Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 30 of 32
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Phoenix Ink: Psychodynamic Motivations For Tattoo Attainment By Survivors Of Trauma, December Renee Maxwell
Phoenix Ink: Psychodynamic Motivations For Tattoo Attainment By Survivors Of Trauma, December Renee Maxwell
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Tattoos adorn people from all over the world and date back as far as the Stone Age. Tattoos adorn people from all over the world and motivations for tattoo attainment have been studied recently. Still, there remains limited research on the potential therapeutic properties of tattoo attainment, particularly for survivors of sexual trauma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of the tattoo process for survivors of sexual trauma and their motivations for tattoo attainment. This qualitative exploratory study interviewed both survivors of sexual trauma (N=10) and tattoo artists (N=7) to gain a wider perspective on the …
Cultural Reimagining And Literary Voice: Southeastern Tribal Women Negotiate Cultural, Social, And Political Identity Through Literature, Linda Sue Shaffer
Cultural Reimagining And Literary Voice: Southeastern Tribal Women Negotiate Cultural, Social, And Political Identity Through Literature, Linda Sue Shaffer
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation examines literature written by women who identify with Native tribes that originally inhabited, and in some cases continue to inhabit, the southeastern area of what is now known as the United States. The analysis presented in each chapter applies tribally specific methods used for creating knowledge within the particular discourse community being represented through literature. The project also employs the perspectives of Native literary scholars to consider the ways in which the roles and lives of Native women have been influenced by Euro-American values and to analyze the ways in which these female authors engage literature as a …
"Good To Think With": Women And Exempla In Four Medieval And Renaissance English Texts, Jennifer Fish Pastoor
"Good To Think With": Women And Exempla In Four Medieval And Renaissance English Texts, Jennifer Fish Pastoor
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation examines four English texts—Beowulf; Ancrene Wisse; Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales’ Man of Law’s Tale and Second Nun’s Tale; and Richard Hyrde’s English translation, The Instruction of a Christen Woman, of Juan Luis Vives’ De Institutione Feminae Christianae—in terms of their use of exempla related to women. These texts all find women good “to think with,” to use, from The Body and Society, Peter Brown’s appropriation of Levi-Strauss’s famous wordplay. The ways in which these Old English, Middle English, and modern English texts portray women’s lives and bodies as a gateway into thought about the Christian life are also …
Verbing History: A Textualist Approach To Gendered Politics In U.S. History Curriculum, Ginney Patricia Norton
Verbing History: A Textualist Approach To Gendered Politics In U.S. History Curriculum, Ginney Patricia Norton
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Using three curricular interventions from World War II, I employ an alternative rhetorical history to understand how Social studies curriculum has become a space for the simultaneous deliberation of both national identity and gender politics. In working through the propaganda of Rosie the Riveter, the stories of the women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the experiences of gay men and women in the military during the war, I suggest that Social studies curriculum normalizes and reifies gendered, racial, and queer citizenship in relationship to white, masculine, and heteronormative citizenship. It also utilizes epideictic rhetoric to rhetorically and historically construct problematic …
Negotiating The Politics Of Representation In Iranian Women’S Cinema Before And After The Islamic Revolution, Alshaatha Sultan Al Sharji
Negotiating The Politics Of Representation In Iranian Women’S Cinema Before And After The Islamic Revolution, Alshaatha Sultan Al Sharji
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
From Mahvash, the Iranian entertainer who sang and danced coquettishly in numerous Iranian films that were produced before the Islamic revolution of 1979, to the skateboarding vampire girl who makes a feast out of abusive men in Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the representation of Iranian women on screen has changed drastically. This comparative study focuses on the politics of representation of Iranian women in the cinema before and after the Islamic revolution, with the aim of deconstructing the readily-available notions of women’s oppression in Iran. It analyzes the works of female Iranian directors Forough …
