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Indigenous Stitch-Arts Of India: Tradition And Revival In A Global Age, Punam Madhok

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Stitch art allows for the creative expression and economic support of countless women throughout India. This article examines four notable styles: chikankari, flora and fauna stitched in white thread on fine white cotton, rabari, the stitching of mirrors into colorful cloth, phulkari, resplendent flowery motifs sewn into shawls in Punjab, and kantha, Bengali patch work yielding quilts and seating mats. In addition to describing each technique, this article discusses how women have been economically empowered through this art by such organizations as Self-Help Enterprise (SHE) in Kolkata and Adithi, a women’s cooperative, in Bihar.

Childhood: The Hidden Side, Arcelia Gómez

MA Projects

Childhood has been typically perceived as the sweet, candid, innocent, harmless, naïve phase of the human existence. However, is it possible that behind this kind façade there are hidden the cruelest, most frightening and most devastating monsters of humankind? The current state of humanity, as a species, is constructed on constant movement, continually changing, perpetually evolving. This is a natural behavior, dating back to the very origins of civilization, in its earliest days. This characteristic detail is stored in the ability of the human brain to collect information and learn from situations experienced by the individual. In other words, the …

Manifesting Magic: Occultism And Feminism In The Art Of Leonora Carrington And Remedios Varo, Margaret Dirschl

MA Theses

The artworks of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo are replete with
/="/">symbolism and evocations of the occult, formulating bodies of work that are charged with magic and mysticism. When studied within the context of their male contemporaries of the Surrealist group, it becomes apparent that this use of the occult operates as a compelling and historically based feminist strategy. Immediately stemming from the occult revival of the previous century and the issues for females presented by Surrealism, the foundations of this idea originate much earlier in the pagan traditions of antiquity and the witch hunts of the 15th through …

Diversity, Equity, & Exclusion: Examining Jewish Identity & Antisemitism As Missing Pieces Of Dei And Ethnic Studies Education, Katie Meitchik

Pitzer Senior Theses

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a theory and practice that focuses on systemic structures, inequities, and social change by examining concepts such as race, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, ability, and religion. Incorporating DEI initiatives into learning spaces can lead to a deeper sense of self, stronger coalition building, increased civic engagement, and a sense of healing, resistance, and belonging. Although a nationwide criteria for using DEI practices in education has not yet been implemented as a key component to public school teaching, there are programs emerging with the intent to utilize the theory. This has led to a movement …

Identity And Perception Among Aspec Consumers Of Mass Media, Jericho Franke

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The portrayals of sex and romance, as well as asexuality and aromanticism, in mass media can have a profound impact on the way asexual and aromantic media consumers view relationships and their own identities, and affect the perception and treatment of the aspec community as a whole. This study uses mixed qualitative methods of online discourse analysis and participant interviews to examine the how mass media has shaped the self-perception and life experiences relating to sex and romance among aspec audience members.

The Dances Of The Presidency, Robert Chapin Poyser

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis will analysis the ideologies of Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, & former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The thesis will focus on the use of feminist critiques of the political rhetoric spoken by all three politicians to argue the discourse in the Obama era, Hillary Clinton’s two Presidential campaigns and President Donald Trump rise as a politician.

Twitter As Limited Digital Rhetorical Forum – The Reproductive Rights Discourse Online, Jacob L. Longini

Comparative Woman

Rhetorical discourse has long been characterized by patriarchal systems, and this reality has persisted in online spaces. How might today’s scholar dissect and better understand the nature of online communities, specifically those that engage in women’s rights discourses? I argue that using Thomas Farrell’s notion of “rhetorical forum”, James P. Zappen’s outline for digital rhetorical theory, and Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin’s feminist understanding of rhetorical practice, one can account for the current state of such discourses on Twitter. The patriarchal flaws that Foss and Griffin identify in traditional rhetoric can shed light on the negative aspects of …

Magpies, Bridge And Goddess: Unearthing The Hidden Symbols And Rediscovering The Lost Goddess In Chinese Qiqiao Festival, Juan Wu

Comparative Woman

The Qiqiao Festival, also known as the Qixi Festival, or Chinese valentine’s day, is a festival celebrating the annual meeting of the Cowherd and Weaver Maid in mythology. The most influential version focuses on the romance or love theme; however, it ignores its underlying historical context, gender tension and mythical belief. This paper takes the texts, rituals and materials related to the Qiqiao festival to investigate its origin and evolution. First, it takes the anthological case of the Qiqiao festival in Xihe county to explore its core image of the holy bridge and Goddess Qiao. Second, it traces the bridge …

Evil No More: The Image Of The Witch And Women In The United States From Seventeenth And Twentieth Centuries, Morgan Taylor Peacha

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Women in both colonial America and the twentieth century United States were impacted by the notions of witches and witchcraft. There was an integral change in witchcraft during the era of growing feminism and equality in political status. In the colonial period, what was once a disguise for women's oppression, has become a tool for women's liberation.

