Queer Studies Commons^™

Do Clothes Make The Man? Ftm Crossdressing In The 18th-19th C. Anglo-American World, Aidrian Graber

Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to analyze the legacy of "Female Husbands" and other female-to-male crossdressers in the 18/19th c. Anglo-American world and how such people can illuminate the field of transgender history.

Transforming Theory Into Action: Feminist Frameworks In Reproductive Justice Organizing, Ella R. Mitchell

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This honors thesis examines how feminist theoretical frameworks can be translated into practical strategies for reproductive justice organizing. Grounded in a reproductive justice framework and drawing on three key feminist frameworks, intersectional feminism, queer feminist theory, and feminist ethics of care, this paper explores how each provides critical tools for understanding and responding to reproductive oppression. Intersectional feminism illuminates how overlapping systems of inequality structure reproductive experiences and political marginalization. Queer feminist theory challenges heteronormative assumptions about family, gender, and reproduction, expanding reproductive justice discourse to include LGBTQ+ communities and diverse forms of kinship. Feminist ethics of care emphasizes relational …

Girlhood, Interrupted: An Intersectional Feminist History Of Decolonizing And Reclaiming Womanhood, Ayden Kelly

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In the past few decades, social and political discourse surrounding womanhood and who is considered a "real" woman has led to the execration of transgender women. This work will explore how recent discourse and rhetoric surrounding who is and who is not a “real woman” can be traced to nineteenth century notions of “true womanhood” that excluded women of color. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with westward expansion, settler colonialism, residential schools, slavery, and post-emancipation serving as backdrops, this work will also analyze how ideologies of womanhood have interrupted and suppressed women of color throughout Western American …

Luja Volume 6: Issue 1 (Full Volume)

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

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 …

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 …

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 …

To My Queer Siblings, Finley W. Snyder

Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award

In the last year or so I've been thinking a lot about the promise of freedom and what it means to live in a "free country" particularly around issues of how freedom of speech is used and often abused in our society. Considering the theme of "voice of freedom" I wanted to explore how speech could both strengthen and weaken freedom. This poem is my attempt to explore the messy realities of freedom and speech and express a glimmer of hope for the future.

Watching The Screen, Sarah Thul

Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award

Inspired by the news today, hopefully it will inspire people to stand up and fight together.

Queer Okayness & The Modernist Influence: A New Form Of Queer Poetics In Ocean Vuong’S Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Sophia Behnke

Audre Lorde Prize

This paper analyzes poems from Ocean Vuong's 2016 debut collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, as a contemporary evolution of queer modernist poetics from the early twentieth century. Using conceptual frameworks from Sara Ahmed and Audre Lorde, the author argues for the cultural power of poetics as an inherently queer art form which artists are constantly redefining. By studying how prominent lesbian and queer modernists disrupted heteronormative ideals through non-conformist poetic strategies, the author develops a comparison to Vuong's work as a contemporary queer poet who both draws from past forms and develops a more nuanced understanding of queerness …

Rhetorical Violence: The Rhetorics Of Women's Counter Political Violence, Kylie Rowland

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Protest is omnipresent, and yet not much is known about the efficacy and impacts of its different rhetorical strategies—particularly so for marginalized populations, whose available means of protest are already limited by both material realities and assumptions that govern who and what can make waves. This bind is further exacerbated by gendered and racialized civility politics that determine which bodies can be disruptive and which already are considered “violent.” To address this gap, I turn toward the under-researched rhetorical potentials of marginalized people’s—specifically women and queer folks’—use of symbolic protest “violence,” which works to strategically make evident the larger ongoing …

Dark Wave - Comics And Transgender Studies In Practice, Mieke Vanderveen

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This is a thesis in two parts. Its goal is to provoke the intersection of superhero comics and transgender studies in order to interrogate the parallels between those two identities and explore ways in which pairing them together can strengthen each other narratively and academically. Rather than seeking an answer to a question, the project as a whole serves as a way of communicating trans internalities from a transfeminine perspective in a format that brings the issues to the forefront of the narrative in an in-depth and entertaining way. The result is hopefully a coherent artistic work that achieves those …

The Ghosts Of Times Square: A Zine Exploring Representations Of Times Square Through Film, Kel R. Karpinski

Publications and Research

My zines are often an extension of my research—either a jumping off point or a way to create a more visual project (or both). They are in their own way a form of excess - they are often too scandalous, too smutty, too much — everything that is spilling out of the margins.

