Digital Commons Network^™

I Have Some Reservations: Examining Whether Federal Rules Of Evidence 413 And 414 Serve Legitimate Purposes Of Punishment For Native American Defendants, Cameryn Gonnella

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This essay will analyze the legitimacy of Federal Rules 413 and 414 as applied to Native American defendants through the lens of the purposes of punishment: rehabilitation, deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and restitution.

Dykebreaking: The Homophobic Rape Of Lesbian Woman And The Next Frontier Of Hate Crime Laws, Mallory L. Harrington

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This article will explain the motivations behind homophobic rape by examining it as both a sex offense and a hate crime, before arguing that its unique status at the intersection of both categories of offenses places its victims in a particularly vulnerable position and situates those who offend in this way in a more serious category of offender than other sex offenders.

Telling The Truth, Seeking Justice: Feminist Pedagogy And The Comfort Women Legacy, Sina Lee

Feminist Pedagogy

This commentary explores the pedagogical significance of teaching the legacy of comfort women—women subjected to sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II—in U.S. gender studies classrooms. Drawing on feminist pedagogy, the essay examines how testimonies from survivors like Hak-sun Kim and Bok-dong Kim empower students to critically engage with the intersections of war, colonialism, gender-based violence, and transnational justice movements. Through assigned readings, survivor testimonies, and documentary media, students confront the ongoing impact of colonialism and are encouraged to reconceptualize peace as a radical, actionable process. The essay also highlights the role of the United States in …

A Pedagogy Of Peace & Prose: Helping Students Engage With And Articulate Perspectives On The Plight Of Palestine Through A Tripartite Textual Analysis, Sydney E. Brammer

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

2025 Acssc Program, Acssc Planning Committee

Annual Celebration for Student Scholarship and Creativity

No abstract provided.

The Translucent Fortress: Improving The Design Of Rural Domestic Violence Shelters, Owen Baker Phillips

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Domestic violence is a nationwide social plague that effects millions of women each year and has increased in severity since Covid-19 (2020-2022). In the state of Georgia, 37.4% of women report experiencing some sort of physical violence by an intimate partner (NCADV, 2020). Severity and frequency of domestic violence increases drastically if the victim is living in a rural location. Qualitative studies conducted in Iowa, North Carolina, and Virginia all report that on average, women living in rural areas report 150% more domestic violence experiences at a higher severity than their urban counterparts and must travel on average 300% further …

Is Love A “Pathological Condition Of The Soul”? Joyce Carol Oates's Beasts And Rape: A Love Story, Nicolas P. Boileau

Bearing Witness: Joyce Carol Oates Studies

This paper seeks to address the question of Oates’s relation to feminist and gender theories by looking at two novellas published consecutively, Beasts and Rape: A Love Story in the beginning of the 2000s. The short texts share a common storyline based on rape, which is far from uncommon in Oates’s fiction. However, I argue that there is something very specific in these two novellas in the way Oates chooses to handle the testimony of the rape, both overtly and covertly, both in graphic details and in repressed forms of expression, giving way to a reflection on women’s vulnerable position …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 100, No. 3, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald for the period February 17 - April 20, 2025.

• Wilborn, Price. You Matter & You Are Not Alone
• Smith, Kane. Peggy Crowe Reflects on Counseling Center in Face of Staff Shortages
• Stafford, Hallie. Help with Horses – New Beginnings Therapeutic Horse Riding
• Hawkins, Kaylee. How a WKU Professor Helps Improve Student Mental Health – Jay Gabbard, National Alliance on Mental Illness Recovery Support Group
• McMahon, Jake. More Than a Coach – Brent Chumbley, Track & Field
• Simpson, Libby. WKU’s American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Brings Mental Health Into the Light
• Hardesty, Emma. Trans …

Make Them Hear You: Examining The Evolution Of Activism And Advocacy In The Gay Rights Movement, Angela Davis

Best Integrated Writing

This paper provides a thorough accounting and discussion of the strategies the LGBT movement employed during the past sixty years in an effort to achieve greater legal protections against exclusion and mistreatment. It offers an assessment of the successes and challenges of the movement, providing insights into the efficacies of strategies that may be employed in future waves of the movement.

