Digital Commons Network^™

Inappropriate Attire: Fashion, Nationality, And Shame In Quicksand And Pachinko, Minyoung Park

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, Minyoung Park examines how fashion in Quicksand by Nella Larsen and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee functions not simply as a visual strategy for passing but as a site where the wearers’ conflicting feelings—shame, desire, and defiance—emerge and persist. Rather than evaluating the success or failure of passing, the article shifts focus to the process of dressing—selecting, maintaining, and reflecting on clothing—through which identity is negotiated and feelings are embodied. The protagonists, Helga and Sunja, often dismissed as failures, are reconsidered as figures whose attention to their inappropriate or excessive fashion reveals their emotional labor and strenuous …

Exploring Dimensions Of Crystallized Identities, Candice L. Ruh

Feminist Pedagogy

For college students, learning about the components of identity can generate deeper knowledge about how personal and social identities differ, and how identities influence the way individuals experience socio-cultural systems and structures. The Exploring Dimensions of Crystallized Identities activity uses principles of self-reflexivity and dialogue to explore theoretical frameworks for practical application. This experiential activity is a facilitated dialogue driven by student involvement and is best suited for students in mid- to upper-level undergraduate courses. It encourages students to reflect on their and others’ identities, and to consider the social impacts of diversity in their lives.

Creating And Re-Energizing Communities Of Meaning Throughout A Course, Nancy A. Heise, Anum Ahmed

Feminist Pedagogy

We propose a feminist course approach wherein instructors build what Amie Macdonald (2002) called "communities of meaning" in their classrooms (p.120). Through an intentional focus on supporting students' 1) individual identities, 2) holistic well-being, and 3) epistemic "buy-in" to classroom content, students will connect more deeply not only to themselves and their classmates, but also to the course material. We suggest four community-building touchpoints as a starting point for instructors looking to integrate this course approach. We start with an activity to lessen awkwardness around first-day name pronunciation. We emphasize the importance of creating collaborative classroom expectations with students, and …

The Current 'Ban-Demic': School Book Bans In The U.S., Barbara Perez, Jane Caputi

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This essay examines the alarming rise of U.S book. Our stance is grounded in our experiences as educators and academics in Florida, the state with the highest number of book bans and legislation that has significantly impacted education. Book bans infringe on freedom of expression, right to access information, = students’ right to education, and real harm to targeted communities (i.e., LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities), as the bans contribute to the ongoing marginalization and stigmatization of these communities. Diverse representation is key in literature and education. Banning popular culture texts from the classroom stifles critical thinking, social dialogue, and, ultimately, …

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 …

The Performance Of Gender In Sound And Screen: Unpacking And Countering The Double Standards Of Women In Taylor Swift’S “The Man,” Brienne Of Tarth, And The Substance, Alexandra C. Ali

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This rhetorical analysis examines how femininity is constructed, policed, and resisted in popular culture through three case studies: Taylor Swift’s “The Man,” Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones, and The Substance, using the lens of Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. “The Man,” both the song and the music video, reveals the double standards working against women, incorporating an additional layer of analysis through Kenneth Burke’s perspective on incongruity. Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones defies gender expectations, blurring the line between the performance of masculinity and femininity. Additionally, this analysis embodies archetypes of women, such …

The Representation Of Women Politicians In Pakistani English-Language Newspapers, Awais Rubbani, Sharifah N. H. Alkaff

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender representation, in terms of both narratives and images of women in the public sphere, is an indicator of gender equality in a society. In particular, mass media plays a significant role in shaping the perceptions of the public towards women. Our present study aims to investigate the representation of women politicians in two Pakistani English-language newspapers in 2012, 2017, and 2022: Dawn and The Nation. With the rise of quotas reserved for women in both the National and Provincial Assemblies in Pakistan, our study hopes to analyze how often and in which news genre that women politicians are …

Bama’S Sangati: A Collective Resistance To Oppression And Attitudinal Ambivalence Towards Dalit Women, Sarani Ghosal Mondal

Journal of International Women's Studies

Originally published in Tamil in 1994 and translated into English by Lakshmi Holmström in 2005, Bama’s^[1] Sangati: Events is a collection of life narratives from Dalit women of the Paraiya community in Tamilnadu, South India. Each narrative depicts an event of exploitation from the perspective of an adolescent girl, Sevathi. Her myriad questions to her grandma uncover Dalit problems in India. These agonized questions relating to injustice, caste-based discrimination, and violence mirror Dalit women’s vulnerability in Indian society. This study analyzes the narratives of strife, anger, and forced negotiation in a caste/class-ridden patriarchal society. Premised on gender-caste-class dynamics, …

Unsettling Femininity In Ottessa Moshfegh’S My Year Of Rest And Relaxation, Audrianna Witcher

All Theses

This thesis covers how Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation critiques traditional understandings of femininity and the inadequacy of neoliberal feminism to address the systemic issues that women face. Using Lauren Berlant’s concept of femininity as a genre, this thesis traces how Moshfegh implements disgust and abjection to reject mandates of cleanliness and emotional labor that are central to traditional femininity. Moshfegh also utilizes disgust and the narrator’s attempt at a year-long sleep to resist the ideals of productivity and self-care that are central to neoliberal feminism. In employing these affects, Moshfegh resists the social structures that exploit …