My zines and research focus on lesser known queer histories, trying to highlight them and bring them to a new audience and new generations.

Using zines as a creative form of research, I am able to reach a broader audience both inside and outside of academia. I …

An Examination Of The Relationships Between Types Of Strain And Substance Misuse Among Queer Adults​, Mckenzie T. Nguyen, Katelyn Mcmahon

The Cardinal Edge

Current research has paid particular attention to outcomes of different strains using samples of sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth; however, minimal research has examined Agnew's (1992) General Strain Theory (GST) using samples of SGM adults. Using a path analysis, this study seeks to investigate how different strains - including financial strain, relationship strain, and victimization - are predictive of drug misuse, and if those effects are mediated by negative mental health outcomes. The study utilizes Meyer's (2016) Generations Study and includes a sample of 1,518 SGM Americans. Results indicate that only financial strain is partially mediated by negative emotions, …

Transwoman Motherhood: Analyzing Film Die Beautiful Within Butler’S Gender Performativity Theory, June Louie A. Flores, Mina Elfira

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study explores the representation and construction of gender identity and motherhood of transgender women within the Philippine society, focusing on Jun R. Lana’s 2016 film, Die Beautiful. Recognizing the increasing visibility of the queer community in media and social discourse, the research aims to analyze how the film reflects and challenges the binary construction of gender and societal gender norms using the theory of gender performativity by Judith Butler from her book Gender Trouble. Employing a qualitative content analysis approach, specifically the conventional method, selected scenes were examined to identify instances of gender performance and explore how …

Queer Perspectives In African Politics And Socialisation, Samuel A. Nuamah

FIRE Fund Bibliographies

The research guide provides a spectrum of department relating to the debate of queer identities. The concept of queer identity has been considered as not of African indigene but a European import. The guide provides different authors and their argument of queer presence and marginalization.

Writing From The Rift: Queer Temporality And The Refusal Of Resolution, Daniela Ruiz Perez

Masters Theses

This thesis develops a phenomenological method for reading speculative literature as a site where queer ecological temporality is experienced rather than explained. Working with Annihilation (2014) by Jeff VanderMeer, The Day of the Triffids (1951) by John Wyndham, and Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals (2020) by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, the project treats reading as a bodily practice shaped by forms of attention. Texts are not interpreted for stable meaning and instead I remain with moments where resolution is withheld. The work is informed by a Marxist attention to how capitalist time organizes labor, productivity, and value, and how …

Fugitive Formalisms: Strategies Of Dissemblance And Dissent In The Work Of Queer-Identifying Artists, 1970–Present, Rowan Diaz-Toth

Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing case studies of works by Hélio Oiticica, Scott Burton, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres as points of departure, this thesis puts forth a speculative historical framework for reconsidering queer art practices up through the present day in opposition to regimes of visibility and transparency, exploring the subversive, fugitive potential of non-representational formalisms.

T.H. V. The Czech Republic: A Step Forward Or Back For Lgbtq+ Rights And Discourse In Europe With The First Openly Non-Binary Applicant?, Katherine Olsson

Human Rights Brief

On December 9, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a final judgment in the case of T.H. v. The Czech Republic.  The case concerned a non-binary individual, T.H., who was assigned male at birth and, since May 2012, had repeatedly petitioned to change their sex/gender marker and personal numerical code on their national identity card.  Because the Czech system does not provide for the option of a neutral gender marker, T.H. petitioned to have their registered gender changed to female.

From Progressive Politics To Media Censorship: Analyzing The Trajectory Of Lgbt Rights In Taiwan And China, Sabrina Malec

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.