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An Asexual Autist’S Feminist Musings On The Lord Of The Rings, Robin A. Reid

Journal of Tolkien Research

Abstract: This reader response is about how a seventy-year-old asexual autist began to discover her feminist queer politics by reading Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings at the age of ten. Countering the negative stereotype of feminists (and/or women) disliking Tolkien, Reid describes how her autistic obsession with Tolkien’s world and her love for Éowyn led her first into online Tolkien fandom and then into aca-fandom. She chronicles a journey from feeling isolated and weird in her childhood and adolescence (in small-town Idaho during the 1960s) to finding communities in which her weirdnesses (autism, asexuality, and feminism) were not only …

“As Bachelors Very Exceptional”: An Asexual Reading Of Frodo Baggins, Danna Petersen-Deeprose

Journal of Tolkien Research

Queer Tolkien scholarship has seen a number of homosexual readings of Frodo Baggins. While there are indeed many elements within the text that support a queer reading, it is a mistake to insist that queer elements necessarily point to homosexuality. This article advances an alternative queer reading of Frodo: an asexual reading. Drawing queer and asexual scholarship, including Ela Przybylo, Danielle Cooper, Audre Lorde, and Jack Halberstam, this article examines Frodo’s actions, journey, and characteristics through an asexual lens, focusing on his solitary life in the Shire, the way he is perceived by the other Hobbits, his lack of any …

“A Natural Human Activity”: The Split Attraction Model As A Tool For Reading Tolkien’S Legendarium, Sarah Courtis

Journal of Tolkien Research

The works of J.R.R. Tolkien have long been a refuge for readers seeking escape; a world of eucatastrophe where difference is celebrated, and friendship lauded. Despite his egalitarian themes, gatekeepers attempt to bar those living at the margins and intersections from reading themselves into the texts, denying that applicability which Tolkien called for in his own works. One such applicable interpretation of the legendarium is through the lens of asexuality and aromanticism. As there are no graphic sex scenes (though contrary to GRR Martin’s claims sex does exist in the world and is expanded upon in The Nature of Middle …

Chaste Bachelors And Abstaining Husbands: Celibacy And Asexuality In The Line Of Finwë, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

The episodic celibacy seen among the Eldar, especially in the House of Finwë, can be read through several contexts relevant to Tolkien’s personal experience and historical period. First, bachelorhood and celibacy as social issues in Britain from the Victorian era through the interwar period provide a possible backdrop against which to analyze the House of Finwë. Second, Finwë’s line can be read through Tolkien’s own views on marriage concerning the unnaturalness of monogamy for men. Analyzing Tolkien’s legendarium through these contexts reveals a complex tension between fecundity and celibacy among male Elves, especially in the line of Finwë, including the …

“Motions Of Love And Friendship”: Elven (A)Sexuality, Clare Moore

Journal of Tolkien Research

This essay argues that Tolkien constructed Elven sexuality as inherently asexual, given its marginalization to other aspects of their lives and identities. Elven (a)sexuality maintains space for sexual desire and relationships, representing a wide spectrum of asexuality, but it marginalizes sex through Tolkien's depiction of the body and spirit dynamic, a non-urgent desire between couples, the period of life when Elves engage in sexual activity, and the number of children typical for Elven couples. After establishing a norm of asexuality, this essay then explores show Legolas, Curufin, and Celegorm fit into this norm but represent diverse experiences of asexuality.

Defending Lgbtqia+ Young Adult Literature In Classrooms: A Secondary English Methods Assignment, Summer Melody Pennell

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

The author describes how teachers and community advocates can defend the use of LGBTQIA+ Young Adult Literature in the secondary classroom by aligning teaching ideas to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English. Through analyzing student work from two secondary English methods courses, the author found that students were able to find ways to teach the majority of the domains of ELA: reading literary fiction, reading informational texts, writing, and speaking and listening. Students also justified their pedagogical ideas with scholarship from English education. Rather than seeing LGBTQIA+ texts as outliers, the evidence shows they can be used to …

A Reading Of "Western Women's Travels To Morocco 1860-1956" By Latifa Benjelloun Alaoui, Brahim El Harfi