Influenced: Performing Gender And Femininity In Mormon And Evangelical Online Spaces, Kathryn Ann Davis

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The construction of a digital self is fully performative; online identities are simultaneously highly curated, edited, and uniquely personal. These spaces allow users to become producers of identity and religious narrative. In this dissertation I examine the online communities which are a dynamic and developing aspect of religious life in America. I will argue that religious women have created increasingly diverse virtual spaces for themselves, and that these online communities give women a safe space to talk about their faith and create common bonds with other female adherents. I have engaged with these creators directly through oral history interviews and …

Retention Rate Factors Of Junior Enlisted Females In The U.S Marine Corps, Iris I. Esquilin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The modern United States Armed Forces is the largest and most powerful military force the world has ever experienced, and the U.S. Marine Corps represents the most elite members thereof, claiming the iconic tagline “The Few, The Proud.” However, while the Marine Corps expends considerable effort in recruiting excellent personnel, the branch also faces a high turnover rate, with 75.0% of first-year enlistees choosing not to continue their service for a subsequent term. This retention problem is especially pronounced with respect to female Marines, who only make up 8.0% of the Marine force, the lowest of any U.S. military branch. …

Role Strain And The Mental Health Of College-Educated African American Women, Andrea Alston-Brundage

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractWomen occupy many roles today, including wife, partner, parent, student, employee, and caregiver. This study addressed the effects of multiple roles on degreed African American women. The specific purpose was to assess the relationships between the marital and parental roles and employment status of college-educated African American women and assess mental health impacts as a result of role strain. The theoretical foundation for the study was Goode's role strain theory. The Working Women’s Role Strain Inventory, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and General Anxiety Disorder-7 were administered to 82 women participants between the ages of 22 and 61 who were involved in …

Mental Health Utilization Among Former Pregnant And Parenting Teen Mothers, Chana Danielle Campbell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teen pregnancy and parenting at an early age can create numerous emotional stressors. Despite the documented need for mental health services among pregnant and parenting mothers, utilization rates of mental health services remain low. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of pregnant and parenting mothers who utilized mental health services. Bandura’s social learning theory was used to explore how the experiences, perceptions, learned behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs surrounding mental health services impacted teen mothers’ experiences with mental health utilization. One-on-one interviews were conducted with eight teen mothers or other young mothers who had given …

Performing Grrrlhood: A Lyrical Analysis Of Riot Grrrl Music, Vida Hasson

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the lyrics of the three founding Riot Grrrl bands: Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy. I explore how Riot Grrrl bands politicize girlhood to undermine patriarchal authority and empower girls to redefine feminism for themselves. I provide the historical context for Riot Grrrl as a political movement and its cultural impact in the 1990s. In my analysis I connect the lyrics to feminist discourse to demonstrate how Riot Grrrl provided women and girls a platform to discuss feminism and patriarchal oppression. Music has the power to send messages to the masses and Riot Grrrl's legacy proves …

Supreme Court Interruptions And Interventions: The Changing Role Of The Chief Justice, Tonja Jacobi, Matthew Sag

Faculty Articles

Interruptions at Supreme Court oral argument have received much attention in recent years, particularly the disproportionate number of interruptions directed at the female Justices. The Supreme Court changed the structure of oral argument to try to address this problem. This Article assesses whether the frequency and gender disparity of interruptions of Justices improved in recent years, and whether the structural change in argument helped. It shows that interruptions decreased during the pandemic but then resurged to near-record highs, as has the gender disparity in Justice-to-Justice interruptions. However, although the rate of advocate interruptions of Justices also remains historically high, for …

The Acceptance Of Womanhood: Gender Performance And Self-Actualization In L.M. Montgomery's Anne Of Green Gables, Anne Of Avonlea, And Anne Of The Island, Lauren M. Hinshaw

