Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Genderless And Sexualized: Caribbean Enslaved Women In The 18th Century, Amy Van Arsdell

Campus Research Month

This study focuses on the uniquely-gendered experiences of enslaved women in the Caribbean in the 18^th century. First, I examine the racialized views of femininity and how enslaved women were denied the privileges of white femininity and forced to do the same work as men, yet were still valued less than their male counterparts because of their gender. The study goes on to highlight the sexual oppression enslaved women experienced, and its adverse effects on their health. The study concludes that despite the intersectional racism and sexism they faced, enslaved women were able to use their gender to resist …

The French Divorcee And Her Evolution, Mackenzie Bialzik

Honors Theses

This thesis serves to explore the greater questions concerning patterns of divorce in France and how women, through divorce, experienced greater liberties within the law. The evidence used in this paper stems mainly from demographic data, opinion pieces on divorce, and legal journals. While I had hoped to access specific divorce hearings, privacy laws in France and the language barrier prevented me from this type of research. Through my research I have found that divorce did not follow typical trends in feminist movements as expected in France. Instead, divorce was reactionary of the social perceptions of marriage and gender. Additionally, …

“I Thought I Knew”: Teaching Graduate Students New Ways Of Understanding Meanings Of Diverse Social Identities, Maria S. Johnson

Feminist Pedagogy

Instructors should not assume that graduate students understand meanings of terms for various social identities. In this article, I highlight a teaching activity I created titled, “What’s in a name?” that requires graduate students to research historical and contemporary uses of various racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, and immigration terms. The assignment helps graduate students develop inclusive vocabulary and deepen their understanding of their positionality. It also supports braver classroom contexts for students and instructors. The assignment is best facilitated by instructors informed of diverse social identities, open to difficult conversations, and aware of the influence of their own social identities …

"I Have A Right To Exist Here": An Interview With Photographer Justin Murphy, Nicole Lawrence

Remembrance: A Journal of Queer Culture, Information, and Preservation

An interview with Justin Murphy, founder of Out of the Attic Photography. Born, raised, and still residing in Huntington, WV, Murphy volunteers and freelances for the ACLU of WV. Murphy’s photography and counselor work with AQYS was featured by Nico Lang in Xtra Magazine.

"'What The Suffering Was Like': Digital Affect In The Act Up Oral History Project, Margaret Sullivan

Remembrance: A Journal of Queer Culture, Information, and Preservation

This article considers The ACT UP Oral History Project as an affective site that renders visible the impact of loss and suffering. Focusing on the archive’s filmic and computer-mediated interviews, and placing both in conversation with memory and queer identity studies, I demonstrate that the Oral History Project, as a discursive space, invites its audience into a felt physical contact with grief, loss, anger, and rage.

"There Is Power In Being Out": A Three Article Approach Celebrating The Experiences Of Queer University Leaders, Andrew R. E. Lorenzana

Dissertations

Institutions of higher education were historically built to serve a wealthy, White, straight male student population and the leaders of these institutions still largely reflect these demographics. This project specifically aims to celebrate and amplify the life and career of university administrators who identify within the LGBTQ community. Mainly through the use of a portraiture methodology, this three-article study attempts to examine the ways in which LGBTQ identity and career influence one another.

Worldmaking and narrative will be used as a theoretical frame to help analyze the ways in which the telling of a queer individual’s story makes the world …

The Spiritual Prodigy, The Reluctant Guru, And The Saint: Mirabai And Collaborative Leadership At Hari Krishna Mandir, Nancy M. Martin

Religious Studies Faculty Articles and Research

This article explores the life and influence of Indira Devi Niloy (1920–1997) who in 1949 began to encounter the sixteenth-century saint–poet Mirabai during her meditative trance states. She would recount songs, stories, and teachings that the saint gave to her as well as scenes from Mirabai’s life that she witnessed as an observer and at other times experienced directly as a participant. Their ongoing relationship would have a tremendous influence on Indira Devi as well as her guru Dilip Kumar Roy (1897–1980) and the increasingly international community that grew up around them. Their interactions and Indira Devi’s reports in turn …

Bureaus Of Ungentlemanly Warfare: Comparing The Roles Of Women In The Special Operations Executive And The Office Of Strategic Services During World War Ii, Adaline Nolley

