Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Future Of Critical Autism Studies (Cas): Thinking Through Critical Discourse Studies And Postcolonial Feminism, Cansu Elmadagli

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

The field of Critical Autism Studies (CAS) has evolved significantly since its inception, with scholars continually redefining its key tenets and objectives. CAS emerged as a response to conventional medical and social deficit-based models of autism and seeks to challenge the prevailing norm that considers neurotypicality as the unquestioned standard. This article, written by an autistic scholar, aims to contribute to the ongoing discussions in CAS. The article introduces novel perspectives by suggesting connections between CAS, Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), and postcolonial feminism. It advocates for the incorporation of concepts and tools from these traditions to enrich CAS’s approach. Furthermore, …

Sharp Stick Grasps At Autistic Women’S Liminal Vulnerability, Meaghan Krazinski

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This film analysis of Sharp Stick by Lena Dunham critically explores how the film uptakes representations of the ideas around the vulnerabilities of Autistic women in popular culture, and yet does not explicitly name them as such. This liminality is critical and plays into the intersectional analysis that the author engages around the way vulnerability and Autistic identity is interpreted and read. The author draws upon McDermott's (2022) "neurotypical gaze" in an analysis that shows how traditional tropes around Autistic women’s vulnerability are social constructions that are brought into relief by stereotypes around race, gender, and ability. The author uses …

Everything’S Gonna Be Kinda Queer: Autistic Gender & Sexuality In Everything’S Gonna Be Okay, Jinx Mylo

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This paper analyzes the representations of autistic characters in the television show Everything’s Gonna Be Okay in relation to gender and sexuality. In contrast to previous screen representations, the four autistic characters provide a variety of gender expressions and sexual orientations, challenging the stereotypes that perpetuate the idea of autism being limited to heterosexual men. Issues explored include attitudes toward autistic sexual consent and agency, sexual experimentation, and the impacts of communication norms on romantic relationships.

Theorizing Autistic Sexualities As Collective Poetic Experiences, Anna Nygren, Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article is a palimpsest emerging as part of a project of collective autoethnographic writing on the theme of sexuality. It draws on the intensification of friendly writing, friendly as in friends with benefits. We write as autistic and neuroqueer subjects, writing until our textualities becomes sexualities. We write until the text becomes a room – call it Earth or call it Body, call it Brain or call it Heart – in which one could crack meanings―but these are not the most important ones. Instead of meanings and positions, we want to write about movements in time. The time it …

Frances Perkins And The Women Reformers Behind The New Deal, Judy D. Whipps

Other Faculty Publications

Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member, was the creative force behind most New Deal legislation. She was responsible for Social Security and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. These bills instituted federal policies that had been the focus of women social reformers starting in the 1890s. The forty-year struggle for the abolition of child labor, labor safety standards, minimum wage, and eight-hour workdays had been led by current and former Hull House residents, such as Jane Addams and Florence Kelley. Perkins was a former Hull House resident and was mentored and supported by Kelley and a network of …

Journeying Toward Liberation: Creating Civic Utopias Through Restorative Literacies, Rae L. Oviatt, Megan Mcelwee, Owen Farney

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

In this article, we forward three narratives from educators whose lived experiences moving from underrepresented youth to queer educators support the necessity of furthering representation for historically marginalized youth across classroom spaces. We begin with situating our argument in response to current policies that would seek to silence historically marginalized voices, histories, literacies, and thereby inhibit a more just social and civic future. Our narratives provide three varied perspectives of lived experiences as youth moving toward our current status as queer educators. Finally, we seek to call in other educators to engage advocacy and resources to support this work in …

Don’T Be Like Me: A Letter To My Daughters, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

It is often stated that parenting is "the toughest job you'll ever love." And it certainly doesn't come with an instruction manual. However, though we will falter, because of our love for our children, most of us learn a lot on the journey. This growth helps us to develop the skills and understanding needed, as parents, to be able to effectively guide, support, and nurture our children. Such knowledge, though beneficial for all families, is critical within neurodiverse households.

So what do you do when you just don't have it? What do you do when you have as much (if …

Equity + Catalyst Framework Guide, Naomi M. Silas

Culminating Experience Projects

There has been a shift in society, in light of Covid-19 and the global pandemic, more people have begun to recognize the structural and institutional injustices that exist in this country. Social innovation allows collaboration between people from different sectors, disciplines, industries, and backgrounds; in order to create sustainable change to complex social issues. Design thinking is an iterative process used in business to create innovation and products; it’s also used for social impact.

