Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Imagined Futures: Feminist Science Studies In An Era Of Climate Change Denial, Emily K. Crandall

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What space is there for critical approaches to science in a context where the authority of science to say anything meaningful, or to prescribe, appears to be somewhat tenuous—in other words, in a moment of rampant climate change denial? To answer this question against the backdrop of the common refrain that the problem is one of capitalism vs. the climate (e.g. Naomi Klein 2014), I examine cases where debates about science, economistic organizational arrangements, and political clashes between neoliberals and environmentalists come together, while insisting on the view, following critical engagements with the sciences, that the sciences and their societies …

Queerness, Witchcraft, And Embodied Presence: Aesthetic Knowings Of What A Body Can Do, Megan Bigelow

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Taking as a point of entry the critique of representation and affirming the limitations of the cuts that language makes, this capstone project explores the imbrications and assemblages between Foucault’s concept of subjugated knowledges, witchcraft and other body-based ways of knowing and being, and the consciousness of non-human forms such as plants and through the framework of non-representational theory, process philosophies, aesthetics, queerness, and the concept of difference itself.

Since such theories themselves are living, breathing entities, this capstone project explores the ideological split that has occurred between sacred and secular beliefs, moving through different figures such as nuns and …

Sexual Violation, Feminism, And Foucault: Against A Confessional Politics Of Truth, Amber M. Chiacchieri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

After many decades of feminist struggle, victims of sexual violation finally have the (relative) freedom to speak about their experiences in different venues to diverse audiences; however, they continue to be silenced, spoken over, and spoken for. While scholars and activists maintain close attention to the content of what survivors say and the means by which their speech is suppressed, there is less interrogation into the power relationships that structure the conditions through which this speech is made possible. This approach, sometimes referred to as “Foucauldian discourse analysis,” is associated with the French post-structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault. Foucault argued that …

Migritude: Migrant Structures Of Feeling In A Minor Literature Of Globalization, Ashna Ali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Migritude: Structures of Feeling in a Minor Literature of Globalization examines contemporary postcolonial narratives of migration written by women of color writing in English and in Italian under the rubric of “migritude.” Migritude literature describes the work of a disparate yet distinct group of contemporary authors whose work describes the condition of being a migrant under globalization with a critical feminist and anti-imperialist politics and poetics. It is a global justice movement that sees literature as a form of cultural activism. Migritude literatures traces the connections between contemporary globalization and colonial processes of the past and sheds light on how …

Existentialmd.Com: Building Towards An Embodied Internet Aesthetic, Natasha Ochshorn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

ExistentialMD.com is a website that aims to treat the body as an emotional and social subject in an online space that is purposefully bodied and fleshy. The website contrasts original creative nonfiction essays with a formal structure that alludes to the medical website WebMD. Mimicking WebMD’s symptom checker, which asks users to locate their discomfort with increasing specificity before suggesting conditions they might be suffering from, ExistentialMD uses a similar structure to yield results that are more exploratory than diagnostic, and which envision the body as a site of experience and emotionality. Form and content combine to create an …

Refusing White Privacy, Olivia Dunbar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In “Refusing White Privacy” I look at theories in White Data and Surveillance Studies around what data is, how it is made to exist, and for whom, in order to intervene in the conceptualization of data as an inevitable residue of human life and relationship. Through this intervention, I show that the alleged crises of privacy ushered in by allegedly non-racial smart technologies (a preoccupation in WDSS) is underwritten by racializing technologies from the Antebellum era to the present.

The Subject Of Jouissance: The Late Lacan And Gender And Queer Theories, Frederic C. Baitinger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Subject of Jouissance argues that Lacan’s approach to psychoanalysis, far from being heteronormative, offers a notion of identity that deconstructs gender as a social norm, and opens onto a non-normative theory of the subject (of jouissance) that still remains to be fully explored by feminist, gender, and queer scholars. Drawing mostly on the later Lacan, The Subject of Jouissance shows that by locating the identity of the subject in the singularity of its bodily mode of enjoyment (that Lacan calls “jouissance”), and not in the Imaginary illusions of the ego, nor in the Symbolic social structures, Lacan fosters thinking …

Wolf Packs: U.S. Carceral Logics And The Case Of The New Jersey Four, Leilani Dowell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

