Digital Commons Network^™

Twilight Follows Tradition: Analyzing "Biting" Critiques Of Vampire Narratives For Their Portrayals Of Gender & Sexuality, Melissa R. Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Vampires have dominated print literature since the 18th century, eventually becoming more visible as they crossed mediated boundaries and genre divides. Now flourishing in neo-gothic realms like science fiction and fantasy, in print genres like chick-lit and young adult, and in the visual realm (from Hollywood’s big screen to daytime television’s sudsy small screen), vampire narratives are finding increased popularity. Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series has shined a new spotlight on the all-encompassing umbrella genre that is “vamp lit,” and with it has come renewed attention to the so-called anti-feminist messages present in such narratives, such as the perceived negative characterization …

Indian Consumers' Brand Equity Toward A Us And Local Apparel Brand, Hyun Joo Lee, Archana Kumar, Youn Kyung Kim

Department of Marketing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine effects of gender, need for uniqueness, and attitudes toward American products on dimensions of brand equity for a US and local apparel brand in the Indian market. Design/methodology/approach: Three dimensions of brand equity are evaluated based on the respondents' shopping experience related to the selected US and local apparel brands. Data are collected from a convenience sample of college students in India. Findings: The empirical tests show that, for a US apparel brand, there are direct and indirect effects of Indian consumers' gender, need for uniqueness (NFU), and attitudes toward American …

Gender Role Instillment Upon Children Through The Use Of Children's Literature, Maria Andrea Siles

Theses & ETDs

Previous research has established that gender roles and gender stereotypes are prevalent in children's literature. Through the use of children's literature, teachers' roles as potential social influences in gender role instillment on students were examined to understand the possible impact they could have on other domains, like occupational preference and gender item-associations. A sample of 14 children, 4-6 years of age, completed a short questionnaire inquiring about the children's desired future occupation, were read two stories, completed a sticker task indicating their preferred ending out of two choices, and participated in a flashcard task. Additionally, two female participants listened only …

In The Company Of Detective Ladies Gendered Modes Of Detection In The Works Of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, And Alexander Mccall, Alexandra Alden Charles

Theses & ETDs

The rational male detective, exemplified in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle�s Sherlock Holmes, is frequently portrayed as a socially unfixed, unemotional, loner figure. He protects, but is divorced from domestic realm. Because female characters cannot disengage from their domestic identity in the same way in which male characters can, female detectives have to incorporate two seemingly conflicting identities. In order to negotiate the issues that result from their gender�namely, assumed differences both in types of knowledge, and in the construction of personal and professional identities�female detectives employ different modes of detection. Miss Marple, Agatha Christie�s spinster detective, gleans information from town …

Gender, Academic Qualification And Subject Discipline Differentials Of Nigerian Teachers’ Ict Literacy, Alaba Agbatogun

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

The world is seemingly experiencing a third wave of social and technological transformation as the society is becoming more oriented to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT is one of the various factors that are drastically influencing occupational success especially in the educational sector. Adamu (2004) sees ICT as a set of technological tools and resources used to communicate and create, disseminate, to store and manage information. The information dissemination is easily possible through computer technologies. Markauskaite (2006) opines that the introduction of computer technology into teaching and learning is a giant stride towards improving the quality of education. …

Review Of Redesigning Women: Television After The Network Era, Ann M. Savage

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Review of book: Redesigning Women: Television after the network era.

Caster Semenya And The Myth Of A Level Playing Field, Erin E. Buzuvis

The Modern American

No abstract provided.

“Globalized Philomels: State Patriarchy, Transnational Capital, And The Femicides On The Us-Mexican Border In Roberto Bolaño’S 2666”, M Laura Barberan Reinares

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Income Splitting And Gender Equality: The Case For Incentivizing Intra-Household Wealth Transfers, Lisa Philipps

Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy

In all countries that use the individual as the basic unit of taxation, tax policy makers must contend with the problem of spousal income splitting and the dilemma it poses for gender equality. On the one hand income splitting opens a back door to joint taxation of couples, with its troubling labour market disincentives for second earners. Yet attempting to prevent this type of avoidance planning by ignoring inter-spousal transfers for tax purposes disrespects women’s individual agency over property to which they hold legal title, and may close off one source of economic power for those who do the bulk …

Male Same-Sex Relations In Modern China: Language, Media Representation, And Law, 1900–1949, Wenqing Kang

History Faculty Publications

The article discusses the tension in the Chinese indigenous terminology for male same-sex relations which was similar to Eve Sedgwich's description of the Western modern homosexual/heterosexual definition. It argues that the Western sexological concept of homosexuality was accepted in the early 20th century China and notes that its legal apparatus had no clear stipulations on sex between men. It indicates how writers during the first half of the 20th century were more concerned with the proper gender behavior and the image of the nation than sex itself.