Senior Honors Theses

In 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive. The SOE was one of the first government agencies to recruit female spies. In 1941, United States President Franklin Roosevelt commissioned the Office of Strategic Services, which also employed women. The organizations approached the concept of female agents differently. The OSS maintained female staff in domestic offices, but employed foreign women as agents. The SOE recruited women to go abroad, as they were less suspicious than men in occupied territories. The study of female staff in the OSS and the SOE allow historians to understand roles of women …

Inside The Glass Closet: Analyzing The Representation Of Queer Romantic Relationships In The Literature Of Virginia Woolf, Paige Meyer

Audre Lorde Prize

No abstract provided.

Sexual Submission, Fantasy, & Docility: What If "Sexual Liberation" Is A Patriarchal Trap?, Kersten Dekker

23rd Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2024)

The current feminist discourse surrounding female sexuality leaves a lot out of the equation. The reality is that the debate of female sexual choice often results in a dead end, and is far removed from actual women's lives. Drawing on feminist theories of fantasy, submission, sexual scripts, and pornography, I explore the ways in which indulgence in submission impacts women's docility in the real world. Through analysis of feminist literature, research, and various Internet forums, I identify three different theories of submission, and the plausibility of their isolation from oppressive consequences in the public sphere.

Hair Texture And Its Influence, Isabella Rodriguez

23rd Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2024)

Our hair texture plays an important role in our self-identity and esteem. The whiteness of beauty standards has controlled how women see their hair, whether or not it’s beautiful in its natural state. It is important to ask how hair texture influences self-identity and esteem. Answering this question, I analyze Nappily Ever After, focusing on the role that mother figures play in developing girls’ self-identity concerning their hair. I further situate this film by contextualizing it with children’s books on hair and self-esteem. Ultimately, I argue that mothers are the ones who shape their children’s relationship with their hair …

Live From New York, It's Sexism Female Politicians Often Face, Riley Gruppen

23rd Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2024)

Saturday Night Live holds exceptional cultural significance as a media outlet. Analyzing sketches of presidential debates in 2008, 2016, and 2020, this article dives into its portrayals of female candidates, and how sexist representation of these politicians can shape voters' views on these candidates. I look at the sketches featuring Kamala Harris, Sarah Palin, and Hillary Clinton. By highlighting the sexism within our media, we can better understand the barrier it plays for female candidates.

2024 Conference Program, Georgia Southern University

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

2024 Conference Program

An Application Of Soren Kierkegaard's Three Stages Of Life To The Marginalised Transgender Persons In India, Ramakrishnan G

Theses and Dissertations

According to Soren Kierkegaard, “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced”. Human beings are completely free to make choices in their life and live in accordance to those. However, they have to be responsible as well as committed to their choices for an authentic existence. Transgender persons are also human beings though they identify themselves different from the gender binary.

This research has proposed to explore the existential struggles and faith of transgender persons in the modern society with reference to the application of three stages of life of Soren Kierkegaard to the …

Does Ai Ask Good Questions? A Discussion Activity, Katherine Tilghman

Generative AI Teaching Activities

Students will prompt ChatGPT to generate discussion questions about a course text or artistic work, then evaluate the questions and modify them to make them more engaging and thought-provoking.

Building Queer Families: Supports And Barriers, Annie Bright

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

A qualitative study was conducted with six participants who identify as Queer and/or Lesbian investigating supports and barriers to family building using Assisted Human Reproduction. Semi-structured interviews were conducted allowing participants to share their experiences and self-identify the significant supports and barriers in their process. Interviews were transcribed and coded using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis identifying three supports and four barriers. Results demonstrated that all participants identified their community and/or their Queer community and their partner and/or family as key supports and two-thirds of participants identified as a support their own background or knowledge. All participants described the high cost or …

The Actions Of A Lonely Woman And The Effects Of Online Incel Communities On Society, Antara Dabral

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

In recent years, the resistance to women’s rights movements has started to shift from only being based on gender roles and has started to take root in insecurity and anxiety surrounding a dating life. This phenomenon has been further exacerbated with the advent and growth of the internet, where ideas are allowed to spread across the world rapidly which has created online forums where people known as incels gather.

