Digital Commons Network^™

Cinematic Representation Of Ethnic Minorities In Prc And Postcolonialism, Xinyu Lu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This paper explores the notions of “Sinophone” and “Chinese-language cinema” under the rubrics of postcolonialism in Chinese film studies both in China and elsewhere around the world. The paper argues that these postcolonial-inspired notions misconstrue Chinese national identity building as imperialist/colonialist endeavours, and dichotomize Han and Chinese ethnic minorities. The paper offers its counterargument by examining cinematic practices of people’s cinema, minority nationality films and native-language films in the PRC.

Possession, Production, And Power: Reading Objects In The Material Field, Anne E. Lester

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

This response piece explores the revival of interest in materiality and the relationship between medieval material culture and gender. Offering a rich and extensive overview of the study of materiality and gender, including a new definition of the “material field” drawing on Bourdieu, the piece specifically discusses how objects obtain their value and meaning within medieval texts, including Arthurian romance literature. The response argues that material objects give a woman power and control, outlining how this is evident through objects within texts and in material production, as evidenced in the section’s articles. The response piece poses – and offers some …

Positive Women: Emotion, Memory, And The Power Of Narrative In Women Organized To Respond To Life-Threatening Diseases, 1991-2020, Eleanor Naiman

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Note: In lieu of an abstract, this is the article's first paragraph.

"By 1992, the AIDS epidemic in the United States had reached seemingly catastrophic proportions. Over ten years after the first published report of AIDS-related lung infection, the number of AIDS cases in the United States far exceeded 100,000. It would be four years until the FDA approval of the first protease inhibitor. Over ten thousand women had been diagnosed with the disease, and experts expected over ninety thousand more were already infected. The disease, lacking effective treatment, increasingly struck women and people of color in the early 1990s; …

Melusine, Invisible Leadership And The Future (In The Past), Jan Shaw

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

This paper considers the operation of “invisible” leadership in the figure of Melusine from the late Middle English romance Melusine. By invoking contemporary leadership theory, this paper identifies leadership maneuvers in Melusine that are similar to those often practiced by women today, but the discourses of gender identity then ultimately render Melusine’s leadership invisible, just as leadership discourses today often render female leadership invisible. By uncovering the operation of “invisible” leadership in the figure of Melusine and identifying commonalities with the leadership of women today, this paper aims to improve our understanding of the contemporary problem of the marked …

Honoré De Balzac’S Portrayal Of The Feminine Condition In The Wild Ass’S Skin, Père Goriot, And The Lily Of The Valley, Brooke V. Musmeci

Honors Theses

In 19th century France, women appeared to be second class citizens. They were often limited in their abilities to have independence and secure their own wealth. This perception of women perhaps justifies why, as Honoré de Balzac’s novels illustrated the realities of French society, he attempted to characterize women’s struggles to obtain control and power in their lives. In his novels The Wild Ass’s Skin (1831), The Lily of the Valley (1835), and Le Père Goriot (1835), Balzac sought to prove how women could improve their lot.

Firstly, in studying how women had been relegated to second-class citizens under their …

Excavating Gender: The Embodiment And (Re)Presentation Of Social Relations In Mierzanowice Communities Of The Early Bronze Age, Mark Paul Toussaint

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The construction of gender in a society is based on a discursive relationship between culture and biology. Ideological components are often translated into structural factors, which condition access to social and biological resources and exposure to risk. Cumulative differential health outcomes for groups can become embodied in ways that affect the skeleton. By conducting population-level analyses of skeletal markers of health and trauma, bioarchaeologists work backwards to attempt to reconstruct social conditions. Archaeological and mortuary context is an important part of this process.