The Role Of The Principal In The Professional Life Of Male Elementary Classroom Teachers, Brian Gendron Ricca

Dissertations

There are very few men that choose to enter the profession of teaching, especially at the elementary level (U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 2008). The men that do make this choice are faced with certain challenges and societal stereotypes that make this career path even more difficult to navigate. Given the small numbers that exist and some of the unique factors that face men at this level, the relationship between a male elementary classroom teacher and his building administrator is one to examine.

Within the context of the research that has been done on the gendered role of elementary …

Dangerous Obscurity: A Study Of The Female Suicide Combatants Of Sri Lanka, Jessica Santala

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Since 1991 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have used female suicide operatives in their civil war with the Sri Lankan government. Gaps in research about these phenomena suggest that it’s not seen as a gender specific problem and that female suicide bombers can be compared toe to toe with their male counterparts. I contend that the situation surrounding female suicide terrorism is unique and that certain discernable socioeconomic indicators can explain the reasons behind why some women of Sri Lanka become more active in suicide terrorism. I have compiled a suicide terrorism dataset out of terrorist acts perpetrated by …

Dying For Love: Homosexuality In The Middle East, Heather Simmons

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Today in the United States, the most frequent references to the Middle East are concerned with the War on Terrorism. However, there is another, hidden battle being waged: the war for human rights on the basis of sexuality. Homosexuality is a crime in many of the Middle Eastern states and is punishable by death in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait, and Iran (Ungar 2002). Chronic abuses and horrific incidences such as the 2009 systematic murders of hundreds of “gay” men in Iraq are seldom reported in the international media. Speculation as to why this population is hidden includes the …

Democratic Or Gendered Domain: Communication And Learning Styles In The Online Classroom, Jennifer Ann Bruns

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) within cyberspace has become a recent pedagogical phenomenon. Cyberspace creates a domain for new learning environments. Using the online classroom has the potential to break down gender barriers and erect a more democratic space for students. Even with this limitless potential, there are competing conceptions regarding these new and promising classrooms--will online education conform to the same standards that shape a gendered society, or will these classrooms create a more equitable environment for both male and female students? Because of the rising numbers of online female students, gender bias becomes an increasingly important research topic. Yet the …

The Struggling Class: Replacing An Insider White Female Middle Class Dream With A Struggling Black Female Reality, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

“What is the appropriate role of former outsiders who are now on the inside?” I propose that the appropriate role for an outsider who is now an insider, is not to sprawl out on plush, white, crushed velvet sofas, sipping vintage wines or imported teas and nibbling at aged cheese and delicate crackers while enjoying being one among a quota or token few that made it to the inside. Rather, the role of a former outsider is to go to work from the inside to dismantle the house, shrewdly using available tools to remove the nails from the walls, loosening …

How Does Race Operate Among Asian Americans In The Labor Market? : Occupational Segregation And Different Rewards By Occupation Among Native-Born Chinese American And Japanese American Male Workers, Chang Won Lee

Ethnic Studies Review

The effect of race in the U.S. labor market has long been controversial. One posits that racial effects have been diminished since the civil rights movement of the 1960s (Alba & Nee, 2003; Sakamoto, Wu, & Tzeng, 2000; Wilson, 1980). Even if some disparities in labor-market outcomes among race groups are found, advocates of this "declining significance of race" thesis do not attribute these disparities to racial discrimination. They, instead, understand the racial gaps as a result of class composition of racial minority groups, classes represented by larger proportions of the working-class population (Wilson, 1980, 1997) as well as unskilled-immigrant …