SOROUD: The journal of Literacy Criticism

Western Women Travelers in Morocco 1860-1956" by Latifa Benjelloun Laroui delves into the experiences of Western women who traveled to Morocco between 1860 and 1956. The book is split into two parts. The first part focuses on three distinct periods: pre-Protectorate with Drummond, during the Protectorate under Lyautey, and the post-Protectorate phase. It describes how these travelers, often diplomats' wives, missionaries, or journalists, experienced Morocco, its cities, culture, and people. The second part discusses the experiences of specific travelers, including journalists and women of letters, and their impact on the foreign perception of Morocco. The book provides a unique insight …

A Reading Of “Ladies Of The East: Great Travelers Across Arab Countries” By Cristina Morató, Salma Moutaouakkil

SOROUD: The journal of Literacy Criticism

This article discusses the image presented by Spanish journalist and writer Morato Cristina about British women who have embarked on bold adventures across Mesopotamia, Persia, and the Arabian Peninsula through her fascinating book “Women Travelers Across the Middle East” (2015), which falls under travel literature. The author portrays the lives of some English travelers and what they observed and recorded of events and facts during their journeys. Some of them interacted with Arab Bedouin women in past centuries and resembled them to the extent that they preferred to live and die in the Middle East desert over their aristocratic lives …

Zeynep Hanım: The First Female Ottoman Traveller Between Travelogue And Autobiography, Nesrin Karavar

SOROUD: The journal of Literacy Criticism

This article analyzes the letters of Zeynep Hanım, one of the first modern women Turkish travelers written from various European cities. The rich experience of this traveler and feminist pioneer is collected in her letters, offering us her vision to the realities of the situation of Turkish and European women. The search for a Muslim and independent female identity in Europe is reflected in her letters. Like all the traveling women of her time, she reflected her observations in her correspondence comparing Turkish and European women, but exercising perhaps a more perceptive analysis than many other female travelers.

Fascination By «The Other» And The Mirror We Look At Ourselves Lady Mary Montagu's Journey To The Ottoman Empire, María Jesús Horta

SOROUD: The journal of Literacy Criticism

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu traveled to the Ottoman Empire accompanying her husband, the English ambassador, and lived there between January 1717 and July 1718. She maintained a copious correspondence with her family and friends during her stay in Istanbul as well as during her journey, letters she later compiled and edited, and which were published under the title Embassy to Constantinople a year after her death. These letters constitute a truly important milestone for the travel literature of Europeans in the East because in them she left aside the stereotypes used until then, and tried to convey an objective and …

The Harem In Orientalist Art And Literature Between Fantasy And Authenticity, Fatima Zahra Ajjoul

SOROUD: The journal of Literacy Criticism

European travel to the Orient dates back to thousands of years, but fascination with the region flourished by the nineteenth century, the century of "harem literature" and Orientalist art par excellence. A number of developments made the trip to the Orient easier, safer and cheaper at the time. However, harem doors remained closed to male travellers who were left to imagine their own desirable details that mostly projected fantasies of exoticism, eroticism and despotism. Women travellers, on the other hand, took advantage of their gender-privileged access to the Oriental women's segregated spaces to shed light upon several obscured aspects of …

Editorial (English)Exploring The World: Knowledge And Imagination (English), Chouaib Halifi

SOROUD: The journal of Literacy Criticism

No abstract provided.

Out There: Notes And Stories A Hybrid Collection With Critical Introduction, Ben Porter

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of two parts: literary criticism and a collection of fiction and lyric essays. Across both sections, it examines the problem of description: how persons make experience, action, and suffering intelligible in language, and what happens when that intelligibility breaks down under historical, social, and familial pressure. The critical essay, “Failed Descriptions and Neoliberal Talk in Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist,” argues that DeLillo represents a crisis of intentional speech under neoliberal modernity, in which public language is narrowed to private affect and meaningful social description becomes increasingly difficult. Reading the novel through philosophers of language and …

The Concept Of Social Conflicts In The European Middle Ages Through French And English Studies, Mohamed Khennaoui

Bouhout

This article discusses the concept of social conflicts in the European Middle Ages through a reading of French and English scholarship. It questions the use of modern analytical categories such as class, order, and social stratum when applied to medieval societies, and warns against anachronistic interpretations. The article reviews how historians have approached tensions within feudal society, including peasant revolts, religious movements, rural crises, and conflicts between dominant and dependent groups. By comparing historiographical perspectives, the study shows that medieval social conflict must be understood in relation to the specific economic, political, religious, and symbolic structures of the period.