In this paper, I ascertain that these online forums have a broad incel culture and community founded on victimhood and frustration and how they were formed as a consequence of a …

And Thus Entered Women: Co-Education At Holy Cross 1967-1976, Archives & Distinctive Collections, Sarah Campbell M.A., M.S.I.S.

Exhibits

In September 1972, the first class of women accepted to the College of the Holy Cross arrived on campus. This meant major changes for the College during the years spanning 1967, when women attended classes during Co-Ed Day, and 1976, when the first fully co-educational class walked across the stage at Commencement.

This exhibit is an abridged version of the digital exhibit And Thus Entered Women: (arcgis.com)">And Thus Entered Women: The Beginnings of Co-Education at Holy Cross from 1967-1976, which tells the story of these early women Crusaders through videos, news clippings, photographs and other archival materials …

Unveiling Colonial Legacies: Women’S Marginalization Through The Lens Of Coffee Cultivation In Northern Angola, Posi Oluwakuyide

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study investigates the historical dynamics of gender and labor by investigating the colonial production coffee production in northern Angola, the history examined spanning from the pre- colonial era of the Kongo and Ndongo kingdoms to the colonial period in the Uíge, Zaire, Bengo, and Cuanza Norte provinces. It aims to shed light on the marginalization of women within both colonial and post-independence contexts. Utilizing the Harvard analytical framework as a guide, this research explores the enduring effects of Portuguese colonialism on women's agency and economic participation. Through an examination of primarily scholarly works, this study reveals how Portuguese colonial …

Beyond The Binary: Analyzing Transgender Legislation In Spain And Its Implications For Equality And Rights, Stephanie Hernandez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Spain is considered one of the leading countries in LGBT+ acceptance and rights with their progressive laws, gaining a name for itself as a haven for those within the community. In this research paper, I investigate the evolution of transgender legislation in Spain into the current day and how it impacts the public perception and gender affirmative care available to trans people. Focusing primarily on the passage of Trans Ley 4/2023 and the windows it opened in Trans rights. Looking into the improvements made in Trans laws, from Ley 3/2007 to current day. Additionally, this paper will look into attempted …

Empoderamiento De Las Mujeres De La Organización Chaski Warmikuna, Iliana Sarai Barnes Diaz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este artículo examina el trabajo de la organización de mujeres indígenas Chaski Warmikuna, conocidas como “mujeres mensajeras” en kichwa, en la región de Saraguro, Ecuador. El grupo organiza apoyo a mujeres para aprender herramientas y estrategias que les permitan salir de la violencia y sanar sus traumas. A través de entrevistas con mujeres, revelan la prevalencia y normalización de la violencia en algunas comunidades, pero también iluminan el fortalecimiento y empoderamiento que estas mujeres han experimentado para liberarse de la violencia. Además, se señala que la violencia frecuentemente es transmitida de generación en generación en las familias y la sociedad, …

Colectivo Moriviví: Reconfiguring The Puerto Rican Nation Through Feminist Art Activism, Tania Carrasquillo Hernandez

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes national identity construction in Puerto Rico in terms of gender dynamics and how contemporary artistic production has questioned patriarchal constructions within the nation. I argue that by voicing the narratives of Puerto Rican communities in the public sphere, Colectivo Moriviví validates the active participation and contribution of women, Afro-descendant minorities, and LGTBQ+ groups within the national body, forcing the national discourse to re-envision its purpose, values, and mission

The Agenda (April 2024): Newsletter For The Lincoln Lgbtq+ Resource Center, Lincoln Lgbtq+ Resource Center, Gonzaga University

Lincoln LGBTQ+ Resource Center Publications

The quarterly newsletter from the Lincoln LGBTQ+ Resource Center at Gonzaga.