Orientals Need Apply: Gender-Based Asylum In The U.S., Midori Takagi

Ethnic Studies Review

Every other year I teach a course entitled "The History of Asian Women in America," which focuses on the experiences of East, South and Southeast Asian women as they journey to these shores and resettle. Using autobiographies, poetry, journal writings, interviews and academic texts, the students learn from the women what political, social, cultural, economic and ecological conditions prompted them to leave their homelands and why they chose the United States. We learn of their rich cultural backgrounds, their struggles to create a subculture based on their home and host experiences, and the cultural gaps that often appear between the …

Individualized Intimacy? : The Negotiation Of Self And Other In Heterosexual Relationships, Daniel Santore

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Sociologists working in various scholarly traditions posit an individualization of contemporary romantic relationships occurring in Western societies over the passed several decades. This dissertation uses North American and European theoretical perspectives on "individualized intimacy" as the basis for a qualitative interview study of 45 women and men involved in heterosexual relationships. In keeping with the theoretical perspectives that ground the study, the interviews focus on how concepts of self-development, communication, gender and social class collide with one another in, and serve to shape, respondents' narratives of self and other in intimacy. Findings demonstrate that: (a) regarding gender, women and men …

Negotiating New Roles, New Moralities : Ukrainian Women Physicians At A Post-Socialist Crossroad, Maryna Yevgenivna Bazylevych

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

My dissertation discusses concepts of professionalism and morality as seen by women physicians in post-socialist Ukraine. As in many other post-socialist societies, Ukrainian women constitute the majority of the medical profession (over 70% of practicing physicians and 80% of medical students). Most of the existing literature explains this narrowly in materialist terms whereby low salary is viewed as determinant of low prestige and thus unattractiveness to men. I suggest that prestige is defined much broader in the local context. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Central and Western Ukraine (2007-2008), I argue that the meanings of prestige carry both socialist and …

The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data To Identify And Reach The Most Vulnerable Young People—Sierra Leone 2008, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

“The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data to Identify and Reach the Most Vulnerable Young People: Sierra Leone 2008” is part of a series of Population Council guides that draw principally on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys to provide decisionmakers at all levels—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and advocacy groups—with evidence on the situation of adolescent girls and boys and young women aged 10–24 years. The data are presented in graphs, tables, and maps (wherever possible), providing multiple formats to make the information accessible to a range of audiences. Section I is the Foreword. Section II offers brief technical notes …

The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data To Identify And Reach The Most Vulnerable Young People—Egypt 2008, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

“The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data to Identify and Reach the Most Vulnerable Young People: Egypt 2008” is part of a series of Population Council guides that draw principally on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys to provide decisionmakers at all levels—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and advocacy groups—with evidence on the situation of adolescent girls and boys and young women aged 10–24 years. The data are presented in graphs, tables, and maps (wherever possible), providing multiple formats to make the information accessible to a range of audiences. Section I is the Foreword. Section II offers brief technical notes specific …

Rights In Flux: The Rights Of Afghan Women In Different Eras, Kelly Anne Drevitch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Have the lives of Afghan women improved since the U.S. invasion of October of 2001? Historically, the George W. Bush Administration followed past foreign governments, Afghan political parties, and Afghan regimes who also promised to "liberate Afghan women" when making the case for war or violence. Using case study methodology and feminist theory, the research compares the status of Afghan women in three eras: before the Taliban (1973 to 1995), during the Taliban (1996 to October 2001), and since the U.S. invasion (October 2001 to December 2009). By applying gender and cultural essentialism, the research concludes that these theories offer …

Pregnant Man?: A Conversation, Darren Rosenblum, Noa Ben-Asher, Mary Anne Case, Elizabeth F. Emens, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol, Vivian M. Gutierrez, Lisa C. Ikemoto, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Jacob Willig-Onwuachi, Kimberly Mutcherson, Peter Siegelman, Beth Jones

Faculty Scholarship

I'm a law professor who works on gender, sexuality, and culture in the international and comparative context. That's my head working. In "real" life, my partner, Howard, and I have been engaged in having a baby together for several years, a project that came to fruition with the birth of our daughter Melina. Of course, such a project evokes intensely complex feelings and thoughts. Beyond a simple transposition of the personal onto the political, I feel so fortunate to have engaged in myriad conversations with a variety of friends and colleagues who think much more carefully about the family and …

