Digital Commons Network^™

Space As Experienced: Rendering Urban Interiority Through Research-By-Drawing, Sarah Javed Shah, Giulia Setti

Interiority

Architectural discourse has long privileged space as formally constituted—defined through geometry, enclosure, and typological classification—while its experiential and relational dimensions remain insufficiently examined. This article addresses that gap by proposing a methodological claim: the sequential and cumulative use of analytical drawing enables the investigation of spatial experience in ways that formal analysis and phenomenological description alone cannot achieve. Positioned as an epistemic framework, the research employs drawing not as representation but as a structured mode of inquiry. Five analytical lenses—liminality, permeability, intermingling, ephemerality, and complex interiority—are operationalised through a sequence of drawings that isolate and reconstruct the relational conditions through …

Villa Verde As A Quasi-Object: The Renegotiation Of Spatial Boundaries And Interiority, Tugba Cestel, Senem Kaymaz

Interiority

An architectural object interacts with its user through its functional and formal qualities. However, when stripped of these attributes, it discloses the potential to transform the phenomenal system it inhabits alongside the subject. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s hammer analysis and Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, this study explores the relationship between a user and an architectural object that lacks a predefined form or function. It examines how the subject’s intervention can reconfigure such an object into a quasi-object. This relationship establishes a conceptual bridge that can be read through both phenomenological and relational frameworks. In this domain, where spatial boundaries and …

Meanwhile Interiors, Interiority, And Becoming Exterior, Cathy Smith

Interiority

This paper explores the resonances between stakeholder conceptions of 'meanwhile' or transient urban interiors and the notion of interiority as a mobile construct intertwined with wider social and material forces. The focus is on the positioning of these interiors in relation to broader community and neighbourhood agendas, invoking what Jill Stoner describes as a becoming exterior. Although the so-called 'meanwhile use' of vacant or sub-market-condition buildings is an increasingly common tool for activating and managing underused property assets in global cities, much of the existing discourse focuses on policy and placemaking implications rather than design dimensions. Drawing on interviews with …

Identity, Needs, And Conflict Online: Understanding Cultural Fragmentation In The Black Diaspora, Imhile Omosede Dora Akpata

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines how identity formation, intra-diaspora tensions, and social media interactions contribute to fragmentation within the Black diaspora. While existing scholarship, including work by Godfried Asante and Elizabeth Chacoko has emphasized the fluid and socially constructed nature of Black identity, less attention has been given to how these processes operate in practice across diverse diasporic groups and how they are intensified in digital environments. This research addresses this gap by analyzing how individuals negotiate Black identity, how tensions emerge within the diaspora, and how social media shapes and amplifies these dynamics.

Drawing on Social Identity Theory developed by Henri …

Book Review: Unmasking (New) Maternal Realities: Pregnancy, Childbirth, Postpartum In Global Literature, Cinema, And Media, Julie Glickman

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Relational Knowledge In The Women’S Majlis: Towards A Culturally Grounded Qualitative Methodology In The United Arab Emirates, Gareth Davey, Suaad Al Oraimi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women-centered qualitative research in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) requires methodological approaches attentive to the places and practices through which Emirati women produce, share, and interpret knowledge. While feminist, decolonial, and participatory methodologies have challenged research approaches centered around men that are adapted for use in the UAE, comparatively little attention has been paid to grounding research in the everyday epistemic practices and social worlds of Emirati women. In this article, we develop a majlis-based relational methodology as a women-centered qualitative approach in the UAE. Our approach is centered on the women’s majlis—an Arabic term meaning a communal gathering place …

Recent Femvertising And The Flying Kick To Patriarchy: A Cross-Cultural Interpretation Of South Asian Media, Saheeh Shafi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study bridges a critical gap in scholarship on “femvertising”—advertising aimed at women that promotes women’s empowerment—by shifting the focus from the Global North to South Asia’s under-researched media landscape. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, the quantitative phase of the research analyzed 145 femvertising advertisements from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other international campaigns using chi-square tests to examine associations between gender portrayals and three empowerment types: woman-to-woman (solidarity among women), man-to-woman (patriarchal negotiation), and woman-to-self (self-determination). The qualitative phase employed semi-structured interviews with twenty women consumers to explore how they interpret, experience, and respond to these empowerment narratives. Findings …

