Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Revenge Of The Nerds: Tech Masculinity And Digital Hegemony, Benjamin M. Latini

Doctoral Dissertations

Revenge of the Nerds provides a cultural history of the evolution of white nerd masculinities in American culture through interpretations of a wide variety of texts and representations using the methods of literary studies and American studies. The dissertation is organized around four overlapping stages of nerd masculinity based on changes in technology and their effects on culture, as well as white male nerds’ efforts to remain culturally relevant and gain the benefits of being close to hegemonic masculinity. The four nerd types are the computer nerd, the gamer, the gatekeeper nerd, and the maladaptive nerd which reflect the following …

New Commandments, Jacob Sussman

Masters Theses

I reach into the earth, pull out mud-encrusted objects, and recombine them to define new meanings. With every object transposed, the past breaks down; new potentials form. “New Commandments” recombines historical symbolism through an intuitive building, destroying, and merging to reimagine or re-establish meaning.

The work critiques rites of passage, masculinity, and stereotypes by deconstructing how histories, ideologies, and preconceptions form.

As a queer person raised in-between Judaism and Christianity, social preconceptions and religious expectations festered my formation. Our choice is taken away at this moment of conception. To take back autonomy, I reimagine historical, and religious symbolism and transmute …

Hooking-Up And Technology: The Power In Sex On College Campuses, Ava Jackson

Sexual Ethics

Hook-up culture, while evident throughout our society, plays a heavy role in how we view gender and sexuality on college campuses. In this paper, sexuality is examined through a technological lens, providing insight into the argument that sexuality and eroticism are power.

Data Analysis And Visualization To Dismantle Gender Discrimination In The Field Of Technology, Quinn Bolewicki

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States, a significant population is facing an uphill battle trying to thrive in an industry that has seen exponential growth in recent years. Women, who account for approximately 50.8% of the U.S. population are statistically underpaid and underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Despite women-led technology teams establishing a 21% greater return on investment than teams who don’t, and young women largely outperforming men in math according to a 2015 study, there are only three fortune 500 companies led by women, and they comprise only 10% of internet entrepreneurs. Research generates hundreds of articles, infographics, …

Gendered Processes And Women’S Stunted Career Growth: An Exploratory Study Of Female Software Engineers, Sucharita Maji, Shikha Dixit

The Qualitative Report

In the present qualitative study, we explored to what extent gender has been an integral part of workplace experience and career growth among female software engineers in Indian Information and Technology sector. Following a purposive sampling strategy, data were drawn from twenty-one female software engineers. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted. A hybrid of theoretical and inductive thematic analysis was done to answer the research questions. For analyzing the data through theoretical thematic analysis, Acker's (1990) “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations” was used as the theoretical lens. The result revealed that four features of gendered processes in the …

Factors Of Women-Founded High-Growth Technology Startup, Renee Gillard

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify and describe critical startup factors of high-growth technology startups as identified by women founders in Seattle, Washington.

Methodology: This mixed-method study identified and described 15 women founders of high-growth technology startups in Seattle. Participants were chosen based on specific criteria and recommendations of a sponsor and expert panel. Interviews were conducted with the participants and they completed an online survey.

Findings: Ten major findings emerged from the data. Founders fostered a strong network of professional and personal relationships to help develop and solidify their identity; they also …

Fraud Detection Protocol For Web-Based Research Among Men Who Have Sex With Men: Development And Descriptive Evaluation, April M. Ballard, Trey Cardwell, April M. Young

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: Internet is becoming an increasingly common tool for survey research, particularly among “hidden” or vulnerable populations, such as men who have sex with men (MSM). Web-based research has many advantages for participants and researchers, but fraud can present a significant threat to data integrity.

Objective: The purpose of this analysis was to evaluate fraud detection strategies in a Web-based survey of young MSM and describe new protocols to improve fraud detection in Web-based survey research.

