Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“And Why Here?” Reading Hong Kong In Nick Joaquin’S The Woman Who Had Two Navels, Raymon D. Ritumban

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

Nick Joaquin (1917–2004) is a Filipino literary master and national artist whose numerous works include the prize-winning novel The Woman Who Had Two Navels (1961). Its plot revolves around the Manilan protagonist Connie Escobar’s flight into Hong Kong and her insistence that “she [has] two navels” (1). Her assertion is complicated by her request for Hong Kong-born-and-based Pepe Monson to perform “an operation” on them (1). While this curious premise has generated numerous analyses over time, the novel’s setting—that is, post-1945 Hong Kong—remains understudied. Addressing this gap, the paper offers a geocritical intervention examining the historical conditions and spatial production …

“The River’S Tent Is Broken/Wasak Ang Kubol Ng Dagat”: The Modern And The Nation In Bienvenido Lumbera’S Ang Pagas Na Lupain, Susan Mila P. Alvarez-Tosalem

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

In 1971, Philippine National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera translated one of the most outstanding examples of world literature, T. S. Eliot’s modernist poem, The Waste Land, into Filipino. At the time, Lumbera had just earned his PhD from Indiana University as a Fulbright scholar. Naturally, his colonial education and aesthetic preference shaped his approach as a critic and scholar. However, Lumbera’s “radical transformation” became evident in 1968, in the midst of growing discontent with the neocolonial government (Veric 140). This paper underscores, therefore, the centrality of translation in world literature, especially in the context of a single “world literary system” (Moretti …

Collaging Stickers: Revealing Objects' Relational Interiority, Mochammad Mirza Yusuf Harahap

ARSNET

This paper proposes a methodological approach to learning about an object's interiority, embracing two schools of thought that largely revolve around the study of objects: one that concerns the object's substance, and the other that concerns the object's relationality. In particular, the study sees an opportunity to reveal object's relationality through a deep understanding of the object's substance. In achieving the objective, the presented study found a resonating notion in the concept of interiority, which is understood as an inward-outward dialectic. Thinking of object with interiority posits a process of disassembling object's substance for building inward awareness. This study further …

Alice By Heart Playbill, Providence College Department Of Theatre, Dance & Film

Playbill and Promotions

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

Angell Blackfriars Theatre

Alice by Heart, Book by Steven Sater & Jessie Nelson, Composer: Duncan Sheik, Lyrics by Steven Sater

October 30th-November 8^th, 2026

Katrina Pavao - Director

Esther Zabinski - Music Director

Nina Kossler - Choreographer

Trevor Elliot - Scenic Designer

Lovanni Gomez - Lighting Designer

Maxine Wheelock - Costume Designer

Gabriel Luxton - Sound Designer

Cast: Jade Bocciarelli - Alice Spencer/Alice; Thomas Sullivan - Alfred Hallam/Rabbit & Hare; Julia Lawson - Red Cross Nurse/Queen of Hearts; Gabe Joseph - Harold /Hatter, K. of Sp., M2 Turtle; Olivia …

Creating Cobiva: Un Corpus Hecho Por Y Para La Comunidad Del Rgv, Delaney Dwyer, Emily Guerrero, Javier Arias

Bilingualism in Higher Ed Summit

No abstract provided.

Arbiya, Hamida T. Riahi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This short story narrates the lived experience of a young, rural, Tunisian student confronting the intersecting oppressions of class, gender, and regional marginalization in her pursuit of higher education. Positioned as an arbiya—a term loaded with regionalist and classist disdain—the protagonist is marked as inferior within the urban academic milieu. Her daily struggles with poverty, hunger, and moral scrutiny reveal the precarious conditions under which many women students from rural backgrounds must survive. The dormitory space, far from being a refuge, exposes her to exploitation, judgment, and social surveillance. The story reaches its emotional apex when her lover’s urban bourgeois …

Affirmative Action For Women In Higher Education And Stem: A Policy Framework To Transform India’S Scientific Landscape, Dileep Verma, Pushpender Yadav, Shashikant Nishant Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This brief proposes an outcomes-oriented affirmative-action framework to accelerate women’s participation and leadership across India’s higher education and STEM pipeline, aligning national priorities for a “Self-reliant India” (Atmanirbhar Bharat) with the United Nation’s SDG-5 (gender equality). Near-parity in overall HE enrolment contrasts with women’s underrepresentation in engineering/technology programmes, research roles, and senior faculty positions as revealed by the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) (Department of Science & Technology, n.d.-a; Ministry of Education, 2020; Sahay, 2022). Supernumerary seats, re-entry fellowships, and pilot programmes (e.g., KIRAN/WOS, GATI, WEST) show promise but lack scale, evaluation, and accountability linkages (Department of Science …

