Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

From Humanitarian Aid To “Counterrevolution”: Foreign Assistance To Pentecostals In Soviet Ukraine And Its Criminalization By The Gpu–Nkvd, 1932–1935, Oleksandr Korotaiev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines foreign assistance to Pentecostal communities in the Ukrainian SSR and the mechanisms of its criminalization by Soviet state security agencies in 1932–1935. Drawing on GPU–NKVD criminal investigation files, secret police reports, party-state documentation, personal correspondence, and memoir sources, the study reconstructs transnational channels of humanitarian support, practices of resource distribution, and the transformation of survival strategies into objects of political repression.

Particular attention is devoted to two distinct models of foreign assistance. The Odessa case demonstrates a centralized system connected to the former leadership of the All-Ukrainian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith and transnational Pentecostal networks …

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 …

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 …

Report Card On The Status Of Women 2025-2026, Leah Ward

Women's Center Reports, Commentaries and Other Resources

In this eighth iteration of the Report Card on the Status of Women, the University of Dayton’s Women’s Center maintains our Report Card annually, continuing to be aimed at increasing institutional diversity and promoting equity for underrepresented staff and faculty. In doing so, the report identifies areas where progress is being made and areas where more work is needed. The Report Card is also a space to share progress on gender equity initiatives led by the Women's Center and other units across campus.

Data presented in this Report Card was provided by the Office for Decision Support and represents data …

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 …

Postscript To Gatherings, Volume 3, Farha Ternikar, Heather Mooney

Gatherings

We write this postscript as we are approaching the 25^th anniversary of 9/11. We don’t take this lightly as feminists or sociologists.  The War on Terror has shaped both Islamophobia and anti-Arab discrimination for decades. And after October 7, 2023, we were again devastated to see escalating tragedies in the Middle East. Farha Ternikar and Heather Mooney, as co-editors of this volume, went into this endeavor with heavy hearts.

Afterword: Palestinian Solidarity As Feminist Labor, Dana Olwan

Gatherings

This afterword was completed in February 2026. Leqaa Kordia was released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody on March 16, 2026, after spending a year of her life in detention.

University Policies In An Unjust World: Typographic Illustrations, Layal Shuman, Nina Rastgar

Gatherings

In this research-creation project, we use typographic illustrations as a visual method to portray how universities in Canada enable genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians while suppressing their rights to protest these injustices on campuses over the past three years. We conceptualize institutional policies as weapons, especially those covering codes of conduct, discrimination, harassment, and freedom of speech. The goal is first to show how universities are directly invested in the manufacturing and selling of weapons currently used in Palestine and Lebanon, and second, to argue that the strategic wording of institutional policies on diversity and inclusion …

Spaces Of Transformation, Love, And Poetry: Autoethnographic Reflections On Learning During The 2024 Student Solidarity Encampments And The 2019 Lebanese Thawra, Anna Wessels

Gatherings

This paper utilizes autoethnographic modes to reflect on the student movement in solidarity with Palestine, specifically the spring 2024 student encampment in Washington, DC. I frame this reflection through my experience as a student in a Women and Gender Studies class during the semester of the encampment, as well as through feminist theories of teaching and learning as liberatory practices. I analyze two sites of learning that moved beyond the ideological and physical boundaries of the university into public protest spaces during times of political mobilization: downtown Beirut during the October 2019 Lebanese thawra (revolution) and the student encampments for …

Symbol Of Defiance: Cultural Reclamation And Resilience In The Symbolism Of The Watermelon, Shukri Mohamed

Gatherings

This paper examines the watermelon as a cross-cultural symbol of nonviolent resistance and identity reclamation in both Palestinian and African American contexts. In Palestine, the watermelon embodies defiant cultural identity amidst occupation, symbolizing resistance against erasure. Within African American communities, it has evolved from a racially charged stereotype to a reclaimed symbol of pride and agency. Through postcolonial theory, intersectionality, transnational feminism, and visual cultural critique, this article examines how marginalized groups repurpose familiar objects to assert identity and reclaim autonomy under oppressive conditions. Drawing on Lila Abu-Lughod's work on media and everyday resistance, Ania Loomba's postcolonial perspectives, Patricia Hill …

