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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

The Utilization Of Grassroots Organizing By Black Women Pioneers To Achieve Reproductive Justice., Madison Ruth Ellsworth May 2024

The Utilization Of Grassroots Organizing By Black Women Pioneers To Achieve Reproductive Justice., Madison Ruth Ellsworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since enslavement in the United States Black women have cultivated different ways to fight for their Reproductive Justice. After emancipation Black women have continued to utilize the practices learned from our ancestors to obtain Reproductive Justice. Despite the women’s movement becoming mainstream in the 1960s many Black women continued to grassroots organize to adequately address the issues that were unique to them. The efforts of various Black women organizers tend to go unacknowledged because the mainstream women’s movement attracts the attention of most. In my research I focused on Byllye Avery, Loretta Ross, and Toni Bond to explore and showcase …


Authentically (Un)Real Assessing Vh!'S Basketball Wives And Its Violent & Colorist Portrayals Of Black Women., Wilma Denae Powell May 2022

Authentically (Un)Real Assessing Vh!'S Basketball Wives And Its Violent & Colorist Portrayals Of Black Women., Wilma Denae Powell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Does reality television serve as solely a form of entertainment, or could reality television also be maintaining hegemonic beliefs and reinforcing biased views of Black women? Since 2010, Vh1’s Basketball Wives has given audiences the opportunities to entertain themselves by watching women who are/were married to, dating, or are the mothers of children fathered by professional basketball players. Despite the show’s name, few members of the cast are currently married and audiences only get mere glimpses of the cast in motherly or marital interactions. So, what does Basketball Wives offer audiences who tune in to watch Black women for entertainment? …


The Long Journey Down Market Street: An Oral History Based Biography Of Mary Craik., Denise Vulhop Watkins May 2020

The Long Journey Down Market Street: An Oral History Based Biography Of Mary Craik., Denise Vulhop Watkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This interdisciplinary dissertation examines the life of Mary B. Craik, a Louisvillian who was a professor, feminist activist, philanthropist and artist. The project’s main focus is on Craik’s feminist awakening and activism, and their alignment with second wave feminism. The primary method of data collection was oral history and consisted of interviews with Craik and some of her friends, acquaintances, and colleagues. Additional sources included a scrapbook that documented her major life events, the trial transcript from a gender discrimination lawsuit she launched, and art quilts she made in her later years after she retired. This project examines these resources …


An Actor's Process In Bridging The Gap Between First-Generation And Multi-Generational African-American Identities., Mutiyat Ade-Salu May 2020

An Actor's Process In Bridging The Gap Between First-Generation And Multi-Generational African-American Identities., Mutiyat Ade-Salu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects my process assimilating into the role of Chelle in the production of Detroit '67 at the University of Louisville. Although there have been instances of actors crossing lines of gender, nationality, race, and even sexuality, to perform roles in contemporary theatre, discussion about generational differences is almost non-existent. Through historical research, first-hand interviews, and conventional acting methods, I explore the world of my role, searching for spirituality, authenticity, and identity. Additionally, I explain my use of The WAY Method ®, a process I began creating in 2014 to help actors be clear with who they are before …


The Captivity Narratives Of Cynthia Ann Parker : Settler Colonialism, Collective Memory, And Cultural Trauma., Treva Elaine Hodges Aug 2019

The Captivity Narratives Of Cynthia Ann Parker : Settler Colonialism, Collective Memory, And Cultural Trauma., Treva Elaine Hodges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores representations of the captivity narrative of Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo woman captured as a child by Comanche, with whom she lived in a kinship relationship until her forced return to Anglo society twenty-four years later. The project draws upon trauma theory to explain the persistent appeal of Parker’s narrative. Interpretations analyzed include the original historical account of Parker’s narrative, and appearances in the genres of opera, film, graphic novel, and historical fiction. The dissertation reveals how appearances of Parker’s narrative correspond to periods in US history in which social change threated the dominant position of Anglo …


