Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

A Journey To The Midwest For Migrant Farmwork: Women's Testimonies Examining Their Lived Experiences Using Autoethnography And Plática Research Methodologies, Yesenia G. Alcalá

Theses & Dissertations

A JOURNEY TO THE MIDWEST FOR MIGRANT FARMWORK: WOMEN’S TESTIMONIES EXAMINING THEIR LIVED EXPERIENCES USING AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AND PLÁTICA

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

Yesenia Garza Alcalá, Master of Business Administration

University of the Incarnate Word 2026

The purpose of my research was to share the stories of five women who experienced a yearly migratory routine from Del Rio, Texas, to work in farms and factories in the Midwest, and how that annual journey shaped and educated us. The women are four of my older sisters and me, all of whom traveled and worked in the Princeville, Illinois, migrant camp, where we experienced the …

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 …

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, …

Best Integrated Writing Fall 2026 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies, Kristie Mckiernan

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University.

Inculiable: Hacia Una Mirada Glotopolítica Del Léxico Tabú Sexual, Gabriel Alvarado Pavez

CUNY Mexican Studies Institute

No abstract provided.

"Two Different Histories": Lgbtq Educator Identity In An Era Of Policy Precarity In Further Education, Liberty Heath-Tavener

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

In Zadie Smith’s debut novel White Teeth (2000) she writes: ‘every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.’ (p. 532) Although this notion related to the struggles of global majority people in Britain after decolonisation, I liken it to the concept of identity for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ) educators within further education, where their internal thoughts, feelings and reality are often in conflict with external norms, ideals and policies, all of which are geared towards heteronormativity and cisnormativity. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) argue that metaphors transcend rhetorical devices and are an essential …

Cloud: Between Paris And Tehran: Kiarostami/Corbin/Lacan, Heba Arafa Abdelfattah

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Joan Copjec, Cloud: Between Paris and Tehran: Kiarostami/Corbin/Lacan (MIT Press, 2025).

Failed Gay Rights Amendment To Mankato's Human Rights Ordinance In Mankato, Minnesota In 1987, Kellian Clink

Library Services Publications

In 1987, small but passionate people urged the city to pass an amendment to Mankato’s existing human rights ordinance to protect LGBTQ+ communities.   Advocates argued that gays were entitled to the same rights as straight people and were looking for protection in housing and employment, particularly. They demonstrated that people had lost jobs, housing, and access to dance venues. Some opponents equated gays with promiscuity, child molestation, solicitation, sin, and AIDS; some were convinced it was not needed; some pinned their arguments on the existence of laws already on the books.  This narrative is based on articles from the local …

Grief As A Constitutive Shadow Of Queer Joy: Reclaiming Negativity And The Ethics Of Staying For Education Research, Akira Sawata

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

In education scholarship, authors have increasingly called to center queer joy to disrupt the conventional deficit model that normally accompanies queer communities. However, in this paper, I argue that an exclusive emphasis on joy may risk instituting and normalizing a happiness duty that marginalizes negative affects and subjects. I propose queer grief not as an opposite, but as a constitutive shadow of joy. Drawing on theories of queer, trans, and crip negativity and the studies on loss, grief, and mourning, I critique the imperative to mobilize affect solely for future utility and teleological meaning. I contend that such mobilization-driven …

Archives As Activism: Using Cuny Archives To Examine And Analyze Social Change, Marci Littlefield

Open Educational Resources

Archives as Activism uses CUNY archival materials to help students examine the relationship between activism, social issues and social change. Students will analyze primary sources such as flyers, newsletters, photographs, student newspapers, and institutional documents and connect them to contemporary social issues. CUNY’s history of activism around, race, gender, educational access, women’s organizing and institutional power provides students with an opportunity to investigate questions about power, collective action, intersectionality and social change.

“Ite Missa Est”: How Can The Altar Alter Attitudes And Actions?, Ebenezer Akesseh

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper brings into focus the relationship between personal agency and so-

cial structure, demonstrating that what we celebrate on the altar forms within

us the proper dispositions that can help prevent the occurrence of corruption.

