Digital Commons Network^™

Autism Clinicians' Bias In Detecting Female-Typical Rrbi In Young Children, Megan Young

Scripps Senior Theses

With four times as many boys than girls diagnosed with autism, psychologists must investigate whether this is due to an intrinsic difference or gender bias. This proposed study aims to evaluate autism clinicians’ bias in detecting restrictive and repetitive behaviors and interests (RRBI) in young children by presenting autism specialists with a vignette depicting one of four children, depicting either the male or female autism phenotype, and a masculine or feminine name. Gender of child and phenotypic presentation is expected to have a significant effect on detection and identification such that feminine names presenting with the Female Autism Phenotype (FAP) …

Dancing Between Worlds: Afrofuturism, Hybridity, Transculturalism, And The Orixás, Alicia Nascimento Castro

Dance (MFA) Theses

This research uses a multicultural lens to analyze the intersections of race and geography. It aims to acknowledge the corporeality of spiritual practices to investigate creative movement. Afrofuturism becomes a theoretical framework utilized as a space for liberation into the past, present, and future. Hybridity is adapted to examine identitdade dupla regarding national, racial, cultural, and lingual identities. The research explores Transculturalism by centering Blackness and interrogating the political powers of race in both the United States and Brazil. The physical manifestation utilizes the Black imaginary with choreography, set design, costuming, and musical composition as ideological frames for time travel …

Holy Body/Monstrous Body: The Life And Practices Of Saint Catherine Of Siena., Melissa B. Miller

Dance (MFA) Theses

This research examines the violent misogyny and contempt for the female body in, but not limited to, Western Christian environments using as a lens the life and practices of Catherine Benincasa, a mystic and tertiary Dominican sainted in 1461 as Saint Catherine of Siena. Further, the research looks at the use of the abject and grotesque in performance, as well as transformative storytelling, as a means of making lived experience visible, and is explored as a liberatory response to such systems of domination and violence. Though this research is framed in a religious context, contempt towards female-presenting bodies is not …

Impact Of Female And Male University Instructors Revealing Their High-Functioning Autism To Their Students, Gundars Kaupins, Tim Chenoweth

Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

High-functioning autism, informally known as Asperger’s, involves diminished social skills considered important for university instruction. In an experiment, 370 freshmen and sophomores mostly Caucasian students from a western U. S. university responded to a survey to investigate whether male or female instructors might equally benefit from higher initial student impressions of their teaching ability. Role Congruity Theory suggests that individuals will be supported when their characteristics align with their group’s social roles. The theory implies that women should follow female stereotypes involving more empathy and social skills and less systemization. Examples of social skills include smooth back-and-forth conversations, appropriate eye …

Recognition And Domination: A Hegelian Approach To Evolving Gender And Technology Paradigms, Zachary Davis

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to develop a strong account of recognition. It begins with a Hegel-inspired account of recognition as a fundamental desire that drives humanity. This account establishes recognition as fundamental to the initial subject formation of independent self-consciousnesses as agents. I offer the lord-bondsman dualism to provide a critique of domination as oppositional to securing the means for recognition. This entails that, as history progresses the world ought to move towards universally adopting mutual recognition relationships without domination. I adopt this goal as an ideal form of recognition. In Chapter 2, I apply this recognitional framework to gender. Through …

‘Poetry Is Not A Luxury’, Rage Should Not Be A Privilege: The Potential Power Of The ‘Racial Imaginary’, Georgia Mcgovern

CMC Senior Theses

Female rage exists outside of the constructed masculine ideal of anger. To examine female rage, one must analyze the intersections between gender and race. I examine white women's privilege and access to female rage in reality and the fictional world. I explore Black Feminist poetry as a form of storage for rage at gender-based prejudice, racial injustice, and their intersection. Using Myisha Cherry’s term “Lordean Rage”, I recognize this specialized manifestation of female rage as an artistic, intergenerational source of energy for change.