Performance Of Illustrations And Images As Language In Sarnath Banerjee’S All Quiet In Vikaspuri, Akanksha Barthwal Ms

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Sarnath Banerjee’s All Quiet in Vikaspuri, fictionalizes but at the same time addresses water wars and political ideologies in the city of Delhi. By the means of eco-critical approach in the name of Vi-kas (development) Banerjee discuss the acts of slow violence subverted on nature in the name of progress (vikas). Through text/ images the author depicts chaos and challenges for the readers in more direct and obscene ways. The current paper attempts to look at Banerjee’s illustrations and images as new form of language emerged in modern Indian literature with the possibly that illustrations have more effect on …

The Reading Quiz And Reflective Writing At The Start Of Class, Geert Dhondt

Open Educational Resources

This assignment uses brief, unannounced reading quizzes and reflective writing exercises at the beginning of class to promote preparation, engagement, and accountability in introductory economics courses. Through low-stakes assessment and opportunities for reflection, students develop critical thinking, metacognitive awareness, and a deeper understanding of course material while providing instructors with immediate insight into student comprehension and misconceptions. By informing class discussions and encouraging collaborative learning, the assignment creates a student-centered environment that supports active participation, independent learning, and ongoing intellectual growth.

How To Pay Attention To Detail, Gregory Crosby

Open Educational Resources

This assignment examines how writing cultivates attention by asking students to describe their commute to campus, first from memory and later through deliberate observation. By comparing the two accounts, students reflect on the selective nature of perception and how conscious attention alters what they notice and record. A final rewriting exercise inspired by Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style demonstrates how language, perspective, and form shape the interpretation of experience, reinforcing the connection between observation and craft.

Mainely Gay 50th Anniversary Tribute, Susan Henderson, Peter Prizer, Stan Fortuna

Mainely Gay (1978-1980)

A special 50th Anniversary Edition of Mainely Gay

The Fellowship Of Christ's Sufferings: Toward A Practical Philosophy Of Worship For Missions In The Latin American Church, Moriah Hope Joseph

Senior Honors Theses

Within Latin America, evil and suffering are ever-present realities that cannot be concealed, and the Hispanic society is aching for relief. Liberation Theology and the prosperity gospel – and their accompanying worship practices – have been offered as tools to help alleviate the experience of suffering. But these theological perspectives and practices have accomplished little in edifying the Church by way of truth. Thus, the call for the modern missionary is to instead preach worship that is a response to the incarnate Christ in suffering. The missionary must advocate for worship practices that provide space for biblical lament, reveal a …

Emotion In Absence: Omission, World War I, And Masculine Vulnerability In Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time, Anna Murph

ETDs from 2020-2029

This thesis analyzes Ernest Hemingway’s depictions of male-male and male-female relationships in his collection of short stories, In Our Time. By comparing heterosexual and homosocial relationships, I explore how Hemingway’s depictions of male bonds are not only unique due to his famed terseness but also rooted in shared understanding, prompting a reconsideration of how male bonds are interpreted textually. I consider Hemingway’s use of omission and focus on how his minimalistic style lends to a reading of male-male relationships as more emotionally intimate than heterosexual relationships. When analyzing omission and relational dynamics through concepts such as gesture, touch, identity, and …

Independent Apparel Brand Launch Campaign Strategy, Nick S. Schottenfeld

Graphic Communication

Soleil Lune is an independent California apparel brand with an established visual identity, a growing social media following, and a live product collection but lacks a coordinated marketing system to connect those pieces into a unified launch. Without that structure, the brand’s Instagram, Shopify store, and print materials were operating independently, making it difficult to build consistent customer trust or drive sales. This project developed a full launch campaign producing a print and digital lookbook, 10 Instagram campaign assets, a printed poster, and a branded care insert card all designed to work together to tell the brand story, grow the …

Arkansas Tech Writing, 15th Edition, Carl Brucker

ATU Faculty OER Books and Materials

This is the fifteenth edition of a text that was first published in 1989 as Assignments and Models for English 2053.

Carl Brucker is a Professor of English in the Department of English and World Languages at Arkansas Tech University, where he has taught technical writing and American literature since 1984. This text includes assignments, examples, and images supplied by Tech professors and staff members.