The goal of the Equity + Catalyst Framework is to bridge concepts that include design thinking, and embodiment, as well as lived experiences and community care …

Wgs/Aaa 343: Black Feminist Thought Oer Curation, Chealsye Bowley

Curated OER Collections

This OER curation is an annotated bibliography of prospective OER for the GVSU course WGS/AAA 343: Black Feminist Thought, assembled by request from the instructor.

Wgs 200: Introduction To Gender Studies Oer Curation, Chealsye Bowley

Curated OER Collections

This OER curation is an annotated bibliography of prospective OER for the GVSU course WGS 200: Introduction to Gender Studies, assembled by request from the instructor.

An Investigation Into Lgbtq+ Programming And Climate At A Midwest Master’S Comprehensive University, Evan M. Bonello

Honors Projects

An investigation exploring how a mid-sized Midwest master's comprehensive university promotes programming and DEI efforts toward queer students on campus. Student engagement within these areas and the needs of queer students are explored through survey responses.

An Analysis Of University Students’ Self-Labeling And Perception Of Feminism, Emilie Seibert

Honors Projects

This project investigates students’ perceptions of feminism, whether or not they identify as feminist, and how closely their ideals align with basic feminist ideals. There is currently no research that investigates self-labeling as a feminist among the current generation of college students in the United States. Despite the immense benefits to holding a feminist identification, it is estimated that only about 21% of the United States population identifies as feminist (Swirsky & Angelone, 2014, p. 230). Understanding the perspectives of current students is important as they have the potential to become activists and impact the future of the feminist movement. …

Gender Expansive Students In The Choral Classroom: Awareness & Practices Of Secondary Music Educators, Emma E. Taranko

Honors Projects

In an age of growing diversity, it is essential for educators, both pre- and in-service, to seek out strategies that will assist them in creating a welcoming classroom environment for all learners. It is incumbent upon choral music teachers and community leaders to educate themselves in the diversity that presents itself in their classrooms in order to better service all students. In this study, twenty-five secondary music educators shared their awareness of gender expansive students in their choir classrooms and any strategies they have used to better service their singers. This study was conducted in order to assess which strategies …

Book Review: Camouflage: The Hidden Lives Of Autistic Women By Sarah Bargiela, Sara M. Acevedo

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

Eating Disorders In The Lgb Community, Aubrey Griffith

Student Scholars Day Posters

Research has shown that members of the LGB community are diagnosed with eating disorders at an alarming rate. Yet, little research has been done to show how eating disorders affect the LGB community. By examining YouTube videos from a few individuals in the LGB community with eating disorders, along with analyzing their comment sections, I was able to examine how eating disorders affect the LGB community in a specific way. Anticipated findings include white privilege allowing for these YouTubers to have a voice in a muted group of individuals. This study is important because it helps to show how individuals …

The Language Behind Victim Impact Statements, Isabel Dowell

Student Scholars Day Posters

Survivors of sexual assault are given the opportunity to provide a victim impact statement in front of their abusers in court. Former Michigan State University gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, has 204 statements against him. These statements give survivors the power they need to resist any assumptions made about them before, during, and after the assault; however, in what ways could they also be endorsing these assumptions? For this research, I have randomly selected a sample of statements from the unnamed victims of the People of the State of Michigan v Lawrence Gerard Nassar case in order to understand how the …

White Saviorism And American Imperialism: An Analysis Of The Peace Corps, Madison Svoboda

Student Scholars Day Posters

My research is focused on the Peace Corps, specifically looking at the experiences of volunteers in order to see how they are reinforcing and/or resisting white saviorism and American imperialism. I used an intersectional approach in order to understand how the experiences of volunteers are shaped by racial and national relations of power. I have used discourse analysis to analyze blogs made by Peace Corps volunteers in order to see if narratives of the US needing to save the world and spreading American values were present. My preliminary findings suggest that many PCVs are critically examining their work as volunteers, …

Centring Lgbt2qia+ Subjects In Knowledge Organization Systems, Julia Bullard, Amber Dierking, Avi Grundner

Scholarly Papers and Articles

This paper details two interdependent knowledge organization projects for an LGBT2QIA+ library. The authors, in the context of volunteer library work for an independent library, redesigned the classification system and subject cataloguing guidelines to centre LGBT2QIA+ subjects. We discuss the priorities of creating and maintaining knowledge organization systems for a historically marginalized community and address the challenge that queer subjectivity poses to the goals of knowledge organization. The classification system features a focus on identity and physically reorganizes the library space in a way that accounts for the multiple and overlapping labels that constitute the currently articulated boundaries of this …