The first part examines corruption from a socio-cultural perspective and ex-

plains the incidence and effects of corruption. The second part discusses the

relationship between worship and the formation of actions and attitudes. It

highlights the need to embody the social implications of our celebrations. Using

responses from interviewees, the third part illustrates that the celebration of the

Eucharist shapes the commitments and conduct …

La Santa Muerte And The Characteristic Damage Of Canonization, Ellen Webber

Journal of Global Catholicism

Devotion to La Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint who personifies Death, has

been condemned by the Catholic Church for its affiliation with Mexican drug

cartels. This article challenges mainstream interpretations of La Santa Muerte

devotion using the theological framework of characteristic damage, as defined

by Lauren Winner and Paul J. Griffiths. This framework understands liturgy

as celebrated by sinners in a damaged world, and therefore necessarily damaged

itself. As much as liturgy and Christian practice form us for good, they also per-

petuate damage. I argue that the sins present in La Santa Muerte veneration are

an expression of …

Editor's Introduction, Brent H. Otto S.J.

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

More Than A Name: Reparative Description For Women’S Archives, Allison Mccormack, Hallie Oines

Journal of Western Archives

This article describes a reparative description initiative at an academic library aimed at improving access to women’s archival collections. By hiring a metadata specialist through grant funding, the project revised legacy MARC records to update, expand, and standardize collection descriptions. Prioritizing inclusive language and accurate subject headings, the team addressed gaps that previously hindered discovery of women’s materials. Over two years, 818 records were remediated, enhancing creator, topical, and genre/form access points. The article discusses project challenges, strategies for respectful description, and the resulting improved discoverability, offering a replicable model for reparative archival work.

Ai-Supported Analysis Of Jury Deliberation Impact Factors, Jennifer Siciliani Phd

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students conduct a controlled, two-run generative AI jury simulation to examine how a single socio-legal variable affects simulated jury deliberation. They compare and manually code the AI-generated outcomes against peer-reviewed human jury research to evaluate the model’s accuracy, limitations, and potential biases.

Allyship And Affect: Qualitative Investigations Into Social Transformation, Michael Lucinda Jane Greer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Allies have faced several critiques in feminist philosophy. Some have argued that they lack the requisite political interests to be motivated to dismantle the social structures from which they stand to benefit. Others have argued that the epistemic limitations resulting from their social privilege are insurmountable. Yet others have argued that allyship is too individualistic a concept, preferring a more collectivist concept like solidarity. However, there remain privileged individuals who understand themselves as complicit in perpetuating oppressive forms of life, and who wish to transform themselves and work in coalition across difference to dismantle structural oppression. How ought these individuals …

The Negotiated Identities Of Refugee-Background Women During Resettlement, Iuliia Fakhrutdinova

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Refugee-background women experience unique challenges while resettling in the U.S. as they navigate complicated transnational gender roles, education gaps, migration trauma, learning a new language, and literacy in the adaptation process during resettlement, which can derail the productive paths they are on. Therefore, ignoring refugee-background women’s unique experiences and failing to understand their identities prevents our society from doing social justice and creating a space for a smooth adaptation to the new context. Language plays a paramount role in identity formation, as it moves away from the belief that identity is an essential concept. For refugee-background women during resettlement, their …

I Must Be Well, To Do Well: Examining The Relationship Between Toxic Stem Environments, Trauma, Stem Support, And Academic Outcomes Among Diverse Graduate Women In Stem, Aisha Farra

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Women, particularly Women of Colour (WOC), remain underrepresented in STEM. In the last two decades, research has sought to better understand women’s experiences in STEM, highlighting challenges such as isolation, sexism, and racism, which negatively impact mental health and STEM persistence. While these mental health challenges have been documented, further work is needed to examine how these experiences are related to trauma symptoms and physical health outcomes, as well as the mechanisms through which they shape academic outcomes. This quantitative study investigated the relationships among toxic STEM experiences (i.e., gendered racism, sexism, and isolation), trauma symptoms and physical health concerns, …

