History Commons^™

Dead Broets Society: Masculinity In Walt Whitman’S War Verse, Anika N. Jensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

There are two images of masculinity in Walt Whitman’s Drum-Taps, his collection of wartime poetry: one, the strong, hardened soldier, the image of manliness, and the other the boyish, rosy-cheeked recruit. Whitman’s sexuality, while not the Victorian social norm, was no secret, and he wrote openly of the hospitalized soldiers during his time as a Union nurse with admiration, affection, and love. Some critics, such as Thomas Wentworth Higginson, castigated Whitman’s queer themes to be overwhelming, distractingly sensual, and "unmanly," while others, like William Sloane Kennedy, dissented, arguing instead that the overt sexuality present in Whitman’s work was precisely …

This Female Fights Back: Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan, And Ambivalence Towards Feminism In Ms. Marvel Comics, Noelle Donnelly

Gender & Queer Studies Research Papers

This thesis examines the ambivalent stance taken by 1970s Ms. Marvel comics towards feminism, as well as the active push back against ambivalence taken by the 2014 run with the same title.

Umaine Women In Academia Makes Presence On Campus With Upcoming Presentation, Josh Fabel

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

This Monday, Dec. 7, the group University of Maine Women in Academia will be hosting a presentation highlighting “Gender and Intersectionality in Higher Education.”

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project Annual Report, 2015, Michael S. Nassaney

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

This year the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project (hereafter the “Project”) established new standards in research, teaching, and public outreach in the study of the fur trade and colonialism in southwest Michigan. The Project continues to collaborate in the generation and dissemination of knowledge under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Advisory Committee (FSJAAC), Western Michigan University (WMU) faculty and students, interested stakeholders, supporters, members, and community volunteers. Highlights of 2015 include:

• Fort St. Joseph was featured in the exhibit “Evidence Found” at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum in 2015, enjoyed by some 60,000 visitors.
• The Register of Professional …

Lg Ms 040 Harbor Masters Archives Finding Aid, Natalie Hill

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Harbor Masters of Portland, Maine, Inc. is a private nonprofit organization whose members share an interest in the leather/levi lifestyle. The organization was originally incorporated in Maine in 1984 to serve as a social club for like-minded gay males. However, members of any sex are allowed to join Harbor Masters. The club was founded with the goals of promoting fellowship among and tolerance for individuals interested in the leather lifestyle and continues to work toward those goals.

Over time, the Harbor Masters took on a more active role in New England’s LGBT community. The organization has regularly participated in charitable …

Suffering Sisters, Silent Majorities, And Societal Oppression: Comparing The Anti-War Themes And Strategies Of Kurt Vonnegut’S Slaughterhouse-Five And Katherine Anne Porter’S “Pale Horse, Pale Rider”, Melissa N. Miller

Senior Honors Theses

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Katherine Anne Porter’s “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” are quite dissimilar in style, but these two works convey overall anti-war themes. The works were written in different eras, portray different wars, and are strongly influenced by the lives of the authors themselves; however, these unique factors work together in both works to convey similar messages regarding war’s oppressive nature and corruption of mankind. Vonnegut and Porter employ various methods to communicate these messages, some unique to the respective works and some shared by the two. The characters of Montana Wildhack and Miranda Gay—two oppressed female characters imprisoned …

Ready, Aim, Feminism: When Women Went Off To War, Anika N. Jensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

I like to imagine that if Sarah Emma Edmonds were my contemporary she would often sport a t-shirt saying, "This is what a feminist looks like."

Edmonds was a patriot, a feminist, and, along with an estimated 400 other women, a soldier in the American Civil War. Fed up with her father’s abuse and appalled at the prospect of an arranged marriage Edmonds left her New Brunswick home at the age of fifteen and soon adopted a male identity to become a successful worker. When the war erupted, she was compelled by a sense of patriotism and adventure to join …

A Woman In Soldier’S Dress: Then And Now, Elizabeth A. Smith

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

This post is the second in a three-part series on women soldiers in the Civil War and during modern reenactments. Also check out the introduction of this series.

I was thirteen years old when I joined the 5^th Kentucky Orphan Brigade, a Confederate reenactment group based out of south-central Kentucky. At fourteen, I “saw the elephant”—a Civil War term for seeing battle—for the first time as a soldier. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done, but seven years later I credit that decision to go through with it as bringing me to where I am now, …

A Woman In Soldier’S Dress: Taking The Field, Elizabeth A. Smith

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

The year was 1989. The place, a Civil War reenactment at Antietam National Battlefield. Lauren Cook (then Burgess) had been participating in reenactments for two years. Her portrayal of a fifer required her to wear a soldier’s uniform rather than in a civilian woman’s dress. She did her best to portray a soldier, disguising her sex so she could pass the “fifteen yard” rule, which meant that at fifteen yards she could not be identified as a woman. The call of nature proved to be her undoing, however, when an NPS official “caught” her coming out of the women’s restroom. …

Presentation Notes, Grady Johnson

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Presentation notes about Edna Saffy by Grady Johnson delivered at the UNF Library Dean's Council Gratitude Reception, November 2015.

