Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Paper: An Ecowomanist View On The Dakota Access Pipeline, Ariana Raya

Womanist Ethics

This paper examines the Dakota Access Pipeline using ecofeminist and ecowomanist philosophies, provides a brief historical background of African American and Native American communities, explains the dangers of the pipeline to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and offers constructive alternatives.

The Rise And Fall Of Gilmore Girls' Feminist Legacy, Mckenna Ahlgren

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the feminist legacy that the television series Gilmore Girls (2000-2007, 2016) built during its original airtime and how its later revival diminished that legacy. Gilmore Girls’ main characters are three generations of women within the Gilmore family, providing a unique opportunity to analyze their feminist identities and characterizations relative to different iterations of feminism. This paper examines how the youngest Gilmore, Rory, is influenced by her mother’s and grandmother’s embodiments of feminism. Their expressions of femininity and sexuality, their approaches to motherhood, and their behaviors in their romantic relationships throughout the series correlate with the predominate feminism …

Azimuth, Leslie Fox

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This is a book-length, creative nonfiction collection of essays with a critical introduction. These essays are illustrating the conflict of fitting within socially-formed identities. In theme, this collection explores class, gender, and sexuality of the self. Each section is introduced with a brief reflection which links the essays together.

Understanding The American Subaltern: An Exploration Of Complex Literary Characters Through Socio-Cultural Lenses, Sophie Gioffre

English Summer Fellows

This project involves the analysis of three novels — Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Ann Petry’s The Street, and Toni Morrison’s Sula — featuring main characters who are forced to navigate realistic socio-economic environments rooted in racist, sexist, and classist systems of oppression in the United States of America. Through the process of completing close-readings of the novels, conducting extensive secondary research on historical contexts, and examining other scholarly criticisms and interpretations of these novels, I develop new insights into the main characters’ plights. To transfer this conceptual understanding into a more personal and empathetic …

Clara Gardenia Otero, Palmira Parés Y El Feminismo Queer De Manuel Ramos Otero, Dinorah Cortes-Velez

Spanish Languages and Literatures Research and Publications

This essay examines the short stories “Romance de Clara Gardenia Otero” and “El cuento de la Mujer del Mar” to reveal the way in which Ramos Otero’s writing adopts the sign of the feminine as an empowering archetype. These stories make allies of the queer and the feminine in order to reject bourgeois feminism. This brand of feminism does not manage to escape the patriarchal dichotomy and puts the individualist project before a broader decolonizing goal. By posing these female characters of mythical stature as his alter egos, Ramos Otero departs from the frame of reference of subalternity ethnographies in …

Radical Joy Performed Into Action: A Study Of Feminist Performance Art, Kaylee Simonson

Honors College Theses

Although traditionally excluded from the art world as from all major institutions, women artists staked their claim by revolutionizing performance art as a medium in the 1960s and 70s. By integrating life and art, feminist artists developed the powerful ideology that “the personal is political,” especially in art. From this foundation of radical assertion, feminist artists explored, resisted, and deconstructed their struggles. Contemporary feminist artists not only have different battles to fight, they fight them in a different format: digital media. In this project, I seek to explore the ways performance artists before me have used the medium of performance …

Femiliar: An Artistic Exploration Of Feminism Through Comedy, Mesa Story Melton

Honors College Theses

This project seeks to examine feminism through the widely accessible means of comedic performance. I have written, created, and acted in a web series that I established for several reasons: namely, to diffuse information about the oppressions that female-identifying individuals face in their everyday life as well as in the larger scheme of existence, but also to attempt to create a community of intersectional communication and collaboration where women can go to express their grievances and inspirations as well as seek comfort for the issues that plague them by nature of their gender identification. The show, Femiliar, is a sketch …

Young Women In Chilean Politics: Political Participation Among Students At The University Of Viña Del Mar, Julia Ludovici