Cemeteries of the Mierzanowice Culture (MC) in southern Poland (2300-1600 BCE) offer a unique opportunity to study …

A Room, A Chair, And A Desk: Founding Voices Of Women’S And Gender Studies In Uganda, Adrianna L. Ernstberger

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper studies the birth and development of women’s and gender studies in Uganda. I conducted this research as part of a doctoral thesis on the history of women’s and gender studies in the Global South. Using feminist and standpoint theories, much of the research includes oral histories gathered over the course of three years of field work in Uganda. From the moment I heard my professor say, “I learned to be a feminist from Ugandan women,” I knew that I wanted to understand the history of women’s and gender studies in the country. In sub-Saharan Africa, the discipline of …

The Second Wave In Secondary Schools: Textbooks And Standards On The Feminist Movement, Melissa Browning 20

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

2020 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2020 IGGAD Conference: Without Borders: Tracing the Cultural, Archival, and Political African Diaspora.

Who Is Afraid Of ẸfúNṣetáN AníWúRà? Performing Power In Yoruba Masculinist Oligarchy, Omolola A. Ladele, Abimbola O. Oyinlola

Journal of International Women's Studies

The iconic Yoruba female personage of Ẹfúnṣetán Aníwúrà has, in several studies, been vilified; and at a first glance, it would seem that Akinwunmi Isola’s eponymous protagonist and heroine of that play reinforces the image of a villainous, wicked and self-centred woman. Contextualized within the Yoruba socio-political and economic national narratives of the late18^th and early 19^th centuries, this image appears both problematic and complexly contradictory. It is therefore useful to appropriately recuperate and verify the status of Ẹfúnṣetán Aníwúrà within the backdrop of Yoruba cultural context. This is illustrated through a feminist re-reading of Ẹfúnṣetán’s actions and …

The History Of Martha J. Lamb: Her Origin, Rise, And Progress., Mary Collins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

On June 16, 1883, Harper’s Weekly ran a story foreshadowing the transformation of the City of New York from the island of Manhattan to a massive metropolis, the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. Another article on the page announced that Martha J. Lamb “has become editor of the ‘The Magazine of American History.’” It does not mention that she was also president of the company purchasing the journal. Ten years later, just a few months after her death, Mrs. Lamb’s great work, her History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress, was included in …

Algerian Women's Waistcoats - The Ghlila And Frimla: Readjusting The Lens On The Early French Colonial Era In Algeria (1830-1870), Morgan Snoap

Honors Program Theses

Contemporary understanding of Algeria during the early colonial period (1830-1970) is predominantly informed by French colonial written and visual documents, often viewing the colonies through a male and Orientalist gaze. This is especially apparent in the images created by the French of women in the Algerian capital of Algiers. Whether in lithograph, photograph, or painting, French Orientalist compositions featuring Algéroises (women of Algiers) relied on the construction of an increasingly submissive and sexually available subject, notably dressed in tailored waistcoats which, for the French, became synonymous with Algéroise sexuality. In this way, Algerian women’s veritable voices and perspectives during this …

Constructions Of Prostitution In Berlin, 1914-45: Lessons In Understanding Sex Work, Legalization, And Decriminalization, Falen Wilkes

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Terrible Beauty : The Many Faces Of Helen Of Troy In Painting From Antiquity To The Nineteenth Century, Lindsay M. Taylor

MA Theses

Helen of Troy is one of the most complex and enigmatic characters from Greek mythology. For nearly two thousand years, her story has consistently been retold, reshaped, and reinterpreted in a rich variety of narratives produced in different contexts for different audiences. In the absence of a canonical version Helen’s tale, philosophers, poets, playwrights, novelists, musicians, filmmakers, and artists in every period have interpreted, modified, and embellished her character in disparate and contradictory terms. Consequently, she has played a significant role in Western artistic canon in a way no other figure from Greek mythology has been able to accomplish; she …

Battle Of The Sexes: A History Of Social Change And A Solution For Maintaining A Child’S Best Interest In Light Of The #Metoo Movement, Jackie Calvert

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Real Men Don't Get Lipos : Gender, Political Economy, And Biomedicine In Colombia's Male Beauty Industry, Jose Alejandro Arango-Londono

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The last few years in Colombia have seen the rise and expansion of male beauty industry. Such growth seems to suggest a shift from entrenched gendered ideas as well as new markets and economic opportunities to pursue. This dissertation is the result of eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in Cali, Colombia focusing on how the development of male beauty has emerged in a context that is profoundly shaped by the legacy of armed conflict and drug-trafficking. The expansion of male beauty industry flourishes in a political and economic moment in Colombia where neoliberal policies are prevalent in the state’s agenda.