Masculinity As Capitalism: Abuse, Control, And Domination Of The Earth In The Construction Of Gender Identity, J Guadalupe Dimayuga

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2025

This presentation explores the intersection of masculinity, capitalism, and ecological domination, arguing that hegemonic masculinity cannot be dismantled without addressing the capitalist system perpetuating it. Western feminist literature critiques masculinity and its manifestations but often overlooks capitalism as the root cause, thus failing to dismantle it and provide meaningful alternatives. Through an analysis of ecological and Marxist feminist texts, this presentation argues for a feminist philosophy that integrates the two for a more nuanced understanding of masculinity. This philosophy is supported by highlighting the ways in which capitalism enforces exploitation, control, and domination within gender identity. By integrating Indigenous perspectives …

El Sonido Del Exotismo: Retratos De España En Carmen, Grace Quasebarth

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Este artículo examinará la “orientalización” de la identidad nacional de España, que resulta de la creación de estereotipos tanto creados en el extranjero como apropiados por la misma España durante el siglo XIX. Específicamente, voy a examinar la influencia de la ópera francesa Carmen de Georges Bizet (1875) en la creación de la imagen nacional española actual en la “Canción del torero” de dicha la producción de Ana Zamora para el Teatro de la Zarzuela de la zarzuela por el mismo nombre (1887) en 2014. Como obra plenamente romántica, hace hincapié en las características de ese movimiento cultura; por ejemplo, …

Le Silence, Le Prédéterminisme Et La Sexualité : Le Cas De Thérèse Desqueyroux, Daniel E. Folger

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Le silence fait partie intégrante de l’histoire de Thérèse Desqueyroux. A Argelouse, née d’une famille dont la tradition exige l’effacement de l’individualité, elle n’échappe pas à cette répression en se mariant avec Bernard, ni en se sauvant à Paris. La nature inéluctable de son destin fait qu’elle est parfois comparée aux héroïnes tragiques Andromaque et Phèdre. Néanmoins, la parole de cette dernière possède un pouvoir que celle de Thérèse ne détient pas. Malgré la nature étouffante du mutisme imposé sur elle, le silence prend quelquefois un côté positif, notamment lorsque Thérèse est auprès de son amie Anne de la Trave. …

Promising Young Woman And The Structural Failure To Protect Women, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This paper explores Emerald Fennel's film Promising Young Woman and the relationship between women and male violence and how male violence is protected by misogynistic structures, specifically in the case of sexual assault. The paper argues that institutions and structures that are rooted in patriarchy and misogyny are fundamentally unable to protect women from the actions of violent men, both in the film and in reality.

Winter's End: Stopping The Rite And Reclaiming Spring, Jessica Wilson

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This dissertation examines intersections of patriarchy, feminist movements, and the recurring theme of women’s sacrifice, through an artistic lens. Using The Rite of Spring as a central subject, I explore the societal expectation of women’s sacrifice and its persistent representation in art. By analyzing two pivotal interpretations, Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (1913) and Pina Bausch’s Das Fruhlingsopfer (1975), within the chronological context of feminist waves in the United States, I investigate how these works reflect and critique cycles of violence against women. Four core patterns emerge as focal points: tradition, autonomy, witnessing, and betrayal. Additionally, my choreographic reinterpretation …

Gender Myths & Colonial Lies, Sophie Camilleri

Honors Papers and Posters

The gender binary is deeply ingrained in today's society, despite a general lack of knowledge on where this system originates from. It is crucial to counter misinformation stemming from propaganda and fear campaigns surrounding the gender binary. This research sheds light on the oppressive roots of gender, as well as its role in the colonization of marginalized individuals around the globe. This paper will make connections to present day systems of oppression and the long-term effects of colonization on Black and Hispanic women.

Celibacy, Or Death, Ari I. Stanley

Toyon: Multilingual Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Queerly Writing, Queerly Researching: Using Art-Based Research To Re-Examine My Past And The Imagined Future Of Queer Educators, Matthew Panozzo

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Through my own coming out process, I turned to LGBTQ+ books as mentors and guides on how to live authentically. These texts shaped my time as a middle and high school English teacher, as well as my time as a doctoral student. This article uses excerpts from Caught Between Closets (Panozzo, 2020), a social fiction written as my doctoral dissertation, to explore and highlight the way queer K-12 educators navigate personal and professional closets. These excerpts were written using a reiterative process (writing to research; researching to write) to re-examine personal experiences, empirical research, multimodal texts, and grey literature. This …