La Crisis Contemporánea Y Los Cuidados: Respuesta Gubernamental Al Trabajo De Cuidado Feminizado Y La Pandemia / The Contemporary Crisis And Care: Government Response To Feminized Care Work And The Pandemic, Iris Diez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este proyecto investiga cómo las respuestas gubernamentales al trabajo no remunerado de cuidado realizado por mujeres, durante la época de la crisis socioeconómica de la pandemia, impactan el uso del tiempo en trabajo no remunerado doméstico de cuidado por parte de mujeres en Argentina. Basándose en la teoría feminista y en las ideas de Verónica Gago, Lucí Cavallero y Tithi Bhattacharya, este proyecto busca crear una perspectiva critica de las interaciones entre genero, economia, deuda y el trabajo reproductivo. El método de análisis sigue descripciones de las respuestas gubernamentales con respecto del trabajo de cuidado y también presentaciones de datos …

Los Determinantes Sociales Y El Acceso A La Salud De Las Mujeres Migrantes: Desde La Perspectiva De Las Usuarias Y Los Trabajadores De Salud, Vanessa Gutiérrez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For the past few years, Chile has developed laws and programs, such as the Program for Access to Healthcare for Immigrants, Decree N° 67, and recently Law N° 21.235, to improve the access that migrants have, however, there has been a failure to comply with these regulations. In this qualitative and descriptive investigation, the main objective is to find out how accessible, adequate, and effective the health resources offered by clinics are for migrant women. In order to carry out the investigation, eight semi-structured interviews were held with five primary healthcare workers who frequently work with the migrant population and …

Transmitir Lastesis: Hacia Una Conciencia Feminista A Través Del Arte En Valparaíso, Chile, Alena Rooney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Acceso A La Salud De Mujeres Migrantes Venezolanas En La Ciudad Autónoma De Buenos Aires (2024) / Female Venezuelan Migrants’ Access To Healthcare In Autonomous City Of Buenos Aires (2024), Karen Gonzalez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación se enfoca en indagar y describir el acceso al sector de salud en la población de mujeres migrantes venezolanas con trabajos como monotributistas que residen en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (CABA). En la última década, Venezuela se ha enfrentado a una crisis económica y humanitaria. Esta crisis ha provocado una ola de migración sin precedentes por todo el mundo. Dentro del Cono Sur, Argentina se cataloga como el sexto país receptor de migrantes venezolanos. Considerando las leyes de migración y el sistema de salud universal en Argentina, me propuse describir las barreras de acceso a la …

El Derecho A La Interrupción Voluntaria Del Embarazo A Inicios Del Gobierno De Javier Milei (Argentina, 2024) / The Right To The Voluntary Interruption Of Pregnancy At The Beginning Of The Government Of Javier Milei (Argentina, 2024), Willa Rudel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El objetivo de esta investigación fue entender las realidades del activismo en relación con el derecho al aborto en Argentina en el período después de la aprobación de la ley 27.610 del derecho a la interrupción voluntaria del embarazo, particularmente en 2020 y durante el gobierno actual de Javier Milei. Para responder la pregunta que articula la presente investigación, realicé seis entrevistas con activistas procedentes de una variedad de formaciones y con distintos tipos de participación en el movimiento. Primero describo la historia del activismo a favor del aborto en Argentina hasta la aprobación de la ley y el estado …

Perceptions, Attitudes, And Behaviors Of Young Jordanian Women On Their Second-Class Citizenship, Umulkair Mohamed

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This case study examines the societal impact of Jordan's gender-discriminatory nationality law on the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of young women. Utilizing quantitative interviews with six Jordanian women, aged 21-37, the research explores their perspectives on the law's implications and justifications. Despite constitutional guarantees of equality, the 1954 Jordanian Nationality Law disproportionately favors men in citizenship transmission, violating international human rights principles ratified by Jordan. This results in Jordanian women who marry non-national men not being able to transmit their nationality to their children in most cases. Without Jordanian nationality, these children suffer many challenges such as limited employment and …

“Where Have All The Women Gone?” Circulating Rhetoric In Country Music Playlists, Rachel Van Hofwegen Willis

English Theses & Dissertations

Mainstream country music has a gender problem—female artists have gone missing from the industry. Industry insiders like radio programmer Keith Hill have alternately blamed female stars for not producing good music or pointed the finger at audiences who they say rate songs by female artists poorly. These explanations are, however, insufficient to explain country’s missing women, and scholars like Jada Watson have shown that country music discriminates against female artists by squeezing them from music circulation. Her studies examine representation in radio airplay to show how women have lost ground in the industry through their elimination from radio. My research …