Reconstructing The Surreal: Female Artists And The Transformation Of Surrealist Aesthetics,
2026
Sotheby's Institute of Art
Reconstructing The Surreal: Female Artists And The Transformation Of Surrealist Aesthetics, Erin Regan
MA Theses
This thesis examines the role and legacy of female artists who took part in the Surrealist visual art movement of the early 20th century. Canonical accounts have historically privileged the contributions of male artists, marginalizing women to the fringes of the movement by framing female artists as being primarily relevant as muses for their male peers. This study contests this historiographical misconception, relying upon visual analysis and archival research, as well as drawing from psychological, feminist, and postmodern theory, ultimately arguing that their artistic and theoretical innovations fundamentally restructured Surrealism’s visual vocabulary, theoretical objectives, and cultural legacy. This thesis is …
Blazing Turquoise And Coral Light Jewels Of Veiled Empowerment: Buddha Ye Shes Mtsho Rgyal (ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ) And Saint Hildegard Von Bingen In The Lotus Of Ever-Excellent Feminist Dialogue,
2026
Claremont Graduate University
Blazing Turquoise And Coral Light Jewels Of Veiled Empowerment: Buddha Ye Shes Mtsho Rgyal (ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ) And Saint Hildegard Von Bingen In The Lotus Of Ever-Excellent Feminist Dialogue, Janice Leigh Poss
CGU Theses & Dissertations
This Women's and Gender Studies in Religion dissertation seeks to restore awareness of women's religious leadership using the actual embodied experience of Yeshe Tsogyal and Hildegard von Bingen embedded in the philosophical terms Erlebnis (German), Padartha/Bhava (Sanskrit), and srid pa (Tibetan). Brief definitions are: Erlebnis as enthusiastic, lived experience and awareness, Padarthas as categories of real things or actualities, Bhava as the act of emotional or spiritual feeling, and Srid pa as becoming in possibility. Drawing on the above four terms encapsulated in a feminist transnational and intersectional methodological framework, this project reinforces women’s authority and influence in religion as …
Good Girl Bootcamp: Performative Femininity, Purity Culture, And Other Things Girls Are Taught,
2026
Eastern Illinois University
Good Girl Bootcamp: Performative Femininity, Purity Culture, And Other Things Girls Are Taught, Kiersten Holland
Masters Theses
Performative femininity is a dangerous and controlling idea that subjugates women and places their inherent worth on how well they can conform to societal standards in male dominated spaces. Consequently, the reactionary messaging that surfaced as a result of these social pressures created a series of stereotypical female characterizations often depicted in the material and visual cultures of each period. By comparing contemporary literature with literature from the Victorian time period, it emphasizes the longstanding and controlling gender stereotypes pervasive throughout the past few centuries. This thesis attempts to understand and analyze the way that literature both critiques and supports …
Expressing Experiences Of Being Gender Non-Conforming In The “Ladies” Restroom Through Autoethnography-Based Research Poetics,
2026
University of Kentucky
Expressing Experiences Of Being Gender Non-Conforming In The “Ladies” Restroom Through Autoethnography-Based Research Poetics, Ellen D.B. Riggle
Gender and Women's Studies Faculty Publications
Three research poems are created as an autoethnographic response to feedback on a research article on the author’s experiences as a gender non-conforming person in women’s public restrooms. The feedback loop includes the sharing of lived experiences by others and theoretical (why?) discussions in the context of the gendered policing and politicalization of women’s restrooms. The first found poem includes words, phrases, and descriptions of images used to label spaces designated as women’s restrooms. The second prose poem recounts the author's experiences through a reframing of risk to women’s health, understanding the cultural context of male entitlement and White supremacy, …
Madness In The Mixtape: Gothic Literature And Pop Music,
2026
Northern Illinois University
Madness In The Mixtape: Gothic Literature And Pop Music, Nicholas Dertinger
Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations
In Gothic literature, madness has often been connected to the outliers of what is considered socially normal. This dissertation explores the enduring theme of madness, particularly the figure of the “madwoman,” in both women’s literature and in its “afterlife”—or continuing conversation with—contemporary pop music. Through a comparative analysis of songs including Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” (1978), Beyoncé’s “Hold Up” (2016), Lady Gaga’s “Plastic Doll” (2020), Olivia Rodrigo’s “good 4 u” (2021), Billie Eilish’ “What Was I Made For?” (2023), Paramore’s cover of “Burning Down the House” (2024), Taylor Swift’s “mad woman” (2020) and Florence + the Machine’s “Dream Girl Evil” …
“None In Velvet Gowns”: Camp Followers And White Womanhood In Eighteenth-Century Anglo-American Warfare,
2026
University of Texas at Arlington
“None In Velvet Gowns”: Camp Followers And White Womanhood In Eighteenth-Century Anglo-American Warfare, Angelica Labren Torres
History Theses
For over two hundred years, women who followed American and European armies during the long eighteenth century were popularly stereotyped and denigrated as prostitutes, burdens, and generally individuals of ill repute by both contemporaries and subsequent generations of historians. While recent scholarship has largely debunked this long-standing characterization as simplistic and inaccurate, the question remains: why exactly were these women so mischaracterized in their own time, particularly by commissioned officers and other members of Anglo-American middling and elite classes, when ample evidence existed of their material usefulness and comparative marital fidelity? This thesis seeks to address the ideological and cultural …
Marginalizing Messages, Emotional Impacts, And Coping Strategies: Exploring The Experiences Of Bangladeshi Female Gamers In Online Multiplayer Gaming Spaces,
2026
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Marginalizing Messages, Emotional Impacts, And Coping Strategies: Exploring The Experiences Of Bangladeshi Female Gamers In Online Multiplayer Gaming Spaces, Tahura Tabassum Tari
All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects
This study explores the experiences of Bangladeshi female gamers in online multiplayer gaming spaces, focusing on the marginalizing messages they encounter, the emotional and social impacts, and the coping strategies they use. Although online gaming is often seen as an open and inclusive digital space, for many women it remains shaped by sexism, exclusion, and cyberbullying. In Bangladesh, these experiences are further influenced by patriarchal norms, moral policing, and gendered expectations. Using a qualitative research design, this study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews with Bangladeshi female gamers who actively participate in online multiplayer games, along with cyber-ethnographic observation of gaming-related Facebook …
Natalist Incentives And Stratified Reproduction: Framing Of Reproductive Policies Under The 2025 Trump Administration By Print News Media,
2026
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Natalist Incentives And Stratified Reproduction: Framing Of Reproductive Policies Under The 2025 Trump Administration By Print News Media, Sadie K. Marsh
All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects
In this research, I seek to analyze the reproductive policies set forth by the Donald J. Trump Administration in the year of 2025. In this analysis, I ask, what role stratified reproduction plays in the framing of the natalist policies by the news media. Secondly, I ask the following questions: 1) What reproductive health issues were centralized in the print news coverage of the 2025 Trump Administration? 2) Does the mainstream news media identify how President Trump’s policies differentially benefit and marginalize individuals in a manner that privileges some mothers over others? To answer these questions, I conducted a qualitative …
Helena María Viramontes’ Under The Feet Of Jesus And Sandra Cisneros’ The House On Mango Street: An Exploratory Analysis Of Female Friendship In The Chicana Feminist Bildungsroman,
2026
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Helena María Viramontes’ Under The Feet Of Jesus And Sandra Cisneros’ The House On Mango Street: An Exploratory Analysis Of Female Friendship In The Chicana Feminist Bildungsroman, Patrice Donnelly
All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects
This exploratory analysis examines female friendships presented in two mid-twentieth century Chicana feminist Bildungsroman, each between a Chicana protagonist and a female friend as foil. One friendship in Under the Feet of Jesus, by Helena María Viramontes, is interracial; the other, in The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, is Chicana. Both friendships interrogate the boundaries within mainstream feminism, particularly its monolithic views and complicity with power. Each friendship offers a Chicana feminist perspective centering family and cultural community. The theoretical foundation includes classical and contemporary understandings of Bildungsroman as literary form, Toni Morrison’s American Africanism, …