Career, Self-Worth, And The Need For Self-Care: Understanding Urban Indian Women’S Journeys From Career Break To Re-Entry, Prabha Masilamani, Priya Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women often take career breaks as a response to major life events such as marriage, childbirth, and migration; nevertheless, the emotional complexities and nuanced decision-making attached to these events are hardly discussed. This study explores the lived experiences of twenty-two urban Indian women from the information technology sector who took career breaks and then returned to work. Using an interpretivist phenomenological approach and reflexive thematic analysis, five themes were identified across the three phases of career transition: before, during, and after the career break. Drawing on feminist frameworks including Kabeer’s (1999) agency within constraints and Kandiyoti’s (1988) patriarchal bargaining, the …

The Unseen Burden: A Rural Indian Woman’S Resistance To Political Marginalization And Mankeeping, Suraj Kumar Verma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This qualitative study examines how “mankeeping”—invisible emotional labor— undermines women’s political autonomy and sense of belonging in rural India, despite the implementation of gender equality policies. Women often perform unrecognized emotional, interpretive, and relational labor to maintain intimate relationships and community cohesion. Drawing on contemporary concepts of intersectionality, epistemic injustice, testimonial injustice, hermeneutical injustice, and the “third shift,” this study systematically employs a reflexive, narrative inquiry approach focused on Varsha, a forty-five-year-old lower-caste woman from Uttar Pradesh, India. The study reveals how her daily care work, such as caregiving, managing household dynamics, and navigating community expectations, affects her access to …

Workplace Cultures And Gender Dynamics In The Uae: Emirati And Expatriate Perspectives, Maxime Jaffré, Tatiana Karabchuk, Asna Kozhikkattil

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examines the moral regulation and institutional structure of the gendered division of labor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a rapidly modernizing society characterized by demographic imbalance and state-led economic diversification. Drawing on Durkheim’s theory of moral regulation and Weber’s concept of rationalization, the paper analyzes how women’s empowerment and Emiratization policies reshape workplace cultures across gender and citizenship lines. The analysis is based on original survey data collected between 2019 and 2024 (N=10,100), comparing Emirati citizens and expatriate residents. Descriptive findings reveal overwhelming support for women’s right to work and for gender parity in political representation, indicating …

Beyond The Double Burden: A Gendered Analysis Of E-Commerce, Unpaid Care Work, And Financial Resilience In Indonesian Msmes, Mia Ajeng Alifiana, Mamduh M. Hanafi, Bowo Setiyono

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study challenges the narrative of e-commerce’s potential for empowering women in the Global South by exploring the structural barriers that women entrepreneurs face in Indonesia, both as paid and unpaid workers. The study also challenges the notion of “techno-optimism,” which suggests that digital entrepreneurship inherently empowers women, by highlighting the obstacles women face in economic engagement due to a “second shift” of domestic labor. Through a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of 158 articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, we map the intellectual structure of the literature on e-commerce and the financial performance of micro, small, and …

A Feminist Examination Of Ao Naga Practices In Relation To Gender Roles And Care Work, Limatula Ozukum, Aswathy V. K.

Journal of International Women's Studies

Food practices within Indigenous communities are important sites of caregiving, cultural identity, and knowledge transmission. This study examines the food practices of the Ao Naga Tribe in Northeast India through a feminist ethnographic lens, focusing on the gendered organization of cooking, caregiving, and traditional healing practices. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork conducted in 2025, including semi-structured interviews and oral histories with community members in Nagaland’s Mokokchung district, the study explores how everyday food preparation and care practices shape household and community life. The findings reveal that women perform most of the daily cooking and caregiving responsibilities. At the same time, men …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Government Initiatives And Microfinance Performance: Economic Empowerment Of Women Through Self-Help Groups In India, Diganta Sarkar, Dileep Kumar Gupta, Shipra Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study is anchored in feminist understandings of empowerment as a relational process shaped by gendered power hierarchies within households, communities, and financial institutions. We offer a comprehensive analysis of governmental efforts, bank linkages, and economic empowerment of women through micro-finance in Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Although the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) data only provides aggregate financial indicators, we interpret the trends in savings, borrowing, and repayment in dialogue with feminist and intersectional scholarship on microfinance in India. The study provides insights into the role of microfinance in SHGs and the magnitude of support for women’s empowerment, …