An Analysis Of Early Modern Philosopher Mary Astell And A Critique Of The Western Canon, Analisea L. Araya

2020 Symposium Oral Presentations

In my paper I address the unfoundedness of leaving out certain voices in the historical studies of philosophy. In order to make this point I investigate a brilliant thinker of the 17th and 18th centuries, Mary Astell. I also address, analyze and critique the Western Canon for leaving out the philosophies of women, and highlight social constructivism and social representation theory in education and the philosophies behind these concepts. Despite the misleading drift of the Western canon, there were brilliant female thinkers throughout the history of philosophy. Telling only a single story of something that has so much depth, history, …

Factors Influencing The Likelihood Of Women Winning Elections, Natalie Browning

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study analyzes variables that increase the likelihood of women winning an election for the United States Congress spanning from 1970 to 2020. This study analyzes the relationship between how liberal the United States is and the likelihood of women winning elections. A dependent relationship was found between the level of liberalism rising in the US and women winning elections. Some of this study is also used to analyze a possible relationship between women being more likely to win open seats or those with incumbents seeking reelection. A possible relationship was found between those two variables, but it was decided …

The Creation And Evolution Of Introductory Courses In Women's Studies Programs, Tori Kay Olson

Master's Theses

This study seeks to understand what affects knowledge production in introductory women's studies courses. Using critical discourse analysis, the study looks at the archives of two very different programs within the Chicago area. the two programs studied, Loyola University Chicago and University of Illinois€”Chicago, offer two different examples of how women's studies programs were created and evolved, and how this influenced the knowledge production in their introductory courses. in addition to the archival materials of these two universities, this study relies on various reports and accounts written by women's studies scholars during the same timeframe as the documented archival material …

La Compiuta Donzella Of Florence (Ca. 1260): The Complete Poetry, Fabian Alfie

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

Translation into English of extant poems of the thirteenth-century Italian poet La Compiuta Donzella of Florence with poems addressed to her by Mastro Torrigiano and a letter to her from Guittone d'Arezzo.

Studying Gender In Medieval Europe: Historical Approaches, Caroline Dunn

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Queering Black Greek-Lettered Fraternities, Masculinity And Manhood : A Queer Of Color Critique Of Institutionality In Higher Education., Antron Demel Mahoney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing heavily on Roderick Ferguson’s (2012) theory of institutionality, this dissertation constructs a counter-historical genealogy of racialized gender in higher education and U.S. society through the formation of black Greek-lettered fraternities. Ferguson argues that with the insurgence of minority resistance globally and domestically during the mid-twentieth century, hegemonic power took a new form. Instead of rejecting minority difference, power’s new network attempted to work through and with minority difference in an effort to absorb and restrict these radical formations within state, capital and academy frameworks—producing narrow or one-dimensional minority subjectivities. Established at the turn of the twentieth century, black Greek-lettered …

Academic Feminists Analyses Of Female Celebrities From The 1980s To Today, Brittany A. Carey

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the history of academic feminists and their changing debates over race, class, sexism, and sexual preference from the 1980s to the present. In the 1980s, white feminists tended to focus on sexism in the workplace and class discrimination, while black feminists focused instead on the racism and classism that black women faced both inside and outside of academia. More recently, millennial feminists, in both third- and fourth-wave feminism, have continued to focus on racial discrimination within feminism (and broader society) while also examining women’s sexual preferences. However, they have stopped focusing on sexism in the workplace and …

Facing The Ruler, Facing The Village: On The Roads To Complicity Following Mengzi And Benda, Zvi Ben-Dor Benite

