Digital Commons Network^™

Resilience Of Women Entrepreneurs In Mindanao And The Impact Of Access To Finance And Digital Technologies, World Bank, Ateneo Center For Social Entrepreneurship, Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc.

Ateneo Center for Social Entrepreneurship (ACSEnt)

Executive Summary

This report examines the resilience of women nano- entrepreneurs in Mindanao and explores the impact of access to finance and digital technologies on their business sustainability. Utilizing data from the Social Enterprise Development Partnerships Inc. (SEDPI) and focus group discussions (FGDs), the study identifies key challenges and coping mechanisms employed by women-led nano- enterprises. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to design targeted interventions that strengthen the sustainability of these enterprises, particularly in the face of economic and environmental shocks. Women-led nano-enterprises in Mindanao typically operate informally, with assets ranging from PhP3,000 to …

Not Meant To Be Read: The Stories They Silence, The Resistance That Speaks, Cristina Onea

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I trace the evolution of surveillance from overt state violence to the more insidious forms of ideological policing embedded in everyday life. Through lived experience, oral history, and critical autoethnography, I explore how surveillance moves through bodies, families, institutions, and memory—not simply as external control, but as internalized rhythms of fear, vigilance, and self-surveillance. I move between my father's life under Romanian dictatorship, my own embodied inheritance, and the contemporary struggles of librarians facing ideological suppression to reveal surveillance as a structure that persists through generations, mutates across contexts, and demands new forms of resistance.

I argue …

Global Constructions Of Gender, Sexuality, And Migration: An Analysis Of Five Immigrant Memoirs, Grace Halvorson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone analyzes five memoirs by LGBTQ+ migrants—Jose Antonio Vargas, Edafe Okporo, Staceyann Chin, Danny Ramadan, and Samra Habib—to explore how governments weaponize gender and sexual orientation to construct national identity and exert control over both citizens and migrants. Their diverse migration experiences highlight how “gender border control” operates across families, communities, and national government systems, reinforcing heteronormative structures that regulate queer identities. My analysis of their memoirs reveals how both formal tools, such as immigration policies, and informal tools, such as social exclusion, make individuals outside heteronormative identity categories susceptible to state and societal violence. These personal narratives shed …

Understanding Gender Differences In Digital Readiness During Digital Transformation In Accounting Functions: Accounting Professionals’ Perspective, Benjamin Lee, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Poh-Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Research aims: To examine gender differences in digital readiness during digital transformation in accounting functions, addressing a knowledge gap in current accounting literature. Design/Methodology/Approach: Survey of 297 accounting professionals (180 men, 117 women) with 27 questions on digital readiness perceptions, analysed using exploratory factor analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests. Research findings: Women exhibited higher overall digital readiness than men, particularly feeling more empowered by senior management and better equipped to continue job tasks during digital transformation. No gender differences were found in perceptions of knowledge and skills, barriers, or organisational strategy. Theoretical contribution/Originality: Challenges traditional stereotypes about …

The Rose That Grew From Concrete: Exploring The Romantic Experiences Of Black Men With Histories Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Tatyana Nichelle Smith

Dissertations

Contemporary research typically characterizes Black heterosexual relationships by dismal marriage and divorce rates, largely ignoring the reality of how Black men develop attachments with their romantic partners and therefore continuing to perpetuate deficit perspectives of Black men (e.g., the cause of conflictual romantic relationships and “broken” Black families). What may be less understood about these relationships is the influence of childhood trauma, such as childhood sexual abuse, and Black men’s experiences of gender role conflict. Research shows that Black men’s experiences of childhood sexual abuse and socialization about masculinity have important implications for how they come to view themselves and …

The Gender Effects Of Covid: Evidence From Equity Analysts, Frank Weikai Li, Baolian Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We use COVID-19 and sell-side analysts as an experiment to study the effects of gender on labor productivity. We find that the forecast accuracy of female analysts declined more than that of male analysts, especially when schools were closed and among analysts who were more likely to have young children, were inexperienced, were busier, or lived in southern states of the US. Relative to male analysts, females also reduced their forecast timeliness and resorted to more heuristic forecasts but did not reduce coverage or updating frequency. Relative to pre pandemic, female analysts’ careers were more negatively affected than male analysts’. …

Identity, Bodies, And Time: Analysis Of Transgender Education Curricula In K Through 12 Grades, Dean Weiler-Zilberman

University Honors Theses

The author analyzes lesson plans that focus on education around gender and transgender subjects--sourced from Sexual Orientation and Gender Institute (SOGI) 123 and Advocates for Youth (AFY)--and puts them in conversation with key literature on transgender education. What surfaces from their interaction are clear strong areas that support transgender education and gaps that fail transgender students.

