Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

I Hate The Archives: A Queer Lesbian Meditation, Helis Sikk

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Questioning the neutrality of archives is nothing new as feminist scholars have been doing it since the 1970s. More recently, queer theorists have pushed the subjectivity of the archive even further by emphasizing the importance of desire and pleasure as its central tenants. The archive in these discussions is sometimes a metaphor for a variety of experiences and at other times a brick-and-mortar physical space. Yet, there has been a lack of focus on the relationships between these two approaches. Similarly, there has not been enough discussion on how to challenge the exclusivity of the archive in our everyday praxis …

Being In The Black Queer Diaspora: Embodied Archives In A Map To The Door Of No Return, Alexandria Naima Smith

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Poet, novelist, and essayist Dionne Brand’s unconventional memoir, A Map to the Door of No Return (2001) provides a method for identifying how the embodied experiences of Black queer subjects form an archive for understanding operations of power within Black queer diasporas. Using the analytic of sensual worldmaking, a term I use to describe Black feminist narrative writing that locates embodied erotic and sensual experience as an authorizing source of knowledge about identity-based power dynamics, I illustrate how A Map to the Door of No Return offers a Black queer archive of experiences and narratives in the Black diaspora. Brand …

History, Activism, Erasure: Archival Paradox As Institutional Practice, Sarah H. Salter

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This essay connects the reparative assemblages of queer archiving practice to growing conversations in university studies. Tracing the fraught legal history of Penn State University’s first “Homophile” association in the 1970s, this essay theorizes how university records—and the processes of recording they index—participate in the creation of institutional identity and help establish institutional relations with their communities. Ultimately, it suggests that archivists and librarians act as mediators, unintentionally or purposefully, of the relations between vulnerable communities and the structures of power in which they are embedded.

An Offering On The Altar Of Queer History: Amalia Mesa-Bains And Sor Juana’S Library, Maria P. Chaves Daza

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

This paper argues that home altars are archives. I consider the history of altars within Chicana community practices; political, and feminist critique of both patriarchal nationalism; and the role of the altar in challenging the public and private divide defined by nationalist discourses of the US and Aztlan. Furthermore, I use Amalia Mesa-Bains’s altar installation The Library of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz to consider how altars are spaces of feminist queer memory-making and resistance against colonial logics.

Women Who Lead: A Feminist Phenomenology Of Crisis Leadership In Higher Education, Ingrid Helene Mcvanner

Doctoral Dissertations

The landscape of higher education is rife with crisis events, ranging from the global COVID-19 pandemic to natural disasters and institutional and industry-wide scandals; yet, most institutions of higher education are unprepared to tackle these crises as they arrive. As an industry, higher education is also largely dominated by men at its upper echelons, despite being a field that is predominantly staffed by women. Amidst the backdrop of the attention COVID-19 has brought to female world leaders and the quest for parity in higher education leadership positions, this study sought to explore the lived experiences of women leaders in higher …

A Critical Feminist Case Study Of The Northern California Cherry Blossom Queen Program, Alison Kepola Nishiyama-Young

Doctoral Dissertations

Asian American women are chronically underrepresented in leadership positions in almost every sector including higher education, government, private, and non-profit (Youngberg et al., n.d.). Many researchers have suggested the need for more leadership development programs specifically designed to support the needs of Asian American women (Akutagawa, 2014; Canlas, 2016; Gee & Peck, 2015; Lin, 2007; Youngberg et al., n.d.). Though there are a number of leadership programs geared towards Asian Americans, there are very few that cater to Asian American women explicitly. Historically, cultural pageant programs in the Asian American community have played this role and one such program is …

Here And There, A Story Of Women’S Internationalism, 1948-1953, Elisabeth Armstrong

Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality: Faculty Books

No abstract provided.

From Tajikistan To Russia And Back: Understanding Changes In Gender Relations Through The Lived Experiences Of Tajik Migrant Workers In Russia, Tahmina Shokirova

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation is the story of Tajik migrant workers who have lived and worked in Russia. It examines how gender relations of power change in the context of labour migration through the lived experiences of the migrants. The study asks the overarching research question: How do gender relations change in the context of Tajik labour migration to Russia? Following the social constructionist epistemology, gender is framed through the lens of post-structural, intersectional, and transnational feminist theories. The study employs a conceptual framework that integrates the following into a coherent whole: feminist theories of gender relations, the general context of international …

The Ghost Town: An Autoethnographic Study On The Effects Of Loss And Trauma On A Saudi Arabian International Student’S Well-Being, Salman J. Alzowibi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We all have fought on grief’s battleground; some of us started at early ages, while others during their developmental age, teen’s years, or later in their adulthood. All of them are valuable resources and sites of knowledge that need to be explored. Yet, recent studies reduced grief into clinical psychological well-being. However, as I lived these experiences, trauma, loss, and grief impact all well-being dimensions. Grief intersects with large structures (e.g., social, economic, cultural, locations, etc.); all these components impact our way of grief how socially displayed (mourning). This dissertation encapsulates my personal experience elevating it to an academic work …

From Transnormativity To Self-Authenticity: Shifting Away From A Dysphoria-Centered Approach To Transgender Identity, Matty Lavalley

Honors Papers

"Transnormativity" is a social ideology concerning the validity and perceived "realness" of transgender individuals and identities. In this thesis, I investigate current transgender issues through the lens of transgender medicalization and its resulting sociocultural impacts, prioritizing trans identities and individuals that surpass binary categorizations. Under transnormativity, nonbinary gender identity is continually made invisible and unintelligible in both popular and trans discourse, however, nonbinary users of social media find creative means to express their authentic sense of self nonetheless. The resulting implications of such work to socially, culturally, and psychologically resist and deconstruct transnormativity.