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

There is a pervasive cultural conception of what it is to be a woman, and in literary criticism that preconceived notion of womanhood becomes the basis for a majority of feminist critique; however, because of the particularities of human experience, gender is a highly variable aspect of identity that is reliant on both internal and external factors. According to Judith Butler, among these factors is the means by which a given individual performs their gender. Performances that portray gender are not consistent from one individual to the next; rather, various masculinities and femininities can simultaneously exist as accurate representations of …

Queer Historicism As Literary Theory: An Exploration Of Three Texts, Theodore D. Kenning

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

An Education In Democracy: Understanding And Subverting Censorship In The English Classroom, Hannah R. Woolsey

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The politicization of education has presented a challenge to offering students diverse English Language Arts instruction. Across the county, lawmakers have proposed legislation that limits discussion about race and sex or allows parents to restrict their child’s exposure to materials that violate their moral or religious beliefs. In this tug-of-war, teachers will be forced to decide between avoiding controversial topics or risking dismissal. Increasing censorship, now codified by law in many states, is rooted in our polarized political landscape, divided along cultural and geographic lines. The challenge facing educators, then, is how to create space for inclusive, social justice-oriented instruction …

Yes, Baby: Essays, Amy Gault

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This creative thesis includes thirteen flash nonfiction pieces and one fiction short story exploring emotions and experiences that have changed who I am today. These writings are personal experiences or are inspired by personal experience. These creative works interrogate deeply transformative events and situations, such as familial relationships, trauma, poverty, living in the Midwest, patriarchy, and the beauty in existing. In the thesis’s critical introduction, I examine how my flash nonfiction pieces employ Milan Kundera’s theory of the appeal of play and Charles Baxter’s concept defamiliarization. I analyze how the succinct form of the flash essay allows my nonfiction writing …

A Jotería Identity And Belonging: Pláticas Of Co-Creation With Queer And Trans Latinx Graduate Students In Higher Education, Sergio A. Gonzalez

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Homophobia, patriarchy, and white supremacy are deeply embedded in academia and our communities; consequently, there is a lack of empirical research that speaks to the collective experiences connected to Jotería, queer people of color, and Latinx graduate students (Tijerina Revilla & Santillana, 2014). Additionally, research has found that too often, queer and trans (QT) Latinx and other queer communities of color are pushed aside to the margins of academia and society (Tijerina Revilla & Santillana, 2014). Furthermore, silenced, queer and trans, Latinx student experiences, both inside of the classroom, and within the larger college community, lead to a lack of …

Dolor Y Angustia: Creative Practice And Arts-Based Advocacy And Activism, María G. López Davila

International ResearchScape Journal

This practice to press article discusses how arts-based advocacy and activism can be used to raise awareness about human rights violations. Inspired by the work of my mother, Dr. Morella Davilla, a physician of obstetrics and gynecology in Venezuela, and the arts-based activist work of London-based artist, Aida Silvestri, my arts-based advocacy and activism work, Dolor y Angustia [Pain and Anguish], illustrates the creative process of a visual representation of Female Genital Mutilation, one of the most oppressive and horrific acts enforced upon women and girls.

Conceive And Control: Cultural-Legal Narratives Of American Privacy And Reproductive Politics, Emily Naser-Hall

Theses and Dissertations--English

Law and literature share a foundation in narrative. The literary turn in legal scholarship recognizes that the law itself is a form of narrative, one that simultaneously reflects socio-cultural norms and creates social and political regulations with a complex matrix of power. Cultural narratives from the 1950s to the mid-1970s pertaining to reproductive politics, domesticity, and national identity both produce and are productive of legal rulings that govern and restrict private acts of sexuality and speech. The Supreme Court used cases concerning sex and reproduction to enumerate, explicate, and complicate the right to privacy, which appears nowhere in the U.S. …

Ovid's Caeneus As A Queer Hero: Understanding Gender And Gender Variance In The Ancient Mediterranean., Rj Palmer

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

Caeneus, as written in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is a notable blend of ancient and Hellenistic versions of the myth. Ovid’s Caeneus can be understood as a transgender man, since he was assigned female at birth, but asks for his gender to be changed by the god Neptune, and goes on to live the rest of his life with the body, appearance, and social roles of a man. Ovid incorporates Caeneus’ trans identity with his use of grammatical gender endings for Caeneus, using masculine gender for Caeneus except when discussing his pre-transition childhood, or when the centaurs address him mockingly while fighting. …

The Psycho-(Geo)Political Driving Forces Of Comfort Women Social Movements In South Korea, Jaeyeon Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

"Comfort women" refers to the estimated 80,000 to 200,000 women who were forced to serve the Japanese imperial army sexually, physically, and mentally during WWII in and beyond the Asia-Pacific region. Since 1992, Korean activists have held the Wednesday Demonstration, which is the weekly protest in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, to call for an official apology and legal compensation from the Japanese government. Since 2011, Korean activists have also installed comfort woman statues in and outside of South Korea.