Trace., Kcj Szwedzinski May 2019

Trace., Kcj Szwedzinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Trace utilizes autoethnography to investigate aspects of Judaism to discover how one decides what to embrace, embody, or deny from inherited legacies. Autoethnography attempts to combine quantitative and qualitative data in order to systematically analyze and describe personal experience. The artist acting as Ba’alei Kushiah, or question bearer, uses Talmudic philosophy as a methodology and approach to art making. This research is self-referential; using Jewish thought to ask questions about Judaism. Judaism, often existing in an in between place with outward characteristics that reflect regional influences, facilitates a dialogue about whether there are relative or absolute delineations within and between …


Vile Transgressor Of The Womb : Prosecution And Persecution For Concealment In Puritan Massachusetts., Jennifer White May 2019

Vile Transgressor Of The Womb : Prosecution And Persecution For Concealment In Puritan Massachusetts., Jennifer White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the crime of concealment in Puritan Massachusetts. The 1624 Jacobean statute, which specifically identified concealing as both the crime and the evidence, provided the basis for prosecuting women who concealed the death of an infant. This dissertation focuses on an analysis that connects the act of concealment to a larger discussion of a woman’s association with secrecy and hiding that led to labeling her postpartum, criminal body as a threat to the colony. The act of concealment was evidence of a woman’s ability to control her own reproduction and her unwillingness to acknowledge her calling in Puritan …


There Is Water In The World For Us : The Environmental Theories Of Alice Walker., Janae Lewis Hall May 2018

There Is Water In The World For Us : The Environmental Theories Of Alice Walker., Janae Lewis Hall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of African-American Environmental thought responds to the ongoing erasure of Black experiences and their perspectives on nature. Mainstream environmentalism maintains a legacy of perceived innocence and incorruptibility towards the land, while Black Environmentalism demonstrates the limitations of that ideology. Limitations include the erasure of history in regards to stealing land from Indigenous people, the brutality of slavery, legalized lynching, forced removal from the land, exploitation in sharecropping, destruction of sacred lands, heavy pollution in urban centers, and harmful environmental policies. For Black and Indigenous peoples, it is impossible to view American soil as innocent. This project surveyed the …


Southern Veils : The Sisters Of Loretto In Early National Kentucky., Hannah O'Daniel Dec 2017

Southern Veils : The Sisters Of Loretto In Early National Kentucky., Hannah O'Daniel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the experiences of Roman Catholic women who joined the Sisters of Loretto, a community of women religious in rural Washington and Nelson Counties, Kentucky, between the 1790s and 1826. It argues that the Sisters of Loretto used faith to interpret and respond to unfolding events in the early nation. The women sought to combat moral slippage and restore providential favor in the face of local Catholic institutional instability, global Protestant evangelical movements, war and economic crisis, and a tuberculosis outbreak. The Lorettines faced financial, social, and cultural pressures—including an economic depression, a culture that celebrated family formation …


Since The Time Of Eve : La Leche League And Communities Of Mothers Throughout History., Joanna Paxton Federico Dec 2017

Since The Time Of Eve : La Leche League And Communities Of Mothers Throughout History., Joanna Paxton Federico

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

La Leche League International (LLL) is the oldest and largest breastfeeding support group in the world. This thesis examines how, beginning in 1956, seven Catholic housewives from suburban Chicago built up the institutional knowledge to sustain a cohesive global network of breastfeeding mothers. It also explores how LLL managed this knowledge over time in response to developments in scholarship and changing social conditions. Based on a narrative analysis of LLL publications, this thesis argues that the League’s founders drew selectively from existing bodies of knowledge and from their own cultural perspectives to establish a sense of community among breastfeeding women. …


Flesh In Line With The Mind : Gender In Caitlin Kiernan’S The Drowning Girl., Sarah Buckley May 2017

Flesh In Line With The Mind : Gender In Caitlin Kiernan’S The Drowning Girl., Sarah Buckley