Crafting Resistance: Kalpourgan Pottery As Gendered Expression And Cultural Identity Among Baloch Women In Iran, Arman Ovla

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the Indigenous pottery tradition of Kalpourgan, a remote village in Iranian Baluchistan, where women have sustained a thousand-year-old ceramic crafting practice that does not require a wheel. Drawing on visual ethnography, field interviews, and postcolonial feminist theory, the study explores how Kalpourgan pottery functions not only as material culture but also as a gendered form of labor embedded within household economies. Through direct observation, semi-structured interviews with women potters, and visual documentation—including photography, drawing, and video—the research traces how design is embedded in oral transmission, ritual practice, and intergenerational knowledge systems. The findings demonstrate that pottery production, …

Moralized Patriarchy In Kazakhstan, Aigul Zabirova

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines how patriarchal norms persist in post-socialist Kazakhstan despite expanding opportunities for women in education and public life. Using nationally representative survey data (N=8,101), I analyze attitudes toward maternal employment, educational priorities, labor market rights, and household income arrangements. I find a hybrid gender regime in which support for women’s education and public participation coexists with continued endorsement of men’s economic priority and authority within the family. Gender hierarchy does not disappear under modernization. Rather, it is reproduced through culturally valued ideas of duty, virtue, and family harmony. I call this gender order “moralized patriarchy.” To explain how …

Rural-To-Urban Migration And Household Reconfiguration In China: Lived Experiences Of Muslim Migrant Women Workers In Jinan, Ila Joshi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Rural-to-urban migration in China has profoundly reshaped Chinese society since 1979, resulting in separated families, so-called “left-behind children,” and socio-economic inequalities as part and parcel of the migration process. This paper examines the impact of rural-to-urban migration by focusing on the experiences of migrant women belonging to the Muslim (Tatar/Hui) community in Jinan, Shandong province of China. Despite the relaxation in restrictions on migration in the post-reform era, migrants—especially women migrants—face persistent legal and emotional challenges. Through ethnographic fieldwork, this study analyses the experiences of eight migrant women employed in formal, semi-formal, and informal work sectors. These in-depth interviews are …

Special Issue Editorial Introduction: Family Formation, Gender Equality, And The Gendered Division Of Labor In The Global South, Tatiana Karabchuk, Soumaya Abdellatif, Aizhan Shomotova, Malina Voicu, Muhamad Olimat

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

The Calculation Debate In A New Century: A Conversation Between An Austrian School Economist And A Socialist Philosopher, Tegan L. Truitt, Larry Alan Busk

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

No abstract provided.

A Late Byzantine–Early Islamic-Period Farmhouse At Mesillot In The Bet She’An Valley (Pp. 181–192), Pinhas Porat

'Atiqot

Three strata (III–I) were identified during the excavation. The date of Stratum III is unknown. Stratum II, the main building phase at the site, probably dates to the late Byzantine period. A large, roughly square building was unearthed, comprising a large central courtyard surrounded by at least 16 rooms. It probably served as a farmhouse. Stratum I represents repairs and additions to the Stratum II building, possibly during the Early Islamic period. The finds from Strata II and I include pottery vessels, mostly domestic, iron objects, stone objects, a clay tile and coins. The latest coin dates from 739/740 CE …

A Middle Bronze Age Ii Site West Of Tell Qasille (Pp. 65–128), Raz Kletter

'Atiqot

The site remains comprise a cemetery, two pottery kilns and a settlement dating to Middle Bronze Age II. Ten burials were excavated, all except one (T800) were rectangular pit-graves dug into kurkar sandstone. Each grave contained one to three individuals; T800, which was round, contained seven individuals in secondary deposition. The average grave assemblage comprised about ten pottery vessels, which were usually placed in a row next to one long side of the burial. The pottery kilns are almost identical in size, direction and structure. They are of the vertical type, with two main superimposed parts: a combustion chamber and …