I examine Claudia Rankine’s term “racial imaginary” as an imaginative space in which white people draw lines …

The Effect Of Water Scarcity On Gender Dynamics In Egypt, Zahwa Kortam

The Undergraduate Research Journal

This article investigates the complex relationship between Egypt's agriculture, water scarcity, and gender dynamics. It highlights the challenges facing the agricultural sector due to water shortages in a country highly dependent on the Nile River for food security and agricultural development. Women, who have been traditionally integral to agriculture, have to deal with multiple challenges posed by water scarcity. For men, their roles are changing, and with that, the power dynamics and social norms. This article attempts to reveal opportunities for gender equality and sustainable use of water resources through the examination differences in experiences between men and women in …

Gender Wobbles But It Don’T Fall Down: Feste And The Instability Of Gender In Twelfth Night, Evangeline Thurston Wilder

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night appears to some readers as a conservative story of gender-bending, in which all is made “right” in the end. The central character, Viola, disguises herself as Cesario in order to survive. In the final scenes of the play, this character reveals herself to have been a woman all along, and immediately enters a cis-heterosexual marriage with the Duke Orsino. To other readers, the play appears to be an early depiction of what we might now call transmasculinity. In this view, the central character is not just dressing up as a man to survive; he really is Cesario. …

It’S About Time, Part Ii: Does Time Poverty Contribute To Inequitable College Outcomes By Gender And Race/Ethnicity?, Claire Wladis, Alyse C. Hachey, Katherine M. Conway

Publications and Research

Existing research demonstrates gender- and race/ethnicity-based inequities in college outcomes. Separately, recent research suggests a relationship between time poverty and college outcomes for student parents and online students. However, to date, no studies have empirically explored whether differential access to time as a resource for college may explain differential outcomes by gender or race/ethnicity. To address this, this study explored the relationship between time poverty, gender or race/ethnicity, and college outcomes at a large urban public university with two and four year campuses. Time poverty explained a significant proportion of differential outcomes (retention and credit accumulation) by gender and race/ethnicity. …

Racial Diversity, Interracial Trust, And Mental Distress In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Isaac Koomson, Obed Adonteng-Kissi, Desmond Tutu Ayentimi, Uchechukwu Levi Osuagwu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The emerging difficulties and tensions in establishing inclusive and multicultural societies in the contemporary globalised world have necessitated the generation of ample empirical evidence in support of the socioeconomic and health benefits of racial diversity. This study contributes to the scholarly and policy discourses by examining the effect of racial diversity on mental distress in post-apartheid South Africa after several decades of racial segregation. We used all five waves (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2017) of the National Income Dynamics Survey (NIDS). After addressing the endogeneity problem in the racial diversity–mental distress nexus, our findings show that an increase in …

Our Right To Play: How Afghan Women Navigate Constraints, Agency, And Aspirations On And Off The Soccer Field, Ramón Spaaij, Aish Ravi, Jonathan Magee, Ruth Jeanes, Dawn Penney, Justen O’Connor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In the wake of the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan and its ban on women’s sport, hundreds of Afghan athletes, including several Olympians, decided to flee the country rather than give up their sports and see their rights curtailed. This paper explores how Afghan women now living in Australia navigate agency and aspirations on and off the soccer field within the context of high levels of uncertainty, instability, and constraint. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 18 participants, the results demonstrate how soccer offers an insightful microcosm of settlement as a continuation of a fraught journey. The findings reveal both …

How Lgbtq+ People Are Creating Change In Their Faith Communities, Orit Avishai, Jonathan S. Coley, Golshan Golriz, Dawne Moon

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

For LGBTQ+ people, religion can be a source of oppression as well as a source of healing and inspiration. Within three socially conservative religious traditions, the authors uncover LGBTQ+ adherents’ efforts to make their faiths more inclusive.