On an evening in 2006 a group of black queer women and gender non-conforming people, traveled from Newark, New Jersey, to New York’s Greenwich Village for a night out. When Dwayne Buckle, an African-American man selling DVDs on the street, attempted to flirt with one of them, they told him that they were lesbians. Buckle physically assaulted them and, at some point in the four-minute melee, was stabbed. The seven were arrested. While three of them accepted plea bargains, the other four maintained their right to defend themselves from attack. A New York judge convicted the New Jersey Four (as …

The Impact Of State Political Party Association On The Gender Wage Gap, Audrey Kelly

Honors Theses

Purpose: This study investigates whether political party association impacts the gender wage gap in the United States of America. This study is motivated by the minimal recent reduction in the gender wage gap, despite legislation presented to combat this problem. The study is also motivated by the impact of gender wage gap on females’ choice of major, which directly impacts the national economy.

Design/methodology/approach: Gender wage gap data is collected from 50 states and Washington D.C. for the year 2018 to examine whether political party association significantly impacts the gender wage gap. Mississippi is a proxy for the Republican …

Caldecott-Winning Children’S Books And The Women’S Rights Movement Of The 1960s, Hannah Faler

Honors Theses

This research consists of a content analysis of Caldecott-winning children’s books. It explores the portrayal of the female gender before and after the Women’s Rights Movement. A qualitative approach was used to investigate the portrayal of four randomly selected Caldecott-winning children’s books. The research findings indicate that children’s books published prior to the Women’s Rights Movement include more gender-based stereotypes than those published after this movement. Female characterization, illustrations, and literary themes are all important factors contributing to the overall portrayal of the female gender in these books. The research findings are significant for educators, parents, and librarians, who should …

Analog To Digital Preservation Of The “Women Trailblazers In The Law” Oral History Project, Camelia Naranch, Carol Wilson

Digital Initiatives Symposium

In November 2018, Stanford Law School Library unveiled to the public an online exhibit of more than 100 oral histories of American women lawyers, scholars, judges, and government officials who helped diversify the legal profession in the late twentieth century. Called the “Women Trailblazers in the Law” Oral History Project, it is a collaboration between Stanford Law School Library and the American Bar Association. Our presentation discusses the details of the analog to digital preservation process, whereby the physical collection was converted into digital formats suitable for long term archival storage as well as online access for the general public. …

Unraveling Ethos: The Commodification Of Ethical Clothing, Oliva Hanson

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

In the last decade there has been a noticeable attempt to subvert traditional modes of clothing production. The recent emergence of “ethical consumption” in the fashion industry is a case in point. This project argues that these new formations and practices around ethical consumption are mere appropriations of anti-corporate politics and sentiments for consumers in the West. Signification of ethical consumption through language and cultural capital give more value to individual articles of clothing and branded entities. This reformation of the clothing industry towards an ethical attitude is a rebranding tactic that avoids the source-issue altogether. Through advertising and normalization …

“This Is The True Story:” The Representation Of The Lgtbq Community In Mtv’S The Real World, Morgan Rae Ohman

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

In this project, Morgan Ohman seeks to explore the MTV reality show The Real World by analyzing several cast members of the show who identify as part of the LGBTQ community. MTV’s The Real World, a reality TV show that first aired in 1992, captures the lives of seven young people between the ages of 18-24 that are selected to live in a house together for several months. The show’s dramatic the opening title sequence, “what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real?” raises fundamental questions about the relationship of reality TV and the politics of …

Politics, Protest And Patience: Gendered Rights And Human Security In India And South Korea, Anika Backelin-Harrison

Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies Honors Papers

National security measures are often framed from a masculinist, hegemonic viewpoint, determining that the wellbeing of a state and its citizens is dependent on protection by a patriarchal government. This paper argues that the health and strength of a country and its citizens are better promoted through a focus on human security, defined by the United Nations as the right of all people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair. Moreover, a gendered approach to human security is necessary to advance economic development, personal security and freedom from violence. Nonetheless, women all over the world are …