Sobre El Arcoíris: The Queering Of Mariachi, Tyician Charles Knight

Music ETDs

Mariachi is an internationally renowned artform and tradition whose history spans over decades and several continents. However, there are many aspects still embedded in mariachi culture that remain problematic; machismo (toxic masculinity), alcoholism, and homophobia to name a few. While there has been an increase of mariachi scholars who have critically examined these issues, mariachi culture itself has yet to address the challenges brought forth by its history of gender discrimination and homophobia and embrace practical changes that would enable the creation of a more equitable environment and further develop this living tradition. This thesis analyzes the trajectory of queering …

Casar Student Discussion Series #7: Censored Classrooms - Should Parents And Community Members Have A Say In Restricting Certain Books In Schools, Based On Factors Such As Religion, Age Appropriateness, And More?, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

Every semester, CASAR AUC holds miscellaneous student debates discussing the hot controversial topics in the US, Egypt and from around the world in hopes of raising awareness about these topics & broadening the perspectives of our students as they learn to engage in fruitful discussions as they share different opinion on the topic being deliberated.

On April 10th 2025, at this CASAR Student Discussion event #7 in light of the current book bans in the US happening from Trump's administration, we debated this question: 'Censored classrooms: Should parents and community members have a say in restricting certain books in schools …

Book Review: Wombs Of Empire: Population Discourse And Biopolitics In Modern Japan, By Sujin Lee, Bonnie Tilland

Asia Pacific Perspectives

No abstract provided.

Rupert Raj’S Written Acts Of Activism And Care Throughout The 1980s And 1990s, Mia Jakobsen

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

In researching acts of activism and care in Canadian queer and trans racialized history, I examined how Rupert Raj advocated and cared for other trans individuals through his writing in the 1980s and 1990s. He noticed that there were few publications for trans individuals so he created easily accessible methods to share vital information regarding research and support that would have otherwise been difficult to acquire. Raj’s writings shared vital transgender research, literature, and expertise from across the globe. He provided critical support to and for other trans men through his easily accessible publications and letters, serving as an information …

“They Are Fat And Want Special Treatment For Being Fat”: Backlash To And Lay Theories Of Fat Activism, Flora Blanchette-Oswald, Minh Duc Pham, R. J. Harr, Alexandra Garr-Schultz, Kimberly E. Chaney

Faculty Publications

Fat activism is a movement that seeks to acknowledge and eliminate the oppression of fat people. The movement and those who participate face significant backlash, yet fat activism is understudied. We sought to understand lay theories about fat activism; that is, how everyday people think about the goals and motivations of fat activism, and people who engage in fat activism, to understand how these perceptions shape support for and backlash toward fat activism. In Study 1 (N = 294), we qualitatively elucidated lay theories of fat activism in a US nationally representative sample. We identified lay theories that both …

"I Know Who I Am": Draw-And-Tell Conversations With Gender-Creative Children, Eline Leemans Lenne

Dissertations and Theses

A growing number of children identify in various gender-creative ways, likely due to broader social awareness and affirmation of transgenderism. Gender-creative children face higher risks for adverse social, academic, mental health, and healthcare outcomes compared to non-transgender peers. Support from loved ones along with guidance from pediatric providers can mitigate poor outcomes and ensure that gender-creative children live healthy and happy lives. Young gender-creative children's perspectives about the aforementioned topics are markedly absent from the literature, which instead highlights adolescent and adult proxy perspectives.

In this participatory arts-based study anchored by a constructivist epistemology and informed by post-structuralist, queer, and …

Feminist Stories: Then And Now, Brooke Kelly

FUSION

This short essay explores the connections between themes in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and the 2024 film, Immaculate, specifically focusing on each story's affect on feminism.

The essay was originally written in response to a discussion post where students were asked to pick one American literary text and one piece of contemporary media that addressed the same issues/character types/ plot/ideas, etc. of today.

Ua19/16/2 Women's Basketball Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases and game statistics for WKU women's basketball team in spring 2025.

Ua19/16/2 Volleyball Press Relations, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases and game statistics for WKU volleyball team in spring 2025.

Ua19/16/2 Track & Field Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases and game statistics for WKU track teams in spring 2025.

Ua19/16/2 Tennis Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases and game statistics for WKU tennis teams in spring 2025.

Ua19/16/2 Softball Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases and game statistics for WKU softball team in spring 2025.

Trump: Small Hands, Big Lies

Women's & Gender Studies Student Scholarship

A zine outlining PC’s response to Trump’s reelection, the necessity of accountability, a call for action, ways to get involved in activism, and an archival offering for those who have been affected by Trump.