The Holy Abject: The Narrative Arc Of Female Christian Martyrdom And Its Implications For Subjecthood In The Roman Empire, Gillian Murdock Gardner

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis aims to utilize modern critical theory to reveal how the hagiographies of early female Christian martyrs follow a standardized narrative arc. The martyr’s body is hyperfeminized, transformed, and eventually eclipsed in a simultaneous process of unbecoming in the corporeal realm and becoming in a divine register. The martyr’s augmented femininity signals her ability to endure as far as womens’ abject position in the Empire allows, while her bodily transformation conveys a transgression of the ontological pairings of active masculinity and passive femininity that govern Roman social order. Finally, the martyr’s death communicates an imperial attempt to reestablish the …

To Be A Woman Is To Perform: How Gender And Womanhood Are Discussed Through Shakespeare’S Use Of Mythology, Haley Kerner

Scripps Senior Theses

In an essay called ‘Shakespeare’s Ovid’, scholar Johnathan Bate wrote that “the first encounter between the English dramatist and the Roman poet probably occurred in the classroom of the grammar school at Stratford-upon-Avon” (Ovid, Golding, Bate, xli). Of course, the two would continue to meet many times in the concluding years. Shakespeare would have long conversations with Ovid’s Metamorphoses, especially through the voice of his characters as they jumped back and forth from his mind to the page. Shakespeare would invoke Ovid in most of his plays and many of his sonnets, guiding his readers and audience through the Roman …

Female Athletes Explicitly Gesture In Emotional Situations, Y. Adams, M. Augenstein, P. Furley, A. Krieg, P. Born, I. Helmich

Exercise and Sport Studies: Faculty Publications

Introduction: Both appraisal emotion approaches and self-regulation theory emphasize that appraising an event as conducive or detrimental to one’s current goals may trigger an affective response that can be observed nonverbally. Because there may be a female advantage in the inhibition and self-regulation of emotions, we hypothesized that female but not male athletes regulate emotions during sports through explicit nonverbal behaviors. Methods: All nonverbal hand movement behavior of right-handed female and male tennis athletes was recorded during competitive matches. All immediate nonverbal expressions after point losses and wins were coded by two independent blind raters applying the NEUROpsychological GESture (NEUROGES®) …

International Bestsellers And The Online Reconfiguring Of National Identity, Rachel Noorda, Millicent Weber, Melanie Ramdarshan Bold

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

International bestsellers are the ideal sites for examining the complicated relationship between literary culture and national identity. Despite the transnational turns in both literary studies and book history, place is still an important configurer of twenty-first-century book reception. Books are crucial to national identity and catalysts of nationalist movements. On an individual level, books enable readers to shape and maintain their own national identities. This Element explores how contemporary readers' understandings of nation, race/ethnicity, gender, and class continue to shape their reading, using as case studies the online reception of three bestseller titles-Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies (Australia), Zadie Smith's …

Gender-Based Violence And Harassment At Sea, Desiree Leclercq

Scholarly Works

This Symposium contribution assesses the ability of international law to evolve to offer essential protections for workers in an increasingly globalized world. It focuses on protections for women seafarers, specifically around gender-based violence and harassment on board vessels. Even though it is the world’s oldest transnational sector, seafaring remains overwhelmingly male-dominated. Consequently, international law was not initially conceived with women seafarers in mind. Now that women have broken into the maritime profession, they count on international law to evolve in kind. Notwithstanding, they continue to face sexist, if not violent, workplaces, and report high incidents of gender-based violence and harassment …

The Nebulous Binaries Of C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, Amantia Menalla

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Much of C.S. Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces can be examined through one of two binaries. The tension between rationality, or reason, and spirituality, or religion, is one of the core facets of both the text and its main character, Orual. Orual feels the pull of both ideas and thus spends most of the novel in a nebulous space between them. This tension is further complicated by the space between the feminine and the masculine which she also inhabits. By covering her face and body, Orual de-emphasizes her feminine identity and takes on a masculine role, dressing as a …