‘Passing’ The Baton Of Trauma: Queer Failure Of The Women’S Sport Policy Working Group’S Anti-Trans ‘Position’, Meredith M. Bagley, Mary Anne Taylor, Sarah F. Price

Publications and Research

Engaging in critical rhetorical theory and methodology, we interrogate the contemporary landscape of anti-trans backlash in women’s sport. Specifically, we read the ‘TERF wars’ (Pearce et al.) across critiques of biofeminism (Pape) and whiteness (Fischer) while drawing upon critical social science research into trauma-bonding, bullying, and the structural impacts of gender verification policies. Our analysis focuses on the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group (WSPWG), offering a trauma-informed reading of the WSPWG’s ‘Position’ statement to illuminate how lesbian female athletes who were previously slandered for failing to meet femininity norms in sport are unable to overcome that trauma to recognize and …

Community Problems Need Community Solutions: Feminist Collaboration Across Campuses To Create Transformative Outcomes Through Community Engaged Learning, Elizabeth Wilhoit Larson, Jasmine R. Linabary, Ziyu Long, Kylie J. Johnson

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This study presents a multi-institutional engaged pedagogy project responding to college food insecurity that involved partnerships among students, instructors, and campus food pantries from three U.S. universities. Through analysis of pre- and post-class surveys, class assignments, and instructor and community partner reflections, we argue that our feminist collaborative approach resulted in transformative outcomes in three areas: (a) heads, as the collaboration enabled critical understandings of food insecurity and how to combat it; (b) hearts, as the collaboration fostered a culture of care and (re)ignited shared passion in doing change work, and (c) hands, as the collaboration inspired actions to address …

Behind Prison Walls: Unmasking The Victimization Experience Of A Transgender Inmate: A Narrative Study, Kevin E. Hemminger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Transgender individuals experience disproportionately high rates of victimization within the U.S. criminal justice system, at rates some studies estimate as four times greater than those of cisgender individuals (Marchi et al., 2025). Victimization may occur at the hands of correctional officers, institutional staff, or fellow inmates. This narrative study focuses on the life story of a formerly incarcerated transgender woman, tracing her experiences before incarceration, throughout her time at two different correctional facilities in two different states, and her life following release. While Community Based Research (CBR) was not adopted as a formal methodological framework, its principles — centering lived …

Cosmetic Nationalism: Fashion And Feminine Performance In Trump-Aligned America, Nicola Rountree-Williams

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This paper examines how fashion, beauty, and feminine presentation operate as political tools within Trump-aligned American culture. Drawing on historical examples from fascist Italy, Francoist Spain, and European aristocratic fashion, it argues that aesthetics have long been used to reinforce nationalism, gender hierarchy, and political authority. The paper analyzes contemporary trends such as “Republican makeup” and “Mar-a-Lago face,” arguing that these hyper-feminine and highly racialized beauty standards function as performances of loyalty, wealth, and traditional femininity within Trump-aligned politics. Through figures such as Kristi Noem, the paper demonstrates how women’s appearances can visually legitimize masculine authority while limiting women’s autonomy …

Well-Being Beyond The Binary In Perinatal Healthcare: An Application Of Reproductive Justice, Orphea D. Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gender diverse birthing individuals face several systemic barriers to accessing affirming and empowering perinatal healthcare. The present study utilizes the term gender diverse and the abbreviation TGE to describe those who self-identify as broadly non-cisgender, an umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth. Gender identities that may be included in this definition include transgender/trans, gender expansive, non-binary, gender fluid, gender nonconforming, gender variant, gender queer/queer, and/or agender. Gender diverse individuals face unique barriers in perinatal healthcare due to the pervasiveness of cisnormativity in perinatal healthcare spaces. Research has documented the harm caused to …

Remixing Dialogue: A Case Study On Perceptions Of Hip Hop Pedagogy In A Professional Learning Course, Kelly J. Thelen

