Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons^™

The Case Of M.C. – An Argument For Legal, Medical, And Social Recognition Of Ambiguity, Debra Beight

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper is an examination of the interconnectedness of juridical, medical, and social constructs surrounding intersex/DSD (Difference/Disorder of Sex Development) sex assignment surgeries. Looking at a pending court case involving a child that was in state custody at the time of their sex assignment surgery, we can observe the influences of the medical industry’s tendency to treat intersex conditions like disabilities, as sites of therapeutic interventions. These pathologized intrusions become government-sanctioned interventions that are supported by, and in turn bolster, societal expectations of conformity and normalcy.

Marriage Equality And “It Gets Better”: Neoliberalism And The Absence Of Political Feeling, Kristi Carey

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The fight for marriage equality and the “It Gets Better” campaign exist as two activist movements within contemporary gay liberation politics. This paper will understand these iterations of activism as both emanating from and perpetuating our neoliberal and capitalist present. Through striving for the politics of inclusion, both marriage equality and the IGB campaign merely rearrange the societal and rhetorical plane rather than undertake structural change—that which critically questions the very structures that individuals want to be included into. Using Foucault’s (1976) exploration of the repression of sex within marriage, as well as Cvetkovich’s (2012) theories of depression, I ask …

Liberation Is Not Wearing A Bra To The Gym, Maggie Deagon

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Psychosomatic Disorders In The Queer Community, Tanner Gill

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper analyzes and evaluates why psychosomatic disorders are present in such higher rates in the queer community than in other communities. To assess this issue, this report supplies research on the intersection amongst various sexual and gender minorities within the community, three psychosomatic disorders (eating, anxiety, and mood disorders), and the heteronormative and homophobic society in which the aforementioned items are positioned. These disorders are linked to the feeling of societal marginalization in communities where heteronormativity and homophobia are prevalent and predominant, and also the bullying, hate, and stigmatization that coincide with such social institutions. To combat the rapid …

For Those On Glass Cliffs: The Nature Of Women In Power As Explored Through Frozen, The Abramson Effect, And "Let It Go, Raelissa Glennon-Zukoff

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper seeks to explore the link made by Deborah Spar in her recently published piece The Ambramson Effect: Tales of Women Who Topple From Power between the effects of the glass ceiling and glass cliff effects on women in the topmost positions in American businesses, organizations, and corporations and the ascension to power of Queen Elsa in the Disney motion picture Frozen. By incorporating media reports on merchandising and animation, as well as scholarly research, this paper places Spar's theory into a more accessible space. Furthermore, by referencing the lyrics to the feature power ballad from the animated film, …

Grotesque Bodies: Transsexuals’ Struggle For Truth In Iran, Marie Lecuyer

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Many western commentators have been shocked by the legislation addressing transsexual’s’ right to transitioning and sex reassignment surgery in a strictly-gendered regulated county like Iran. As if all of a sudden Iran rose among countries of the Middle East as a paradise for transsexuals. Other recurrent narratives depicted the Iranian members of the LGBT community as victims of a purely theocratic and authoritarian regime, forcing non-gender normative individuals to change sex to fit in society. Rather, the space given to transsexuals now allowed to function more freely and be at peace with themselves reshapes the LGBT community’s relation to the …

Rational Emotion, Feminine Professionalism, And Cooperative Success: Women Scientists In Star Trek: Voyager As Challenges To The Dominant Ideology, Kiran Mccloskey

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This article considers Star Trek: Voyager’s portrayal of women in the sciences through the lens of Eva Flicker’s 2003 review of scientific women throughout film and television from 1927 to 1999. Two core divergences in Star Trek: Voyager are identified: the absence of constraining dualities such as the rational/emotional and professional/feminine divisions, and the lack of isolation experienced by the female scientists. Such a representation would have positive effects on female viewers according to the sociological interpellation process model, which is supported by testimony and correspondences with multiple fans.

Between Autonomy And Alienation: Creating The Self Via Sex-Reassignment Surgery, Annthony M. Duffey

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Upon a consideration of self-creation and the introduction of the gender binary a potential limiter of autonomy, sexQreassignment surgery (SRS) beckons significant reconsideration by the biomedical/ethical field, ranging from the transpersons who undergo it to the preoperative processes that oversee it. Autonomy does not underlie a majority of SRS on prevailing biomedical hypotheses; SRS is granted to those candidates who report symptoms of dysfunction and denied to candidates who do not confirm such suspicions. This research proposes that, upon his or her failure or refusal to demonstrate some understanding of the potentially limiting influence of the gender binary, a candidate …

Nonconsensual Pornography, Hannah Mcneil

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper addresses the issue of nonconsensual pornography and its effects on victims; a case study involving an in-depth interview of a participant who offers a personal perspective on the struggle of coping with the damaging aftermath of revenge porn. This research aims to examine how this type of exposure and online sexual harassment is harmful to its victims and seeks to raise awareness for this form of harassment in the digital age.

Effects Of School Curriculum On Sexual Health, Emma Sturm

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Surveys indicate that, when asked directly, women have positive perceptions of their vaginas and perceive vaginal, sexual, and reproductive health as important. However, when asked about their actual habits relating to vaginal health, women’s answers seemed to suggest the opposite. This disconnect between perceptions and practice suggest there may be some societal influence keeping the women from carrying out their health maintenance as well as they would like to. This paper examines the role schools play in controlling women’s sexuality, which may be contributing to the lack of accessibility to vaginal, sexual, and reproductive health.