It's Written All Over Your Face: A Cultural And Gender History Of The Face In The Middle Ages, 1170-1500, Lacey N. Bonar Hull

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

At a time of vast social and cultural shifts, people living in western Europe from the late twelfth to the late fifteenth centuries developed and employed methods to “read” the faces of others. This practice promoted the interpretation of inner qualities from external appearances, often used to communicate adherence to or deviation from boundaries of gendered behaviors. My project explores medieval understandings concerning this particular feature of the human body, analyzing discourses concerning the face as a site of symbolism for inner character. While scholars have studied understandings of the self and the “Other” during this period, the role of …

“A Real Man . . .”: Deconstructing Machismo Heteronormative Standards With K–12 Latino Male Educators Through Dialogic Spaces, Mario Echeverria

Dissertations

In a K–12 educational landscape where 75% of educators are white women, recruitment of Latino male educators is crucial for diversification, yet these educators represent just 2% of the teaching workforce in the United States (NCES, 2020). These educators grapple with a layered sense of identity as they navigate expectations of hegemonic masculinity and machismo norms that dictate their roles as disciplinarians and saviors, especially for young boys of color (Brockenbrough, 2018; Lara & Fránquiz, 2015; Martino & Kehler, 2006; Mills et al., 2004; Singh, 2021). Unfortunately, Latino male educators leave the profession at twice the rate of their Latina …

In Shame I Will Find Paradise, Taehee Whang

Theses and Dissertations

As a Korean American non-binary digital artist and designer, my recent explorations have focused on using voice as a medium to articulate nuanced feelings of displacement and the intricate relationships between language, identity, and expression. This journey expands beyond my personal experiences with gender dysphoria, delving into the lives of non-binary and transgender individuals undergoing gender-affirming voice therapy. Through my thesis research, I have developed interactive multimedia installations inspired by dialogues with individuals such as Umico Niwa, who traveled to Korea for voice feminization surgery, and Jeong Yoon Lee from Hyperlink Press, a four-year participant in Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). …

Serving With Pride: Analyzing Lgbtq+ Personnel Policy In The U.S. Military, Sonja Woolley

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the evolution of LGBTQ+ personnel policies in the U.S. military, analyzing how these changes reflect broader social transformations and the military’s role as both a mirror and catalyst in societal shifts. It traces the historical roots of discriminatory practices against queer and transgender servicemembers, identifying key periods of reform and resistance. Using institutional theory to dissect the mechanisms of policy adaptation, this paper focuses on coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphism, which illustrate the complex interplay between external societal pressures, internal demands for legitimacy, and the professionalization of the military. Through detailed case studies, the thesis highlights how …

A Study Of Gender Apartheid: Afghanistan And The Islamic Republic Of Iran, Golazin Safaeimojarad

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis investigates the systemic and institutionalized forms of gender-based discrimination termed gender apartheid, focusing on Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. It argues that gender apartheid, a severe form of discrimination where women and girls are subjugated and denied fundamental rights under institutional frameworks, and Afghanistan under Taliban rule and Iran under the Islamic Republic of Iran are two prime cases of gender apartheid. Through a qualitative research approach employing case studies and a comprehensive review of legal documents, academic materials, and reports from reputable organizations, the thesis outlines how gender apartheid is not only a direct product …

Reconciling Domestic Violence Protections And The Second Amendment, Natalie Nanasi

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

In March of 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that individuals subject to domestic violence protective orders could not be required to give up their guns. The decision was the first of a federal court to overturn a firearm regulation pursuant to New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a 2022 Supreme Court opinion that created a new standard for determining the constitutionality of gun restrictions. After Bruen, only laws that are “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation” pass constitutional muster.

