Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Positioning Women's Inclusion In Peace Negotiations: The Landmark Case Of The Philippines, Josephine P. Perez, Mira Alexis P. Ofreneo

Peace and Conflict Studies

Women have historically been excluded in formal peace processes. While structural changes have pushed for women’s participation in peace negotiations, we locate the shift from women’s exclusion to women’s inclusion as enacted in the discursive patterns of talk. Using positioning theory as a discursive lens, we looked at how women’s inclusion was facilitated in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that reached the landmark Philippine peace accord of 2014. Positioning theory argues that every utterance is a speech act that ascribes rights and duties, in this case, the right …

Head, Shoulders, Knees, And Toes, Pol Morton

Theses and Dissertations

My work explores ideas of transness, chronic illness, and injury. Through assemblage and repetition, my larger-than-life paintings address the dissociation and fragility of a body that is unmapped by society. These autobiographical works attempt to locate the self when it is trapped, whether in a bed, in the home, or within the body itself.

Haunted Heroines: An Examination Of The Complication Of The Gothic Heroine, Molly S. Callison

Honors Projects

This undergraduate research thesis is an examination of two of the most significant evolutions of the literary figure of the Gothic heroine, focusing on innovations made by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey (1817) and Charlotte Brontë in Jane Eyre (1847). It discusses the origins of the Gothic heroine, set up by Horace Walpole in The Castle of Otranto (1764), and examines the ways that Austen and Brontë make their heroines more internally complex, bringing not only realism to the Gothic heroine but a psychological depth to the feminine Gothic.

Women Without Bodies: Autonomy, Empowerment, And Embodiment In Southern Women, Martha Peyton Ford

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between rural, upper-class, Southern, white women and their bodies. In my attempts to understand this relationship, I analyze sources from the fields of gender studies, philosophy, and psychology, utilizing concepts such as the Cult of True Womanhood, the newly-emerging field of body memoirs, and the long-lasting but elusive idea of Southern ladyhood to make sense of cultural expectations of Southern women and their bodies. This research, alongside my use of autoethnography and oral history, serve as an anchor for my analysis of women’s relationships to their bodies, in which I use myself, my mother, and …

Gender Nonconformity In Mexico: A Study Of Community And Isolation In Carmín Tropical, Maddox Arnold

Honors College Theses

As media representation of minority communities becomes more common, it is important to consider how such representation reflects the real-life experience of the communities in question. Rigoberto Pérezcano’s 2014 film Carmín Tropical offers a clear view of the gender nonconforming experience in Mexico. Although Mexico remains one of the deadliest countries for transgender people, over the last decade many states have introduced legislation to advance the rights of the transgender and gender nonconforming community. This places Mexico in a unique position as the country finds itself balancing between violence and progress. Carmín Tropical tells the story of Mabel, a muxe …

Hecabe: The Dog-Queen In Contemporary And Ancient Mythmaking, Makayla Steede

Honors Theses

This thesis will examine the character of Hecabe from Greek mythology as she is depicted in both ancient and contemporary sources. The sources feature both literary and scholarly work relating to Hecabe and Greek mythology. The primary source texts are The Iliad by Homer, Hecabe by Euripides, Trojan Women by Euripides, A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, and The Women of Troy by Pat Barker. The goal of the thesis is to examine the roles Hecabe plays in each book and examine the similarities and differences in how her story is told across the various texts.

Hall Family Collection - Index To Appendix 1, "Letters From The Attic" And Appendix 2, Postcards, Kyle Ainsworth

Librarian and Staff Presentations

The Hall Family Collection can generally be described in two parts. The first part is Letters from the Attic, which are more than 5,000 documents that Andrena Hall Brunotte transcribed into 16 volumes. Brunotte’s transcription project established an “original order” to this part of the collection that the processing archivist does their best to adhere to. All of these materials were found in one large steamer trunk and organized by Brunotte in chronological order. Boxes 1 to 4 of the collection house the paper transcriptions (3,330 pages). Boxes 5 to 13 contain the documents, which are in chronological order. The …

Full Issue

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

Mutually Exclusive: Being Gay And Being A Man In E.M. Forster’S Maurice, Kimber Foreman

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper outlines the impacts of English heteronormativity on E.M. Forster’s novel Maurice by exploring applicable cultural context and its reflection within the text. Maurice was published after Forster’s death, and as his only novel with explicit queer characters, is the best suited for parsing Forster’s own understanding of the society he lived in. With a primary focus on the characters of Maurice and Clive, the paper examines the dichotomy that Forster posits heteronormative English society creates between traditional English masculinity and the identities of gay men. This examination ultimately leads to the conclusion that Forster writes the Greenwood-bound fate …

A Content Analysis Of Queer Slang On Tik Tok, Kuri Benitez

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Social media platforms’ concentration of diversity and interactions has accelerated the rate of cultural change on the Internet. With the rise of Tik Tok, a video-sharing social media platform, language used by marginalized groups is being incorporated into the platform’s slang due to the rapid rotation of trends. This study aims to provide data to a new field related to Tik Tok culture and the effects of trends on marginalized groups.

Using qualitative content analysis, this article studies an LGBTQ+-inspired Tik Tok trend to determine if the portmanteau of “-ussy”’s meaning has changed from its original use and if trends …

At The Dinner Table, Briana L. Kunstman

Audre Lorde Prize

A young woman and feminist analyzes privilege and prejudice through the experience of being at a family dinner. She questions the way that people view “controversial conversations” and why they are labeled that way. As she opens discussions that are “politically charged” and “inappropriate” at the dinner table, she is met with criticism and questions. By looking at the #Metoo movement, 97% movement, Black Lives Matter movement, and Health at Every Size movement, alongside a variety of other significant points, the woman reflects on silenced voices, minority identities and basic human rights in America.