A Band Of Sisters: Female Detectives, Authority, And Fiction From 1864 To The 1930s, Amanda Renee Schafer
A Band Of Sisters: Female Detectives, Authority, And Fiction From 1864 To The 1930s, Amanda Renee Schafer
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Because mystery and detective fiction have been classified as “popular” genres, the complex ideas and ideologies that the authors work with and within reach a wide and varied audience through formulaic and familiar ways. The perceived conservatism of the genre allows authors to present and pursue distinctly anti-conservative views in disguise. For fictional detectives and, especially female detectives, disguise is an effective tool for solving their cases. Often, these detectives will disguise themselves as someone infinitely more conservative than they are in order to gain access to their quarry. Similarly, mystery and detective fiction wear a cloak of conservatism to …
“Deliberate Voluptuousness”: The Monstrous Women Of Dracula And Carmilla, Judith Bell
“Deliberate Voluptuousness”: The Monstrous Women Of Dracula And Carmilla, Judith Bell
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Vampire women play a culturally significant role in films and literature by revealing the extent to which deviation from Socially accepted behavior is tolerated. In this thesis, I compare the vampire women of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla to their depictions in recent adaptations. In Stoker’s Dracula, the vampire sisters are representative of the shortcomings of 19th century gender roles, especially in regard to women’s communities. In recent adaptations, the vampire sisters’ revealing clothing, promiscuity, and lack of characterization are still closely connected with villainy, and as in Stoker’s novel, the women’s violent deaths in the …
Dandy As Disease: Gender Hygiene And British Nineteenth-Century Literature, Sharon Louise Fox
Dandy As Disease: Gender Hygiene And British Nineteenth-Century Literature, Sharon Louise Fox
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
“Dandy as Disease: Gender Hygiene and British Nineteenth-century Literature” explores the link between the nineteenth-century dandy, ideas of hegemonic masculinity, and Walter Besant’s The Revolt of Man, a dystopian text in which women have usurped all traditionally-masculine roles, while men are the caretakers and manual workers. The first chapter deals with the historical role of the dandy in the nineteenth-century and how he might be viewed as the cause of the fall of Britain. The second chapter revolves around Besant’s novel, exploring how men are shown to be at fault for Britain’s fall in the eyes of the rest of …
Men Who Coach Women, Shannel Blackshear
Men Who Coach Women, Shannel Blackshear
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Although Title IX helped to shape athletics in educational settings, the legislation also transformed the world of coaching. Due to the growing demand for competitive female athletics at the collegiate level, the need for qualified individuals to coach women’s sports continues to grow. As colleges and universities continue to create women’s athletic opportunities, coaching collegiate female teams has become equally competitive to coaching male athletes in terms of pay, benefits, compensation packages, and national attention (Welch & Sigelman, 2007). Despite the fact that 57% (Pilon, 2015), of female collegiate athletic teams are coached by male coaches, there is a gap …
The Spectacle Of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans In Postbellum Fiction, Afrin Zeenat
The Spectacle Of Orphanhood: Reimagining Orphans In Postbellum Fiction, Afrin Zeenat
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Orphan iconography has always been deployed in American literature and culture, but nineteenth-century American literature, fiction in particular, abounds in orphans, both real and imaginary. The orphan’s amphibious nature is hailed and demonized as the epitome of individualism and unbridled freedom, and also as the location of society’s anxiety. This complicated and conflicted construction of orphans animates the Social and cultural realm in postbellum America, foregrounding issues of class, race, and gender.