Methods: This study involved a cross-sectional Web-based survey that examined individual- and network-level risk factors for HIV transmission and substance use among young MSM …

Swiping Your Life Away Failing To Find Love Through Dating Apps, Jesus A Ramirez Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This essay focuses on examining the dating experience and interactions in the age of digital technology, specifically where social disempowered users of dating applications tend to reinforce systemic social oppression. This research draws from literature about communication ethics, critical theory studies, digital media studies and includes personal observations and experiences. Even though some apps have allowed minorities; the LGBTQ community, people of color (POC) and other groups, to interact in a platform where they share common interests, there are still some dating apps which are more mainstream. Dating within the same platform where ethical communication and intent has been swayed …

Diasporadical: In Ryan Coogler's 'Black Panther,' Family Secrets, Cultural Alienation And Black Love, Terri P. Bowles

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This is a review of the film Black Panther (2018) by Ryan Coogler, which traces the arc of the comic book hero as he faces an unanticipated challenge to his power by a man who threatens not just his throne but also the future of his nation. The review explores the ways in which the legacy of slavery and colonialism inform the distinct political and philosophical ideologies of the two main characters, and how inequality drives political thought.

The Park Is Open: An Ecofeminist Critique Of Universal's Jurassic World, Nichole R. Mchugh

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

This paper explores an interpretation of Universal Pictures,’ Jurassic World (2015), to identify naturalized representations of human relationships and human relationships to the environment. Using the concepts of scholar, Noel Sturgeon, the ideological significance of these representations comes down to what she defines as “Politics of The Natural”. Through this avenue, this analysis examines Jurassic World as a text and reflection of normalized environmental worldviews, attitudes and values; as well as how these determine where humans place in this “naturalized” hierarchy. This essay will discuss environmental themes in the film, first, through Jurassic World as a symbol for the western …

Wishing For The Watch Face In Jonathan Swift’S “The Progress Of Beauty”, Jantina Ellens

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

This article illuminates the technological underpinnings of Jonathan Swift’s satire, “The Progress of Beauty” (1719), by exploring how eighteenth-century poetics of beauty and scientific progress pit human against automaton. This article ranges from the ego of masculine technological display to women’s self-identification with the automaton to suggest that Swift’s speaker blazons the aging prostitute’s body with the hope that it might resurrect a lost ideal, the beautiful watch face. Instead, readers are confronted with the vision of Celia who, with her chipped paint, greasy joints, and faulty mechanisms, reminds them that humanity continues to break through its enamel. When readers …

Dolls Who Speak: Sex Robots, Cyborgs And The Image Of Woman, Victoria E. Pihl Sorensen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the emerging phenomenon of sex robots from a feminist materialist perspective. I explore the current scholarly and popular debates on sex robots, and suggest a reading of sex robots in their machinic, literary and cinematic expressions to move beyond the moral-ethical impasse that seems to dominate sex robot discussions. Employing Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Myth” on a methodological and theoretical level, I argue for an interdisciplinary approach to studying sex robots, which proceeds carefully so as to avoid contributing to sex panic, and which thinks critically about what it might mean to assess sex robots from a feminist …

‘Machine Milking Is More Manly Than Hand Milking’: Multispecies Agencies And Gendered Practices In Finnish Cattle Tending From The 1950s To The 1970s, Taija Kaarlenkaski

Animal Studies Journal

During the last hundred years, mechanization has significantly changed the working circumstances of both humans and animals in cattle husbandry. In Finland, cattle tending was regarded as women’s work up until the mid-20th century. According to a common view, the proliferation of milking machines, starting from the 1950s, caused men to start working in the cowsheds. In this paper, I will examine how the agencies of cattle tenders, cows, and milking machines were constructed during the mechanization process from the 1950s to the 1970s. Special attention will be paid to gendered representations, and changes in the gendered division of work. …

The Vibe, Sarah P. Douglass

Capstones

The Vibe is a long-form narrative about where tech is taking the female orgasm. The piece concludes that physiological research is a required next step when creating the climax of the future.

http://sarahpdouglass.com

Stem, Video Game Play, & Gender = Personalization, Wendi M. Kappers

Wendi M. Kappers, PhD

It is imperative when utilizing educational video games in K-12 classrooms that student preferences regarding game play, purpose, and design be considered to maximize game play efficiency for learning. As Web 2.0 content infiltrates our educational medium, student customization is key. This manuscript intends to share customization requests gleaned during an 18-week experimental study examining educational video game effects upon 7th graders enrolled in Mathematics and Mathematics 2 courses.