Marriage (In)Equality And The Historical Legacies Of Feminism, Serena Mayeri

All Faculty Scholarship

In this essay, I measure the majority’s opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges against two legacies of second-wave feminist legal advocacy: the largely successful campaign to make civil marriage formally gender-neutral; and the lesser-known struggle against laws and practices that penalized women who lived their lives outside of marriage. Obergefell obliquely acknowledges marriage equality’s debt to the first legacy without explicitly adopting sex equality arguments against same-sex marriage bans. The legacy of feminist campaigns for nonmarital equality, by contrast, is absent from Obergefell’s reasoning and belied by rhetoric that both glorifies marriage and implicitly disparages nonmarriage. Even so, the history …

In Search Of Safety, Negotiating Everyday Forms Of Risk: Sex Work, Criminalization, And Hiv/Aids In The Slums Of Kampala, Serena Cruz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers an in-depth descriptive account of how women manage daily risks associated with sex work, criminalization, and HIV/AIDS. Primary data collection took place within two slums in Kampala, Uganda over the course of fourteen months. The emphasis was on ethnographic methodologies involving participant observation and informal and unstructured interviewing. Insights then informed document analysis of international and national policies concerning HIV prevention and treatment strategies in the context of Uganda. The dissertation finds social networks and social capital provide the basis for community formation in the sex trade. It holds that these interpersonal processes are necessary components for …

Out Of Silence: Abortion Stories From The 1 In 3 Campaign, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A flyer promoting the performance of Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign held on the University of Maine campus November 5 and 6, 2015. The event was sponsored by the Student Women's Association and Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center.

Governor's Remarks Evoke Concerns Of Sexism, Brooke Bailey

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Governor Paul LePage has been known as a politician who ‘tells it how it is.’ He’s based his campaigns on throwing political correctness out of the window and catering to the voters who agree that our country has gone too soft. But being less politically correct does not give you the right to be sexist. At a town hall meeting on Wednesday, LePage was asked a question about a citizen initiative to increase clean elections by limiting public financing in the state of Maine. LePage’s response was, "That's like giving my wife my checkbook. I’m telling you, it’s giving your …

Finally Speaking Up: Sexual Assault In The Civil War Era, Anika N. Jensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

Trigger warning: This article contains detail concerning rape and sexual assault.

On March 12, 1864, in the midst of a bloody war which had long overflowed its thimble, Margaret Brooks was returning from her home near Memphis, Tennessee when her wagon broke down in Nonconnah Creek. Not long after her driver left to find help, three rambunctious New Jersey cavalrymen, all white, approached Brooks, demanding her money. She was then raped multiple times at gunpoint [excerpt].

Bayard Vs. Drusilla: The Burden Of War And Legacy, Kate Shillingford

Student Writing

No abstract provided.

Breaking Away From Reverence And Rape: The Afi Directing Workshop For Women, Feminism, And The Politics Of The Accidental Archive, Philis M. Barragán Goetz

History Faculty Publications

In 1974, the American Film Institute opened the Directing Workshop for Women (DWW). Trying to normalize the idea of a woman director, the program admitted nineteen women, providing each one with the materials to direct two films. Focusing on the DWW's first cycle, this article argues that the DWW's history is a vehicle for understanding the complex ways in which moderate and radical feminists interpreted the role of the women's rights movement in the commercial film industry by examining the controversy and media attention that surrounded it, as well as the ways in which race, class, and fame operated to …

Goddesses Versus Gynecologists: An Analysis Of The History Of Women’S Healthcare, Marion A. Mckenzie

Student Publications

Starting from the downfall of Goddess cultures in Europe, women's health care has been negatively impacted for generations. The rise of the white, male Indo-European "dominator model" along with the witch craze, caused the end of widespread wise women traditions and pharmacopeia methods. After women's traditional voice was silenced, medical colleges were established to pronounce new, "professional" knowledge. Only those who attended these universities were allowed to legally practice medicine; however, during this time, medical research and treatments for women primarily included mutilation and painful, nonsensical regimens. The horrifying state of women's healthcare has since improved, but was originally a …

Muslim Head Coverings, Raven C. Waters

Student Publications

I researched female head coverings in the Muslim culture, to see how the veils affected society and society's response to the covering.