Senior Honors Projects

Chilean women face inequality in political participation. There is a large gap in gender representation in Chilean politics, despite the election of a woman to the presidency—twice. Feminist theory has long been at play in Chilean academia, and my research builds upon some of the basic propositions of feminist theory: the patriarchy and oppression of women, and the double standards faced by women in their private vs. public lives. Michelle Bachelet’s presidency, along with the recent “quota law,” both provide historical and present-day context to the issues faced by women and their political participation. Based on the data collected by …

Women On The Floor: A Study Of Feminism In Modern Dance History, Hannah Mccarthy

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Modern dance evolves everyday with new movement ideas, styles, and teachings. Not only can modern dance be new and innovative, but it can also be a mirror reflection of the current time period. It is an art form often used to make a social statement. It can become a discussion of the past, present, or future. Modern dance informs its audience through an intent chosen by the choreographer or dancers. The intent varies depending on time, space, emotion, and myriad other conditions. My studies will examine how the different periods of modern dance aligned with the waves of the feminist …

We’Ve Come A Long Way (Baby)! Or Have We? Evolving Intellectual Freedom Issues In The Us And Florida, L. Bryan Cooper, A.D. Beman-Cavallaro

Works of the FIU Libraries

This paper analyzes a shifting landscape of intellectual freedom (IF) in and outside Florida for children, adolescents, teens and adults. National ideals stand in tension with local and state developments, as new threats are visible in historical, legal, and technological context. Examples include doctrinal shifts, legislative bills, electronic surveillance and recent attempts to censor books, classroom texts, and reading lists.

Privacy rights for minors in Florida are increasingly unstable. New assertions of parental rights are part of a larger conservative animus. Proponents of IF can identify a lessening of ideals and standards that began after doctrinal fruition in the 1960s …

Behind Closed Doors: Unpacking College Students’ Complex Relationships With Pornography Consumption, Samantha K. Saucier

Honors College

This thesis is a quantitative and qualitative study of University of Maine students attitudes and consumption habits of pornography. It contains a literature review of anti-pornography feminism from the Second Wave, as well as an overview of sex-positive and sex-critical theories of pornography from more recent years. The goal of the thesis is to understand how sex-negative and/or sex-positive ideas have or have not permeated college student’s understanding of pornography. Over 800 students were surveyed about pornography consumption through the Psychology Department’s Fall prescreen. 4 students from the survey, who all happened to be women, were interviewed about their relationships …

Activism, Revolution And War: Mujeres Libres Addressing The Personal And The Political, Martha A. Ackelsberg

Government: Faculty Publications

Mujeres Libres, an organization of anarchist women established during the Spanish Civil War, was characterized by a dual focus on capacitación (empowerment) and captación (mobilization): (a) empowering women to enable them to recognize and act on their own potential and (b) mobilizing them into the organizations of the broader libertarian movement. An exploration of the activist biographies of two of its three founders (Lucía Sánchez Saornil and Mercedes Comaposada), as well as of two of its younger activists (Soledad Estorach and Sara Berenguer), makes clear how reflecting on personal experience within a larger political frame led to the creation of …

How To Be The Perfect Asian Wife!, Sophia Hill

Art and Art History Honors Projects

“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these 'advertisements' contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power.

Ecofeminism In The Speculative Fiction Of Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, And Margaret Atwood, Cara Williams

Honors Scholar Theses

The aim of this article is to explore the speculative fiction works of three prominent, female speculative fiction writers: Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood,and Octavia Butler through an ecofeminist lens. Ecofeminism, as first coined by Francois D'Eaubonne in 1974, is a philosophy that compares the oppression and abuse of women to that of the environment. This article notes how Le Guin, Atwood, and Butler portray women and the environment in post-apocalyptic science fiction. Specifically, this article looks at how these authors explore food acquisition and consumption in their various worlds. This article asks the question, how does our relationship …

Sex Robots: Negative Impact Towards Society, Jeraldine Hernandez

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

This paper attempts to discuss how sex robots will negatively impact society by questioning how feminism, pedophilia, and human-robot interactions are involved.