Homelessness In Arkansas, Nichelle Sullivan
Homelessness In Arkansas, Nichelle Sullivan
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This research aims to reveal a realistic narrative about homelessness in Arkansas through the qualitative perspective provided by people directly affected by homelessness. We interviewed experts with both theoretical and applied experience in examining the causes and different pathways into homelessness, as well as some of the avenues that can assist someone to successfully navigate out of homelessness. This research documentary focuses particularly on the experiences of homeless families headed by single women and the challenges they face in resolving homelessness. Qualitative interviews were performed and a website was created that is targeted towards helping others to find the necessary …
Engineer As Writer And Woman: Gender, Identity, And Professional Discourse, Jennfer C. Mallette
Engineer As Writer And Woman: Gender, Identity, And Professional Discourse, Jennfer C. Mallette
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
As students, academics, and professionals, women entering engineering disciplines still encounter barriers that may impede their success. In this environment, what is the role of writing in the development of a professional identity, and how does it function as an avenue or a barrier to professional success? Using an ethnographically-informed case study approach, this dissertation focuses on the experiences of three women--a biological engineering student, an industrial engineering academic researcher, and a civil engineering professional--to examine how these women use writing to construct an engineering identity, take action within their discourse communities, and to demonstrate their technical expertise and ability. …
Stand Strong, Stand Proud: Alternative And Pariah Femininities In San Diego's Punk Rock Community, Steve Moog
Stand Strong, Stand Proud: Alternative And Pariah Femininities In San Diego's Punk Rock Community, Steve Moog
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Since its inception nearly 40 years ago, punk rock has often been understood as a Social space for rebellion and resistance to dominant cultural norms. As such, punk rock culture becomes fertile ground for explorations of subversive constructions of genders. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the San Diego punk rock community, this thesis unpacks the construction, embodiment and enactment of alternative and pariah forms of femininities and examines their impact on gender dynamics within the scene. Ultimately, this thesis argues that (1) the San Diego punk rock community is a space where alternative and pariah femininities can be embodied …
Intersectionality In Jane Eyre And Its Adaptations, Laurel Loh
Intersectionality In Jane Eyre And Its Adaptations, Laurel Loh
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
During the almost 170 years since Jane Eyre was published, there have been numerous adaptations in many different mediums and genres, such as plays, films, musicals, graphic novels, spin-off novels, and parodies. The novel has been read in many different critical traditions: liberal humanist, historicist, feminist, and postcolonial approaches dealing with topics such as the problem of female authorship and consciousness. In addition, it has been read in terms of an ideological struggle based on race, class, and gender; xenophobia and imperialism; female labor politics; and genre issues, to just name a few. As literary critics have explored numerous themes …
Gender, Relationship Type, And Perceptions Of Interpersonal Violence, Eric Allen
Gender, Relationship Type, And Perceptions Of Interpersonal Violence, Eric Allen
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Intimate partner violence continues to be a controversial issue for the legal and criminal justice system. Difference in how people interpret violence in the domestic context can have substantial consequences for victim and bystander reporting and responses. Yet few studies have explored the possible influence of gender-based normative expectations for understanding instances of violence between men and women. How do perceptions of violence vary between relationship type and sex of the perpetrator? I test whether reports of criminality, recommendations to contact police, and perceived level of injury vary across relationship intimacy (i.e., acquaintance, dating, spouses) and perpetrator sex. I analyzed …
Occupying The Pedestal: Gender Issues In Ellen Gilchrist, Karon Reese
Occupying The Pedestal: Gender Issues In Ellen Gilchrist, Karon Reese
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Ellen Gilchrist's works shows the struggles of women living in a postmodern South. This dissertation explores Gilchrist's representations of southern women as they transition from the old South to modernity. Gilchrist's work depicts women who attempt to break off the pedestal of white Southern womanhood, but never quite do, often simultaneously disrupting and confirming traditional notions of a "good Southern lady." Gilchrist shows how women occupy the pedestal as a form of refuge and also as a form of protest. These are women who, as they navigate the transition to a new South, are reluctant to surrender the privilege of …
Narrative Framing Of U.S. Military Females In Combat: Inclusion Versus Resistance, James Scott Herford
Narrative Framing Of U.S. Military Females In Combat: Inclusion Versus Resistance, James Scott Herford
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This study utilizes discursive data to examine how the strategic use of narratives inform policies that shape women's participation in military service overall and more specific, the current controversy over exclusion of women from participation in combat roles within the U.S. military. Specifically, I examine popular military newspapers, blogs and the Department of Defense 2012 Report regarding policies and regulations of female service members. In this study, I provide a sociological analysis of current military-cultural narratives and the institutional narrative discussing women's participation in combat roles in order to provide evidence of the current threat to the military form of …