Reflections: On Judicial Diversity And Judicial Independence, Sonia Lawrence

Articles & Book Chapters

In the Canadian context, judicial independence - the “cornerstone of democracy” - is described as dependent on a wide variety of conditions, including judicial remuneration, court budgets, the discipline of judges, politics and the appointments process, but these do not usually include a diverse judiciary. There is also a significant, but almost completely separate, Canadian literature about diversity on the bench. Why the separation? Part of the reason is that judicial independence (like any concept worth its salt) is not particularly well defined. Attempts at definition are often cabined by jurisdiction or limited to the world of theory. Furthermore, judicial …

Impossible Whiteness: Race, Gender, And American Identity In Early Twentieth-Century American Literature, Tarah Demant

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

In Impossible Whiteness, I reveal whiteness--though oftentimes still an implicit critical assumption of normalcy--as a complex, shifting category in the literature of early twentieth-century America, and show how gender, particularly, disrupts American whiteness. I deconstruct the various ways in which whiteness is defined legally, culturally, and in the marketplace, and demonstrate how Edith Wharton, Anzia Yezierska, and F. Scott Fitzgerald trace these standards of whiteness and the inevitable failure of such racial: and implicitly gendered) refinement. Though critical literature has been slow to consider the role of race for these authors, I reveal them as actively participating in contemporary dialogues …

Do Ugly Criminals Receive Harsher Sentences? An Analysis Of Lookism In The Criminal Justice System, Kelly Beck

Business and Economics Honors Papers

For many years, researchers have attempted to find a link between beauty and labor market outcomes. Although many important findings have been noted in these studies, the beauty analysis utilized was a subjective measurement. This subjective method, while important, may have external factors creating bias in the rating itself. In this study, the impact of beauty is applied to criminals and their sentences. Using a computer based symmetry measurement tool, an objective beauty measurement will be utilized. This study will seek to uncover whether or not criminals who are less attractive, measured through facial symmetry, receive harsher prison sentences than …

"The Coming Man From Canton": Chinese Experience In Montana (1862-1943), Christopher William Merritt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Chinese immigrants who came to Montana during the 19th and 20th centuries forged a new community. The goals of this dissertation were to create a historical and archaeological context for Chinese Experience in Montana, and to frame the interpretation of these results within a social organization framework that highlights the role of Overseas Chinese voluntary organizations such as secret societies. Archaeologists and historians have studied the Chinese in Montana for a little over two decades, though nothing comprehensive has ever been attempted to sew together the various investigations. In addition, there has been no attempt to inventory all the …

The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data To Identify And Reach The Most Vulnerable Young People—Ghana 2008, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

“The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data to Identify and Reach the Most Vulnerable Young People: Ghana 2008” is part of a series of Population Council guides that draw principally on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys to provide decisionmakers at all levels—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and advocacy groups—with evidence on the situation of adolescent girls and boys and young women aged 10–24 years. The data are presented in graphs, tables, and maps (wherever possible), providing multiple formats to make the information accessible to a range of audiences. Section I is the Foreword. Section II offers brief technical notes specific …

The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data To Identify And Reach The Most Vulnerable Young People—Nigeria 2008, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

“The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data to Identify and Reach the Most Vulnerable Young People: Nigeria 2008” is part of a series of Population Council guides that draw principally on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys to provide decisionmakers at all levels—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and advocacy groups—with evidence on the situation of adolescent girls and boys and young women aged 10–24 years. The data are presented in graphs, tables, and maps (wherever possible), providing multiple formats to make the information accessible to a range of audiences. Section I is the Foreword. Section II offers brief technical notes specific …

The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data To Identify And Reach The Most Vulnerable Young People—Kenya 2008–09, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

“The Adolescent Experience In-Depth: Using Data to Identify and Reach the Most Vulnerable Young People: Kenya 2008–09” is part of a series of Population Council guides that draw principally on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys to provide decisionmakers at all levels—from governments, nongovernmental organizations, and advocacy groups—with evidence on the situation of adolescent girls and boys and young women aged 10–24 years. The data are presented in graphs, tables, and maps (wherever possible), providing multiple formats to make the information accessible to a range of audiences. Section I is the Foreword. Section II offers brief technical notes specific …