan, Alex, Paige Ravenscraft

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Alex Roan is a 42 year old trans masc individual who uses he/him pronouns. He was originally from Stoughton, Massachusetts where he grew up with his family before moving to Central Maine for college and living in the Portland area through adulthood. Alex shares his experience with growing up in a Catholic family and finding himself as a trans person in college. He details what it was like to come out to his family, who was in denial at first but later in life became his biggest supporters.

Alex Roan is the founder of MaineTransNet. This interview captures the story …

Unruly Ideas: A History Of Kitawala In Congo, Nicole Eggers

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Original oral and ethnographic sources inform this conceptual history of power in central Africa, imagined through the lens of Kitawala religious practices.

Unruly Ideas: A History of Kitawala in Congo recounts the multifaceted history of the Congolese religious movement Kitawala from its colonial beginnings in the 1920s through its continued practice in some of the most conflict-riven parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo today. Drawing on a rich body of original oral, ethnographic, and archival research, Nicole Eggers uses Kitawala as a lens through which to address the complex relationship between politics, religion, healing, and violence in central …

The Ripple Effect: Gender And Race In Brazilian Culture And Literature, Maria José Somerlate Barbosa

Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures

In The Ripple Effect: Gender and Race in Brazilian Culture and Literature, Barbosa adopts a comparative, multilayered, and interdisciplinary line of research to examine social values and cultural mores from the first decades of the twentieth century to the present. By analyzing the historical, cultural, religious, and interactive space of Brazil’s national identity, The Ripple Effect surveys expressive cultures and literary manifestations. It uses the martial art-dance-ritual capoeira as a lynchpin to disclose historical ambiguities and the negotiation of cultural and literary boundaries within the context of the ideological construct of a mestizo nation. The book also examines laws …

Book Review: Managing Sex In The U.S. Military: Gender, Identity, And Behavior, Mary Raum

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Editors: Beth Bailey, Alesha E. Doan, Shannon Portillo, and Karen Dixon Vuic

Reviewed by Dr. Mary Raum, professor of national security affairs, US Naval War College

This compilation of scholarly, practical, and historical writings presents a running record of events gleaned from research on government policies from the eras of World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, and the War in Afghanistan. It provides greater insight into the complexities of gender issues with direct ties to defense systems. While service examples and dialogues are primarily aimed at the Army, the Navy and Marine Corps are also included. Historical …

Joint Maritime Operations, Professor Jane Stokes

Women, Peace, and Security

During this discussion, Professor Jane Stokes, will discuss the integration process of WPS material into JPME curriculum and how to nest contemporary security issues specifically into the Joint Maritime Operations (JMO) syllabus. Through the lens of a JMO professor, Professor Stokes will explain how WPS discussions on state stability and fragility provide an appropriate seminar topic related to the competition continuum. Prof Stokes will then conclude with remarks on the need for additional case study material and experienced based articles to further the depth of these classroom discussions.

Expanding Space For Women In The Security Sector: A Philippine Case Study, Dr. Jennifer Santiago Oreta

Women, Peace, and Security

Many of the provinces in the Philippines still have small enclaves populated by armed rebel groups and/or organized criminal syndicates.  These groups have the capability to disrupt the security, stability and development progress of communities.  Women pay a disproportionately high price during armed conflict as existing inequalities are magnified and women become more vulnerable to sexual violence.  Despite the significant role of women in peace and conflict, women are underrepresented in spaces dealing with conflict management, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

The session looks at security sector institutions in the Philippines, particularly the institutional responses on mainstreaming the agenda of women, peace, …

Feminist Foreign Policies: A Governance Regime From The Global South?, Ms. Daniela Sepúlveda Soto

Women, Peace, and Security

Every year, more countries commit to Feminist Foreign Policies (FFPs). Most of them come from the global North; however, the emergence of FFPs in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico suggests the shape of renewed designs of global governance regimes and new struggles in the search for international status. In seeking why these countries pursue FFPs, I link different bodies of scholarship and disciplines to better understand the transformative potential of the global South FFPs. In doing so, I challenge the historical and contemporary conventional assessments of the relative unimportance of small states, the Southern region, and feminism/gender in affecting international politics …

Maritime Security And Governance Staff Course, Dr. Curtis Bell

Women, Peace, and Security

The WPS strategy, which was first established in 2000 by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, aims to address the impact of conflict on women and to ensure their meaningful participation in peacebuilding and conflict resolution processes. The strategy recognizes that peace and security cannot be achieved without the full and equal participation of women. By integrating WPS into PME curriculum (first pillar of the strategy), students in joint military PME institutions are provided with a comprehensive understanding of the role of women in conflict and peacebuilding, as well as the importance of their involvement in these processes.    The …

Wps Curriculum Development, Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese

Women, Peace, and Security

This session will provide an overview regarding the “what” and “how” of teaching WPS based on personal experience over the past ten years teaching WPS civilian graduate and undergraduate courses, integrating WPS into PME core classes, WPS lectures to domestic and international military and civilian audiences, and as part of security cooperation modules. Information provided will focus on learning objectives currently used, challenges encountered, curricular material and methods that has been found useful, best practices to date and ideas regarding what needs to be done going forward to fully integrate WPS into PME and military operations. The intent is to …