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This qualitative case study examines how teachers’ decision-making and professional autonomy shift while participating in a Hip Hop Pedagogy Professional Learning course supported by structured FIXIT (Lo & Wachter, 2023a, 2023b, 2023c, 2023d; Wachter & Lo, 2024) game-facilitated dialogue in a rural, culturally and linguistically diverse Midwest community. Grounded in Freire’s (1970) Critical Pedagogy, Ladson-Billings’ (1995) Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (Paris and Alim, 2017), and Adult Learning Theory (Knowles et al., 2005), the study explores the reclamation of agency by teachers in a time of constrained creativity and educator autonomy shaped by strict policy environments, an emphasis on …

Winnie's Feminism: A Tribute To Mama Dr. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela As A Radical Feminist From 1986-2018, Anna Lefatshe Moagi

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Growing up in South Africa and having read several “tell-all” biographies by influential women have made this researcher aware of the struggles of women to be recognised and valued within their social environments. The many names that come to mind, when speaking of women’s voices that challenged their position in our society, belong to those of struggle veterans such as Adelaide Tambo, Ruth First, Lilian Ngoyi, Albertina Sisulu, Thandi Modise, Baleka Mbethe, Leymah Gbowee, Ruth Mompati, Charlotte Maxeke, Joice Majuru, Thuli Madontsela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Their as women leaders roles remain undervalued (Shekhawat 2015). These phenomenal influential women and many …

Review Essay: The New Misogyny And The Rise Of Violent Extremism, Shannon Smith

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

A Catalyst For Change: The Extraordinary Anaka Women’S Collective During The June 2026 Belfast Pogrom, Dianne Kirby

The Journal of Social Encounters

Prompted by the pogrom that erupted in Belfast in June this year, this article explores how a women’s collective, Anaka, established by female asylum seekers, refugees and migrants (ASRMs) less than a decade previously, took the lead in ensuring the safety and welfare of the city’s migrant communities in a context where they were horrifically failed by police and politicians, by the state and the institutions meant to protect them. Anaka began as a small-scale endeavour to mitigate the difficulties confronting women struggling to navigate a harsh asylum system. It became a widely respected advocacy and campaigning group for ASRMs. …

Patterns Of Age At First Birth And Child Spacing Behaviour Among Women In Ilorin Metropolis, Nigeria, Ismaila O. Orire

The Journal of Social Encounters

Age at first birth influences the length of a woman's reproductive years and affects fertility behavior including choices of child spacing which have profound influence on future population structure and dynamics. This study examines women’s demographic and social characteristics; identified their ages at first birth and relationship with status of marriage; their child spacing behavior; contraceptive usage; and duration of breastfeeding after child birth. Primary source of data was questionnaire administered to women of reproductive age representing three age cohorts whose ages range between 35-44, 25-34 and 15-24 years respectively. Systematic random sampling technique was adopted to ensure representativeness and …

Rethinking Women, Peace And Security In Southern Africa: Patriarchy, Policies, And Perspectives, Kgomotso Komane

The Journal of Social Encounters

Southern Africa is a relatively peaceful region, however, it has witnessed a range of diverse, multiple and ongoing conflicts that have prompted various peace interventions from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), neighbouring countries and international actors. An astounding pattern is revealed when observing the involvements of all the actors in the peace interventions. What is revealed is that, till present day, women remain marginalised in peace processes despite existing structures and policies that reaffirm their rightful participation in these processes. Rethinking women’s role in peace and security is necessary because existing approaches to peace are shaped by patriarchal norms. …

Gender Inequality In The South Korean Workplace : Structural Barriers, Cultural Frames, And Conflicted Responses, Seorin Stella Bak

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Abstract

Drawing on theories of structural inequality, neoliberal ideology, and feminist resistance, the study applies an interdisciplinary framework from media, culture, and communication studies to analyze the mechanisms that sustain gendered disparities in the Korean labor market. South Korea holds the distinction of having the widest gender wage gap among all OECD nations for 30 consecutive years and has ranked last on The Economist's Glass Ceiling Index for eight consecutive years. The World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Gender Gap Report explains that South Korea ranks 94th out of 146 countries (score: 0.696), with a near-perfect score in educational attainment (0.98) …