Sexual Assault: Whose Fault Is It Anyway In A Rape Culture?, Grace Pappas

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Sexual assault has recently gained attention as a prevalent issue in American culture, particularly on college campuses. While in some places much is being done to raise awareness and end this form of gendered violence, too often fingers are pointed at possible causes rather than intertwined as hands held together in the fight against this injustice. Through an examination of empirical research, it is clear that the issue of sexual assault stems from and is perpetuated by a rape culture, a culture in which we are all a part. This paper argues that if we are to fight sexual assault, …

Bending The Binary: Lgbtq Sex Workers’ Gender Presentations, Nicole White

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The lived experiences of LGBTQ sex workers are largely unknown. Of the few representations of LGBTQ sex workers in media and academia, most are shrouded in inaccurate and dehumanizing stereotypes. Through qualitative interviews with eight LGBTQ sex workers in Denver and Boulder, Colorado, this thesis attempts to portray an accurate view of the way LGBTQ sex workers negotiate their gender and sexual identities. LGBTQ sex workers were found to balance their queer and trans identities and presentations with clients’ perceived desires for hegemonic gender presentations, maintaining a unique blend of authentic presentation and marketability.

Gender Work: Survival, Subversion, And Subjectivity For Queer And Trans Youth, Josie Wenig

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Gender play as a mode of exposing hegemonic gender norms has become over determined and circumscribed within queer discourse. Subversion becomes only possible through hyperbole, drag, and performance. We play with gender, we fuck with it, and that’s that. What would a different framework, one that accounts for the very real labor of gender, look like and how would this redefine resistance? Discussions of “gender play” leave some things to be desired: an intersectional understanding of how people negotiate gender presentation, and a way to talk about how gender can be intentional, strategic, and still subversive. These considerations become even …

Saffron Cod (Eleginus Gracilis) In North Pacific Archaeology, Megan A. Partlow, Eric Munk

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) is a marine species often found in shallow, brackish water in the Bering Sea, although it can occur as far southeast as Sitka, Alaska. Recently, we identified saffron cod remains in two ca. 500-year-old Afognak Island midden assemblages from the Kodiak Archipelago. We developed regression formulae to relate bone measurements to total length using thirty-five modern saffron cod specimens. The archaeological saffron cod remains appear to be from mature adults, measuring 22–45 cm in total length, and likely caught from shore during spawning. Saffron cod may have been an important winter resource for Alutiiq people living …

"The Problem Of Locomotion": Infrastructure And Automobility In Three Postcolonial Urban Nigerian Novels, Danica B. Savonick

Graduate Student Publications and Research

This essay analyzes automobility in three postcolonial urban Nigerian novels: the fantasy of self-propulsion that subtends a colonial modernity materialized through the erection of urban infrastructure. Tracing the disjuncture between automobility and infrastructure—the “problem of locomotion” (Achebe)—reveals the inextricability of mobility, modernity, urbanism, and colonial violence even into Nigeria’s formally postcolonial period. By exploring how characters both invest in and move beyond inherited colonial narratives, these novels challenge top-down images of Lagos, instead depicting it as a city “otherwise fashioned” (Abani) from their characters’ perspectives on what it feels like to dwell and sell on the streets.

Maine-Wabanaki Reach Newsletter, Winter 2015-2016, Wabanaki Reach

Wabanaki REACH Newsletters

The Winter 2015-2016 issue of the Wabanaki REACH newsletter discusses ally-building in Maine communities. Headlines in this issue include:

• Moving Forward
• The Great Healing (poetry)
• Ally Building in Maine Communities
• Health, Wellness & Self Determination in Wabanaki Communities
• 2nd Annual Wabanaki Wellness Gathering
• Teaching the Teachers — Professional Development Workshops
• Save the Date!
• Community Education

Making It Work Before The Movement: African-American Community And Resistance In 1940s And 1950s Portland, Maine, Justus Hillebrand

Maine History

African Americans in Portland, Maine, in the 1940s and 1950s made up less than 0.5% of the population. As a consequence, discourse on race was more subtle than it was in other parts of the country. The Portland black community, as in other small northern New England cities, lacked the numbers for broad public or political action. Instead, African Americans developed individual and informal strategies of resistance aimed at broadening opportunities in education, employment, and housing. African Americans “made it work” by congregating in their own church, persevering in their own educational goals, operating their own businesses, and owning their …

A Narrative Of The Torments And Unlikely Freedom Of A Child Slave, Hanna Taylor

Slave Narrative - Short Stories

This short story was written as part of the Slave Narrative project, created for an African American Literature class taught by Allison Harris in fall 2015. Students created stories based on the perspectives of real individuals documented in the UM Libraries Special Collections’ Slave Documents Collection.

Betsey Simons: Freedom At What Cost?, Anthony Maristany

Slave Narrative - Short Stories

This short story was written as part of the Slave Narrative project, created for an African American Literature class taught by Allison Harris in fall 2015. Students created stories based on the perspectives of real individuals documented in the UM Libraries Special Collections’ Slave Documents Collection.

Earth And Ashes, Michele Mobley

Slave Narrative - Short Stories

This short story was written as part of the Slave Narrative project, created for an African American Literature class taught by Allison Harris in fall 2015. Students created stories based on the perspectives of real individuals documented in the UM Libraries Special Collections’ Slave Documents Collection.