Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Identi-Tea Podcast: An Original Play, Karsyn Wilson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Creative Works Winner for 2019:

Identi-Tea Podcast is an original play based on the word-for-word interviews of three LGBTQ+ students of color from UNLV who explore all the various facets of their identities formatted in the style of a podcast. In various moments during the play, audience members are prompted by the actors to critically engage with the ideas presented.

Widows And Concubines: Tradition And Deviance In The Women Of Raja Rao’S Kanthapura, M. E. P. Ranmuthugala

Journal of International Women's Studies

Raja Rao’s 1938 novel Kanthapura depicts the impact of Gandhian thought on women and men, and this research focuses on the novel’s fashioning of female identities in terms of nationalism as espoused by Mahatma Gandhi. This analytical research paper hypothesises that although women constitute a considerable part of the narrative and have political agency, their identity is moulded by men to serve men’s nationalist interests: The paper contends that women must undergo transformation and refashioning of their identities for nationalism. The novel provides a strong argument for Mahatma Gandhi’s political ethic of empowering people and engages with diverse issues such …

Respect Existence Or Expect Resistance: Fundraising For Trans Law Center, Lara Martz, Sage Kramer-Urner

Student Engagement Posters

Lara Martz and Sage Kramer-Urner discuss student engagement at Linfield College with regard to a fundraising campaign to benefit the Trans Law Center.

Chase Riboud’S Hottentot Venus (2003) And The Neo-Victorian: The Problematization Of South-Africa And The Vulnerability And Resistance Of The Black Other, Maria Isabel Romero Ruiz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article touches upon issues of captivity, suppression, misrepresentations and exclusion of black people from a historical and cultural point of view through the analysis of Chase-Riboud’s neo-Victorian novel Hottentot Venus (2003). It also focuses on the implications and consequences for contemporary South Africa of situations of slavery and exploitation of African descended peoples. Notions of identity and moral and legal inclusion of black women into past and contemporary societies and communities will be also discussed from the point of view of postcolonial and gender and sexuality studies. The complexities of blackness and the violation of human rights as a …

Cultivating Chingona Power: A Study On The Chingona Identity, Celia Orosco Haro

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Mujeres across the country are claiming the Chingona identity and using it to cultivate their Chingona strength, feel empowered, and live for their own approval. A Chingona in this newly reclaimed use means a woman who embodies confidence, acceptance of self, reclamation of sexuality, siguiendo le adelante por su propio camino sin importarle lo que digan los demás, rejects social and cultural norms/expectations of women, and uses her strengths to empower and uplift others. Through the reclamation of this identity, these mujeres are moving beyond being hijas de la chingada to being Chingonas. This research highlights the Chingona identity …

The Wild Beasts, Peter Cochrane

Theses and Dissertations

The Wild Beasts springs from my desire to thank my ever-expanding queer chosen family and mentors for their strength. Working through the often violent and othering aspects of the lens and photographic histories I create floral portraits responding to each person’s being and our relationship. Using the 19th century, 8x10 large format view camera—the same used by colonialists and ethnographers to “capture” the divinity of Nature—I erect each as a traditional still life studio setup at the threshold between the natural world and that constructed by humans. These environments speak both to the character of each friend and also to …

‘Love-Jihad’ And Bollywood: Constructing Muslims As ‘Other’, Nadira Khatun

Journal of Religion & Film

In the postcolonial nation state that is India, cinema has become an important tool for propagating the idea of nationalism. In recent times, one of the most controversial components of Hindu nationalism has been the hate campaign against what is termed as ‘love-jihad’, which is deployed as a weapon to mobilize, polarize, and communalize citizens. The Indian Hindi-language film industry, popularly known as Bollywood, has also become a controversial site. In this paper, I argue that if ‘Indian nationalism’ is to be represented as ‘Hindu nationalism’ and ‘Indian culture’ as ‘Hindu culture,’ it logically follows that this majoritarian construction needs …

Understanding Stem Identity Construction: An Ethnography Of An All-Girls Stem Club, Pasiewicz Marie Loyola

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative ethnography follows 11 high-school girls through their experiences in an all-girls after-school STEM club in a privileged school setting. This study uses Gee’s concept of identity and a feminist poststrutural framework to understand their experiences and how they use the club to re/construct their gendered STEM identities. Through interviews, focus groups, observations, and document analysis, this study found that the after-school club offers girls a space to not only learn about STEM, but also provides a space for girls to understand the gendered nature of their interactions with peers and adults in STEM classrooms. Data shows that girls …

