James Madison University
University of Southern Maine
Bard College
University of Southern Mississippi
CUNY Graduate Center
East Tennessee State University
Georgia Southern University
Bucknell University
Augustana College
'A Hundred Times A Man': Chastity, Martial Culture And Manhood In Franco's Spain,
2026
Swarthmore College
'A Hundred Times A Man': Chastity, Martial Culture And Manhood In Franco's Spain, Ava M. Golde
Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal
Using the military as a case study, this essay seeks to understand how chastity became a symbol of complete regeneration for Spanish society, both in terms of a physical revival of a soldier’s health but also a moral and spiritual reawakening of the Catholic soul. In analyzing military magazines, instructional pamphlets, and the memoirs of soldiers, this paper unpacks the relationship between enforced male chastity and Francoist military masculinity, demonstrating how ideas of manhood were deliberately altered to fit a nationalist project of regeneration. Finally, I place this conception of the “New Spanish Man” within the broader context of militarized …
Female Perpetrators In Nazi Germany: The Effects Of Nazi Ideology And Radicalization On Three Female Concentration Camp Perpetrators,
2026
University of Massachusetts Boston
Female Perpetrators In Nazi Germany: The Effects Of Nazi Ideology And Radicalization On Three Female Concentration Camp Perpetrators, Stephanie Afonso
Graduate Masters Theses
The Second World War in Germany saw the largest number of civilian German women participating in brutal violence against Jewish peoples. The combination of sources used aids in presenting a broader image of these women both within the concentration camps and during their trials. This thesis argues the effects of Nazi ideology and radicalization on the three main subjects, Irma Grese, Maria Mandl, and Ilse Koch. Equally as important is how the American public perceived them and their roles during their respective post-war trials--which looked at them through the lens of femininity and sexuality. Within that violence came the transgression …
Going The Distance: How The Disney Renaissance Illustrated The Social And Cultural Changes In America During The 1990s,
2026
University of Massachusetts Boston
Going The Distance: How The Disney Renaissance Illustrated The Social And Cultural Changes In America During The 1990s, Deborah A. Bates
Graduate Masters Theses
The cultural and social history of America in the 90s is examined in this thesis by looking at the Disney Renaissance, a period of ten films made by the Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS). This thesis illustrates how the animators were able to seamlessly incorporate important societal trends of the 90s into their films, portraying a changing world within their films. As they were creating a new style of the animated movie musical, they were creating works that connected to the audiences watching in new ways, by putting up a reflection of society within their films. The way that the …
Cosmetic Nationalism: Fashion And Feminine Performance In Trump-Aligned America,
2026
University of Denver
Cosmetic Nationalism: Fashion And Feminine Performance In Trump-Aligned America, Nicola Rountree-Williams
Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals
This paper examines how fashion, beauty, and feminine presentation operate as political tools within Trump-aligned American culture. Drawing on historical examples from fascist Italy, Francoist Spain, and European aristocratic fashion, it argues that aesthetics have long been used to reinforce nationalism, gender hierarchy, and political authority. The paper analyzes contemporary trends such as “Republican makeup” and “Mar-a-Lago face,” arguing that these hyper-feminine and highly racialized beauty standards function as performances of loyalty, wealth, and traditional femininity within Trump-aligned politics. Through figures such as Kristi Noem, the paper demonstrates how women’s appearances can visually legitimize masculine authority while limiting women’s autonomy …
Reclaiming The Silenced: West African Women, Anticolonial Activism, And Storytelling As Historical Resistance,
2026
Georgia State University
Reclaiming The Silenced: West African Women, Anticolonial Activism, And Storytelling As Historical Resistance, Tahsina Nasir
Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies
This paper examines the systematic erasure of West African women from dominant historical narratives of anticolonial liberation, focusing on decolonization and post-independence nation building in Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, and Nigeria. Although women played central roles in organizing, mobilizing, and educating during nationalist movements, their contributions were increasingly sidelined once state power was achieved. Drawing on feminist historiography, Black feminist thought, and archival and literary sources, this study analyzes how state actors dismantled autonomous women’s organizations, including the Federation of Ghana Women, and confined women to symbolic roles within party-controlled structures. Figures such as Hannah Kudjoe, once central to political mobilization, were …
Winnie's Feminism: A Tribute To Mama Dr. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela As A Radical Feminist From 1986-2018,
2026
University of South Africa
Winnie's Feminism: A Tribute To Mama Dr. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela As A Radical Feminist From 1986-2018, Anna Lefatshe Moagi
Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies
Growing up in South Africa and having read several “tell-all” biographies by influential women have made this researcher aware of the struggles of women to be recognised and valued within their social environments. The many names that come to mind, when speaking of women’s voices that challenged their position in our society, belong to those of struggle veterans such as Adelaide Tambo, Ruth First, Lilian Ngoyi, Albertina Sisulu, Thandi Modise, Baleka Mbethe, Leymah Gbowee, Ruth Mompati, Charlotte Maxeke, Joice Majuru, Thuli Madontsela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Their as women leaders roles remain undervalued (Shekhawat 2015). These phenomenal influential women and many …
[2026 Honorable Mention] Impact Of Chicana Rewritings Of La Virgen De Guadalupe And La Malinche,
2026
California State University, Monterey Bay
[2026 Honorable Mention] Impact Of Chicana Rewritings Of La Virgen De Guadalupe And La Malinche, Destiny Villarreal Quintero
Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award
This piece elaborates on the cultural significance of La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Malinche in Mexican/ Chicanx communities and how they impact women's gender roles.
