Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Gender, Nature, And The Fairytale Structure In Robin Mckinley's Works, Molly Rogers

Honors Theses

Robin McKinley is an American fantasy author who uses fairytale structure to explore themes of gender and nature. Her first book, Beauty, a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” was published in 1978. She continues to write fairytales and other fantastic fiction, utilizing the fairytale form and structure. She has won a few awards, including the Newbery Award in 1985 for her novel The Hero and the Crown. Her latest book, Pegasus, was published in 2010. Jack Zipes describes McKinley’s heroines as "self-confident, courageous young women who take the initiative in a world which they help to define with men…it …

Remapping Nature: Motherhood, Autonomy, And Anti-Mining Activism In Íntag, Ecuador, Ellicott K. Dandy

Honors Theses

This honors thesis explores the social changes that women engaged in anti-mining activism bring to a region in rural Ecuador. I discuss the ways in which they incorporate their activist techniques into everyday life, using their status as mothers to access public discourses of environmentalism, and ultimately rewrite gender roles locally. Framing the mining conflict as a catalyst for social change, I draw parallels between this movement and indigenous politics in Ecuador, propose new interpretations of the mestizo ethnic identity and assimilation in the Spanish Empire, and finally, make the case for a nature-centric cultural analysis in anthropology.

Ua1b1/7 Wku Ceremonies, Dedications, Groundbreakings, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records regarding special ceremonies, dedications, groundbreakings not already housed in a particular office.

Ua35/11 Honors Program, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the Honors Program. Includes brochures, awards programs, student handbooks, newsletters and research publications.

What Matters Most? An Examination Of Breastfeeding Support For African American Mothers, Kanika Littleton

Wayne State University Theses

Breastfeeding offers numerous health benefits to the mother, infant, and society. In the United States breastfeeding initiation rates have increased, but continue to fall short of objectives set forth by the CDC in the Healthy People 2020 initiative, regarding duration and exclusivity. African Americans have lower rates of breastfeeding initiation, duration, and exclusivity than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States (USDHHS, 2012).

The purpose of this study was to examine the breastfeeding experiences of a diverse group of African American women, in order to better understand what social networks encouraged or discouraged breastfeeding initiation, continuation, and …

Perception And Attitude About Breast And Cervical Cancer Screening Among Muslim Women In A Midwest University Campus, Tahira Yeasmeen

Open Access Theses

Early detection of breast and cervical cancer through mammograms and Pap smears can improve survival rates. Muslim women in the United States are faced with traditional beliefs and diverse socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds that may affect their knowledge and perceptions about these cancer screening practices. The objective of this study is to determine the overall health status and participation rates, knowledge, and perceptions about, and barriers to, breast and cervical cancer screening among a controlled population of Muslim women. Data were collected from Muslim women residing at or near Purdue University and the Greater Lafayette area via an online questionnaire …

Socially Situated Identities Of Gay Gang- And Crime-Involved Men, Vanessa R. Panfil

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Within the criminological literature, gay men have primarily been portrayed as victims of anti-gay bias crimes or intimate partner violence, or as sex workers and/or drug users. This coverage, which is limited in scope, largely fails to recognize that gay men have agency (choice or power to control the situation). It also provides an incomplete picture regarding gay men's involvement in gangs, violence, and crime.

Negotiating Ethnosexual Difference In The Armenian Transnation, Nelli Sargsyan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Since heteronormativity is an inextricable part of the ethnonationalist ideologies and discourses of Armenianness, conformity and transgression are communally policed both in the Republic of Armenia, as well as in the Armenian diaspora, albeit in different ways. In the diaspora it is through public silence regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) and queer self-identified Armenians that hetero-belonging is managed. In the Republic of Armenia, on the other hand, it is managed through hate speech promoted by public figures and through mass media. In both cases the anxiety that the issue of non-heteronormativity points to in the public outcry is that …

Towards A Theory About Spanish Women In Sixteenth Century Hispaniola : A Research Guide And Case Studies, Lissette Acosta-Corniel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation is a pioneering study about the first Spanish women of Hispaniola, the first European settlement of the Americas. Spanish women in sixteenth century Hispaniola have never been adequately identified, and as a consequence their history has not been written. One of the major setbacks about the history of Spanish women in colonial Hispaniola is to know where to look for information about them. For this reason, this dissertation offers a research guide about Spanish women in sixteenth century Hispaniola, and in order to learn about the quotidian lives of these women, this dissertation presents specific case studies and …

Impact Of Gender Inequality And Religion On How States Experience Terrorism, Aneela Salman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation includes three essays that present a quantitative analysis of the policy implications of gender equality and religious attitudes as predictors of terrorism at the state level using a broad dataset. Essay one focuses on impact of gender equality, especially women's political empowerment on terrorism, both domestic and transnational. The second essay examines both gender equality attitudes and actual outcomes in social, economic and political spheres, to measure their effect on terrorism. The third essay analyzes the relation of religiousness in a society with incidents and lethality of terrorism. The overall findings of this thesis suggest that attitudes and …

A Survey-Based Study Of Social Workers' Critical Consciousness And Practice With Lgb Clients, Cynthia Lynn Bott