This dissertation examines the psycho-political driving force behind the Wednesday Demonstration and comfort woman statue movements in South …

Sexualidad, Afectos Y Sociedad: Las No Monogamias Consensuadas (Nmc) En La Literatura Y El Cine Español, Sandra Nava Nieto

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

Cuando pensamos en las relaciones sexo-afectivas que podemos tener en la sociedad occidental, el sistema monógamo es la opción estándar. La amatonormatividad, el patriarcado y la monogamia son un potente trío que se retroalimentan en cuanto a la promoción de la discriminación de la mujer y de los afectos no heteronormativos. El sistema monógamo sigue vigente, no solo mediante legalizaciones, sino mediante refuerzos sociales de las normas de género. Las relaciones no monógamas consensuadas (NMC), un grupo heterogéneo de relaciones sexo-afectivas fura de la monogamia, pueden ser un punto de inflexión para cambiar los roles de género y desestructurar la …

Mujeres En Crisis: Posturas Divergentes Frente Al Neoliberalismo, Silvia Encinas Caballero

Theses and Dissertations--Hispanic Studies

Popular belief has always attributed women an innate capacity to overcome periods of crisis, whether these are provoked by an economic debacle or by a natural disaster. My dissertation explores the representation of women in Spanish narrative and film from the beginning of the global economic crisis in 2008 up to the recession caused by the Covid- 19 pandemic in 2020. I study how specific cultural production can serve to perpetuate models of patriarchal domination or to provide alternative representations of women as independent, resilient individuals in times of economic crisis.

I analyze four novels and three films in which …

Baba Yaga: An Ecofeminist Analysis Of The Witch Of The Woods, Maya Lozinsky

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I will argue that Baba Yaga’s prevalence in Russia’s culture and media provide a unique opportunity to gain insight into the junctures between the climate crisis and gender inequality in Russia. Despite the persistent gender inequities present in current Russian society, ecofeminist frameworks and ideologies are already deeply embedded in Russian culture. Women, as a group, have always been politically active in Russia, from resisting the introduction of Christianity in the 9th century, to the feminist resistance group Pussy Riot founded in 2011. I will examine Baba Yaga’s history, her role in the Russian folktale, and her …

Why Have There Been No Rich Women Artists? Examining The Gender Price Discount In The Contemporary Auction Market For Early Twentieth Century Mexican Avant-Garde Art, Lucy P. Bloomstran

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper examines the gender price discount for early twentieth-century Mexican avant-garde art in the contemporary auction market. A premium for art by men is established through the econometric analysis of a dataset of auction transactions taking place at major American and Mexican auction houses between 2000 and 2022. After this price discount for women’s art is established, a deep delve into gender discrimination in the creation and exhibition of Mexican Muralism and Surrealism is presented to provide possible art historical explanations for the results of the regression analysis.

Celebrity, Music, And Public Persona: A Case Study Of Taylor Swift, Elaina K.M. Junes

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Studies have shown that celebrity culture is one of many significant sources of influence that inform the construction of individuals’ identities as well as their outlook on work, life ambitions, and accomplishment. Celebrity also offers a unique window with which to examine both how social structures operate in the mainstream, and how social inequalities are reproduced. This study utilizes qualitative research methodology by way of longitudinal content analysis to examine how Taylor Swift’s public persona has evolved comparatively throughout the early and late stages of her career, specifically in regard to her gender, age, and music. This study identifies ten …

Barriers To Outdoor Recreation For Marginalized Groups At The University Of Montana, Sabine R. Englert, Beatrix Frissell, Adrienne Liebert, Sophia Rodriquez, Margaret Jensen, Rachana Harris, Abby Doss

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Exclusion from outdoor recreation reflects legacies of oppression of marginalized communities and makes access to the outdoors not equally available. In the United States, approximately 38% of Black Americans and 48% of Hispanic Americans participated in outdoor recreation in 2020. This is compared to 55% participation among Caucasian Americans. Many other intersecting identities are actively excluded, including people with disabilities, fat populations, and members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community; furthermore, class-based hierarchies are shown through the restricted outdoor access of low-income populations.

While numerous studies show a lack of diversity in outdoor recreation, little to no research has been conducted on …