But What Did I Really Know?, James C. Schaap

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Managing Migration And Political Change: Lessons From Sweden’S 2015 Asylum Crisis For South Korea’S Emerging Immigration Era, Sean Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone project is to analyze how two nations that have little in common in terms of geography or politics have been required to deal with immigration issues in ways that their institutions did not anticipate. One nation has been dealing with immigration-related issues for some time now, while the other nation has yet to do so. In 2015, when Sweden received approximately 162,000 asylum applications in one year alone, Sweden’s housing systems were strained, many of the municipalities were unable to keep up with the demand, and the political climate began to shift in ways that …

Revolutionary Petunias In The Hallways: Adultification, Identity, And Black Girls’ High School Experiences, Renee Niles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines how adultification, the racialized misperception of Black girls as more mature, responsible, and self-sufficient, shapes high school experiences and identity development. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory and Black feminist epistemology, the study draws on interviews with eight Black women to explore how these experiences are interpreted over time. The study conceptualizes adultification as a form of developmental governance, an ongoing structural process that regulates perception, behavior, and identity from adolescence into adulthood.

Twitteratura: Digital Social Reading And Active Reception Of Literary Texts In The Context Of Italian Contemporary Literature, Iuri Moscardi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores Digital Social Reading (DSR) as a novel mode of literary engagement, focusing on the Italian project Twitteratura, a series of social reading experiments conducted on Twitter (2012–2016) and later on the Betwyll app. The research situates Twitteratura within the intersection of Reader-Response Theory, Digital Humanities, Reception Studies, and Sociology of Literature, demonstrating how digital environments reshape the act of reading and interpretation. Through detailed analyses of four DSR projects centered on major twentieth-century Italian authors—Cesare Pavese, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italo Calvino, and Natalia Ginzburg—this dissertation argues that Twitteratura provides a concrete, data-rich demonstration of Wolfgang Iser’s reader-response …

No Reply: The Exclusus Amator Through Ancient And Modern Love Poetry, Ayla Wing

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the exclusus amator, or “shut-out lover” trope as it appears in Greek and Roman texts, surveying the many examples of this motif and picking out its main elements: Intense Pain, Strong Emotions, Rejection, Interaction with the Door. It also notes the universality of the trope (anyone of any sexuality from any walk of life can be an exclusus amator) and the many references to the motif in other types of ancient media, including in graffiti, which shows that the exclusus amator was a real-life occurrence. This paper then examines modern songwriting, a genre chosen for its similarities …

The Soviet New Wave: A Comparative Analysis, Katarina Parks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis aims to assert the Soviet New Wave into the global New Wave cinema movements of the late 1950s and 1960s. Focusing on three Soviet films—Marlen Khutsiev's I Am Twenty (1965) and July Rain (1967), and Georgiy Daneliya's I Walk the Streets of Moscow (1964)—this study proposes that these works fully commit to the New Wave expression in form, sensibility, and content, despite the aggressive censorship of Soviet authority. By comparing the Soviet films with the French Nouvelle Vague, as well as with British, Polish, and Czechoslovakian New Wave cinemas, the thesis identifies recurring motifs: the centering of young …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of Privacy On Sexual And Reproductive Health Using Reports On The 2010 Earthquake In Haiti, Jillian E. Myers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 2010, a massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the capital city of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, causing great destruction of infrastructure and the devastating loss of about 316,000 lives and over a million homes. The earthquake destroyed agricultural production and clean water sources, causing severe resource scarcity along with the overcrowding in the relief camps. Following the earthquake, international aid organizations flooded into Haiti in an effort to help provide immediate relief. The relief efforts were unprepared and lacked coordination among each other to efficiently implement the needed aid services. Without strategic planning to ensure all people’s needs are met, women and …

Gremlin Theory: A Film Art Of Joe Dante, Frank Falisi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis seeks to establish the work of the filmmaker Joe Dante as a catalyzing and anarchic force let loose inside larger, dumber superstructures: linear narrativity, Hollywood, America, etc. It works to read the genre films he worked on—many of them made as popular entertainment for mainstream movie studios—as moments of actual subversion, allocating status quo (studio system) resources to create a biting-back against American imperial norms in the lingua franca of Marx and the Marx Brothers: gummy leisure-seeking stupidity and Gremlin transformation. This thesis seeks to argue that to understand Dante’s work is to understand pop transfiguration itself. This …