Chalcolithic Burial Sites At Ma‘Abarot And Tel Ifshar (Pp. 45–63), Yosef Porath

'Atiqot

The two burial sites are located in the Sharon plain, south and north of Naḥal Alexander. The kidney-shaped cave at Ma‘abarot was hewn in the kurkar sandstone. All the burials in the cave were secondary. Of the 63 burials identified, 42 were placed in three types of ceramic vessels—house-shaped ossuaries, chest-shaped ossuaries and large domestic kraters—and 21, in ‘bone heaps’. The finds consisted of pottery vessels typical of the Chalcolithic period, e.g., V-shaped bowls and fenestrated bowls and bottles, and a flake from a flint digging tool. At Tel Ifshar, two burial places were discovered, both damaged by infrastructure work. …

A Chalcolithic Burial Cave At Eṭ-Ṭaiyiba (Pp. 1–44), Eli Yannai, Yosef Porath

'Atiqot

The cave, hewn in soft limestone, is of an irregular oval shape, with high margins that served as benches. A minimum of 38 ossuaries were found in the cave, some open and box-shaped, others closed and house-shaped; ossuary jars and kraters were also found. The ossuaries were decorated with plastic ornamentation, depicting pegs, noses, eyes and rope decoration, as well as painted ornamentation in various patterns, e.g., triangles, lines and arches. Funerary goods included only pottery vessels characteristic of the Chalcolithic period: V-shaped bowls, cornets, amphoriskoi, fenestrated pedestal bowls and cylindrical stands. It seems that the people buried in the …

Editors' Introduction

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Full Issue 20.1

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Genocide In Gaza? Social Media Discussions Of Violence In Israel And Gaza, Timothy Williams, Andreas Dafnos

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article conducts social network and topic analyses of German-language posts on X that discuss genocide and terrorism in Israel and Gaza in the first six months after the October 7 attacks and compares these to broader English-language discourses on the platform. The comparison reveals subtle differences in how Israeli violence and governance and Palestinians are discussed and who is seen as complicit in supporting violence. Markedly, German-language posts discuss what constitutes antisemitism more and employ a more restrained language towards Israel as a state and its political actors than English-language posts. We tie these findings back to the idiosyncrasies …

Genocidal Criminology: My Testimony, Yarin Eski

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article is a testimony on the entanglement of my personal biography, responsibility, and lived experience of genocide denial and, subsequently, developing criminologies of genocide and its denial, based on my formative experiences, ranging from encountering Armenian genocide denial as a student, to dealing with institutional constraints and careerism, to my academic activism, raising awareness about the Gaza genocide, to, finally, prospecting genocide and ecocide in outer space: astrocide. These experiences configure a genealogy of what I term genocidal criminology that unpacks and criticizes criminological knowledge, institutions, and practices that produce genocide (denial), both epistemically and structurally. Essentially, I argue …

Arts & Literature: Gaza And The Question Of Prevention—An Interview With Bruce Robbins, Luis Gonzalez-Aponte

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: A People Destroyed: New Research On The Roma Genocide, 1941–1945, Elizabeth Graham

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Abiquiú And Georgia O’Keeffe Neighbors In A New Mexico Village, Katherine E. Mccully

History ETDs

This thesis centers the people of Abiquiú, a small town in northern New Mexico, and discusses their history through the twentieth century into the twenty-first century. I have collected oral histories of Abiqueños, their families, and lives in Abiquiú. More specifically, this thesis explores their experiences of residing with a famous person, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, while maintaining their traditions as a Genízaro village. This thesis is not written solely about O’Keeffe, but, as much as possible, emphasizes the perspectives of the Abiqueños and Abiquiú, while O’Keeffe resided in their community. I seek to write the little-told story of O’Keeffe through …

Unbroken Sovereignty: Land, Water, Education, And Nakoda And Oc̣Eti Ṡaḳowiŋ Tribes Of The Fort Peck Indian Reservation, 1850–1935, Richard Joseph Maska

History ETDs

This dissertation explores the intersection of sovereignty and development among the Nakoda (Assiniboine) and Oc̣eti Ṡaḳowiŋ (Sioux) Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Methodologically, it draws on a critical reading of archival sources in conjunction with community input. It traces the emergence of reservation policy, government sponsored education, the imposition of allotment policy and private landownership, and the impact of state-sponsored irrigation and other development projects. I argue that the Tribes forged webs of affiliation and kinship to both assert their nationhood and navigate their involvement in such projects. These expressions …