Theatre And Dance As Divine Purpose: Liberating The Christian Performer In Pursuit Of Artistic Worship,
2026
Hollins University
Theatre And Dance As Divine Purpose: Liberating The Christian Performer In Pursuit Of Artistic Worship, Abby Owen
Dance (MFA) Theses
This study examines the historical relevance of theatre and dance alongside religious forms of worship, with a particular emphasis on their integration into Christian churches of the Middle Ages, in comparison to the current Western era. Beginning with their origin, this research examines the creation of theatre and dance in Ancient Greece as a means of connecting with spiritual deities, tracing their recorded transition into accepted acts of everyday worship by Christian leadership. At the same time, this research scrutinizes contemporary congregations’ lack of artistic incorporation, denouncing the rise of restricted worship in response to present-day condemnation of the female …
Women’S Movement And Mobility In New York City: Restriction, Rejuvenation, And Resistance In The Progressive Era, 1900-1920,
2026
Hollins University
Women’S Movement And Mobility In New York City: Restriction, Rejuvenation, And Resistance In The Progressive Era, 1900-1920, Helene Martinez Erlbaum
Undergraduate Research Awards
In this thesis, I aim to explore the implications of women and girls travelling unaccompanied in New York City during the time before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (circa 1900-1920). By exploring specific examples of societal measures and responses to the phenomena of widespread female mobility – including responses to these original measures by both affirming and opposing parties – and increasing existence in the public sphere, I hope to discern the public attitude towards the growing social freedoms of women as they possibly move beyond the more strict Victorian or Edwardian social rules of the previous generation. Of …
Chapter 1: A Brief Introduction: Rhombus Motifs In Textiles,
2026
Missouri State University
Chapter 1: A Brief Introduction: Rhombus Motifs In Textiles, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin
Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes
Presents a brief introduction to rhombus motifs in textiles.
Chapter 4: The Grid Patterns In The Vestments And Headdresses Of Female Statuary From The Classic Period Cultures Of Central Veracruz,
2026
Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa
Chapter 4: The Grid Patterns In The Vestments And Headdresses Of Female Statuary From The Classic Period Cultures Of Central Veracruz, Chantal D. Huckert
Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes
This chapter focuses on grid designs appearing on female clothing in Late Postclassic Nahua sources, in Maya sources, and on the Late Classic figurines of Central Veracruz. This study examines cross-hatched lattice patterns based on repetitions of rhombus and quincunx motifs associated with the sentient Mesoamerican Earth complex. The attached catalog presents a clear reference to these motifs and their variants, while the rest of the chapter is divided into two sections and addresses the general cross-hatched lattice pattern and the associated motifs. The first section discusses the all-over grid design, dotted or not, on the clothing of Mexican highland …
Chapter 5: The “Dotted-Grid” And “Dotted-Diamond” Motifs On Skirts: Fertility And Power During The Epiclassic And Early Postclassic Periods In Central And Western Mesoamerica (600 To 1200 Ce),
2026
CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Chapter 5: The “Dotted-Grid” And “Dotted-Diamond” Motifs On Skirts: Fertility And Power During The Epiclassic And Early Postclassic Periods In Central And Western Mesoamerica (600 To 1200 Ce), Juliette Testard
Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes
Discusses gender, apparel, and attributes with respect to the Epiclassic shift in politics and ideology, the grid, hatched, and rhomboidal patterns in central Mexican imagery during the Epiclassic, and the dotted-grid and dotted-diamond motifs on female figurines during the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Periods.
Chapter 7: Symmetries Of Cloth And Corn In The Ancient Americas: Pattern Generation, Botany, And The Maize Matrix In Mexico And Peru,
2026
Fordham University
Chapter 7: Symmetries Of Cloth And Corn In The Ancient Americas: Pattern Generation, Botany, And The Maize Matrix In Mexico And Peru, Lois Martin
Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes
Discusses pattern generation, botany, and the maize matrix in Mexico and Peru.
