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Dirty Spaces: Communication And Contamination In Men’S Public Toilets, Ruth Barcan

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the spatiality of men’s public toilets in Australia. It considers public toilets as cultural sites whose work involves not only the literal elimination of waste but also a form of cultural purification. Men’s public toilets are read as sites where heteronormative masculinity is defined, tested and policed. The essay draws on Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s concept of homosociality and on Mary Douglas’s conception of dirt as a destabilizing category. It treats the “dirtiness” of public toilets as a submerged metaphor within struggles over masculinity. The essay considers a range of data sources, including interviews, pop culture, the Internet …

Researching Female Public Toilets: Gendered Spaces, Disciplinary Limits, Barbara Penner

Journal of International Women's Studies

I have always been drawn to study intimate yet public spaces – most notably Victorian ladies’ public lavatories and American honeymoon suites. Such research raises larger questions concerning the legitimacy of certain objects of inquiry and of feminist and interdisciplinary work in general. This paper aims to go behind the curtain of academic research and to think about the challenges one faces “back-stage” when investigating spaces or objects connected intimately to sexuality and the gendered body.

Your Humble Servant Shows Himself: Don Saltero And Public Coffeehouse Space, Angela Todd

Journal of International Women's Studies

In 1695, James Salter, who fashioned himself as “Don Saltero,” opened a coffeehouse on a respectable corner in Chelsea. The chief attraction of the coffeehouse, from Salter’s point of view, was the array of natural science detritus and colonial souvenirs displayed on the walls and ceiling. For the price of a cup of coffee, patrons could view the immensity of England’s global grasp, and ponder the bizarre workings of far-away lands and the earth’s creatures. What is noteworthy about Salter’s collection, however, is not the oddities on display—and there were many—but that his collection overlapped considerably with that of the …

Book Review: Embodied Utopias: Gender, Social Change, And The Modern Metropolis, Delano Greenidge-Copprue

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Embodied Utopias: Gender, Social Change, and the Modern Metropolis, edited by Amy Bingaman, Lise Sanders and Rebecca Zorach

Book Review: Outsiders Inside: Whiteness, Place And Irish Women (Gender, Racism, Ethnicity), Helen Thompson

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Outsiders Inside: Whiteness, Place and Irish Women (Gender, Racism, Ethnicity) by Bronwen Walter

Film Review: Performing The Border, Writing Desire, Remote Sensing, And Europlex, Pamela C. Rosi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Review of Performing the Border, Writing Desire, and Remote Sensing (Ursula Biemann, filmmaker) and Europlex (Ursula Biemann, filmmaker, in collaboration with Angela Sanders)

Can China Import Western Ideas?, Fang Deng

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Dilemmas Of Ethical Social Research, Helen Johnson

Journal of International Women's Studies

The author’s work with a university ethics committee and field research in Pacific New Caledonia is used as a basis to problematise the biomedical research models used by universities in Australia for assessing social research as ethical. The article explores how culturally specific Western emotional bases for ethical decisions are often unexamined. It expresses concerns about gaps in biomedical models by linking the author’s description of field interactions with research participants to debates about the creation of knowledge.

A Cross-Cultural Test Of Nancy Jay’S Theory About Women, Sacrificial Blood And Religious Participation, Virginia S. Fink

Journal of International Women's Studies

I examine the theoretical insights of Nancy Jay’s 1992 investigation of patrilineal sacrificial rituals and their role in the restriction of women in religious rituals. I use the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, a representative sample of preindustrial societies, to test the strength of patrilineality and other factors identified as subordinating women in preindustrial societies. A societal pattern of male inheritance of property and patrilineal descent are the strongest predictors of women being restricted or excluded from major public religious rituals. The implications of this pattern for modern societies are discussed.

Female Workers In Japan: Opportunities & Challenges, Rajindar K. Koshal, Yuko Yamada, Sasuke Miyazima, Manjulika Kosha, Ashok K. Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study is based on a survey of male and female workers in organizations in and around Nagoya, Japan. It provides insights into gender issues within Japanese business organizations. The study finds that the female managers in Japan assess the managerial skills of women more positively than do their male counterparts. Business organizations in Japan are male-dominated and little is done to help women fit into the business culture. This is especially true when one considers the number of females in management ranks. Female workers in Japanese businesses perceive that they make many positive contributions to the workplace, such as …

Empowering Women? Engaging A Technology Grant For Social Change, Erica Meiners, Laurie Fuller