Content Of Sexual Assault Prevention Programs: What Evidence Could Change College Women's Minds?, Abigail Lee Moser
Content Of Sexual Assault Prevention Programs: What Evidence Could Change College Women's Minds?, Abigail Lee Moser
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Sexual assault is a serious health issue for college women. Unfortunately, the results of previous research revealed that intervention programs designed for women have been largely ineffective at changing women's attitudes, knowledge, and victimization concerning sexual assault. The purpose of the present investigation was to identify forms of persuasive evidence that women report as having changed their attitudes, knowledge, and behavior concerning sexual assault. Focus groups were used to identify common themes college women use to explain their understandings of these topics. These focus groups discussed how close family members impacted their behaviors concerning sexual assault, how they gained their …
The Contradictory Nature Of Natural Mothering: A Discursive Analysis, Britni Lee Ayers
The Contradictory Nature Of Natural Mothering: A Discursive Analysis, Britni Lee Ayers
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
In our contemporary sociopolitical rhetoric breastfeeding is something that is natural and something women ought to do because breast is best. The problem with this contemporary discourse of breastfeeding and motherhood is that the dominant medical, political, technological, and patriarchal discourses surrounding breastfeeding have merged to create an highly unattainable definition of what it means to be a "good mother" (Blum 1993). Moreover, upon a close examination, the most pressing political and Social debates of today surrounding the welfare reform, women's employment, reproductive technologies, and abortion, among many others, construct distinctions between "good mothers" and "bad mothers." However, there has …
The Effects Of Body Modifications And Dress On Perceived Professionalism And Competency Of A Female Model, Ashley Donell
The Effects Of Body Modifications And Dress On Perceived Professionalism And Competency Of A Female Model, Ashley Donell
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Through the norms of a society, people must meet certain expectations in order to survive and provide for their family. For example, job expectations driven by human judgment on appearance creates a norm that society must follow. The question is how much appearance attributes such as dress and hair color effect others' interpretation of who a person may be? The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between specific appearance and body modifications (dress and hair color) of a young female professional and perceived competency level as determined by a convenience sample of students in selected senior level …
Performing Literacy: How Women Read The World In The Late Eighteenth-Century British Novel, Amy Hodges
Performing Literacy: How Women Read The World In The Late Eighteenth-Century British Novel, Amy Hodges
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation explores the intersection of sensibility, Social identity, and literacy practices among representations of women readers in four late eighteenth-century British novels. Through an analysis of the authors' use of identity constructs which shaped and were shaped by reading practices, this study documents the rise of Social identity formation as mutually constitutive with the history of reading. The first chapter reveals how Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote uses Arabella's follies as education for readers about the corresponding processes of reading their society and reading novels. The second chapter argues that Frances Burney's Evelina considers women's ability to read others …
A Survey Of Women In Sports Media, Holly Sullivan
A Survey Of Women In Sports Media, Holly Sullivan
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Since 1995 (Miller and Miller), women in sports media (WSM) have been citing the difficulties of balancing their careers and their personal lives, specifically the challenges of family life. Previous research has shown that most WSM are leaving their careers between six to ten years on the job and have cited reasons of work conflicting with their careers (Hardin, Shain and Shultz-Poniatowski, 2008). Work-family conflicts has also been cited a reason for lower job satisfaction (Reindary, 2007). This survey is the first survey to compare work-family conflict to variables of job satisfaction.
The Journey Narrative: The Trope Of Women's Mobility And Travel In Contemporary Arab Women's Literary Narratives, Banan Al-Daraiseh
The Journey Narrative: The Trope Of Women's Mobility And Travel In Contemporary Arab Women's Literary Narratives, Banan Al-Daraiseh
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
This study examines the trope of women's journey and the various kinds of movement and travel it includes employed and represented by three contemporary Arab women literary writers, Ghada Samman, Ahdaf Soueif, and Leila Aboulela in their literary narratives as well as travelogue in the case of Samman. The primary texts analyzed in this study are Samman's Beirut 75 and The Body Is a Traveling Suitcase, Soueif's In the Eye of the Sun, and Aboulela's The Translator and Minaret. These texts demonstrate how the journey trope becomes a fresh narrative strategy used by Arab women writers that …
The Self-Efficacy Beliefs Of Black Women Leaders In Fortune 500 Companies, Latonya R. Jackson
The Self-Efficacy Beliefs Of Black Women Leaders In Fortune 500 Companies, Latonya R. Jackson