Birthing In A Foreign Land, Sadhiya Saleem

Journal of International Women's Studies

This narrative poem explores the embodied experience of childbirth in a foreign land. Set within the unfamiliar environment of a hospital far from the speaker’s linguistic roots, the poem traces the physical and emotional landscape of labor as one profoundly shaped by displacement and disconnection. Through sensory imagery and fragmented memory, it portrays how giving birth in an unfamiliar context amid the absence of familiar support systems and linguistic comfort creates a profound sense of bodily estrangement. The poem enters broader feminist conversations to reclaim the maternal body, marked by migration and displacement, as a definitive site of memory and …

Film Review: Ajmer 92, Investigative Journalism, And Justice For Rape Survivors, Amit Sharma, Amitabh Srivastava

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Film Review: Education As A Legal Right, Yet A Socially Negotiated Privilege: A Feminist Review Of Sthal (A Match), Ankit Anand, Rajneesh Kumar

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Film Review: Queer Happiness And Family Myth In My Therapist Said, I Am Full Of Sadness, Ni Luh Ayu Sukmawati

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Gender-Based Violence, Legal Protection, And Intersecting Narratives: A Conversation With Flavia Agnes, Barnana Baidya, Partha Bhattacharjee

Journal of International Women's Studies

Flavia Agnes is a leading advocate for gender justice because of her legal expertise in marital law, divorce, and property law and her activism as an Indian women’s rights lawyer. Her scholarly work on systemic and legal gender-based oppression has appeared in the journals Subaltern Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, and Manushi. Her book, My Story...Our Story of Rebuilding Broken Lives, released by her non-profit organization named Majlis, depicts how Agnes battled domestic violence while addressing the law’s restrictive abilities to offer protection. We conducted an interview through Google Meet with Agnes to discuss her work as a legal activist …

Book Review Essay: The Keloid As Episteme—Corporeal Healing And Colonial Afterlives In Sarah Soanirina Ohmer’S The Keloids We Heal, Md Samiul Azim, Farida Parvin

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Reproductive Labor And Innovation: Against The Tech Fix In An Era Of Hype, Lipika Kankaria

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: All She Lost: The Explosion In Lebanon, The Collapse Of A Nation, And The Women Who Survive, Noor Obeid

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Letters From The Edge: Outrider Conversations, Raeesabegam Usmani

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Artificial Women: Sex Dolls, Robot Caregivers, And More Facsimile Females, Evie Kendal

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: I Criticize, Therefore I Am A Woman Poet—Sex And Style: Literary Criticism And Gender In Early Modern England, Rizwan Akhtar

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Challenges For Chinese Women In The Early Twenty-First Century, Zakiyah Zakiyah

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Body Politics In Contemporary Irish Women’S Writing: The Literary Legacy Of Mother Ireland, Taylor Follett

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

A Feminist Analysis Of Post-Independence Administrative Reforms In Bihar, Shrey Sharma, Rajeev Kumar Jain, Ashutosh K. Pandey, Shashikant Nishant Sharma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper critically examines the administrative reforms in Bihar since India’s independence, focusing on the evolution of women’s roles and representation in state governance. Drawing on historiographic and textual analyses of academic scholarship, government reports, reform commission findings, and policy documents, the study uses the case of the Indian state of Bihar to explore how political leadership, bureaucratic structures, and gendered hierarchies intersect in shaping postcolonial governance. Bihar, historically marked by institutional fragility and social inequality, provides an illustrative context for assessing how national-level reforms— such as the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, civil service modernization, and e governance—have attempted …

The Role Of Tribal And Dalit Women In Water Conservation: A Case Study Of The Western Indian Trans-Himalayan Region, Vivek Kumar, Anuradha Choudhary

Journal of International Women's Studies

Water scarcity and environmental degradation are pressing contemporary issues, and the Himalayan regions are especially at risk. The Trans-Himalayas in particular face severe resource scarcity as water availability is totally dependent on the now dwindling supply of glacial meltwater. Women in the Spiti Valley in the Trans-Himalayan region are particularly exposed to these issues because they spend significant time collecting water and fodder for domestic animals and managing agricultural irrigation. As the primary caregivers and managers of households, women in this region face greater challenges in adapting to and mitigating resource scarcity. This study focuses on the role of Dalit …

Twitter’S Role In Challenging The Marginalisation And Subjugation Of Women In Northern Nigeria, Tioluwalogo Olakunbi-Black

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper aims to examine social media’s role in advocating against the marginalisation and domination of women in Northern Nigeria with a focus on Twitter (X). This study analyses women’s strategies of digital advocacy drawing on feminist theory, specifically difference feminism, intersectional feminism, and post-structuralist feminism, alongside theories of technological determinism. Difference feminism argues that women possess distinctive qualities, experiences, and perspectives that differentiate them from men, and that these differences can be a source of strength rather than a basis for disadvantage. Intersectional feminism foregrounds intersecting identities such as race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality, emphasising the multiplicity of women’s …

Women’S Employment And Intrahousehold Bargaining Power: Evidence From Nigeria, Temitope O. Olalude, Olanrewaju A. Olaniyan