Goblin: Microaffirmations, A Theory Of Communication, Haunt Pitcher

Media and Communication Studies Honors Papers

This project is a study of nonbinary identity and the ways in which nonbinary individuals find validation from nonbinary communities, cisgender friends and family members, and themselves. It advances a theory of “microaffirmations,” or small acts that can have a large, positive impact on nonbinary individuals, with a significant focus on humor, language, and other forms of communication. Research for this project was conducted through a series of personal interviews with friends and families, as well as analyzing the author’s own experiences as a nonbinary individual. These interviews and experiences are filtered through lenses of feminist theory, trans theory, and …

Everything I Know About Gender I Learned From A Little Golden Book!, Chandler Clifford

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This feminist cultural intervention examines the power children’s literature has in its ability to interpellate its readers and normalize dominant gendered identities for them. It draws on the work of feminist theorists, such as bell hooks, Judith Butler, and Sandra Bem to interrogate the politics of gender and sexuality in The Little Golden Book series and to examine how the latter has actively worked to create specific cisnormative gender identities for its readers. In this project, Chandler Clifford shows how children’s literature is used as an ideological tool to teach children how gender is performed in the outside world and …

The "Fat Acceptance And Fat Pride Movements" And Consumer Culture: A Critical Intervention On Popular Obesity Discourses, Gabriella Josephine Papas

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This project is presented as a critical intervention into the larger debates surrounding the U.S. fat acceptance and fat pride political ‘movements,’ at a historical moment when the country is suffering from a deep obesity epidemic and crisis. At a time of deep concern about increasing healthcare costs and overall societal health, the fact that the dominant discourse among fat activists tends to contradict prevalent positions and findings of contemporary medical research calls for a critical ideological critique of the movements and an interrogation of their rhetoric. In this project Gabriella Papas’ critique combines concepts from both cultural studies and …

Queering Dominant Modes Of Writing And Identity Formation In Audre Lorde’S Zami: A New Spelling Of My Name, Charlie Martin

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

As part of a historical formation of marginalized authors who interrogate dominant modes of writing and identity formation in their work, self-described “Black lesbian mother warrior poet” Audre Lorde remakes and reimagines dominant conventions of identity and literary genres in her novel Zami: A New Spelling of My Name to articulate her unique subjectivity as a Black American lesbian writer. Drawing on the work of scholars and activists in the fields of queer theory and feminism, including Cheryl Wall, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Audre Lorde herself, Charlie Martin uses textual and contextual analysis to examine the indelible link between Lorde’s …

Why Study Language? Discussing Language And Its Influence On Gender Discrimination, Katelyn Eisenmann

Honors Projects

An applied research project, with the culminating piece being a panel discussion that focused on the ways in which language use and structure contribute to attitudes and perceptions of gender within our society, and the politics that surround concepts of gender.

Women's Rights And Representation In Saudi Arabia, Iran, And Turkey: The Patriarchal Domination Of Religious Interpretations, Roumaissaa Tailassane

International Relations Honors Papers

This research paper is divided into three case studies: Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey. The main focus of the paper is to examine barriers to women’s economic and political participation as well as the limits on their rights within the family and society. All three case studies are Muslim-majority countries. The paper argues that the subordination of women is not intrinsic to Islam but stems from patriarchal interpretations of Islam by religious authorities working in conjunction with autocratic political leaders. Furthermore, the paper analyzes cultural, political, and economic explanations for limits on women’s rights in these Muslim-majority countries and shows …

Strict Restraints: Abstinence's Gender Problems In Measure For Measure, Joseph Makuc

History Honors Papers

Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure poses questions about sexual coercion and governmental corruption that resonate today. Recent scholarship has examined sexual abstinence in Measure for Measure in terms of its historical economic and religious context regarding Isabella. However, Angelo and the Duke, the play's other central characters, also make claims about the value of abstinence. I put these characters’ claims into dialogue with Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity and extensive scholarship on Shakespearean England. I argue that abstinence is the axis around which Measure’s main characters revolve, and that Measure locates these characters’ abstinences as competing performances of manhood and …

Rewriting Women: A Feminist Examination Of Lolita's And Pride And Prejudice's Costume And Revisionist Adaptations, Courtney A. Duchene Ms.