Embodying Palestinian Freedom: Yogis For Palestine As A Site Of Transnational And Anti-Imperial Feminist Solidarity, Sheena Sood

Gatherings

In a climate marked by the rise of global fascism, yoga is often appropriated toward the reproduction of caste supremacist and ethnonational agendas, colonial and racial capitalist relations, and neoliberal spirituality. Still, it has also been harnessed for collective liberation. We see this through the effort of Gaza-based yoga teacher, Hadeel Al-Gharbawi, using trauma-informed yoga to help the children of Al-Jawad Camp cultivate endurance during a genocide, and the solidarity of practitioners activating yoga toward Palestinian self-determination. This article examines the social and political activities of Yogis for Palestine (YFP), a Philadelphia-based collective whose vision for collective liberation includes unwavering …

A Poem For Palestinian Liberation From Låguas Yan Gåni, Ha'Åni San Nicolas

Gatherings

Despite our difference and distance to each other, people of Guåhan and the Pacific must intently and critically center Palestine in our work. We make it matter, and we listen.

Roots That Refuse To Die: Narratives Of Displacement And Solidarity In Palestinian And Chicanx Feminist Traditions, R. H., Lea Colchado-Joaquín

Gatherings

Amidst the recent passing of Senate Bill 17 and increasing restrictions on academic freedom, and efforts to shut down encampments, political tensions have been on the rise at Texas university campuses. As women of color scholars learning to navigate these challenges, we are committed to fostering safe pedagogical spaces that honor minoritized students’ voices. This paper examines interpretations of solidarity narratives between Chicanx and Palestinian feminist authors through a decolonial feminist lens and employs an autoethnographic methodological approach such as autohistoria-teoría to highlight parallels between the authors' lived realities. Authors begin this conversation by using their own narratives of resistance …

Kinship As Ethical Caring In Genocidal Times, Khawla Badwan, Sunny Singh Prof

Gatherings

As the world bears witness to the first live-streamed genocide¹ in history with full collaboration of the so-called free world, whatever ethics had been defined and legally encoded by imperial powers in the aftermath of the Second World War are no longer functioning or indeed relevant. Instead at individual and collective levels, we must develop a more relational and nested approach to ethical caring; one that moves beyond saviourism and distant witnessing. To demonstrate this relationality, we present our thinking through a dialogic genre of creative and critical reflections and interventions. This dialogue draws and builds on entanglements of …

"In-Dialogue” As Feminist Praxis: Palestine, Poetry, And Affective Knowing, Besan Jaber, Natalie El-Eid

Gatherings

Presenting a methodological praxis of being “in dialogue,’ this essay questions what it means today to be in feminist solidarity with Palestine via an intimate conversation inspired by a set of poems written by [one of the authors to this piece]. In this conversation, two feminist Arab scholars reflect on their professional and lived experiences in the US amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the friendships and love they found, including with one another, as well as the paradoxical feelings of disappointment and frustration they experienced watching many feminists in the West completely abandon their feminist values when it came …

Echoes Of Loss: Exploring Palestine And Feminism Through Art, Alaa Shadfan

Gatherings

My body of work is an exploration of raw human emotion, psychological states, and the resilience of the human spirit, shaped profoundly by the ongoing suffering and resistance of the Palestinian people. Through this series of paintings, I strive to give voice to collective grief, inner struggle, and quiet strength. Much of the emotional palette I draw from grief, fear, resistance, and hope is deeply influenced by witnessing the genocide[1]and systemic oppression in Palestine. The red in my paintings is deliberate, my way of symbolizing standing in solidarity with Palestine, and more specifically, with Palestinian women whose strength, …