Journal of International Women's Studies

Although women’s participation in paid employment has increased in recent years, the extent to which this improvement correlates with increased intrahousehold bargaining power (IHBP) remains understudied. Women’s intrahousehold bargaining power plays a critical role in achieving a more inclusive and sustainable economy. This study therefore investigates the relationship between women’s employment status and IHBP in Nigeria using data from the 2013 and 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) to evaluate progress over time. We measured women’s employment status and assessed women’s intrahousehold bargaining power using two indices: the direct bargaining power index (DBPI) and the indirect bargaining power index …

The Social Reproduction Of Filipina Migrant Workers Represented In Ten Filipino Films, Elora Francisco, Precious Lois Layas, Karlena Ameina Saturnino, Leo Vicentino

Journal of International Women's Studies

The growing phenomenon of the Philippines’ high labor export has contributed not only to the country’s economy but also to that of countries all over the world who are receiving these migrants. With the demand for labor exports increasing, film narratives concerning overseas Filipino workers offer important insight into the experience of migrants. In particular, Filipina migrant workers (FMWs) face gendered socio-cultural constraints in their pursuit of financially supporting their families. While gender migration has been examined across various disciplines, the representation of the Filipina diaspora in mainstream contemporary Filipino films remains insufficiently explored. Thus, this study aims to determine …

The Making Of A Woman Superstar: An Analysis Of The Superstardom Of Malayalam Actor Manju Warrier, Sangeetha Ps, Jais Merlin P. Augustine

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the construction and development of women’s superstardom in Malayalam cinema, drawing on the example of Manju Warrier, one of few Indian regional actresses to achieve sustained celebrity status that goes beyond youth and glamour. We draw upon Richard Dyer’s star theory, particularly his notion of the star as “structured polysemy,” a constellation of meanings that are produced by film roles, publicity, and audience reception (Dyer, 1998). This article examines how Manju Warrier’s star image is constructed through a productive interplay of film roles, mediated representations, public persona, and audience reception. The discussion also adopts a feminist film …

Brown Women, Cyberspace, And The Scopophilic Male Gaze In Hari Kunzru’S Transmission, Ayesha Perveen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study draws upon gaze theory to explore the cinema-cyberspace-gender nexus presented in British Indian writer Hari Kunzru’s novel Transmission (2005). While Arjun Mehta is widely considered the protagonist of the novel, I focus instead on the representation of the character Leela Zahir both as an individual and as a virus. Although the virus unleashed by Arjun is the novel’s main source of cyberterrorism, I analyze cyberterrorism in terms of the cyberspace representation of women as scopophilic objects for the male gaze. For this purpose, I discuss the mindset behind the use of the “she” pronoun for the virus as …

Quantitative Comparison Of Writing Styles Among Indonesian Women Novelists: A Corpus Linguistics Approach, Vicno Triwira Dhika Jr, Ermanto Ermanto, Hasanuddin Ws, Ridha Hasnul Ulya, Aditya Rachman, Selfi Mahat Putri

Journal of International Women's Studies

Using the KORTARA Korpus Nusantara application, this study employed a quantitative corpus linguistics approach to examine the lexical density and average sentence length in nine novels by Indonesian women authors. The results indicated that each work differed greatly with respect to average sentence length and lexical density. When lexical density was analyzed through TTR, the results displayed a sufficiently wide range, suggesting the absence of a uniform women’s writing style in terms of vocabulary. For example, Dee Lestari’s Supernova: Roots (2002) achieved the highest TTR of 23.59%, which indicates an extensive and diverse vocabulary. Alaska Bay (2019) by Eka Aryani, …

Narrating Otherwise: Analysing Nancy Spero’S The First Language As Historiographic Metafiction, Ipek Ebru Yildiz, Rifat Sahiner

Journal of International Women's Studies

Through a feminist reading grounded in the framework of historiographic metafiction, this article aims to analyze pioneering feminist U.S. artist Nancy Spero’s The First Language (1981). Throughout the history of Western art, women’s bodies have been predominantly represented through the male gaze, reducing women to passive objects and excluding them from consideration as full subjects in historical and artistic narratives. In response to these modes of representation, Spero constructs a unique visual language that reclaims the female body from historical silence and repositions it as a political and narrative subject. The First Language brings together women figures from different cultures …

Between Tradition And Expression: The Mother–Daughter Relationship In Druze Women’S Artworks, Shahar Marnin-Distelfeld, Ebtesam Barakat

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines how young Druze women artists in Israel depict their relationships with their mothers through visual art. Drawing from a broader study of fifteen artists from the Carmel, Galilee, and Golan Heights, it focuses on two whose work most directly engages the mother–daughter bond. Using interviews and visual analysis, the study explores how these artists express cultural values, tensions, and expectations shaping this relationship in contemporary Druze society. The research is a bilingual, bicultural collaboration between a Druze Arabic-speaking sociologist and a Jewish Hebrew-speaking art scholar. Both artists’ work highlights generational and cultural divides, depicting mothers as central …