"I Just Kind Of Wish People Knew We Existed:" Rethinking Queer Visibility, Identity, And Belonging In Rural America, Alyson C. Hagen

University Honors Theses

This thesis explores how LGBTQ+ individuals in rural America navigate identity, visibility, and belonging amid the pressures of metronormativity--the dominant cultural narrative that equates queerness with urban life. Through qualitative interviews with five queer adults who lived in rural settings, the study shows that rural queer life is shaped by not only structural erasure and limited resources but also adaptive strategies, emotional labor, and creative community-building. Participants described environments where queerness was often unspoken or denied, yet they developed contingent forms of visibility, online belonging, and grassroots kinship to survive and thrive. Although all participants had migrated to urban areas, …

Cultural Shadows: Vampires And The Shifting Fears Of The West, A Creative Exploration Of Vampire Media And Its Reflection Of Evolving Social Anxieties, Tasha Sayre

University Honors Theses

Cultural Shadows: Vampires and the Shifting Fears of the West is a creative-critical thesis that explores vampire media as a reflection of evolving social anxieties in Western culture. Focusing primarily on film and television, with reference to key literary texts, this study examines how the vampire figure is used to articulate and dramatize recurring societal fears—particularly those surrounding women's sexuality and autonomy, queer identity, and class-based inequality. Through close readings of influential vampire narratives, the thesis demonstrates how these stories mirror cultural tensions and moral panics, transforming the vampire into a symbol of both fear and fascination. Drawing on gender …

Echoes Of Longing, Mahalexmi Mohan

Masters Theses

Loss lingers like a shadow, a weight no time can lift. Longing becomes a silent scream, echoing within, unanswered. Internal pain festers in the quiet, where unhealed wounds weave themselves into the fabric of being. Each breath is both survival and surrender, a fragile balance between hope and the hollow ache of what was, what will never be, yet could be.

Abstract

My work is deeply influenced by my experiences within a dysfunctional family structure and is explored through the relationship of emotional vulnerability and its effect on self-worth. Layered into the work is a confrontation with the scars, conflict …

Do Myths Ever Die? Social-Cultural Changes And Mythical Transformations In Indigenous Amazonia: A Dialogue With Peter Gow, Aparecida M. N. Vilaça

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This is the first Peter Gow Memorial Lecture, given at the University of St Andrews in February 2024. Based on the analysis of different versions of Wari’ myths (Rondônia, Brazil) collected over forty years, the paper has two central objectives. The first is to engage with Peter Gow’s analysis of the mythical transformations resulting from the historical changes experienced by the Piro/Yine Indigenous people of Peru. The second is to discuss Lévi-Strauss’s suggestion that a myth can “die” after successive transformations, exhausting itself, taking the form of romantic tale or legendary tradition.

An X-Ray Of Mẽbêngôkre Houses In Terms Of Matrimonial Alliance, Vanessa R. Lea, Leandro Mahalem De Lima

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article examines the matrimonial implications of the Houses, or matrihouses, of the Mẽtyktire subgroup of the Mẽbêngôkre (Kayapó-Jê) with the assistance of Puck (Program for the Use and Computation of Kinship Data) and Pajek software. In accordance with the greater legibility of graphics, statistical results have been converted into graphics whenever possible. The analysis is based on a revised version of a dataset spanning the years 1978 to 1982 and published on the site Kinsources. What began as a village census later morphed into genealogies, which served as the basis for the digital dataset. The matrihouses …

Ser Nhande’I Va’E, Da Concepção Aos Primeiros Passos: Uma Abordagem Etnográfica Sobre A Permanência, O Movimento E A Palavra, Maria Inês Ladeira