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, “Facing the Ruler, Facing the Village,” Zvi Ben-Dor Benite seeks to broaden the boundaries of the discussion about complicity by taking it away from late 20th-century and contemporary debates about it. At the same time, he wishes to highlight the many faces that the problem of complicity could have in different historical moments. Following Czesław Miłosz, this article understands that there are many roads to complicity that have been articulated in different ways across time and space. This article is, therefore, an integrated meditation on complicity bringing together two radically distant approaches to the question. Reading the …

Sins Against Our Soles: The Morality And Hygiene Of Nineteenth-Century Women's Shoes, Nicole Rudolph

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Our understanding of the Victorian woman has long centered around the idea of the “Angel in the House,” made famous by Coventry Patmore’s 1854 poem. This mythical ideal to which a middle-class woman should endeavor can be found in endless numbers of nineteenth-century texts and has become an oft-referenced concept in modern historiography. Representations of the attributes of the ideal woman circulated widely in society, pictured in etiquette books, medical journals, and especially advertisements. They were an ever-present reminder to women of the social norms governing their roles and life trajectories. As consumers, women were responsible for the presentation of …

“Country Faggots” Are Everywhere: Gay And Lesbian Life In Rural America, Katie Taylor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis will challenge many scholarly works that define being “out” and visibility as the ultimate expression of gay resistance. To define outness as the ultimate expression of resistance is to erase a group of people who did not have the privilege of always being able to be out and any contributions they made towards LGBT resistance. When studying LGBT resistance, it is important to acknowledge the necessity of political resistance, but that does not mean that other forms of resistance should be ignored. To analyze the importance of LGBT resistance outside of the public sphere means to re-examine the …

From Talking Softly To Carrying A Big Shtick: Jewish Masculinity In Twentieth-Century America, Miriam Eve Mora

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation follows the progress of American Jewish men in the difficult and often backsliding process of acculturation into American life. Jewish men have historically been held to a different standard of masculinity, one which both Jews and non-Jews throughout American history have ascribed in both positive and negative ways, often depicting Jewish men as bookish, gentle, weak, and even effeminate. Those Jews who strove to attain American manhood engaged in masculine American endeavors to the extent of their access and ingenuity. Their struggle to enter institutions of American masculinity reveals a great deal about Jewish acceptance in the United …

The Charge Of Deserting Their Sphere: The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society And Women’S Place In The Abolitionist Movement, Megan Irene Brady

Graduate Masters Theses

Responding to the all-male American Anti-Slavery Society and inspired by the expansion of women’s benevolent organizations, the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (BFAS) was founded in 1833. At the outset, the members defined themselves as pious women dedicated to immediate emancipation, while making no overtures to challenging their place in society. BFAS grew quickly in influence and membership, and helped organize the first national women’s anti-slavery convention in 1837. The convention brought together female abolitionists from all over the United States, some of whom espoused more radical views on women’s rights. This thesis examines how interactions at the national conventions—a network …

Complete Bosoms, Incomplete Men: Reading Abstinence In Measure For Measure, Joseph Makuc

English and Creative Writing Summer Fellows

Measure for Measure has often been called one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, and as recent productions show, Measure’s problems — including sexual coercion and governmental corruption — resonate with readers and audiences today. Recent scholarship has examined sexual abstinence in Measure for Measure in terms of its historical economic and religious context, arguing that protagonist Isabella represents a radical break from merchant economics by opting out of the sexual economy. However, Angelo and the Duke, the play's other central characters, also make claims about the values of abstinence, and those claims are at odds with Isabella's claims. My research will …

Broadening The Focus: Women's Voices In The New Journalism, Mary C. Wacker

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The New Journalism Movement chronicled a decade of social turbulence in America by breaking the rules of traditional journalism and embracing narrative elements in the writing and publication of literary nonfiction. The magazine publishing industry was controlled by men, and the history of this transitional time in journalism has been chronicled by men, neglecting to recognize the significant contributions of women working in their midst. This study shines a light on the historical narrative that defines our understanding of the significance and key contributors to the New Journalism Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. To better understand the …