The Fifth’s Circuit decision in U.S. v. Rahimi, which …

Shades Of Service: Navigating Racial Diversity, Mental Health, And Occupational Stress Among Black Police Officers, Manina Jeudy

Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to learn about the unique challenges Black police officers face by exploring their lived experiences. This study looked at how these current and retired Black police officers navigate racial diversity, handle occupational stress and how their mental health is affected. The research was prompted by the lack of existing literature that focuses specifically on the lived experiences of Black police officers, as most studies of policing do not address this population in depth. Through Zoom interviews with a small group of officers, this study revealed their struggles at work and in their personal lives. By sharing …

Why Students Select Their College Major: An Investigative Study, Kate N. Matthews, Diane R. Edmondson, Lucy Matthews

Atlantic Marketing Journal

With the decline in the number of traditional college-aged students, understanding the degree selection process is important for departments, colleges, and universities alike. For students, selecting the proper major early is also beneficial since it reduces time in school and tuition costs. Therefore, a better understanding of the degree selection process is worthwhile. Survey data was collected from 1,177 undergraduates at a southeastern U.S. university. Survey questions included major selection influences and other attitude and demographic items. The highest ranked reason is interest and passion followed by fit with personality type. This was similar for students who changed majors. External …

Gendered Labor Division In The Evangelical Lutheran Church Of Latvia Through The Lens Of Gifts And Reciprocity, Māra Neikena, Gareth E. Hamilton

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article explores the concepts of 'gift's and 'reciprocity' within anthropological literature and applies them to ethnographic fieldwork conducted within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia. In interviews, pastors and members of parishes used the word 'gift' to rationalize gender differences in performed tasks and assumed inherent abilities of men and women. The article aims to investigate the variety of reciprocity that takes place when informants refer to the idea of the 'gift' in various social contexts. Through qualitative interviews, analysis highlights that the gendered labor division in managing the 'household' of a parish is tied to a sense of …

A Litany For Survival: Exploring Activism, Feminism, And Collective Identity In Women's Movements In Pakistan, Nida Zehra

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Beginning from the history of women's activism and movements in Pakistan, to how differing forms of activism between the old and young generations are shaping the women's movement, this thesis sheds light on the Aurat (Woman) March in Pakistan, that first began in 2018 as an occasion to celebrate International Women's Day, that has heralded a fourth wave of feminism, began a new form of activism, and has been seen as a continuation of the women’s movement in modern-day Pakistan. My research studies its dynamics and the young Pakistani movement actors of today. It analyzes interviews of Aurat March participants …

Gendered Violence And Sexualized Representations In Video Games: (Lack Of) Effect On Gender-Related Attitudes, Liam Cross, Linda K. Kaye, Juris Savostijanovs, Neil Mclatchie, Matthew Johnston, Liam Whiteman, Robyn Mooney, Gray Atherton

School of Psychology

This research explored how gender portrayals in video games affect gender-related attitudes. Two hundred participants from the United Kingdom and Malaysia participated across three experiments, where the appearance and behaviour of video game characters were manipulated with regard to target (enemy) gender (Study 1), sexually explicit attire (Study 2) and level of character agency (Study 3). We found minimal evidence that exposure to gender-stereotyped content resulted in differential gender-related attitudes (implicit associations, hostile and benevolent sexism, or rape myth acceptance). However, Study 1 findings showed that individuals who played a first-person shooter with male enemies showed lower endorsement of some …

The Effect Of The Expanded Child And Dependent Care Tax Credit On Maternal Labor Supply, Abby Letocha

Honors Theses

Policies that subsidize childcare have many potential economic benefits such as mitigating the high cost of childcare, incentivizing families to have more children, increasing paid childcare participation, and increasing parental labor supply. In this paper, I focus on the effect of childcare subsidies on maternal labor supply through a tax policy expansion. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) is the primary federal childcare subsidy in the United States, and it was temporarily expanded in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act. This expansion increased the generosity of the credit and made it fully refundable for the 2021 tax …