Coming Back To Bite: Reflecting On Constructs Of Adolescence And Girlhood In Young Adult Vampire Media, Gwendolyn Grace Klinkey

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The YA vampire genre has experienced a great amount of success throughout the past two decades with titles including Joss Wheadon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy. Within this group, two of the most widely successful examples are Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga and the CW’s The Vampire Diaries, both of which have had a significant impact on Western popular culture. In this thesis, I use these two texts to explore the constructs of adolescence and girlhood that manifest as a result of the literary moves the writers seem to make in an effort to invite …

Mujeres En Movimiento: La Posmigración En Obras Contemporáneas De Hijas De Inmigrantes En España Y Estados Unidos, Olatz Sanchez-Txabarri

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation investigates contemporary works of daughters of immigrants in Spain and the United States. Through a postmigration approach, this study delves into the analysis of Ser mujer negra en España (2018), by Desirée Bela-Lobedde, Hija del camino (2019), by Lucía Mbomío, A Cup of Water Under My Bed (2014), by Daisy Hernández, Juliet Takes a Breath (2016), by Gabby Rivera, La hija extranjera (2015), by Najat El Hachmi, Hija de inmigrantes (2022), by Safia El Aaddam, and the documentaries Fruits of Labor (2021), by Emily Cohen Ibáñez and Vida diferida (Life, Deferred) (2017), by Brenda Ávila-Hanna. I …

Countering The Traditional Feminine: The Abject In The Works Of Johanna Hamann, María Evelia Marmolejo, And Regina José Galindo, Sierra Myers

Theses

This thesis explores the ways in which Contemporary Latin American feminist artists have been able to subvert the Western constructed ideas of gender that work to locate the feminine Other as subordinate and inferior. Focusing on the installations and performances by Johanna Hamann, María Evelia Marmolejo, and Regina José Galindo, there is an emphasis on the role of the abject which is used to defamiliarize our established concepts of the traditional feminine in order to allow space for a redefinition and portrayal that excludes a detrimental modern semiology rooted in a zero point epistemology. By analyzing these artists' works in …

Kansas City, Kansas, Vida Davidović

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS is a thesis that operates in the tradition of expressionist dramaturgy and playwriting, taking up themes of abuse, imperialism, war, trauma, womanhood, Balkan identities, history of the Balkans, as well as the discourses of psychoanalysis and postcolonial theory. The use of different theoretical frameworks related to both international and personal politics, which are shown to be intertwined, suggests a strong relationship between political processes in the Second World Countries that had experienced many occupations throughout their history and the way women in those countries relate to the questions of body, authority, feminity, and interpersonal relationships. The play …

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, …

What Is A Nation? Colonial Legacies, Identity, And Reclaiming In Métisse Autobiographical Narratives – A Case Study Of Sugar And Slate And Garçon Manqué, Thaïs Maëlle Autin

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis examines the question of national belonging in autobiographical narratives of second-generation immigrant métisse women. I study the similar aesthetic manner in which individuals with different regional and cultural influences grapple with concepts of identity, gender, racism, exile, and negotiation, and the way in which the authors anchor themselves in a broader familial and national heritage. I argue that such an enterprise can be understood as part of the alternative heritage wave, based on Andrew Higson’s theory. The texts put in question traditional understandings of nation. Doing so opens the possibility of engaging in a dialogue that expands the …

Under The Veil: Women's Head Coverings In Tudor England, Savannah Toth

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis seeks to discover and analyze the agency and meaning of the role of women’s head coverings and veils within the context of Tudor Christianity, society, and the fashion world of English culture. By observing the usage of the veil through various lenses, this thesis examines the nuance of the veil as an object and actor in Tudor society that enables yet prohibits personal choice for women. This research uses various sources such as Tudor paintings and portraits, surviving pieces of garments, and written accounts to paint a picture of the impact and significance the veil had in every …

“Mommy With A Different Body”: Rethinking Motherhood Through American Breast Cancer Memoirs, Mahua Bhattacharyya, Ajit K. Mishra

Journal of International Women's Studies

Motherly guilt and anxieties about reproductive choices are often a significant source of psychological trauma in women who decide to have a child after being diagnosed with breast cancer (BC), but these themes are less visible in breast cancer memoirs. Patriarchal societal norms about women’s roles have long influenced women’s ideas about their bodies and motherhood. However, women with BC who are already in a vulnerable position, struggling with a life-threatening disease, feel helpless and guilty about their desires to be mothers, as society often considers them to be bad or selfish mothers. The present study examines Tig Notaro’s I’m …

Fetal Personhood And Access To Reproductive Rights: Power And Precarity In Post-Roe America, Jainab Banu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper delves into the concept of “fetal personhood” and dissects how lawmakers systematically deploy rhetorical agency in policy to draw demarcating lines between demographic groups in post-Roe America. After abortion was legalized in 1973, the number of women opting for abortion rose significantly. Even after legalization, however, underrepresented and marginalized women struggled to access safe and high-quality healthcare, and many of them risked self-induced abortions. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, women with financial affluence can still travel to states where abortion is not banned to access their reproductive rights; however, women with low income may not …