Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons^™

The Role Of Gender Affirmation In Eating Disorder Symptoms In Transgender Individuals, Jacob M. Strahl

University Honors Theses

Research in the field of eating disorders has grown rapidly since the introduction of eating disorders in the DSM. In particular, research suggests that transgender individuals could be more likely to develop an eating disorder than cisgender individuals. It has previously been believed that the disorder "gender dysphoria" plays a role in the development of eating disorders in transgender individuals. This literature review draws from prior studies of groups and individuals in order to better understand how gender affirming interventions impact eating disorders within the transgender population. The interventions examined include both interventions based in hormones and interventions based in …

Making A Monster: Queerness And Disability In Gothic Literature, Julien Draven

University Honors Theses

Scholars within the gothic genre have long been exploring the concept of the "other" within literature. Looking at the topics of queerness and disability through the lens of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein it's clear that much of the rhetoric surrounding these identities in the 19th century is still very much present in modern society--even if it's worded a bit differently. This literature review covers how queerness and disability are related, disability, eugenics, sexuality, gender, and monstrosity all within the gothic genre of literature.

Postmodern Poetry And Queer Medievalisms: Time Mechanics, David Hadbawnik

New Queer Medievalisms

This volume builds on recent scholarship on contemporary poetry in relation to medieval literature, focusing on postmodern poets who work with the medieval in a variety of ways. Such recent projects invert or “queer” the usual transactional nature of engagements with older forms of literature, in which readers are asked to exchange some small measure of bewilderment at archaic language or forms for a sense of having experienced a medieval text. The poets under consideration in this volume demand that readers grapple with the ways in which we are still “medieval” – in other words, the ways in which the …

Identity In The 21st Century Nigerian Fiction: A Case Study Of Blackass By Igoni A. Barrett., Ogochukwu B. Ossai

Beyond the Margins: A Journal of Graduate Literary Scholarship

This paper attempts to examine the allegorical narrative strategies and politics of identity—race, and gender, using postcolonial and racial frameworks. The novel, Blackass written by a Nigerian writer is a 21st century fierce comic satirical adaptation of Metamorphosis, a novella by Franz Kafka. The intricacies and culture within a society and ethnicity in a nation such as patriarchy are explored through the language, characters, and development of the plot in Nigerian literature. For this essay, I enter into the discourse of race by analyzing the social and cultural phenomena that occur throughout the structure of the fictional work.

“An Eternity Or Two Later”: Family Of Choice In Elaine Castillo’S America Is Not The Heart, Caroliena E. Cabada

Beyond the Margins: A Journal of Graduate Literary Scholarship

Many of the challenges faced by environmental activists are issues of scale. How can vital changes be enacted and sustained over the necessarily long time scales of environmental restoration? Elaine Castillo’s America Is Not the Heart (2018) illuminates a possible avenue for activists engaged in environmental justice work. Parts of the book contains extensive flashbacks to Hero’s, the protagonist’s, time as part of a cadre of the New People’s Army in the Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship. Though the NPA is not strictly an environmental activist group, the organization takes their cues from queer ecofeminist frameworks and the intersections between …

Limp Wrists, Clenched Fists: An Analysis Of Queer Performance Art As A Tool For Political Resistance, Neha Verma

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

This paper explores the use of queer performance art as a tool for community mobilization and resistance to socio-legal oppressions. This essay is grounded in movements for queer liberation in the Global South, racialized working-class queer communities, and queer disability justice. As queer culture and aesthetics are often misappropriated for wider cisheteronormative audiences, this work reminds the revolutionary nature of queer performance art.

A Weapon For The People To Wield, Olivia Sonell

Student Theses

This paper describes an applied theatre project facilitated in winter 2022 with an intergenerational group of LGBTQ adults based out of a large advocacy non- profit in the northeastern united states. The purpose of the project was three-fold, to explore LGBTQ intergenerational unity, the efficacy of applied theatre work in non-profit settings, and whether applied theatre has compromised itself ideologically.