Dawnbreaker Vol 62 No 1 (Fall 2015), Dawnbreaker Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Gender And The History Of Philosophy: An Analysis Of Essentialism And Gender Disempowerment, Forrest T. Deacon

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In this project, I examine the philosophical theories of truth, gender, and power, and the parallels between each theory. I argue that both Friedrich Nietzsche and William James advanced theories that deconstructed the idea that human beings, or “man” and “woman,” were bound by an essential nature or innate characteristics that determined their social role. Though this critique was robust, I argue that it enforces gender disempowerment on a number of platforms since the theories did not analyze gender, but rather truth and value. Simone de Beauvoir, I argue, expanded Nietzsche’s and James’ thought, but included a critical analysis of …

Go Nation: Chinese Masculinities And The Game Of Weiqi In China (Book Review), Wenqing Kang

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Marriage And Gender: A History Through Letters, Victoria Kern

Senior Honors Projects

Research on the evolution of marriage can be found quite easily, but the opportunity to see into the lives of married couples from the past is rare. Through the analysis of letters between my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, I provide a glimpse of what being married has meant throughout the 20^th Century for heterosexual couples. Societal ideas about what makes a marriage ideal have changed over time, but they have always been closely linked with gender expectations (Berk, 2013), so a feminist approach to the analysis of the evolution of marriage is used with my family’s letters as a …

Feminism And Interior Design In The 1960s, Manli Zarandian

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Feminism and Interior Design in the 1960s is a research endeavor that attempts to contribute to the professionalization and better recognition of the interior design discipline through addressing gender issues, and specifically analyzes the relationship between interior design and feminism in the 1960s as represented through contemporary advertising imagery. Here, professionalization refers to the process in which decoration as a domestic activity transforms to interior decoration, and later design, as a properly recognized profession. Despite the attempts of many historians of interior design, as well as there being a great deal of existing literature on the issue of professionalization, it …

Wall Street Women: 1950s To The Present, Nicholas Calabro

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

This project is designed to show the connection between the women of Wall Street and the Second and Third Waves of Feminism. In particular, it analyzes what principles of Second and Third Wave Feminism can be applied to the women of Wall Street. The project does this with qualitative information about feminism as well as the women’s experience on Wall Street and quantitative data about performance between men and women. This project is being done for the female accounting/finance students at Bryant University, so they can apply this information in the real world. In conclusion, both the Second and Third …

Constructing Helen Frankenthaler: Redefining A 'Woman' Artist Since 1960, Alexandra P. Alberda

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

This thesis addresses how academics, curators, and art writers in the popular press reviewed Helen Frankenthaler during her major retrospectives of 1960 (The Jewish Museum), 1969 (The Whitney Museum of American Art), and 1989 (The Museum of Modern Art). Included is an examination of how she has been written about after her death in 2012, with analysis of the changes in the language used to critique the artist and her work as influenced by the advent of feminist theory, social history, and gender theory. I examine recent exhibitions on Frankenthaler at the Gagosian Gallery, New York City, and the Albright-Knox …

‘I Am Not Your Justification For Existence:’ Mourning, Fascism, Feminism And The Amputation Of Mothers And Daughters In Atwood, Ziervogel, And Ozick, Mitchell C. Hobza

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the complexities of mother-daughter relationships in twentieth-century women’s literature that includes themes about fascism and totalitarianism. Of central concern is how mothers and daughters are separated, both physically and psychically, in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Meike Ziervogel’s Magda and Cynthia Ozick’s The Shawl. Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born provides the theoretical framework for considering maternity and the institution of motherhood. These separations occur through two modes: physical separation by political force; and psychical separation through ideological difference and what Rich terms as “Matrophobia.” The physical separation is analyzed through a synthesis of Rich’s theory …

A Conversation With Anonymous (3)

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who attended in the early 2000s and came out during her senior year. She provided insights on her experiences as a queer woman on the Holy Cross campus and shared how her life has changed since leaving "the Holy Cross bubble."

Interview keywords: alum, ally, Catholic shame, college, identity, Iraq War, Jesuit, microaggressions, multicultural, oppression, post-college, social justice, queer/dyke

Slutwalk Participants, 2015, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A group photograph of students assembled on the steps of Fogler Library, University of Maine, for the 2015 "SlutWalk," calling for an end of victim blaming and 'slut shaming' targets of sexual assault, particularly in regard to the appearance of women rape victims. Signs held by some participants read: "Stop Slut Shaming. End Rape Culture;" "Don't tell us how to dress. Tell men not to rape;" "Shame and Blame belong only to the Rapist;" "Rape is a crime of violence, power, and control. No One Deserves It;" and "Consent in the sheets. Dissent in the streets."

A Conversation With Joe Sasso

LGBTQ Alumni Oral History Project

This conversation represents an oral history interview with a Holy Cross alum who graduated in 1975. He discusses his experience of Holy Cross during the 70's and the lack of awareness the student body had for any type of gay identity. Additionally, he describes his experience coming out at age 45. In the interview, he reflects on how it would be or would not be different if he had been out on campus at this time and his recommendations on how Holy Cross can continue to support LGBTQ students.

Interview keywords: adulthood, alum, Catholic Church, college, cycling, family, friendship, gay …