Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Teaching During A Pandemic: Using Digital Visual Storytelling As Chicana/X/ And Latina/X Feminist Pedagogy, Magaly Ordonez

Feminist Pedagogy

This article offers critical pedagogical insights and experiences using StoryMaps as a queer trans* Chicanx educator during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. I offer StoryMaps as an original teaching activity rooted in Chicana/x feminist epistemologies and pedagogies that prioritize the voices of marginalized communities as sources of knowledge. I propose the pedagogical uses of digital storytelling as a Chicana/x feminist tool for creative critical thinking and shift in learning spaces that go beyond traditional essay-style writing assignments. It builds from my experience teaching undergraduate courses at a predominantly white institution in the Midwest.

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire: Female Directors Subverting The Male Gaze, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

The Combahee River Collective’S Influence On Modern Feminism, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

‘“We Was Girls Together”’: Black Girlhood And Homoeroticism In Toni Morrison’S Sula, Summer A. Still

Caroliniana Undergraduate Research Journal

This paper examines Toni Morrison’s Sula through the intertwined frameworks of Black girlhood and homoeroticism, with a focus on the friendship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright. By analyzing moments of intimacy, dreams, and kinship terminology, I argue that Morrison portrays their bond as both a survival mechanism against oppressive social structures and as a site where homoerotic desire emerges. Concepts such as “fictive kin,” “chosen kin,” and “quare” are used to show how Morrison complicates traditional categories of friendship and queerness in American literature. Ultimately, the novel positions Sula and Nel’s relationship as one of enduring love that exceeds …

Are You There Judy?: A Critical Content Analysis Of Judy Blume's Representation Of Female Puberty, Audrey E. Gilbert

Undergraduate Theses

This study uses a critical content analysis methodology to examine four Judy Blume novels (Johnson et al). Using a lens of gynocriticsm (Showalter) and mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors (Bishop), power and representation of female puberty are analyzed in Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, Deenie, Forever, and Just As Long As We’re Together to understand how Judy Blume pushes the bounds of content in young adult literature through depictions of thelarche, menarche, and sexarche. Through the critical content analysis, the role of group interactions and individual experiences are shown as the conductors for power, …

Harriet Hosmer: Femininity And Stone, Savannah V. Parrish

Undergraduate Theses

Harriet Hosmer was an American woman sculptor who studied in Rome, Italy, from 1853 to 1900. Hosmer led her own cohort of women artists and inspired other artists in Rome. Hosmer’s sculptures and the controversies surrounding them exemplify her experiences as a career woman of her time. Hosmer made sculptures of women who defied the will of men, both mythical and historical. Hosmer’s sculptures show how she felt restricted in the world, particularly in the field of sculpture as a woman and how like the figures of her sculptures she found freedom in stone, where she could tell the stories …

The International And Comparative Aspects Of United States V. Skrmetti: The Detrimental Rise Of Anti-Trans Sentiment In The United States, Julia Parrey

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

In recent years, anti-trans sentiment has significantly increased in the United States. This Article examines the legal advocacy by the LGBTQ+ community that laid key legal groundwork for basic protections through landmark US Supreme Court decisions like Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges and analyzes how recent judicial and legislative actions signal a dangerous reversal of that progress.

The central analysis focuses on the consequences of United States v. Skrmetti, where the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors by applying rational-basis review, concluding that the law classified based on age or medical diagnosis, rather …

Crowdsourcing Literary Recovery Using Iterative Search Techniques, Jean Lee Cole

Feminist Pedagogy

The Literary Recovery assignment teaches students how to develop keyword search search techniques to locate literary works and authors in online databases and text repositories. Using the assignment in a collaborative course project provides the benefit of crowdsourcing recovery efforts for prolific authors or groups of authors.

Out In The Arena: Examining The Lgbtq+ Experience In Ihsa, Katharine C. Didier

Honors College Theses

This study investigated factors influencing Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) LGBTQ+ riders’ perceptions of inclusion, safety, and belonging, with the hypothesis that teams with diversity and inclusion policies would be perceived as more accepting. An online survey was developed to gather information from self-identified LGBTQ+ IHSA students. Questions covered demographics, team environment, and perceived inclusivity within their equestrian programs. Question types included multiple choice, Likert-type, short answer, and open-ended. IHSA coaches were asked to share the survey link with team members. Students were able to respond anonymously. The survey was open for 8 weeks. Reminders were sent out at 3 …

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Subaltern Women, State Neglect, And Climate Precarity: Rethinking Forest Landscape Governance In Indonesia, Titiek Kartika Hendrastiti, Siti Kusujiarti

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

This article examines the social positioning and struggles of subaltern women in East Java, Indonesia, within the intersecting conditions of state neglect and climate precarity in Forest Landscape Governance (FLG). Drawing on field research conducted between 2022 and 2023, it employs Postcolonial Feminist Political Ecology (PFPE) and Postcolonial Feminist Participatory Action Research (PFPAR) to analyze how governance regimes simultaneously depend upon yet marginalize women’s ecological labor. Based on field conversations, storytelling, focus group discussions, participatory drawing, and community dialogues in Banyuwangi and Trenggalek, the study shows that subaltern women remain largely invisible within formal governance frameworks, despite their central role …

Beyond The Badge: How Internal Culture Contradicts External Service In Urban Police Departments, Rowan Bari Eiselman