Hey Queens!, Grace Temple

Honors Theses

Drag has been a part of society since as early as Ancient Greece. However, the art form has evolved throughout the centuries and is still evolving today. Modern day drag is commonly associated with RuPaul Charles and his achievements as a drag performer. He has helped pave the way for present and future drag performers to express themselves through the art form. The mainstreaming of drag has had numerous positive and negative impacts on the LGBTQIA+ community. This thesis documents the history of the art form and how it interacts with individual performers and society. This thesis consists of two …

The Mélusine Romance In Medieval Europe: Translation, Circulation, And Material Contexts, Angela Weisl

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal Of Gender And Sexuality 57.2 (2022)

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Affect And The Tomb In Robert Henryson's Testament Of Cresseid, Elizabeth Elliott

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

The penultimate verse of Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid suggests the possibility that Troilus raised a monument in memory of his former love, Cresseid: “Sum said he maid ane tomb of merbell gray” (l. 603). Examining the political implications of this uncertain act of memorialisation, this article considers how Henryson's poem mobilises the reader's emotional response to constitute Cresseid as a mourned subject, whose subjectivity is recognised only insofar as it is limited to suffering and death. In doing so, the Testament also establishes a subjectivity for women that offers conditional tolerance predicated on respectable behaviour, contributing to the historical production …

Who Does She Think She Is?, Caroline W. Bynum

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

Abstract: A retired medievalist uses an incident from her early career to urge younger scholars to both self-confidence and realism about their own scholarship. Pointing out that suspicion of bright, high-achieving women has not disappeared, she argues that the greatest weapon for triumphing over it is women’s self-confidence that they set their own standards for excellence.

The Lay Saint: Charity And Charismatic Authority In Medieval Italy, Mary Anne Gonzales

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

This Is My Body: Eucharistic Theology And Anthropology In The Writings Of Gertrude The Great Of Helfta, Jessica Barr

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Margery Kempe’S Spiritual Medicine: Suffering, Transformation And The Life-Course, Lucy Barnhouse

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

The Letters Of Margaret Of Anjou, Gabrielle F. Storey

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Notes On Contributors

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Examining The Power And Privilege Of Escapism In Young Adult Literature And Its Culture, Stacey Watson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explore the systematic biases embedded within this genre, highlighting the ongoing battle between tokenism and inclusive storytelling. Thesis will also emphasize the importance of this genre, its tight grasp on popular culture, and showcase positive representations introduced by new creators over the years.

Long Live The Queer: Demystifying Noncitizenship In Uncle Frank And Pain And Glory, Andrew D. Manker

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the ways in which a nation infantilizes its citizens, and how family dynamics internalize this infantilization. Queer family members and citizens are treated as threats to the family and by extension the nation because to live into queerness is to refuse the nations infantilization. Additionally, this thesis shows how queer people can cultivate a hopeful future for themselves and the family-as-extension-of-nation by radically redefining what citizenship looks like in a family and nation.

Claiming Ownership Of One’S Body Through Language: The Disability Memoir, Sarah Elizabeth Kaufman

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the ways in which the disability memoir creates pathways that generate new ways of thinking. Focusing primarily on the disability memoirs of Simi Linton, Ellen Forney, and Kenny Fries, this analysis will personalize the disability experience as these authors live it and redefine its social stereotypes.

I Still Love You, Despite Everything, Amy Bravo

Theses and Dissertations

My practice seeks to reconcile the family—be it a found, queer family, or blood relatives. Addressing ancestral conflict, the complications of US/Cuba relations and my physical and cultural distance from the island I hail from, my work offers another world for communing with those you cannot physically reach.

A Mind Of Her Own: Women's Interiority In The Middle English And Older Scots Pastourelles, Anne L. Klinck

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

The pastourelle achieved what might be called its classic form in Middle French poetry of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: a mini-narrative in which the narrator, a knight or clerk, tells how he tried to have his will with a lower-class girl he happened upon while riding in the country. He greets her, sweet-talks her, and propositions her; she protests vigorously. Sometimes the debate ends here. Otherwise, her accoster overcomes her resistance by guile or force, and sexually assails her. The tone is light-hearted and cynical, the action crude. To modern readers, this narrative may be mildly amusing, rather tedious, …

Alchemy, The Liber Aureus, And The Erotics Of Knowledge, Kersti Francis

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

Medieval alchemy was an overwhelmingly masculine practice, and its instruction books reflect the exclusivity of its practitioners. This article examines the use of secrecy and masculine discourse in a sixteenth-century Latin alchemical handbook, the Liber aureus, to demonstrate that there exists an erotically charged tension between authors and their readers. Alchemical instruction books like the Liber aureus draw upon this tension in the service of a particular kind of gatekeeping that creates hierarchies of both knowledge and alchemical practitioners. By investigating secrecy and its provocative effects both within and beyond this manuscript, I argue that alchemical instruction books’ secretive …

Calkas’S Daughter: Paternal Authority And Feminine Virtue In Troilus And Criseyde, Jennifer Alberghini

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

The heroine of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde has been of considerable interest to medieval feminist scholars as a woman who is depicted as both virtuous and an adulteress. Yet critical discussions do not often view Criseyde’s virtue in light of her role as daughter. This article explores that role, focusing on how her father Calkas is described by the characters as having authority over his daughter’s body in the marriage market. This will later enable them to use him as an excuse for Criseyde’s failure to return to Troy and thus preserve her status as virtuous. However, the characters …

Whose Middle Ages? Teachable Moments For An Ill-Used Past, Ana C. Núñez

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

When Feminism Isn't Enough, Monica H. Green

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

An invited “retrospective” on Monica H. Green's career in medieval studies.