Who Tells Our Stories?: An Analysis Of Lgbtqia2s+ Community-Museum Collaboration In Northeastern Wisconsin,
2026
University of Denver
Who Tells Our Stories?: An Analysis Of Lgbtqia2s+ Community-Museum Collaboration In Northeastern Wisconsin, Frances Kerkhof
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Traditionally, histories of LGBTQIA2S+ individuals have been excluded from mainstream conversations and censored from public records. This exclusion was evident in how LGBTQIA2S+ history is retold in museum spaces. Over the past few decades, public institutions have shifted how LGBTQIA2S+ histories are communicated, with efforts to include more diverse histories and perspectives. During the summer of 2025, I conducted a museum ethnography of the Neville Public Museum’s Telling Our Stories: LGBTQ+ Voices of Northeastern Wisconsin to answer the research question: How does community engagement enhance the representation of the LGBTQIA2S+ community in a local museum in Northeastern Wisconsin? Through this …
Forced Dependency: The Subjugation Of Women Through Medicine In Ancient Greece And Rome,
2026
Binghamton University
Forced Dependency: The Subjugation Of Women Through Medicine In Ancient Greece And Rome, Evelyn J. Polovich
Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal
In the ancient Mediterranean men were in charge of every facet of life, including women’s medicine. They forced women out of the oversight of gynecology and reformed it into a method of control that they could assert in order to force women into a position of submission. This paper aims to bring the ways in which ancient medicine was influenced by cultural ideas and worked to subjugate women and allow men to gain further control over their autonomy. This research was inspired by the works of ancient physicians like Hippocrates, Soranus, and Galen, as well as contemporary sources that critique …
Regimes Of Pain: Violence, Silence, And The Reproduction Of Power In Indonesia,
2026
Universitas Nasional
Regimes Of Pain: Violence, Silence, And The Reproduction Of Power In Indonesia, Andi Achdian, Erna Ermawati Chotim
Jurnal Politik
This article examines political violence in Indonesia as a continuing mode of governance that extends beyond periods of open repression. Focusing on three historical episodes—the mass violence of 1965–1966, militarised rule in Aceh during the Military Operations Zone, and the racialised violence of May 1998—it argues that violence does not disappear after formal repression ends, but is reorganised within everyday life through bodily injury, social silence, fear, and learned endurance. To explain this process, the article develops the concept of regimes of pain, defined as forms of power that produce and normalise bodily suffering in order to sustain political order. …
A History Of The Underground Comix Scene: The Seriousness Of An Unserious Genre,
2026
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
A History Of The Underground Comix Scene: The Seriousness Of An Unserious Genre, Harris Darcie Shugart
Master's Theses
The Underground Comix Scene of the 1960s and 1970s was born out of an age of censorship. The Comics Code Authority, a regulatory body created by the Comics Magazine Association of America in 1954, established guidelines requiring publishing houses to self-regulate following a recommendation from the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1953. Comix with an X, for their X-rated nature, represent an emerging counter-culture in the latter half of the 1960s and the 1970s, with an epicenter of San Francisco. These comix and their artists were not interested in obtaining the looming ‘Seal of Approval’ from the …
Gathering Knowledge, Sustaining Science: The Female Forager And American Mushroom Culture, 1880–1930,
2026
CUNY Graduate Center
Gathering Knowledge, Sustaining Science: The Female Forager And American Mushroom Culture, 1880–1930, Madeline S. Dede-Panken
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Unearthing origins of modern mycophilia, this dissertation explores the mushroom mania which reverberated through American society at the turn of the twentieth century, empowering Anglo-American women in new ways. America’s largely forgotten first mushroom fad illuminates gendered negotiations of foraging culture and public science. Beginning in the 1880s, a remarkable cohort of women helped turn mushrooms from shunned, mysterious organisms into wholesome delicacies for culinary and intellectual enrichment. Female enthusiasts fostered a vibrant mushroom culture and nationwide network of mycophiles. Culinary applications and poisoning fears legitimized women’s presence in scientific endeavors, positioning mycology as vital female knowledge for public safety …
破酆都 Calling Her Through The Gates,
2026
Rhode Island School of Design
破酆都 Calling Her Through The Gates, Yuqi Liu
Masters Theses
My practice centers on papermaking, printmaking, and artist books to explore fiber as both image and language. I treat paper not simply as a surface, but as a living material through which memory, labor, and history can be held. By making my own sheets from plant fibers, fungi, and other organic matter, I create works in which material and meaning are inseparable. Shaped by my engagement with the natural world, women’s history, and overlooked vernacular forms of knowledge, my work moves through cycles of life and death, presence and disappearance, fragility and resilience. My projects with mushrooms and mycelium led …
Identity And Ideology: Dolores Ibarruri's Reconciliation Of Motherhood And Communism,
2026
James Madison University