Modernism’S Wild Child: The Interplay Of Modernist And Children’S Literature,
2026
Central Washington University
Modernism’S Wild Child: The Interplay Of Modernist And Children’S Literature, Rachel Riffel
All Master's Theses
Within literary criticism, American and British modernism are often characterized by the disillusioned writers and creators who established an elitist literary community during the early 20th century. This period is also distinguished by the Harlem Renaissance highlighting Black art, culture, and writing. Gertrude Stein, T. S. Eliot, Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps are well-known for contributing core texts to modernism and the Harlem Renaissance that expressed existential themes and developed experimental techniques. What many readers don’t know, however, is that these authors and many other contemporaries wrote stories and poetry for children. In this thesis, I explore the children’s …
Un-Determining The Overdetermined Body: Anorexia Nervosa And Selfhood In What I Lost By Alexandra Ballard,
2026
Bucknell University
Un-Determining The Overdetermined Body: Anorexia Nervosa And Selfhood In What I Lost By Alexandra Ballard, Maddalena (Maddy) R. Grieco
Honors Theses
This thesis examines the intersection between young adult fiction and anorexia nervosa through the lens of Alexandra Ballard’s 2017 novel, What I Lost. The fictional space of the novel interacts with the larger trends of American culture and society, forming a connection between the external world and the protagonist’s personal experience with anorexia nervosa. Specifically, this thesis explores three external forces–the fashion industry, the transmission of generational ideals and habits, and the institutional recovery center–that are mapped onto the site of the female body, resulting in the expression of anorexia nervosa. The following chapters detail each external influence, respectively, …
Adolescent Girls’ Experiences Of Digital Dating Abuse Through Social Media: A Scoping Review,
2026
University of Texas at Arlington
Adolescent Girls’ Experiences Of Digital Dating Abuse Through Social Media: A Scoping Review, Kiara E. Rodriguez
Social Work Theses
Teen dating violence (TDV) is a prevalent adverse childhood experience with lasting psychological and behavioral consequences. As adolescents increasingly engage with social media, with 95% of teens aged 13-17 reporting using it, digital spaces have become a significant context in which dating abuse can occur. Digital dating abuse (DDA) refers to patterns of abusive behaviors that are directed toward a dating partner through digital technologies, including social media and mobile phones. Despite the growing role of social media in adolescent relationships, research on how adolescent girls experience DDA in these contexts remains limited. The central question for this scoping review …
Aging With Mercy, Thriving In Place,
2026
Misericordia University
Aging With Mercy, Thriving In Place, Emma Layne Katzman, Karen Weis, Jennifer Rugletic Washko
Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2026
Occupational engagement, spirituality, and quality of life are recognized as important dimensions of aging, however, these factors remain underexplored among older adults residing within faith-based communal living environments. This doctoral capstone experience, Aging with Mercy, Thriving in Place, consisted of two distinct but complementary components: an Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved mixed methods research study and a quality improvement initiative. The purpose of the research study was to explore occupational engagement, occupational role transitions, spirituality, identity, and perceived quality of life among older adults residing within a faith-based communal living environment. Quantitative data were collected using the World Health Organization Quality …
Supporting Mothers Within The Criminal Legal System: Programs In Akron And Perceptions Of “Good Motherhood”,
2026
The University of Akron
Supporting Mothers Within The Criminal Legal System: Programs In Akron And Perceptions Of “Good Motherhood”, Brynn R. Lewis
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
This paper examines the programs and support systems available in Akron, Ohio, for mothers involved in the criminal legal system, including defendants, survivors, and other justice-involved individuals. Using qualitative interviews (n = 6) with professionals across courts, legal defense, community corrections, and advocacy organizations, this study examines how local institutions provide resources and support to mothers. Findings indicate that while programs aim to promote stability and rehabilitation, mothers face persistent barriers such as limited access to transportation, childcare, and communication, as well as heightened stigma tied to societal expectations of caregiving. These findings reveal that institutional support both reflects and …