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

O evento do nascimento, assim como os ritos de passagem, são temas recorrentes na literatura etnográfica, com destaque aos resguardos, condutas e preceitos. Neste artigo, ao versar sobre o ato de nascer, refiro-me a alguns princípios referenciados na cosmologia guarani, na qual esse acontecimento é também um marcador – marco espaço/temporal – dos lugares habitados – isto é, ação de territorialização. Determinadas condutas pré e pós-parto são fundamentais para os Guarani Mbya e os Ava Guarani se socializarem com os demais viventes nas matas/terras que conformam seu território (Yvyrupa). A partir desse prisma, ressalto algumas propriedades e combinações …

Outras Antropologias E Seus Desafios Cosmopolíticos: Reflexividades Indígenas, João Paulo Barreto

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Este texto é resultado “Dueto”/keynote com Tânia Stolze Lima do Congresso da Salsa em Letícia, intitulado: “Outras antropologias e os seus desafios cosmopolíticos”, proferida no dia 29 de novembro de 2023, onde propõe uma reflexão sobre os desafios enfrentados pelos estudantes indígenas no campo da Antropologia, especialmente no contexto universitário de pós-graduação. Como também discute os limites e tensões entre o pensamento indígena e a lógica ocidental acadêmica, marcada pela pretensão de universalidade e pela classificação redutora dos conhecimentos dos povos indígenas. Coloca-se em pauta a desconstrução dos corpos e pensamentos que os indígenas são submetidos ao adentrar na universidade, …

From Decriminalization To Social Legitimization: The Lived Experiences Of Non-Conforming Individuals In India, Heeya Datta

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how queer and non-conforming individuals in urban India navigate, resist, and reimagine dominant norms of kinship, intimacy, and family. Drawing on 18 in-depth interviews, it examines the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in the aftermath of legal reforms such as the decriminalization of Section 377 and the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act. While these reforms mark symbolic progress, queer individuals continue to face social stigma, legal exclusions, and familial rejection. The study is divided into three chapters: the first analyzes the dual role of homosociality as both a space of refuge and constraint; the second investigates …

Analyzing Florida’S Lgbtqia+ Censorship Laws And Their Anti-Democratic Attack On Education, Peyton Sibert

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The past four years (2021-2024) have seen an increase in academic censorship laws and anti-LGTBQIA+ rhetoric across the United States. Florida, specifically, has established itself as a leader in discriminatory legislation. In this paper, the author analyzes four Florida laws: HB 1557, HB 1069, HB 7, and SB 266, along with the rise in book bans to consider both the pedagogical effects and negative impacts on the LGBTQIA+ community. These analyses will be juxtaposed with extant political rhetoric around these laws to expose a) the intent of the law b) the contradictions within and across laws and thereby c) the …

Homeplace As A Methodology Of Care: Conducting Critical Qualitative Research With 2slgbtqia+ Youth In Higher Education, K. Rende Mendoza, Ferial Pearson, Isa Manhart

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This paper addresses the alarming trend of policies and legislative actions targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and affirmation/accessibility (DEIA) efforts in higher education, particularly those affecting 2SLGBTQIA+ youth. These policies not only pose a direct threat to the physical and psychological safety of marginalized students but also undermine the institutional support systems essential for their personal and academic development. Authored by a nonbinary undergraduate and two 2SLGBTQIA+ teacher education researchers, our paper explores student-led critical qualitative research as a countermeasure to these regressive policies. Building from bell hooks' conception of homeplace, we offer our suggestions for establishing safe, supportive, and liberatory …

Hope In Times Of Helplessness: A Literature Review On The Queer Art Of Resilience And Melancholia Via The Expressive Arts, Andrew Crowthers

Expressive Therapies Theses

This thesis explores the intersection of Queer resilience, expressive arts therapy, and community-building practices within marginalized communities – particularly focusing on how Queer communities have utilized art as means of survival, perseverance, and legacy in times of struggle. Queer communities have consistently turned to artistic gestures of expression as a way to not only resist oppression, but to also preserve collective memory and identity. In a world experiencing heightened stress, disconnection, and violence, finding ways to maintain hope is critical.