Teaching Strategies In The National Security Affairs Program: Sexual Assault And Sexual Harassment, Dr. Mary Raum

Women, Peace, and Security

Most curricula relative to Congress and its interface with the Department of Defense relate to the topics of war, weapons, conflict and budgets. An important subtopic of national security studies are Congressional interventions into the Defense Department related to soft policies which are more nearly categorized as micro sociological issues due to their touching people within the massive security bureaucracy at the individual and personal level.  Early congressional interventions among this categorization include concerns about suicide, benefits, health and well-being or the 1940s GI Bill which encouraged personal growth through educational and training benefits in order to decrease a reduction …

Tackling Gender In Kinetic Operations, Prof. Jody Prescott

Women, Peace, and Security

From the perspective of operational risk, that is, risk to mission accomplishment, gender is not always relevant. This is likely true in equipment-heavy, force-on-force engagements that occur outside the presence of civilians, whose perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors might otherwise be crucial to mission success in civilian-centric operations. In civilian-centric operations such as counterinsurgency or stability operations, the failure to consider gender likely does pose a risk to mission accomplishment. DoD's implementation of the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 has resulted in important progress in bringing greater attention to gender considerations in operations, but it has a gap in …

Trans Women And Reproductive (In)Justice - How Race, Class, And Gender Shape Experiences Of Family Formation And Parenthood, Derek Siegel

Data and Datasets

The following support document includes demographic data from my dissertation research, disaggregated to preserve the anonymity of respondents. It also includes two separate interview schedules for semi-structured interviews I conducted with trans women who were either currently parents (the first guide) or who want to be parents in the future (the second guide). My dissertation examines how race, class, and gender shape trans women’s parenting journeys. Trans women, and particularly trans women of color, experience high levels of discrimination across the contexts of employment, healthcare, and the legal system, yet remain virtually absent from contemporary research on family and parenting …

Mascs: Masculinity Reimagined, Josh Porter

Graduate Thesis Exhibition Catalogue Gallery, 2023

MASCS: Masculinity Reimagined explores how performances of contemporary masculinities can counteract traditional binary understandings of gender. Justin Korver, John Paul Morabito, Betsy Odom, Moises Salazar, and Darryl DeAngelo Terrell expose, question, and subvert the ways that we culturally define masculinity by focusing on gender as performance. These artists not only critique cisgender, heteronormative binary understandings of masculinity, but also embrace the performative nature of gender and celebrate non-normative, alternative, and queer masculinities. By encompassing a range of gender and sexual identifications, these artists share their own personal experiences, interpretations, performances, rejections, and embodiments of masculinity. Breaking down the barrier created …

Females With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Riley Guffey

2023 SLP Posters

The American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) states that social communication deficits can be present alongside a wide variety of diagnoses and are characterized by the difficulties in the usage of language in social contexts, which can affect language expression and comprehension ("Autism spectrum disorder," n.d.). "Research reveals that males are 4 times more likely to receive a diagnosis of ASD compared to females" (Fletcher, 2022). The criteria for diagnosis are viewed in terms based on a male's inability to present appropriate social communication and pragmatic skills. This oftentimes leads to missed or inaccurate diagnoses for females. The literature reviewed …

The Proof Is In The Pudding – Using Perceived Stress To Measure Short-Term Impact In Initiatives To Enhance Gender Balance In Computing Education, Alina Berry, Sarah Jane Delany

Academic Posters Collection

The problem of gender imbalance in computing higher education has forced academics and professionals to implement a wide range of initiatives. Many initiatives use recruitment or retention numbers as their most obvious evidence of impact. This type of evidence of impact is, however, more resource heavy to obtain, as well as often requires a longitudinal approach. There are many shorter term initiatives that use other ways to measure their success.

First, this poster presents with a review of existing evaluation measures in interventions to recruit and retain women in computing education across the board. Three main groups of evaluation come …

Evaluation Of Gender-Based Differences In Primary School Maths Education: The Potential Of Digital Games, Maíra Amaral

Academic Posters Collection

Digital Game-Based Learning is shown to be a more effective instructional method than traditional instruction, however less effective than other technology-supported instruction according to Byun and Joung (2018). Regarding gender aspects, according to findings by Mclaren and colleagues in 2022, girls may learn more mathematics from digital learning games than boys. In their study, even reporting greater behavioural and cognitive engagement, boys did not learn more with the game than girls.

Techmate: A Research-Driven Toolkit To Enhance Gender Balance In Computing Education, Alina Berry, Sarah Jane Delany

Academic Posters Collection

This poster presents a toolkit of practical initiatives and guidance on how to enhance gender balance in computing higher education. The suggested initiatives are designed in the way that could be adapted for a use in a local context, especially in universities in the UK or in Ireland. The initiatives are categorised under four main areas: Policy, Pedagogy, Influence & Support and Promotion & Engagement. Additionally, guidance is given on mechanisms to evaluate the impact of these initiatives. This work will be of interest to champions looking to enhance gender balance in their computing courses.