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Social workers are responsible for providing the majority of mental health and substance abuse services in the United States in the role of direct service. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LBG) individuals utilize these services at rates that are believed to be higher than other populations. The field of social work embraces social justice as one of its core principles. This cross-sectional survey of 220 BSW and/or MSW social workers investigates two questions: what is the relationship among key aspects of social worker critical consciousness, i.e., attitudes about social justice, change agency, and awareness of heterosexism; and in what ways does …

Tabaqueras On The Shop Floor : Gendered Labor Process And Production Model Transformations In Cigar Factories In Santiago, Dominican Republic, 1940-2011, Ingrid Mercedes Bircann-Barkey

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation uncovers the different gendered labor processes that have shaped the cigar women workers or tabaqueras' work experiences on the cigar shop floor or galera since the 1940s. I argue that contradictory processes of exclusion and inclusion in the urban-rural nexus of the tobacco/cigar economy may be based on gendered notions of skills. This gendered notion may be traced to how changes in state policy, international markets, and financial systems as well as changes in premium cigar production models, have transformed the galera's social organization and labor process.

Stars Of The East And West : The Anglo-American Invention Of The Circassian Girl, Alexandra E. Mcdowall

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The choices a society makes regarding their entertainment speak to their deeper desires, fears, and values. A uniquely nineteenth century freak show attraction known as "Circassian Girls" represented a tension in the changing world. More than an entertaining spectacle of a person from a far-flung corner of the world, Circassian Girls became constructed symbols of race, nationalism, class, and gender. Through their manufactured perfection, these performers became a caricature of white, middle-class womanhood. This paper compares the freak show performers with other descriptions of Circassian Girls through the nineteenth century, placing them into the context of perceptions of the East, …

Two Sources Of Child Care Assistance And Their Relationship With Maternal Employment : Evidence From The Fragile Families And Child Well-Being Study, Manrong Chen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study aims to understand how child care assistance from informal social support networks and from governmental sources relate to the employment of mothers with young child(ren), and how the two sources of child care assistance relate to each other. Both the availability and utilization of child care assistance are investigated.

Pragmatism And Democratic Embodiment : The Poetics Of Constructive Conflict In Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, And Laura (Riding) Jackson, Aidan Patricia Thompson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

My dissertation, "Pragmatism and Democratic Embodiment: The Poetics of Constructive Conflict in Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, and Laura (Riding) Jackson," establishes a methodology based on William James's notion of the subject (1890) as fluid to interrogate how these poets, working roughly between 1860 and 1970, complicated questions of writing in order to critique systems of gender. I reconsider a presumed relation between language and feminism in Modernist Studies that understands the aesthetic practice of unsettling linguistic norms to be counter to feminist concerns relating to the body. Through this reassessment, I argue that the poets anticipated problems associated …

What About The Boys?, Abigail Rine

Faculty Publications - Department of English

No abstract provided.

The King's Toilet: Cruising Literary History In Reinaldo Arenas' Before Night Falls, LáZaro Lima

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

In this article I will read Before Night Falls as Arenas' queer version of Cuban literary history and his relation to it. Against the commonplace assertions that demand that Before Night Falls be primarily understood, if not exclusively, as an invective against Fidel Castro or, in the other extreme, as an ars moriendi and AIDS testimonial from a sexual dissident, I wish to revisit this text on the twentieth anniversary of its publication to underscore a missed reading that can help situate how Arenas, one of the most transgressive writers theorized in this collection as the Generation of '72, might …

Creating Room For A Singularity Of Our Own: Reading Sue Lange's "We, Robots", Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

The accessibility of Lange’s text might mitigate against recognizing its importance. Lange’s simple sentence structure and direct communicative mode convey a presently overlooked logical moral assertion: the impending Singularity is not a male-dominated patriarchal domain. The Singularity, in other words, should not be construed in a manner which excludes women and feminism. This assertion is patently obvious. But, nonetheless, it is often ignored. Before I read Lange’s novella as a description of the Singularity which feminists can embrace, I include the following background information: 1) a discussion about why the discourse relating to the Singularity needs to be expanded and …

Les Mutilations Genitales Feminines Dans La Litterature Et Le Film Francophones, Oluwafeyisike Ajibola Odeniyi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to the U.N, no fewer than five girls undergo genital mutilation every minute. They are cut, told that it is the price to be paid for womanhood, to be accepted by the society and fully integrated into it. However, they are never told about the dangerous aspects and the fact that this act may lead to bacterial infections, may cause sterility, increases their risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases as well as developing complications during childbirth, distorting their perceptions of their sexuality. They bleed just to be called "women", because tradition stipulates it. All it does is harm women …

Makers: Women Who Make America [Film Review], Judith E. Smith

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

The three-hour documentary MAKERS: WOMEN WHO MADE AMERICA, promises to tell “how women have helped shape America over the last fifty years…in pursuit of their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy.” However, rather than provide a historical analysis of the reemergence of feminism as produced by social movements and social change, MAKERS, according to the film’s press release, focuses on “unforgettable moments in history” told through stories of “exceptional women whose pioneering contributions continue to shape the world in which we live… stories of women who led the fight, those who …