Our project team met with participants over a period of four weeks, entirely over the ZOOM app. During these sessions we used applied theatre practices drawn from Augusto Boal and Helen White to explore connection and disconnection, and challenge dominant …

"What’S Race Got To Do With It?”: A Virtual Participatory Action Research Study Of Community College Students Exploring Intersectionality In Queer Studies, Breana Hansen

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and explore how curricula in queer studies at Community College of the Bay (CCB) reflect and ignore the lived experiences of Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPOC) by engaging queer studies students as co-researchers in virtual participatory action research (VPAR). This research utilized the frameworks of Queer of Color Analysis (QOCA) (Ferguson, 2004; McCready, 2013), critical whiteness (Baldwin, 1984; Du Bois, 1903), anti-oppressive education (Kumashiro, 2001), and intersectional theory (Crenshaw, 1989), to examine the experiences of QTBIPOC within queer studies in community college classrooms. The following meta-question guided this research: …

Queer History In The Streets: A Walking Tour Of Portland, Maine, Megan Macgregor

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The University of Southern Maine’s Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer + Collection preserves the history of LGBTQ+ communities in Maine. The collection contains books, personal papers, photographs, and newspapers documenting the LGBTQ+ activism from 1970s to 1990s.

While three research publications have some out of the collection (one article and two thesis), no overall history about Maine’s LGBTQ+ community has been written. As a result many Mainer’s, queer and straight, know very little of the history. The instruction and outreach librarian and the staff of USM’s Special Collections wanted an opportunity to …

The Effects Of “No Pro Homo” Policies On Lgbtq+ Perceptions In The American South, Isabella L. Brocato

Honors Theses

Five states in the American South currently have “no pro homo” policies in place, while an increasing number of bills targeting discussions about sexuality and gender identity in public schools are being introduced to House floors around the country. Although there is extensive research on the ways in which these policies put the physical and mental well-being of LGBTQ+ students at risk, there is little to no research about how they shape public perceptions of the LGBTQ+ community collectively. With inspiration from Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s social science study cited in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), this study works …

Ang Queer Literacy Framework: Isang Pagsusuri Sa Pagtuturo Ng Panitikang Pambata Gamit Ang “Ang Tatay Ni Klara At Nanay Ni Erwin” At “Ang Ikaklit Sa Aming Hardin” / The Queer Literacy Framework: An Analysis Of Teaching Children’S Literature Using “Ang Tatay Ni Klara At Nanay Ni Erwin” And “Ang Ikaklit Sa Aming Hardin”, John Paolo Sarce

English Faculty Publications

Punlaan ng diskurso sa pagkatao at kasarian ang mga espasyong tulad ng tahanan at paaralan. Sa mga lugar na ito maaring paikutin ang mga materyal na nagtuturo ng mga kaisipan ukol sa pagkatao ng isang indibidwal tulad ng mga panitikang pambata. Ang mga magulang o gurong nagbabasa nito sa mga bata ay nakatutulong na maghulma ng sensibilidad sa usaping seks at kasarian. Gamit ang ilang teorya mula sa mga larangan ng Queer Theory, Childhood Studies, Critical Studies, at Critical Pedagogy, matalik na binasa ng papel ang katha sa tekstuwal at biswal na antas, at ipinagpatuloy ito sa kritikal na pagbabasa …

Journeying Toward Liberation: Creating Civic Utopias Through Restorative Literacies, Rae L. Oviatt, Megan Mcelwee, Owen Farney

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

In this article, we forward three narratives from educators whose lived experiences moving from underrepresented youth to queer educators support the necessity of furthering representation for historically marginalized youth across classroom spaces. We begin with situating our argument in response to current policies that would seek to silence historically marginalized voices, histories, literacies, and thereby inhibit a more just social and civic future. Our narratives provide three varied perspectives of lived experiences as youth moving toward our current status as queer educators. Finally, we seek to call in other educators to engage advocacy and resources to support this work in …

How Marlon T. Riggs Queered The Documentary Form, Anthony M. Sweeney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Marlon T. Riggs’s documentary films and their paratextual elements are rooted in his intersectional identities as a Black and gay man. His activist goal of Black gay liberation was based on what he saw as deeply engrained internal and external racist and homophobic societal structures that subjugated Black queers. In this thesis, I place research from Black cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, and film studies in conversation with one another to show how Riggs’s filmography is an example of queer form. In doing so, I attempt to redefine the focus of the scholarship on Riggs from an avant-garde filmmaker …

Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Songbook, Keith A. Dames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Billie Holiday was a singer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and composer in the fields of music, black culture and more specifically the genre of jazz. The primary focus of this study is Billie Holiday’s discography, music, and compositions as treated in relation to the black culture of production. This study will explore a secondary content analysis of Billie Holiday’s music, musicianship, musicality and compositional skills within the American jazz mainstream, broader jazz audience and world at large. This project will take an analytical look at the structure and form of the compositions of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday is credited with composing …

Staging Retro-Perspectives: Performing Age, Memory/Loss, And Queer Desire In The Later Works Of Split Britches (2009–2020), Benjamin Gillespie

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project investigates the later works of the celebrated New York–based lesbian-feminist performance troupe Split Britches made up of founding members Peggy Shaw (b. 1944) and Lois Weaver (b. 1949). Revealing how the duo consciously interlaces aspects of aging and age-based identity into the very fabric of their later performances in both form and content, this project analyzes how Shaw and Weaver integrate an explicitly anti-ageist and overtly queer representation of aging on the experimental stage. Their later performances serve to challenge narratives of decline and debilitation that come with (hetero)normative representations of old age and the life course in …

"Queering" Age-Friendly New York City, Austin G. Oswald

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background and aims: The global population is aging and becoming more culturally diverse. As such, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers are expected to think critically about strategies to improve the quality of life of people as they age. In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Age-Friendly Cities movement to improve the well-being and meaningful engagement of older adults living in the community. New York City (NYC) was the first city in the world to be designated “age-friendly” by the WHO, and is possibly viewed as a model for other cities to emulate. Few empirical studies have examined the age-friendly …

Lgbtq+ Social Services And Needs In Portland Oregon, Jay M. Tomlinson

University Honors Theses

Research shows a significant link between being LGBTQ+ and living in poverty, but little research has been done on what services are available to providers and individuals in need. This study was conducted to discover what types of social services are available to low-income LGBTQ+ people living in Portland, Oregon, and what services providers identify as unmet needs. This study consisted of a series of interviews with service providers to find out what services they offer and what they feel is still missing. Data was analyzed following a qualitative data analysis method. Data showed that housing was the largest unmet …

"You Can't Be Shakespeare And You Can't Be Joyce": Lou Reed, Modernism, And Mass Production, Daniel C. Jacobson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation proposes a reevaluation of the overlooked connections between American popular music and modernist literature’s scope and formal experimentation which arose in the mid-20th century. Because Lou Reed’s ever-changing persona situates his work uncomfortably between high art and pop-culture, modernism and “post-modernity,” literature and music, and ethics and aesthetics, I intend to consider Reed as this dissertation’s empty, refracted center. One that will allow for a critique of several major intellectual movements, both inside and outside the academy, that continue to influence thinking about art, ethics, and material culture. Additionally, I hope to show that the work of a …

Pursuit Of Happiness In Alternate Realities: The Intersection Of Queerness And The Metaphysical In Haruki Murakami’S Sputnik Sweetheart, Katelyn Morris

Kean Quest

This research aims to examine the intersection of queerness and the metaphysical in Haruki Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart. I intend to accomplish this by focusing on the instances of magical realism as they are presented throughout the narrative and deconstruct them through the escapades of the explicitly queer protagonist Sumire. Sumire is an individual who has never felt sexual desire until she encounters an older woman named Miu. However, Miu underwent a bizarre, fantastical encounter many years ago that “split her in two” as the text puts it, and her ability to feel sexual desire joined her other half on …

Receiving A Queen: A Queer And Trans Feminist Classical Reception Rhetorical Historiography Of Elagabalus, Thomas William Passwater

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies representations of Elagabalus, the sovereign of Rome who ruled between 218–222ce, after her assassination to examine how depictions and historical accounts of Elagabalus's life make rhetorical decisions about Elagabalus's identity and being that can foreground the composer's relationship to history and the function of history as a rhetorical force. Thus, this project, through studying Elagabalus's composers, raises questions about the nature of figure studies and history. The project draws on trans, queer, and feminist theories and rhetorics which help highlight the contingent and conflicting nature of Elagabalus's identities across representations without settling them into a singular narrative …