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines and exposes the writing and implementation of a project, funded by a federal government grant that worked to increase the technological literacy levels of women at an urban working-class university in the Midwest. This three-year study/intervention clearly reveals that disrupting the ‘digital divide’ for working-class women at our university, particularly women of color, requires engagements with the material and practical realities of their everyday lives. In addition to findings in relation to gender, race, low-income communities and technology, participation in this study/intervention illuminated for the authors—anti-racist, feminist academics and organizers—the consequences and costs of moving epistemological frameworks …

Introduction: Harvesting Our Strengths: Third Wave Feminism And Women’S Studies, Stacy Gillis, Rebecca Munford

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Global Feminisms, Transnational Political Economies, Third World Cultural Production, Winnie Woodhull

Journal of International Women's Studies

Third wave feminism is located historically in relation to de-industrialization in the 1980s and the 1990s’ boom in information technologies and transnational finance, which exponentially increased disparities of wealth and power worldwide. Given the global context of third wave feminism’s emergence, this article argues for a consideration of the many forms and expression of feminism the world over, and of the ways they converge with and diverge from western feminisms, both politically and culturally. After briefly discussing the economically oppressive and culturally homogenizing tendencies of globalization, the article looks at the democratizing potential of today’s global media networks. I end …

Bridgewater Magazine, Volume 14, Number 1, Fall 2003, Bridgewater State College

Bridgewater Magazine

Feature story covers BSC’s new master’s programs in Criminal Justice, Management, Public Administration, and Social Work; also Alumni Profiles, College News, and Class Notes.

Feminisms And Cross-Ideological Feminist Social Research: Standpoint, Situatedness And Positionality – Developing Cross-Ideological Feminist Research, Myfanwy Franks

Journal of International Women's Studies

When we consider the different cultural spaces in which feminist social researchers might be carrying out empirical research the nature of ‘feminist social research’ becomes difficult to define. The issue becomes even more complex when we consider the multiple standpoints, contexts and positionalities of different kinds of feminists from diverse backgrounds, both secular and religious. There cannot be a blanket universal agreement between feminists from different ideological positions regarding appropriate subjects and methodologies for research. Nevertheless, the writer concludes that through a pragmatic feminist approach, exemplified by working in a situated way with the materials that are available, we can …

Feminism, Nationalism, And War: The ‘Yugoslav Case’ In Feminist Texts, Jelena Batinic

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the Introduction:

This paper presents a study of feminist representations of the situation in the former Yugoslavia. I have decided to look at feminist textsvthat were generated in response to the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which appeared in both the feminist popular press and scholarly publications in English. By focusing on the ideological plane, seen in terms of narrative structures available for speaking and perceiving one’s experience, I seek to examine the feminist representation of the conflict of Yugoslav nationalisms and within Yugoslav feminism itself. Narratives are produced in the space where various discourses transpire, compete, …

‘A Hybrid In All Sorts Of Ways’: Teaching Women’S Studies In The Academy, Sue Jackson

Journal of International Women's Studies

Introduction:

There has been much discussion of late of the decline in women’s studies in the British academy. Discussion has ranged around the institutional closing down of women’s studies departments and programmes, and around the experiences of students on women’s studies degrees. What is it like, though, to be a lecturer in women’s studies in an academy, which often feels like an alien and unwelcoming place to be. What brought lecturers in women’s studies to their discipline, and how do they see their future? What constrains do they face on their current work? Can women’s studies challenge traditional academic structures? …

Facing The Medusa: Confronting The Ongoing Impossibility Of Women’S Studies, Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Laura Gillman

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the Introduction:

When feminism is defined in such a way that it calls attention to the diversity of women’s social and political reality, it centralizes the experiences of all women, especially the women whose social conditions have been least written about, studied, or changed by political movements. When we cease to focus on this simplistic stance “men are the enemy,” we are compelled to examine systems of domination and our role in their maintenance and perpetuation. Lack of adequate definition made it easy for bourgeois women, whether liberal or radical in perspective, to maintain their dominance over the leadership …

Beyond The Campus: Some Initial Findings On Women’S Studies, Careers And Employers, Maryanne Dever, Liz Day

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the Introduction:

(I)nstitutions of higher learning are being transformed by the discourses of economic rationalism and the marketplace so that many practitioners are discovering first-hand how readily Women’s Studies programs become vulnerable to arguments made against maintaining allegedly “useless” and “non-vocational” areas of study (see Griffin 1998, Kessler-Harris and Swerdlow 1996). The reconfiguration of higher education within a broadly consumerist logic and growing rates of unemployment and underemployment among university graduates in many western societies also mean that not just administrators, but students (and their families) are now inquiring into the vocational relevance and the long-term “rewards” of specific …