Through the lenses of trauma-informed expressive arts therapy, Queer aesthetic sensibility, and Queer melancholia, this paper examines how artistic practices …

Queens Of Chaos: How Adhd Affects The Experience Of Motherhood, Ashley Marie Murray

Educational Studies Dissertations

Historically, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) research and public perception have centered on hyperactive young boys, overlooking how the condition manifests in women, particularly mothers. As diagnostic understanding improves, increasing numbers of women are receiving ADHD diagnoses in adulthood, shedding light on the intersection of ADHD symptoms and gendered social expectations, including the ideals of motherhood. This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores how ADHD affects the lived experience of motherhood through in-depth interviews with five mothers across North America. Findings reveal significant challenges in executive functioning, emotional regulation, time management, and self-perception, exacerbated by societal expectations of maternal competence. Participants describe the …

Visiting Medical Student Stipends In The Us | An Analysis Of Equity Within Physiatry, Ashley Otto, Do, Mbs, Jeffrey Gray, Md, Summer Nestorowicz, Md, Adrian Oppong, Md, Ms, Oluseye Raymond, Md, Andrew Walrond, Md, Alexis Tingan, Md, Marisa Moreta, Do

Health Equity and Quality Improvement (HEQI) Summit

Introduction & Aims

Health inequities are ubiquitous throughout medicine especially pertaining to accessibility, affordability, and availability. These challenges disproportionately affect minorities- both patients and providers alike [3,4]. Patient outcomes have been shown to improve when treated by physicians of similar backgrounds [3,4,7]. The journey to improve outcomes begins with pre-residency rotations; medical students who can complete audition rotations have an increased opportunity to matriculate into said residency program. Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R), like many specialties, is disproportionately represented by men and Caucasians [1,5, 8] with the greatest drop in URM representation occurring between applicants and residents [Escalon]. This project …

'We Owe, You Know, The World Our Perfection': How The Neurodiversity Paradigm Informs Autistic Women's Self-Perceptions, Katybeth Adamo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This qualitative, phenomenological study examines how autistic women characterize and interpret their experiences, beliefs, and self-perceptions within the framework of the neurodiversity paradigm. Guided by a social constructivist epistemology, this study explores the complex intersections between autistic women’s experiences of diagnostic processes, gendered socialization, and identity formation in autistic women. Through semi-structured interviews with ten autistic women, themes emerged around gender differences between autistic men and women, external versus internal self-perception, diagnostic age and self-perception, sensory overload and its consequences, and the journey from feeling othered to finding one’s place socially. Findings suggest that delayed diagnosis and persistent societal pressures …

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Contextualizing Historical Bioarchaeological Accounts With Contemporary Social Issues, Katharine Chiyono Woollen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The very existence of women has been taken for granted throughout history. Their domestic roles are viewed as biologically fixed, resulting in a general lack of information recorded or researched relating to their lived experiences, life histories, and narratives. Instead, it is the history of white men that has been standardized as the norm, creating visible gaps in our understanding of women’s experiences. Additionally, the majority of existing literature centers on female reproduction, their roles as mothers, and violence enacted against women. While this information contributes towards a greater understanding of women’s experiences in bioarchaeological investigations, these data often lack …

Misidentified Bodies And Missing Data: Exploring Forensic Disempowerment And Skeletal Narratives Of Transgender And Gender-Diverse Individuals In The United States, Taylor M. Flaherty

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The bodies of transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals represent a physical nexus of contempt and scrutiny. In the United States (U.S.), TGD people experience disproportionate levels of violence and premature death, contributing to a persistent epidemic of harm. Institutionalized anti-TGD biases have reinforced systemic neglect, leading to the routine exclusion of TGD individuals from research, data collection, and historical archives. The absence of state or federal initiatives to track mortality trends and risk factors among this population further exacerbates their systematic erasure. In particular, forensic scientists have traditionally relied on dichotomous indicators of sexual expression which may fail to account …

Unmasking Masculinities In Counseling: From Conformity To Connection, Kyle R. Rose

Dissertations, 2020-current

This dissertation explored the entanglements of professional counseling and masculinities across three manuscripts, to contribute to (1) healthier forms of gender expression within and beyond the spectrum of masculinities for individuals, (2) the counseling profession’s role in transforming hegemonic masculinity within communities, and (3) larger movements to subvert the patriarchy throughout society. The first manuscript is a conceptual article that presented the Relational Cultural Privileged Identity Counseling (RCPIC) model, an integrative framework designed to help counselors address hegemonic masculinity within the therapeutic relationship. Drawing from Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) and Privileged Identity Exploration (PIE), this model provided a roadmap for compassionate …