Digital Shame, Dehumanization, And Dismissal: An Analysis Of Gender Policing, Isabella Hatch, Antonia Randolph

Pursue: Undergraduate Research Journal

Introduction: The online performance of gender provides a unique glimpse at how individuals manipulate digital settings to reflect their engagement with their own gender performance and the gender performance of others. The majority of gender performance occurs subconsciously and is learned through repeated engagement with gendered expectations. However, the performativity of gender is brought to individuals’ consciousness when they are confronted with individuals who perform in a way that contrasts with previously held gender expectations. Transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals face frequent and often harsh gender policing that attacks them for their deviation from performances that are socially “acceptable.”

Methods: An …

Women And World War One: Perspectives On Women's Role In Wwi Literature, Rachel Michelle Brown

All Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the changing gender roles of British women who served as caretakers in World War One. Often overlooked for their contributions, the women who worked on the frontlines of the war defined the changing role of women during and after the war in several crucial ways: 1) the general expectations of women’s gender role, 2) how women perceived and acted in motherhood, and 3) how women constructed and maintained heterosexual, homosocial, and platonic relationships. Using a gender theory approach, this thesis analyzes two semi-autobiographical fictional texts, Evadne Price’s Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War, published in 1930, and …

The Effect Of Politicians, Racism, And Corporations On The Opioid Epidemic In New Hampshire, Rachel E. Young

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Using A Smart Phone To Learn Spanish: Does It Work And Will Students Use It?, Andrew J. Demil, Alysha Assaf, Ryan Cragun

The Coastal Review

Over time, mobile devices have penetrated the classroom, requiring new and beneficial ways to implement classroom instruction. Research suggests that Short Message Service (SMS) based instruction is an effective tool for acquiring second language (L2) vocabulary and idiom knowledge (Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu,). Additionally, studies have found that students believe that mobile learning (m-learning) is beneficial to acquiring a second language (Cavus & Ibrahim; Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu, 2008). This study examined whether m-learning can lead to Spanish vocabulary familiarity and if sentence comprehension outperforms reading definitions. Participants were 29 native English speakers studying Spanish as a second …

In The Belly Of The Beast: The Legacy Of Puerto Rican Women In The Development Of Anti- Imperialist Feminism, Grace Amato

Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

The Ideology Of Baby-Mama Phenomenon: Assessing Knowledge And Perceptions Among Young People From Educational Institutions, Opeyemi S. Adeojo, Daniel Egerson, Gabriel Mewiya, Rowland Edet

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This study investigated the knowledge and perception of the ideology of baby-mama concept among the youths. Particularly, this paper assessed the knowledge of the concept of baby mama among youths and also their opinion on the acceptability of this style of family structure. The study employed a qualitative approach through an in-depth interview research method. Forty respondents between the ages of 16 and 40 years were selected across three educational institutions in Oyo state, south-west Nigeria. The participants of the study voluntarily agreed to participate in the research and everything said during the course of the interview was transcribed and …

Sonic Femininity: The Ronettes' Transgressive Gender Performance, Hilarie Ashton

Publications and Research

Iconic sixties girl group the Ronettes are frequently (and justly) celebrated for anchoring the Wall of Sound and inspiring the Beatles, but in their own right, they transgressed social, gendered expectations in revolutionary ways. Framed by a notion I call the sonic feminine, a recuperative theoretical space for the revolutionarily transgressive work of female and femme artists, I argue that the Ronettes, and lead singer Ronnie Spector in particular, enacted a kind of cultural rebellion: they crafted their images to made-up heights that tease the boundaries of drag across the spaces of the stage, the recording studio, the bathroom, and …

Embodied Performance As Queer Theatre Historiography: Translation, Gender, Identity, And Temporalities In Mikhail Kuzmin's The Dangerous Precaution, Keenan Shionalyn

All Master's Theses

The “World of Art” and “The Tower,” two groups of symbolist artists in St. Petersburg at the turn of the 20^th century, are often noted for their contributions to queer art in poetry, literature, and the visual arts. However, the theatrical record has yet to acknowledge the significant contributions by these groups, largely ignoring their queer dramatic writings. Mikhail Kuzmin, a notable contributor in both groups of symbolists, is recognized for having contributed music to Meyerhold and Blok’s The Puppet Show but is less known for his multitude of plays. Seeking to remedy this problem, I examine one of …

We're All A Little Bit Gay: Female Homoeroticism In Greek Art, Devon A. Matson

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study provides a close analysis of women in artwork from Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greece (700-30 BC). Such images have traditionally been considered from exclusively heteronormative and androcentric perspectives. I employ queer and feminist theory in an attempt to provide a new understanding of the images present on these examples of ancient art which showcase women’s relationships. I examine a terracotta figure, a stamnos, a psykter, and a cup that display women interacting with one another. Their interactions demonstrate both homosocial and homoerotic relations. In an effort to reach a broader audience, I have curated a digital exhibit that …

Intimate Partner Violence: Effects Of Emotional Abuse In Women, Judith Marie Watiti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractEstimates by the U.S. Bureau of Statistics point to over 30% of women being victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) yearly. Severity and frequency of violence in childhood have been shown in several studies to predict adult interpersonal violence. Research has shown that emotional abuse predicts other forms of abuse, thus identifying it as a potential causal link to IPV. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether emotional abuse mediates the relationship between history of childhood abuse and IPV. Social learning theory served as the theoretical framework for the study, in which 182 adult female participants from …