A Black Feminist Content Analysis Of Gender And Sexuality In Living Single, Amarri J. Smallwood, Ayana Weekley

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Between the 1980’s and 1990’s there were many female-centered sitcom television shows like The Golden Girls, Designing Women, and Sex in the City that explored women’s sexuality from an autonomous perspective. However, Black women’s sexuality and the way that gender roles are challenged in sitcoms has yet to be examined as both oppositional and equally significant. This research focuses on the importance of resistant sexual and gender representations in the 1990’s sitcom Living Single. This content analysis is drawn from four episodes in seasons one, two, and three. The study uses a Black Feminist theoretical framework to analyze …

The Lgbtq-Friendly Physician Project, Andrew Dilernia

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Representational Politics In Video Game Media – Gender In Pokémon, Glenn R. Miller

Senior Projects

The Pokémon franchise is a global powerhouse however it lacks representation that is necessary for the variety of races, sexualities, genders, and sexes that inhabit the countries where the games are released. These are fleshed out with the analysis of the works of Anne Fausto-Sterling, Jack Judith Halberstam, Judith Butler, and a critical analysis of the releases and features of the Pokémon games. An observance on representation is also conducted.

Female Genital Mutilation: A Matter That Must Be Stopped!, Fatouma Idrissa

Honors Projects

I was in high school when I was chosen by the president of my high school to represent my school for a convention dedicated to young girls and women. The main topic was on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and I was very surprised to know that such thing is happening in the world and precisely in my country, Niger. After the convention, I was very uncomfortable the whole time till I got home. My mom asked me how the convention went because she knew how excited I was about representing my school. I just nodded and answered that it was …

A Matter Of Time: An Exploration Of Gender In Time Magazine Covers Since 1965, Jessica Coutler

Honors Projects

Gender is a concept that influences almost all cultures as we know them. Current literature on this topic argues that gender is not an innate characteristic of society, but rather it is socially constructed and maintained by family, peers, and institutions. The main goal of this study is to illuminate the ways in which the news media maintains the dichotomous gender system by portraying men and women in gender-stereotypical roles. This study contributes to existing literature about gender in the media as it pertains to news media, rather than advertising or media targeted at one gender such as women’s or …

Insurrectionary Heroines: The Possibilities And Limits Of Women’S Radical Action During The French Revolution, Sean M. Wright

Grand Valley Journal of History

The article titled, Insurrectionary Heroines: The Possibilities and Limits of Women’s Radical Action During the French Revolution, gathers research materials from multiple primary and secondary sources to generate an analysis of women’s participation in the French Revolution. The focus of this analysis draws on how these women confronted the Early Modern European female status quo through the use of radical action during the Revolution, which ultimately led to the creation of new possibilities for women's participation in society and revealed the limitations of this new found participation. Radical action is defined by four major events in the article: the female …

Why Chinese Neo-Confucian Women Made A Fetish Of Small Feet, Aubrey L. Mcmahan

Grand Valley Journal of History

Abstract for “Why Chinese Neo-Confucian Women Made a Fetish of Small Feet”

This paper explores the source of the traditional practice of Chinese footbinding which first gained popularity at the end of the Tang dynasty and continued to flourish until the last half of the twentieth century.[1] Derived initially from court concubines whose feet were formed to represent an attractive “deer lady” from an Indian tale, footbinding became a wide-spread symbol among the Chinese of obedience, pecuniary reputability, and Confucianism, among other things.[2]^,[3] Drawing on the analyses of such scholars as Beverly Jackson, Valerie Steele …

Korean Perceptions Of Chastity, Gender Roles, And Libido; From Kisaengs To The Twenty First Century, Katrina Maynes

Grand Valley Journal of History

The kisaengs were highly educated performing artists that contradicted the historical view that Korean women should be chaste, quiet, and inconspicuous. Beginning in the twentieth century, kisaengs declined in popularity as sexual services became widely available, and despite the abiding insistence on chastity, millions of Koreans became involved in the prostitution industry. Although the traditional kisaengs have disappeared, the sexual and social oppression that has pervaded throughout Korean history has resulted in the enduring dominance of the prostitution industry. This paper accordingly traces the historical foundation of Korean kisaengs, analyzing the contradictions they posed to traditional values and accounting for …