The Voices Of Black Motherscholars: Navigating Academia, Motherhood, And Beyond, Danae Peterson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The experiences of Black women in academia are shaped by the intersection of multiple, often conflicting identities. As mothers and scholars, Black women navigate the complex terrain of competing responsibilities, societal expectations, and institutional barriers, all while striving to achieve personal and professional aspirations. This daily balancing act is complicated by the compounded effects of racism and sexism in academia, coined as misogynoir (Bailey, 2018). Misogynoir, a specific form of anti-Black racist misogyny, manifests through stereotyping, marginalization, and invisibility affecting Black women’s ability to thrive in academic spaces that were not designed with them in mind (Patton & Njoku, 2019). …

Planning And Facilitating Hybrid Meetings To Support Relationality During Coalition Building, Luettamae Lawrence, Maureen Boyle, Moira Ross

Utah Conference on Community Engagement

Hybrid events where communities are connected through both in person and online spaces have simultaneously grown in popularity and gotten a bad reputation. While hybrid events have been around for decades, they gained significant traction with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to increase accessibility for attendees to accommodate diverse needs. Although hybrid events can be beneficial to many, they are not simple to execute. With the increase in hybrid events has come frustration with the low quality interactions between in person and online attendees leading to isolation, technology challenges, and low productivity. We argue the positive affordances of hybrid …

Asking About Gender Identity In Pediatric And Adolescent Gynecology Clinic: Patient, Family And Provider Perspectives (The Reflective Study), Madeline Ross, Hariye Sema Baghaki, Hannah Suffian, Lauren Roth, Jeanette Higgins, Tazim Dowlut-Mcelroy

Research Days

Background

The provision of medical and psychosocial support requires the identification of gender diverse individuals in health care settings. However, in primary care settings, some adolescents and parents expressed that gender identity screening (GIS) was offensive and clinicians expressed that GIS negatively affected their workflow. We sought to assess the acceptability and feasibility of GIS in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (PAG) clinics of a large tertiary care children’s hospital in the United States (US) Midwest.

Methods

A GIS survey developed in the US West Coast was modified with permission. After IRB approval, the anonymous single-site cross-sectional survey was administered to …

Integrating Positive Psychology And Spirituality To Foster Meaning And Well-Being In Older Adults, Crystal Morris

Adultspan Journal

This perspective article explores the integration of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) and spirituality in therapy to foster meaning and well-being in older adults. It highlights exercises such as the positive introduction, positive legacy, character strengths, mindfulness, mindful-based yoga, and a manifestation prayer journaling. The interventions presented are tools to support older adults that may experience depression, difficult life transitions, and the search for renewed meaning. Therapists who integrate PPIs and spirituality into therapy can promote a holistic, non-pathological approach to treatment.

The Small Worlds Of Childhood: Philosophy, Poetics, And The Queer Temporalities Of Early Life, Lauren Shizuko Stone

Gender & Sexuality

The Small Worlds of Childhood argues that prose representations of bourgeois childhood contain surprising opportunities to reflect on the temporality of experience. In their narratives of children at home in their everyday worlds, Adalbert Stifter, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Walter Benjamin are not only able to shed a unique light on key issues in the history of philosophy. They also offer a queer critique of the normative expectation that the literature of childhood is oriented toward the future.

Stone shows that when writers engage in philosophical storytelling, showing children tarrying in quotidian experience, they dislodge childhood from its nostalgic value …

"You Know The Rules": A Dramatic Experiment In Aromantic Literary Theory, April Chronowski

English

This paper proposes a new literary theory framework based on the zine "an aromantic manifesto" by yingchen and yingtong, as well as the work of Erving Goffman, using theater as a device to examine romantic relationships. Blending English and sociology, I focus each chapter on a different literary period and examine two plays each: early modern (Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing), modern (Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Djuna Barnes' "To The Dogs"), and contemporary (Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 and Margaret Edson's W;t). In tandem with analysis of formal elements---like …