Hitting And Missing The Mark: Feminist Inquiry And Pedagogy In United States Women’S Studies Graduate Programs, Phyllis Baker, Siqin Yang

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the Introduction:

This essay looks specifically at reflection in these areas undertaken in one sector of women’s studies: the master’s degree in women’s studies in the United States. That graduate education in women’s studies is the focal point of this essay is especially timely because graduate programs in women’s studies are experiencing substantial growth. This essay addresses one aspect of graduate education: the correspondence between feminist intellectual inquiry and pedagogy in master’s programs in women’s studies. In particular, the essay aims to assess women’s studies at the graduate level by asking graduate students what they think about the attention …

Weaving Women’S Studies Into The Institutional Web: A Case Study, Frances Kraljic, Inez Martinez

Journal of International Women's Studies

Kingsborough Community College [KCC], one of six in the City University of New York [CUNY], a University containing eleven senior colleges, a medical and a law school, and a Graduate Center, is the first and only community college in CUNY to have a Women’s Studies [WS] Program. It took a long, long time to obtain this Program, and it has taken multi-faceted efforts to weave it into Kingsborough’s life in such a way as to (thus far) keep it. Because we believe that WS are particularly important at the community college level, we are sharing the story of the development …

Feminist Science Studies At German Universities - A First Account, Smilla Ebeling, Helene Götschel

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the Introduction:

Feminist science studies, which do not have a unified term so far in the German debate, regard mathematics, science and technology within their historical and social context (Heike Kahlert 1996, Heike Wiesner 1994). This critical contextualization of math-natural scientific thinking and acting is not regarded as a task of the corresponding disciplines but is linked to other disciplines like the history and philosophy of science, didactics or science and technology studies. Therefore, feminist science studies cannot be worked out within mathematics, science and engineering at all because they do not make sense within the scientific self-understanding (Margarete …

Her Mistress’S Voice: Gynophonocentrism In Feminist Discourses, Mikko Keskinen

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the article:

I will trace the metaphors of voice in the discourses of feminisms as articulated by Judith Fetterley, Kaja Silverman, Julia Kristeva, and Hélène Cixous. I will analyze the presuppositions of their vocal or sound imagery, paying special attention to the implications of the essentialism/constructivism opposition. It is not my intention to provide a comprehensive account of voice in feminisms, nor to make sweeping generalizations on the basis of a very limited corpus. Moreover, in spite of their differences in cultural background, period, and main area of study, the four theorists to be read are, as it were, …

Race, Gender And Performance In Grace Nichols’S The Fat Black Woman’S Poems, Maite Escudero

Journal of International Women's Studies

From the Article:

In a world of diverse cultures and societal beliefs, marginalized groups often share common experiences. Recurrent themes in the literature of black peoples include anti-imperialism, racism, sexism, exile, ‘cultural schizophrenia’, language, otherness and home to ancestors, just to name a few. Yet, there is no single black voice: black writing can come from everywhere in the world – America, Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and Britain. As a result, an individual may become torn between conflicting expressions by others within the same cultural group. What is at issue here is the recognition of extraordinary variation of subjective positions …

Faculty Research Note: Leora Lev

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Bridgewater Magazine, Volume 7, Number 3, Summer 1997, Bridgewater State College

Bridgewater Magazine

Profiles of alumni David Robichaud (class of 1983), Bob and Gail Todd, and Nancy Reed Imai (class of 1977). Also College News, Alumni Updates, and Class Notes.

Bridgewater Magazine, Volume 8, Number 1, Fall 1997, Bridgewater State College

Bridgewater Magazine

Included is a profile of faculty member Nancy Street, plus College News, Alumni Updates, and Class Notes. Also included is the 1996-1997 Bridgewater State College Annual Report.

Research Notes: Karl Schnapp And Ruth Hannon

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

The Comment, February 5, 1992, Bridgewater State College

The Comment

No abstract provided.

The Last Word: Reality Into Fiction - 1984, Nancy L. Street

Bridgewater Review

Television programming In the United States is transforming our society. Unaware of its incursions, Americans literally “buy into” dramatized patterns of behavior. From the evening news to advertising to prime-time drama like “Dynasty” or “Matt Houston” the distinctions between reality and fiction are blurred if not obliterated. Drama becomes reality; reality, e.g., the news, becomes drama. Contemporary American television posits a world view impacting on interpersonal interactions, family structure, cultural transmission, political decision-making, war and what it means “to know.”