Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Between The Lens And The Gaze: Reflections Of Femininity In Film, Noureen Sakr

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the male gaze’s construction of femininity through the use of glass and reflective surfaces, particularly mirrors, windows, glasses, and cameras in film. Reflections and depictions of women are recurring motifs in cinema, often symbolizing dynamics of perception and power. This thesis mobilizes related psychoanalytic and feminist conceptions to examine and compare the recurring visual motifs in the following films: Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) and Rear Window (1954), Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992), & Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010). This thesis employs a qualitative, interdisciplinary methodology that integrates psychoanalytic theory, feminist film theory, literary criticism …

Intersectional Realities And Adaptive Leadership: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Women Administrators In Higher Education, Jocelyn Vernet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Existing literature consistently documents the acute underrepresentation of Black women in administrative leadership. Furthermore, Black women administrators that are represented and visible in higher education often oversee programs and task forces that heighten their experiences to high-risk situations. Emerging narratives suggest Black women employ effective coping strategies and embrace opportunities to strengthen and cultivate support networks while in their leadership roles. However, there is a significant lack in understanding how these strategies are structured and sustained to overcome the underrepresentation of Black women administrators in higher education. Additionally, basing their experiences solely through a survival lens limits a deeper understanding …

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

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 lifestyle as children, teenage workers, and some of us as parents, chasing the benefits of seasonal migrant farmwork. Our stories were based on our experiences with migrant farmwork culture, memories of our yearly …

Lost In Chaos: The Battle Between Selfcare And Motherhood, Sarah Shahzad

MS Marketing Research Projects/Theses

Motherhood in collectivist societies such as Pakistan is deeply intertwined with caregiving, leaving limited space for women’s self-care or personal well-being. This study explores how young Pakistani mothers negotiate self-care within competing expectations of maternal sacrifice, cultural morality, and structural constraints. Guided by the Institutional Logics Perspective (ILP), it examines how familial norms, religious values, and market forces collectively shape women’s self-care practices, framing self-care not as an autonomous act but as a negotiated process embedded within social and institutional boundaries. This study adopts an interpretive phenomenological approach to explore how Pakistani mothers experience and negotiate self-care within cultural and …

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 …

Possibilities Of Being: Black Women's Storytelling As Archival Undoing, Dasharah Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation constructs a discursive genealogy of Black women’s storytelling, positioning its art and aesthetics as a form of colonial archival undoing. Each chapter explores how transmission and documentation can transform—and circumvent—traditional colonial archives. Beginning at the start of the twentieth-century to present, this project traces the discursive legacies of Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, Michelle Cliff, and Staceyann Chin, examining each writer as a site of becoming as they individually (and collectively) seek to articulate an expansive idea of a Black world that constitutes a broader understanding of Black freedom. They each share a common goal of creating a …

Dancing In Circles: Bon Dance As Performance Of The Past, Travis Robb Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project traces the contours of the Japanese folk dance tradition of Bon Dance in Hawaiʻi through the nuances of public scholarship, diaspora, and racial capitalism by producing an original play which aims to perform the knowledge and praxis which the performance ritual puts forward. Treating Bon Dance as muse, the original play examines the necessity of turning to the past in order to disrupt a future made inevitable by oppressive systems; a fiction that comments on and critiques the predictive and generative technologies that have embedded themselves into society at large. Through intertwining conversations that explore prophecy and …

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, …

Designing Inclusive Stem Curricula: A Design-Based Study Of Teacher Learning And A Queer Inclusive Framework, Kyle Nolting

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education has historically marginalized queer identities, shaping inaccurate curricula and fostering unwelcoming classroom environments. To address this, my research uses design-based research to investigate the design of queer-inclusive STEM curricular resources. I partnered with in-service secondary STEM teachers amidst a series of professional development courses to co-create curricular resources. My research is grounded in queer theory, using a Gender Inclusive Framework to collaboratively develop inclusive design principles. My findings revealed a strong desire by teachers for more authentic and fluid representations of gender and sexuality in STEM curricula, particularly beyond the biological science discipline. …

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 …

A Philosophy Of Communication Response To Bullying In Corporate America, Chris A. Phillips Dr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This philosophy of communication response to bullying in corporate America follows the structure of posing research questions, synthesizing relevant literature, and offering advice to practitioners. It invites the reader to have hope in continuing the conversation through a constructive hermeneutic approach to the problem. By building on literature in oppression, silencing, bullying, incivility, and communication ethics, this dissertation reveals how (rhetoric) and why (philosophy) the problem occurs in corporate America today. This dissertation offers a new angle to an old problem, or, a rhetoric and philosophy of bullying. It responds to the following questions:

RQ 1: As a destructive communication …

The Method And The Machinery: Gloria Steinem, India, And The Cold War Making Of American Second Wave Feminsim, 1956-1972, Rashida Shafiq

History Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that Gloria Steinem became one of the most visible feminists of her generation because two political inheritances — postcolonial India and the Cold War liberal United States — converged in a single career. In 1957 and 1958, on a Chester Bowles Asian Fellowship, Steinem spent eighteen months in India, where she moved from elite intellectual circles in Delhi to Gandhian and Sarvodaya peace work in the villages of Ramnad. Walking with Bhoodan fieldworkers through caste-riot-stricken communities, she absorbed a repertoire of organizing practices — listening across difference, lateral and leaderless structure, decision by consensus, and the conversion …

Tubuh Yang Mengingat (The Body Remembers): Ecology, Ritual, And Embodied Memory In Contemporary Cirebon Mask Performance, Prameswari Mrajabwana

Theses and Dissertations

Tubuh yang Mengingat (The Body Remembers) is a single-channel, site-specific performance film set across coastal and extractive landscapes in Cirebon, West Java, Indonesia. Reinterpreting the five transformations of Cirebonese mask dance—Panji, Pamindo, Rumyang, Tumenggung, and Kelana—the project examines how colonial extraction, ecological deterioration, and systems of social regulation continue to shape embodied experience materially and somatically. Drawing from Karen Barad’s concept of intra-action and Stacy Alaimo’s notion of trans-corporeality, the work approaches body, land, technology, and history as relationally entangled rather than separate entities. Through live biodata sonification generated from environmental sensors and bodily movement, the film establishes …

Queer Postsecular Conocimiento: Anzaldúan Readings Of Time, Spirituality, And Transformation In Nugent, Vuong, And Herrera, Joshua A. Swem

Theses and Dissertations

An overreliance on secularism within the field of queer theory and a denial of spiritual epistemologies prevent deep, alternative, and transformative strategies of analyzing literature. It can regurgitate oppressive ideology in academia. In this work, I synthesize Gloria Anzaldúa’s theoretical concepts of mestiza consciousness, nepantla, la facultad, and el cenote with José Esteban Muñoz’s queer temporality and futurity as a framework to engage with literary texts in queer, postsecular ways, freeing up fresh insights and polysemic perspectives. I argue that in  "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade" by Richard Bruce Nugent, Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri …

Masculinity, Psychological Flexibility, And Machismo: An Initial Examination Of Relationships To Interpersonal Violence, Geraldine Granados Todd

Dissertations

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a grave problem in many areas of the world. Latin American countries have some of the highest rates of IPV in the world. One factor potentially impacting these rates has been hypothesized to be traditional machismo. Machismo is a complex construct that has proven difficult to define. A substantial challenge lies in distinguishing the characteristics that are unique to machismo from broader masculine gender role norms. Additionally, machismo seems to have a more “positive” side to it, encompassing loyalty to family, honor, and responsibility. This has been coined caballerismo. Studies looking at the impact of …

What Makes A Cozy Game Cozy? Looking Through The Lens Of Feminism And 4e Cognition, Mary Catherine M. Wilcox

All Theses

Why do some games feel cozy, and others miss the mark, even if they are tricked out in bright colors and festooned with bows? This thesis examines the emerging genre of “cozy games” to better understand why some titles successfully evoke comfort and relaxation while others fail, despite relying on conventionally cute aesthetics or farming-sim mechanics. Although cozy games have grown rapidly in popularity over the past decade, the genre remains under-studied and is often dismissed as frivolous, reflecting the broader historical devaluation of media associated with women. Accordingly, this study argues that understanding cozy games requires examining women’s relationship …

The Female Gothic And Marianne Dashwood: The Gothic Heroine Of Sense And Sensibility, Samantha Cottle

English (MA) Theses

In the late eighteenth-century, the rise of the English Gothic novel propelled an extension referred to as the Female Gothic. Through the complexity of the English Gothic genre, writers—particularly women writers—explore the intersectionality of gender, class, natural horrors, and race, creating a space where the heroines of these Gothic novels exist beyond the confinement of the domestic sphere. The Female Gothic was a way for these women writers to acknowledge the natural horrors that plagued the experiences of being a woman—it addressed the oppression of a patriarchal society in which the subversion of the female body was perceived as an …

Higher Education And Resilience: An Exploration Of Sexual Misconduct Survivors' Lived Experiences And The Impact On Their Educational Journey, Patricia Denise Williams

Theses & Dissertations

HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESILIENCE: AN EXPLORATION OF SEXUAL

MISCONDUCT SURVIVORS’ LIVED EXPERIENCES  AND

THE IMPACT ON THEIR EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY

Patricia Williams, PhD

University of the Incarnate Word, 2026

This study explored the lived experiences and resilience of victims/survivors of sexual misconduct while pursuing education at an Institution of Higher Learning (IHL). Students between the ages of 18 and 24 are more likely to be sexually victimized than be victims of robbery at IHLs (RAINN, n.d.). The impact of sexual misconduct can leave victims/survivors with long-term trauma, causing negative academic outcomes and a host of behavioral and emotional issues (Banyard et …

The Effects Of Sexual Orientation Stereotype Information And Prejudice On False Memories, Source Monitoring Errors, And Social Categorization Judgments, Julia Belen Strickland Nunez

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Minoritized groups, such as the LGBTQ+ community, receive many harmful and destructive stereotypes from others. These negative views affect minorities because when people are recalling a memory, they fill in the gaps with general information that they know. When the schematic information is not accurate, people tend to remember information that was not originally presented; this is known as a false memory. When people accurately recall a memory, but not the source of the memory, it is known as a source monitoring error.