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Black women are underrepresented in leadership positions within organizations. The extent to which self-efficacy influences the advancement potential of Black females is unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the self-efficacy beliefs of black women in leadership positions and to determine how Black women leaders' careers are influenced by their self-efficacy beliefs. Participants for the study were determined using convenient random sampling. The objectives of this study were to determine the profile and level of self-efficacy, and leadership practices of participants based on tenure (length of time in a leadership position), age comparison and work experience (total number …
The Androgynous Tomboy: Adolescent Liminality In The Contemporary Southern Bildungsroman, Brooke Alexandra Shippee
The Androgynous Tomboy: Adolescent Liminality In The Contemporary Southern Bildungsroman, Brooke Alexandra Shippee
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The Androgynous Tomboy: Adolescent Liminality in the Contemporary Southern Bildungsroman is an analysis of the adolescent, specifically, of the young tomboy characters central to three Bildungsroman texts set in the American South during the twentieth century: Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding (1946), Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country (1985) and Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina (1993). I seek to challenge the very notion of the conventional tomboy within the coming of age literary genre by defining these youths as androgynous, rather than as young individuals who assume a singular gender opposite of their biological sex. Throughout my work, …
Determining Multidimensional Gender: Development And Psychometrics Of A Measurement Instrument, Karyl Lounsbery
Determining Multidimensional Gender: Development And Psychometrics Of A Measurement Instrument, Karyl Lounsbery
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Gender identity is often thought of only as a binary construct, masculine and feminine, despite the fact that there are many people who do not see themselves as fitting this dichotomy (Rochman, 2006). Within the counseling field, it is likely that every counselor will eventually see someone who will be struggling with issues of gender identity (Ehrensaft, 2011). The introduction of the Arkansas Multidimensional Gender Scale (AMGS) will show there is a much broader scope of gender identity, more in line with the idea that all gender identities are normal and that there are as many gender identities as there …
Happily Ever After Take Two: Rewriting Femininity In Hybridization Fairy Tale Films, Megan Estelle Troutman
Happily Ever After Take Two: Rewriting Femininity In Hybridization Fairy Tale Films, Megan Estelle Troutman
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
The tradition of fairy tales has evolved drastically over the past five hundred years. At the beginning of the 20th century, fairy tale cartoons became widely popular as an independent medium, as well as introductions to larger films. In 1937, Walt Disney started the tradition of fairy tale cinema with the release of Snow White. Since that time, Disney has released and re-released eleven princess fairy tale films. Critics and parents alike ridicule Disney for its depictions of women as submissive and subservient. Recent films have used fairy tale tropes, without referring to a specific classic tale, in order to …
Happily Ever After? Redefining Womanhood And Marriage In Nineteenth-Century Novels, Laura Elizabeth Cox
Happily Ever After? Redefining Womanhood And Marriage In Nineteenth-Century Novels, Laura Elizabeth Cox
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, and Henry James challenged patriarchal conventions and assumptions by redefining womanhood and marriage in their novels, particularly by breaking from the traditional marriage ending. While Pride and Prejudice, North and South, and Jane Eyre end in marriage, these novels depict a freely chosen companionate marriage based on equality; Villette replaces the typical marriage ending with complete independence; and Washington Square and The Portrait of a Lady both portray the decisive rejection of the marriage ideal for a life of renunciation. This thesis analyzes the ways in which these novels challenge nineteenth-century society, as well …
Single Mothers In College: The Effect Of Selected Variables, Rickey Booker
Single Mothers In College: The Effect Of Selected Variables, Rickey Booker
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Single parent mothers who are currently in poverty may find it difficult to find routes out of poverty and/or even to enrolling in college. Little empirical research has been conducted on low-income single parent mothers who attempt to enroll, persist and graduate college. The current research has shown that single parents are at a high risk of dropping out of college because of many barriers including poverty related issues. This study examined women who had at least one child or dependent, were in poverty, and were first time beginners in college. The purpose for conducting this study was to identify …
Muslim Women And The West: Faith, Feminism, And The Quest For Gender Equality, Kelly Haller
Muslim Women And The West: Faith, Feminism, And The Quest For Gender Equality, Kelly Haller
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
For centuries the West has seen the Muslim woman as an entire group of people in need of saving. Lacking a thorough understanding of Islam and an incredibly diverse Middle Eastern society, Western powers endeavored to shape women of the Middle East into secular, modern examples of "liberated" women. Completely unacknowledged in this pursuit are the grass roots movements that emerged out of nationalist movements in the early twentieth century. An attempt to understand why the West is so incredibly fascinated by Muslim is undertaken in this scholarly pursuit. Additionally, a case study on the nation of Egypt shows not …