English and Creative Writing Honors Papers

This project examines costume and revisionist media adaptations of Lolita and Pride and Prejudice to see how adapters have altered the texts in order to increase the agency of the female characters. It consists of four chapters: one on the 1962 and 1997 cinematic costume adaptations of Lolita; one on the 1995 BBC mini series and the 2005 film costume adaptations of Pride and Prejudice; one on the Pride and Prejudice revisionist adaptations, Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and the 2012-2013 Youtube series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries; and one on the revisionist film adaptations of Lolita, The Diary …

Rape Culture: Tools Of Oppression, William Wehrs

History Honors Papers

My project deals with rape culture and the tools of oppression. It looks at the history of rape culture from biblical times to the present. It then examines how schools indoctrinate people to participate in rape culture. It then moves to a backlash towards feminism from the 1970s to the present. The paper then connects said backlash to Men’s Activist Websites. Finally, my paper examines rape culture in the Media, such as the James Bond films or the video game, Super Seducer.

Rising Feminism In South Korea: A Timely Counter To Sexism, Neha Cariappa

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

My aim in this research is to create awareness about protecting women’s rights as well as supporting the feminist movement in South Korea. Using archival sources, as well as survey results from South Korean women, I assess the impact that the #MeToo movement, examine the reaction of South Korean men to the rising feminism movement and the impact of social media on the culture of protest in South Korea. In short, this research investigates discrimination against women in South Korea, how it has affected its society today, and thus analyzes a few positive solutions to this perennial and critical issue.

What's Left Of Gender?: The Metaphysics Of Woman, Man, And Non-Binary Identities, Nina Kamangar

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

There is a gender revolution underway. Progressive movements urge acceptance of transgender and non-binary gender identities apart from the male or female designations assigned at birth. Surrounding this, there has been confusion about what gender is and what it means to identify with one. Some accuse new perspectives on gender to be incoherent. Others support this movement, but acknowledge gender as an inherently restrictive concept to eventually be abolished. Is it true that genders are becoming empty categories, or can something be salvaged? I offer a pro-revolutionary theory of gender that is inclusive of these new identities while remaining intelligible.

“More Free Than He Is Jealous”: Female Agency And Solidarity In The Winter’S Tale, Stacey K. Mooney

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

No abstract provided.

From Terrorism To Feminism: Live-Action Superhero Films As Reflections Of American Social Problems Post 9/11, Lindsey Poe

English MA Theses

Superheroes have always been used as tools of escapism. From their insurgence into popular culture in the 1930s, to their animation in television programs, and appearance in films in the late 1970s until now, superheroes have allowed audiences an avenue through which they could imagine an alternate, utopian reality. Through the analyses of modern superhero films, audiences are able to connect how the genre reflects larger social and political fears in the wake of such unexpected realities: fear of annihilation after the 9/11 attacks and existing in a potentially unsafe America following the election of Donald Trump. The superhero film …

Sage, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Sage explored her highly religious upbringing and relationship with her family. She is of Greek descent and her Greek-American culture played a large role in shaping her identity. Her parents rejected her during her young adulthood due to her sexuality and Sage discussed the impact that the ostracization had on her development. Her positive experience with being a part of a long-term, loving lesbian relationship was one that she frequently came back to during the course of the interview. On top of relationships and religion, Sage also examined her experiences undergoing workplace harassment and feeling unwelcome and unsafe in many …

Critical Mentorship For Black Girls: An Autoethnography Of Perseverance, Commitment, And Empowerment, Krystal Huff

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Working class Black girls experience multilayered oppression informed by their triadic social identity that sits at the intersection of race, gender, and class in their lives and more specifically in their schooling experiences (Collins, 1986, 1989; Onyeka-Crawford, Patrick, & Chaudry, 2017). A variety of mentoring practices have been adopted among educators throughout the public-school system to remedy the impact of poor educational opportunities for Black girls. In contrast to the use of traditional mentorship practices that solely focus on the individual, critical mentorship seeks to engage and support the cultural, political, and economic contexts that positively shape the experiences and …

Female Expression In Hispanic Art, Kristine Reynardus

Library Research Scholars Program 2018-2019

I explored female representation in Hispanic/LatinX Art through transcending multiple means of understanding. I provided the historical context of the artist along with relevant biographic information that likely informed their artistic style, whether that be family history or places of study. Another dimension would include the visual representation of the artist’s work. The way I imagine these coming to life would be through mini galleries of well-know and lesser known works of the artist. The last component of the project would be what ties all of this information together: making it a map of the Americas! An early vision of …