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This paper analyzes how Caitlyn R. Kiernan in her novel The Drowning Girl characterizes gender identity, particularly in regards to women, both transgender and cisgender. The book's characterization of gender roles for cisgender men, cisgender women, and transgender women, while seeming on the surface to subvert sexist stereotypes, reproduces the pitfalls of feminist literary criticism popularized in the 1970s and 1980s. Notably, such themes include viewing women's madness as a method of transcending masculine rationality, a dichotomized essentialism of masculinity and femininity, and universalizing women's experience without regards to race, class, and nationality. Transgender autobiographical and literary archetypes employed in …


Breaking The Cycle Of Silence : The Significance Of Anya Seton's Historical Fiction., Lindsey Marie Okoroafo (Jesnek) May 2017

Breaking The Cycle Of Silence : The Significance Of Anya Seton's Historical Fiction., Lindsey Marie Okoroafo (Jesnek)

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the feminist significance of Anya Seton’s historical novels, My Theodosia (1941), Katherine (1954), and The Winthrop Woman (1958). The two main goals of this project are to 1.) identify and explain the reasons why Seton’s historical novels have not received the scholarly attention they are due, and 2.) to call attention to the ways in which My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman offer important feminist interventions to patriarchal social order. Ultimately, I argue that My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman deserve more scholarly attention because they are significant contributions to women’s …


Making Sex Work For The State : The Policing Of Sex Work In The United States., Madeline A Clabough May 2017

Making Sex Work For The State : The Policing Of Sex Work In The United States., Madeline A Clabough

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the ways that sex work is regulated within the United States, and analyze the ways that regulation is shaped by contemporary feminist discourse. To do so, it analyzes the ways in which sex workers have been and pathologized since the 19th century, and address the ways that these conceptualizations have been incorporated into the legal regulation of sex workers. Finally, this thesis will look to contemporary practices in the state regulation of sex workers, and argue that the relationship between neoliberalism, the carceral state, and what has come to be termed “carceral feminism” operate in conjunction to …


Analysis Of Gender And Gender-Related Implicit Leadership Themes In Hr Practitioner Literature : A Comparison Of The United States And Brazilian Hr Practitioner Publications., Flavia De Sousa E Castro Rossetti May 2017

Analysis Of Gender And Gender-Related Implicit Leadership Themes In Hr Practitioner Literature : A Comparison Of The United States And Brazilian Hr Practitioner Publications., Flavia De Sousa E Castro Rossetti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the many factors studied in relation to the women and leadership equality gap are gender stereotypes, implicit leadership theories, and the congruity of gender role expectations (Eagly, & Karau, 2002). Multiple studies in the scholarly literature support the finding that men, rather than women, are more likely to be seen as leaders (Bierma, 2016; Eagly, & Schmidt, 2001), and this finding appears to be robust across some cultures (Schein, 2001). While the scholarly research on women and leadership has been burgeoning, few research studies have investigated how human resource (HR) practitioner literature addresses themes related to women and leadership …


To Write A Life : Three Women In History., Justy Louise Engle Dec 2016

To Write A Life : Three Women In History., Justy Louise Engle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This creative and critical hybrid dissertation explores the spiritual connections between three women in distinctly different time periods: contemporary America, nineteenth century America and early fifteenth century France. The overall dissertation explores the autogenealogobiography, what the author defines as the self-writings of women composed within a specific time period in relation to the current moment and generations of ancestral women. The objective of the creative texts is to record the spiritual journeys of life for the women who will come after for the purpose of encouraging careful observation of history so that women will be able to note and internalize …


Promoting Diversity In The Universal : Rethinking Universal Design For Learning., Jill Sadowski May 2014

Promoting Diversity In The Universal : Rethinking Universal Design For Learning., Jill Sadowski

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

No abstract provided.


Women In Art Nouveau : Artist And Inspiration., Jo Anne Triplett Apr 1984

Women In Art Nouveau : Artist And Inspiration., Jo Anne Triplett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role of women in the development of the turn-of-the-century movement known as Art Nouveau was important, but little has been written about it. This thesis serves as an introduction to attempt to explore. their roles, primarily by identifying who they were and what they accomplished. Art History, until our own century, documented the women artists of the past. has not The women fully who excelled in this field of handicrafts and applied arts should be more appreciated as interest grows in all aspects of Art Nouveau.