Identity And Ideology: Dolores Ibarruri's Reconciliation Of Motherhood And Communism, Marvin Black
Masters Theses, 2020-current
The Spanish Civil War remains a significant cornerstone of the historical narrative of the early 20th century, as it served as the political and military precursor to World War II. The war was far more complex than a simple conflict between two ideologies, with many political and military leaders often overlooked. One of these individuals was Dolores Ibárruri, a leader of the Spanish Communist Party, who called on her experiences as both a mother and a communist to galvanize support for the Second Republic. How these two facets interacted and were shaped by Ibárruri’s personal experiences is often overlooked. Through …
Care, Control, And The Racial Regulation Of Black Women’S Reproduction In American Medicine,
2026
University of South Dakota
Care, Control, And The Racial Regulation Of Black Women’S Reproduction In American Medicine, Rheya K. Wilk
Honors Thesis
Black women in the United States continue to experience disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality, negative reproductive healthcare experiences, and documented disparities in medical treatment. From slavery through the twenty-first century, American medicine has repeatedly positioned Black women’s reproduction as a site of regulation, rather than care, making medical mistrust among Black women a rational response to a long history of institutional conflict embedded in American medicine. Drawing on medical history and bioethical analysis, this thesis traces reproductive abuse across distinct, yet connected, eras. Beginning with antebellum gynecological experimentation on enslaved women, it demonstrates how racialized assumptions about pain and …
From Farewell To Fáilte: The Voices Of Iowa’S Irish Daughters,
2026
University of Nebraska at Kearney
From Farewell To Fáilte: The Voices Of Iowa’S Irish Daughters, Katie Hermanson
History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity
Irish women’s immigration to Iowa brought rich culture and lasting impacts, despite their contributions being silenced by history. Women left Ireland for economic opportunity and education abroad to support their impoverished families. Millions emigrated between 1830 and 1915, spreading across the world. The Irish women who came to the United States encountered discrimination and cultural stereotyping as they worked in domestic service, developed religious orders, taught school, owned businesses and raised families. Women bore the burden of supporting their families in Ireland by sending remittances home and communicating between countries. Their cultural identity as exiles dwelled in guilt for leaving …
Penitential Systems In The Latin West And Byzantine East,
2026
University of Mississippi
Penitential Systems In The Latin West And Byzantine East, Elijah C. Dodson
Honors Theses
This thesis examines the development and organization of penitential discipline in early medieval Christianity through a comparison of the penitential tradition associated with Theodore of Canterbury in the Latin West and the canons attributed to John the Faster in the Byzantine East. The study focuses on how these texts regulated sexual sin and what their structures reveal about the institutional role of the Church in different historical contexts. The analysis is based on a comparative reading of penitential texts, supported by patristic writings and modern scholarship. By examining how specific categories of sexual misconduct are classified and disciplined, this study …
Do Clothes Make The Man? Ftm Crossdressing In The 18th-19th C. Anglo-American World,
2026
CUNY Hunter College
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.
The Consumptive Female Ideal: The Case Study Of “Snow White”,
2026
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
The Consumptive Female Ideal: The Case Study Of “Snow White”, Nayla G. Torres Ruiz
Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)
Tuberculosis (TB), also known as “consumption” or “phthisis,” was one of the most pervasive and culturally significant diseases of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Despite its high mortality rate—claiming more lives than cholera and smallpox combined—TB was widely romanticized in art, literature, and popular culture, particularly as a feminine disease associated with beauty, purity, fragility, and moral virtue. The physical traits of consumption—pale skin, rosy cheeks, red lips, glassy eyes, and a slender, delicate frame—became an ideal of female beauty, one that many women sought to emulate through restrictive diets, toxic cosmetics, and evolving fashion trends, such as increasingly tight …
Elizabeth Blackwell And Her Heirs: America And Great Britain’S First Female Physicians,
2026
Clemson University
Elizabeth Blackwell And Her Heirs: America And Great Britain’S First Female Physicians, Charleigh E. Sprawls
All Theses
This thesis seeks to explore the varying historical themes surrounding America and Great Britain’s first female physicians. Studying 1849-1894 allows for the exploration of not only the nineteenth century, but also the Gilded Age and Progressive Eras of American History. Professionalization played a crucial role in the lives of these women, as it drastically altered the makeup of the medical career, making it more difficult to enter and become qualified as a licensed physician. There were significant barriers to entering the medical profession for these women, including elements like race, class, and most importantly, gender. This thesis argues that while …