What's In A Name? New Vision For Abo, Laura Runge

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640-1830

Introduction to the new vision statements for the journal.

Beauty And The Internet: Old Wine In A New Bottle, Piyali Sur

Journal of International Women's Studies

In the consumer culture of late modernity, young women are obsessed with their physical appearance and attempt to conform to socially constructed beauty standards. Adolescent girls are surrounded by images of beauty through advertising, television, films, magazines and the recent beauty blogs that have burst forth on the worldwide web. This paper is on the use of beauty blogs by adolescent girls of the age group 15 to 19 years living in Kolkata, whereby depicting that there is no escape from feminine embodiment even in the digital world. The researcher has compiled the beauty/fashion blogs that adolescent girls regularly visit …

Stem, Video Game Play, & Gender = Personalization, Wendi M. Kappers

Publications

It is imperative when utilizing educational video games in K-12 classrooms that student preferences regarding game play, purpose, and design be considered to maximize game play efficiency for learning. As Web 2.0 content infiltrates our educational medium, student customization is key. This manuscript intends to share customization requests gleaned during an 18-week experimental study examining educational video game effects upon 7th graders enrolled in Mathematics and Mathematics 2 courses.

Stem, Video Game Play, & Gender = Personalization, Wendi M. Kappers

Publications

It is imperative when utilizing educational video games in K-12 classrooms that student preferences regarding game play, purpose, and design be considered to maximize game play efficiency for learning. As Web 2.0 content infiltrates our educational medium, student customization is key. This manuscript intends to share customization requests gleaned during an 18-week experimental study examining educational video game effects upon 7th graders enrolled in Mathematics and Mathematics 2 courses.

How Mobile Learning Initiatives Can Empower Women, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The Sustainable Development Goal 5 provides a call to action to promote gender equality and to empower women. This article responds to that call by providing insight into how mobile learning initiatives have been used to support that aim. A critical analysis is conducted of studies in the past decade to review what strategies have been effective in empowering women. The analysis revealed that initiatives were targeted towards three areas: Education, health, and financial empowerment.

Findings show that in certain topics women should play an active role to further the empowerment process. This article also aligns with Objective 4 of …

A Qualitative Exploration Of The Workplace Culture Of Women In Information Technology Careers, Andrea Hemphill-Merrills

Dissertations

The information technology (IT) industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. According to the U.S, Department of Labor and Statistics (2015), employment opportunities are it is projected to grow by 12 percent from 2014 to 2024. While the number of employed women have increased, this has not been the case in the IT industry where the number of women has been in consistent decline since 1991. In order for the U.S. to be able to fill the demand for IT professionals, it must have access to a talent pool that includes women. There are many …

Through Google-Colored Glass(Es): Design, Emotion, Class, And Wearables As Commodity And Control, Safiya Umoja Noble, Sarah T. Roberts

Media Studies Publications

This chapter discusses the implications of wearable technologies like Google Glass that function as a tool for occupying, commodifying, and profiting from the bio- logical, psychological, and emotional data of its wearers and those who fall within its gaze. We argue that Google Glass privileges an imaginary of unbridled exploration and intrusion into the physical and emotional space of others. Glass’s recognizable esthetic and outward-facing camera has elicited intense emotional response, partic- ularly when “exploration” has taken place in areas of San Francisco occupied by residents who were finding themselves priced out or evicted from their homes to make way …

[Review Of The Book Mismatched Women: The Siren's Song Through The Machine], Najmeh Moradiyan-Rizi

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

For Keeps-Sake: Women's Experiences With Elective Prenatal Ultrasound Imaging In Canada, Jennifer Chisholm