Anti-Feminism In Modernist Literature, Maddie Holbrook

Modernist Short Story Project

After the stifling conventions of the Victorian era, the modernist movement cast a new and surprising light on issues that had previously been ignored or approached only a single way. The rigidity of moral standards was fading, and many authors sought to start conversations about topics that had previously been taboo. Modernism is often credited with progressive attitudes toward issues such as feminism, independence, and homosexuality, but there may not have been as radical a change as there appears. Some modernist works carried the appearance of progressive thinking, but a closer inspection reveals attitudes more similar to their Victorian ancestors. …

What's The Point? : All-Women Schools In Literature And Film, Jerica Shuck

English: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

A Reason To Daydream, Corinne Schipull

Honors Theses

Sexism in American culture comes as no surprise. In 2017, the film industry saw an increasing number of powerful men within its ranks exposed and exiled for allegations of sexually predatory behavior. Many see this purging as a sign of changing times, but this view is optimistic: the tides of change ebb in and out, and this problem far exceeds the movie industry. Well before the onslaught of articles on the likes of Harvey Weinstein, my classmates and I resolved to craft our senior thesis film with a crew made up entirely of women: we simply saw the pool of …

Is The Face Of Contemporary Feminism Too Pink And Too White?, Wendy Kozol

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Still Slamming Door: Relevance Of A Doll’S House In The 21st Century, Hope Morris

Student Scholarship – English

The infamous slamming door at the end of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House has been controversial from its beginning, leaving audiences with uncertainties about the meaning of family, morality, and personal responsibility. Written in 1879 when the “women’s issue” was still a relatively new subject, the play was met with criticism for its radical female protagonist and her decision to abandon her marriage. In a society where a woman’s primary role was one of domesticity and subservience to her husband, the ending of A Doll’s House was disquieting to audiences. However, Ibsen’s masterpiece remains just as controversial and important today. …

2017 Minutes Of The Student Women's Association, The Feminist Collective

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Minutes from the Student Women's Association (SWA) meetings dating from January 23, 2017 to January 29, 2018. In August 2017, the SWA membership voted to change the club name to the Feminist Collective.

“Aux Mères Heureuses”: Zola’S Compassion For Working Mothers, Elizabeth Emery

Department of World Languages and Cultures Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Zola's letter of support for La Société maternelle parisienne, published in a three-column letter to Le Figaro 1891, serves a point for reassessing his fictional depictions of women, particularly the working mothers of Les Rougon-Macquart, Les Trois Villes, and Les Quatre Evangiles.

All Is Fair In Love And War: An Exploration Of The History, Tactics, And Current Status Of The Guerrilla Girls, Elise Blankenship

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Founded as a response to a lack of female artists in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guerrilla Girls have been an active voice in the art world for over thirty years. The Guerrilla Girls have a history that is filled with both internal and external power struggles and issues of having one’s voice heard on a variety of platforms. When successful in having their voices heard, the Guerrilla Girls use several tactics. The Gorilla masks, the overtly feminine clothing, and the use of the names of dead female artists and juxtaposed with the use of verified …

Ways Of Doing: Feminist Educational Development, Emily O. Gravett, Lindsay Bernhagen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In response to the recent special call in To Improve the Academy, we offer the following collaborative essay that describes how feminism is our characterizing perspective on educational development. The essay details various, interrelated facets of feminism that inform our work in the field: gender, intersectionality, power, privilege, standpoint theory, and collaboration. Not only do these facets characterize our own feminist approach to educational development—from consultations to organizational development to publications—but, we argue, they also align well with the values and approaches of the field as a whole.

The Power Of Queer Representation In The Media, Jack Harris

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

This paper examines the lack of representation of the queer community in today's film and television productions. Recent work such as The CW's The 100 and Nickelodeon's The Legend of Korra are used to create an intersectional analysis of the tropes associated with queer characters and the effect that queer representation has on viewers. The intersectionality of queer rights and feminism is mapped out in an effort to understand the root of the issue and, in that discovery, find solutions for the future.