Educational Studies Student Papers and Posters

This ethnographic study examines how gendered workplace culture and mental health culture shape officer retention in two urban police departments: the Orange Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th District. Through ride-alongs, observations, and informal interviews with nine current and retired officers (four female, five male) across various ranks conducted between March and April 2026, this research reveals a troubling contradiction: departments tasked with serving diverse communities struggle to support diversity within their own ranks. Female officers navigate professional isolation, prolonged competence-proving expectations, and implicit career-versus-motherhood choices, with experiences varying significantly between the more supportive Orange PD and …

"Black History Is Black Horror": Hauntology And Cultural Trauma In 20th And 21st Century Black Women's Gothic Horror, Destini S. Beckwith

Theses

Octavia Butler’s Afrofuturistic, gothic horror, neo-slave narrative Kindred (1979) vividly illustrates the story of a woman, Dana, involuntarily time-traveling from her home in 1976 Los Angeles, California, to a plantation in 19th-century Maryland. The interactions that she has with her ancestors, such as Alice, a free Black woman, and Rufus, a white man who enslaves Alice, leave Dana mentally and physically scarred. The 20th-century novel is meant to graphically reflect on the horrors of enslavement and the mental and physical effects that Black people endured/still endure because of it (i.e., grief, racial violence, and post-traumatic stress disorder). Furthermore, the novel’s …

Gendered Discourses And Classed Access Routes For Feminist Djs In Irish Subcultural Scenes, Andrea Cleary

Irish Communication Review

This article examines feminist collectives in Ireland’s electronic/dance music (E/DM) and music technology (MT) scenes, focusing on how gender and class intersect to shape access and participation. Drawing on thematic analysis of interviews with five collective members active between 2016 and 2025, it traces paths to participation from "musical homes" to instrument education to university DJ societies. To do this, it examines the overlapping family, cultural and subcultural capitals which shaped their journeys. Finally, this article considers the role of feminist collectives in creating alternative educational spaces and networks for women and gender minority participation in E/DM cultures.

“Recollecting The Told Story”: Storytelling, Activism, And The Black Maternal Health Emergency, Lamaya C. Williams

English Theses & Dissertations

Storytelling is a foundational component of Black knowledge creation and transmission. This dissertation centers Black women’s stories of birth and mothering—drawing on both primary source birth stories and fictional narratives—to examine the United States’ Black Maternal Health Emergency (BMHE). The BMHE is a complex and urgent issue wherein structural racism, medical bias, and intersecting social determinants disproportionately endanger the health of Black mothers. As such, Black mothers in the United States are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related condition compared to their white counterparts.

This study examines the birth stories of women who survived the BMHE and …

Intimate Partner Violence And Couples Who Practice Power Exchange: Exploring Discussions Of Harm In Bdsm Writing, Delilah Tefertiller

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

The current tools and services available for those who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) center power and control as negative influences that lead to coercive control (Stark, 2007) and harm. However, the BDSM and kink community negotiate and play with power dynamics in ways that defy current ideas about "healthy relationships." There is, therefore, little known about the perspectives of those who experience IPV in BDSM contexts. Additionally, current IPV tools are not adapted to fit a community that views power differently. A content analysis of BDSM 101 texts—a subgenre of BDSM literature that introduces and educates newcomers about …

Choice, Power, & Care: Crisis Pregnancy Centers And Reproductive Justice In Missouri, Sylvie Richards

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are religious organizations with the purpose to dissuade people from obtaining abortions. They often present themselves as authentic reproductive healthcare clinics through medicalized language, services such as ultrasounds and pregnancy tests, promises of information on all pregnancy options, staff dressed as medical professionals, and placement near family planning clinics. In reality, CPCs are medically unlicensed and often spread medical misinformation.

No study has yet focused on CPCs in Missouri, despite providing a critical case study. The state has minimal access to abortion and other components of comprehensive reproductive healthcare and one of the worst maternal mortality …

Navigating Displacement: Queer And Crip Of Color Reframings Of Eating Disorder Discourse, Emilio Parra-Garcia

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

Scholarship on eating disorders has long been dominated by quantitative social science research that shapes clinical understandings of these illnesses, despite growing humanistic interventions. My thesis places eating disorders, through an “archive” of psychological studies, in conversation with queer and crip of color theory to uncover the co-constitutive relationship between queerness, disability, and race/ethnicity that centers on queer people of color with eating disorders as a necessary site of theoretical inquiry. Drawing on Sabrina Strings’ analysis of racialized body ideals, I trace how genealogies of bodily legibility (driven by discourses on whiteness, weight, and citizenship) created systems of “categorical oppression,” …

(Un)Imagining India: Anti-Rape Protests As Diagnostic Of Indian State Power, Sonal Churiwal

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

Since the 2012 brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh brought India’s pervasive rape culture to international attention, media, politicians, and the broader Indian public demanded justice for “India’s daughter.” Protestors called on the Indian government to expand the police state, execute perpetrators, and create fast-track legal courts to avenge her death. Collectively, they cast the state in the role of a protector, even of a patriarchal authority. The nature of these demands stands in contrast to Kashmir and Manipur, geographies differentially controlled by the Indian state, where protests call for the withdrawal of the Indian army, a primary …

Women And Right-Wing Movements: Why Women Join, Ryland L. Adzich

The Dialogue

No abstract provided.