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores women’s experiences with the practice of elective prenatal ultrasound imaging in Canada. Ultrasound technology was first introduced into obstetric practice in the late 1950s and has, since then, become a routine part of antenatal healthcare. More recently, ultrasound technology has expanded into private industry, with many businesses now offering keepsake or entertainment ultrasound to pregnant women and their families. I begin by offering a brief historical account of the development and diffusion of obstetric ultrasound, and situating the elective ultrasound industry within current debates about non-medical applications of ultrasound technology. Through in-depth interviews with women had who …

Watch Me Disappear: Gendered Bodies, Pro-Anorexia, And Self-Injury In Virtual Communities, Leandra Preston-Sidler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the relationship between gendered identities, virtual communities, and material bodies, with an emphasis on eating disorders and self-injury practices. The use of the internet to represent and foster particular categories of material bodies, such as the anorexic, the fitness buff, and the self-injurer, has gained substantial visibility due in part to the proliferation of visual imagery presented through social networks. I analyze written and visual texts within specific social networks to assess their function and potential impact on individuals and larger communities. Drawing from Donna Haraway's cyborg theory, N. Kathryn Hayles' posthuman, Judith Butler's performativity, feminist poststructural …

Queer Provisionality: Mapping The Generative Failures Of The Transborder Immigrant Tool, Alison R. Reed

English Faculty Publications

Alison Reed investigates the border- and boundary-crossing performance of Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0’sTransBorder Immigrant Tool (TBT), an incomplete cell phone program that offers GPS, guidance, and poetry to those attempting to cross into the United States across the Mexico/US border. Reed suggests a provocation-based performance of “queer provisionality,” revealing the aesthetics of oppressive power structures by juxtaposing them to social utopias. Interrogating the national neoliberal project of both US liberalism and US conservatism, Reed’s essay is also a transcription of the performances launched around TBT, the social and political machinery set into motion by Electronic Disturbance Theater’s failed utopian project.

Explaining Participation : An Explanatory History Of Select Gender Patterns In Undergraduate Stem, Michael Pasquale Mastroianni

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This explanatory study examines three focal periods in undergraduate STEM as related to the gender gap. Social, economic, and more general historical data are used to develop a clear and powerful explanation of baccalaureate trends in biology and engineering. Specifically, historical accounts are offered for 1) a ten-year period in undergraduate biology in which the number of baccalaureates awarded to men decreased 44 percent, while the number of baccalaureates awarded to women decreased one percent; 2) the start of a twenty-year period in which the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the biological sciences increased 150 percent—from 36,068 degrees in …

Towards Digital Art In Information Society, Montse Arbelo, Joseba Franco

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Towards Digital Art in Information Society" Montse Arbelo and Joseba Franco propose the development of the platform of a Network of Experimental Centers be formed by small groups of people who are qualified and who seek optimal operational effectiveness and who dedicate their resources to the production of digital content and we offer artechmedia <http://www.artechmedia.org> as a base point of departure. Such an international network in a collaborative structure based on national networks would make possible to coordinate existing resources to develop social networks, generate and promote content, engage in forums of discussion and creativity workshops, and …

The Marriage Market: The Mail-Order Bride Industry In The United States!, Penelope Burner

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The international bride market has generated more than 2 billion dollars in 2010 in the United States alone. The concept of a “mail-order bride” is one that dates back to the founding of the United States. Many people believe this practice to be antiquated, but with the addition of technology, this industry has become very prevalent in modern society. I will examine the effects the mail order bride industry has had on views regarding women in the United States, Asia and Europe and show how this industry still has relevance today. I will track the way this industry has shaped …

Blogging Through Motherhood: Free Labor, Femininity, And The (Re)Production Of Maternity, Kara Mary Van Cleaf

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drawing from a thematic analysis of 47 North American mommy blogs over a 2-year period, I situate the genre in critical discussions of feminism, media, and labor, exploring both the technological and cultural shifts that turn mothers into cultural producers and that turn the experience of motherhood into a commodity. I situate the content of such blogs, or what gets said therein, within theories of media, gender, and labor. Examining the blogs within and against such academic discussions allows me to develop an intersectional analysis of feminism, media, and labor studies.