The current study investigated whether stereotype-consistent information leads to more false memories and source monitoring errors as …

Lgbtq People's Lives Post-Incarceration: A Multi-Method Study, Hayley Jackey

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

LGBTQ people are disproportionately targeted by the criminal legal system and overrepresented in the carceral system. Despite current research in queer criminology examining the impacts of the carceral system on the community, there is a dearth of literature examining LGBTQ people’s experiences or identity disclosure once released from the Prison Industrial Complex and into the Prisoner Reentry Industry. Using unique methodologies of photo-elicitation interviews and in-depth interviews, the current study examines how ten formerly incarcerated LGBTQ people navigate returning to society post-incarceration. The study found two distinct experiences. The first group was selective about who they shared their LGBTQ identity …

Strategies Black Male Students With Social Anxiety Use To Persist And Succeed At Rural Community Colleges, Gwendolyn F. Houston

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Social anxiety, one of the more common types of anxiety, has been linked to poor concentration, impaired performance, and lower academic achievement (BlackDeer et al., 2021; Derakshan & Eysenck, 2009; Leigh et al., 2021). This study addresses the questions: “How do Black male students with social anxiety at rural community colleges in the Southeastern United States handle both academic and non-academic challenges and cope with these stressors?” and “How do Black male students with social anxiety navigate barriers during their journey at rural community colleges in the Southeastern United States, and what strategies do they use to manage these obstacles?” …

Testing The Impact Of Sexual Minority Stress On Endorsement Of Prospective Behaviors Related To Borderline Personality Disorder Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Queer Adults, E. Elisa Carsten

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sexual minority individuals face increased risk for numerous forms of psychopathology compared to heterosexual individuals, including borderline personality disorder (BPD). Previous investigation into the causes of these mental health disparities highlights several sexual minority-specific factors that may render sexual minority individuals uniquely vulnerable to meeting criteria for a BPD diagnosis, including chronic exposure to minority stressors, such as sexual orientation-based discrimination and stigmatizing beliefs. Some scholars have argued that the relevance of these minority-specific stressful experiences hampers the utility of a BPD diagnosis among members of this historically marginalized population. The present study experimentally tested the influence of minority stressors …

Balancing Our Capacity To Serve: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Black Women Navigating Personal, Professional, And Community Leadership Roles, Shemeka K. Brathwaite

Student Theses

This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of Black women community leaders as they navigate a balance between their professional, personal, and community leadership roles. The research design uses the theoretical frameworks of Black Feminist Intersectionality and Role Theory, specifically addressing the cultural burdens imposed by the Strong Black Woman archetype, which adds additional role strain. The study began with a questionnaire completed by 54 Black women community leaders, followed by 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews selected from this pool. The study’s key findings are illustrated in a Black Women’s Sustainable Community Leadership Framework. Black women community leaders exude high self-efficacy, …

(Re)Claiming Homeplace: Dance As Embodied Resistance & Healing For Health & Spatial Justice, Preeya G. Kannan

University Honors Theses

This thesis argues that dance functions as both an upstream public health intervention and a form of radical spatial resistance; creating healing, agency, and belonging among historically marginalized communities. Drawing on bell hooks' concept of homeplace, Jasbir Puar's assemblage theory, Nancy Krieger's eco-social theory, and Katherine McKittrick's Black geographies, I position the body as both an ecological and political landscape shaped by histories of colonialism, racial capitalism, displacement, and resilience.

Through this community-based participatory research study, Homeplace, I explore dance as a form of social prescription that centers liberation rather than pathology. Movement is often reduced in public health discourse …

The Contentious Politics Of Abortion: Understanding The Black Protests And Women’S Strikes In Poland, Taubie Sanders

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In 1993, the Polish Parliament, the Sejm, passed a law called ‘The Abortion Compromise’ permitting abortion only in cases when there is a serious threat to the life or health of the woman, pregnancy is the result of a crime, or prenatal tests show the fetus to be severely or incurably damaged. The current abortion laws in Poland are the most restrictive in all of Europe. Poland’s abortion laws have undergone much contestation in recent years. In 2016, the Black Protests erupted across the country in opposition to a proposed total ban on abortion. In 2020, the Women’s Strikes commenced …

Trans And Gender Diverse Experiences With Healthcare Professionals, Victor N. Soto

University Honors Theses

There is a history of state powers working against the interest of Transgender and Gender Diverse (TGD) people, but since the second Trump election attacks on TGD have reached a new precedent; this suggests the state is engaging in necropolitical actions to gain and maintain power. To better understand how the current climate is impacting TGD people, and add to discussions about TGD-centered healthcare research, this thesis interviewed 15 TGD students from the Portland metro area about their experiences with healthcare providers. All fifteen of the interviews were transcribed and coded. Four primary themes were found: 1) bad provider experience; …