Imagining Intersectional Anti-Rape Messaging At An Organization In Cape Town, South Africa: Visible And Invisible Subjects, Maslen Bode Ward

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Less than one month ago, South Africa held the first ever Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide to assess the most effective ways to approach solving the country’s high rates of gender-based violence. My study aims to consider anti-rape messaging and advocacy under an intersectional framework, using one organization in Cape Town as a case study. I examine how anti-rape messaging in South Africa has failed to consider intersectional identities in their imagined conceptions of survivors and perpetrators. I explore the potential for intersectional anti-rape messaging and the role of race, class, gender, culture, and language in the distribution, audience, …

Testimonies Of Identity And Intimate Partner Violence, Jamie Berrien

Master's Theses

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is an epidemic that has impacted millions of women in our country. IPV is found in every community and impacts women from all races, ethnicities, religion, background, and socio-economic status. Yet, research shows that women in the United States who are not a part of the dominant culture experience IPV at a much higher rate than white women. This study focuses on the sacred testimonies of six women who have experienced IPV, as well as an analysis of the women's identities and other forms of oppression which impacts her experiences and survival of the violence.

Contesting And Constructing Gender, Sexuality, And Identity In Women's Roller Derby, Suzanne Becker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this dissertation project I use the case of women’s roller derby to examine gender resistance in spaces produced and dominated by women. I examine the challenges and strategies roller derby participants deploy in resistance to the gender binary and its gender mandates, and whether or not these strategies and cultural expressions are oppositional or political. Through a combination of ethnography, participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and analysis of web and print media on roller derby, I explain how women’s roller derby participants construct identity, varying types of femininities, and engage in forms of cultural resistance through their sport. I analyze the …

"We Sick": The Deweys As Women's Willful Self-Destruction In Toni Morrison's Sula, Kathleen Anderson, Gayle Fallon

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Toni Morrison explores the complexities of race, gender, and matrilineal influence in Sula. Although much recent feminist criticism has addressed the operations of race and gender in the novel, this essay provides the first developed examination of Morrison’s strategic use of three diminutive boys, all named “dewey,” to emphasize the willfully self-destructive tendencies of the novel’s female characters. Burdened with their community’s limiting idealizations of femininity and motherhood, the women of Sula practice various forms of self-harm in an effort to develop and proclaim their holistic, autonomous selves. The deweys’ mischievous childhood games foreshadow the consequences of female self-harm, but …

Exploring How Women On Corporate Boards Cope With Gender Bias, Sharon Roberts

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gender bias may cause organizations to lose the values that women bring to the workplace in leadership positions and may thwart women from reaching their personal goals. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive multiple case study was to explore gender bias and its influence on women on corporate boards, their roles, appointment, and the need to develop coping strategies to deal with gender bias to execute their roles. The conceptual lens used was Tajfel and Turner's social identity theory to explain the basis for intergroup discrimination, and Eagly and Karau's role congruity theory of prejudice to explain the exclusion of …

Projecting Culture Through Literary Exportation: How Imitation In Scandinavian Crime Fiction Reveals Regional Mores, Bradley Hartsell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reexamines the beginnings of Swedish hardboiled crime literature, in part tracking its lineage to American culture and unpacking Swedish identity. Following the introduction, the second chapter asserts how this genre began as a form of escapism, specifically in Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö’s Roseanna. The third chapter compares predecessor Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep with Roseanna, and how Sweden’s greater gender tolerance significantly outshining America’s is reflected in literature. The fourth chapter examines how Henning Mankell’s novels fail to fully accept Sweden’s complicity in neo-Nazism as an active component of Swedish identity. The final chapter reveals …

(Dis)Enchanted: (Re)Constructing Love And Creating Community In The, Shannon A. Suddeth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a queer fan community for the television show Once Upon a Time (OUAT) that utilizes the social networking site Tumblr as their primary base of fan activity. The Swan Queen fan community is comprised of individuals that collectively support and celebrate a non-canon romantic relationship between two of the female lead characters of the show rather than the canonic, heterocentric relationships that occur between the two women and their respective male love interests. I answer two research questions in this study: First, how are members of the Swan Queen fan community developing counter narratives of …

Lesbian Love Sonnets: Adrienne Rich And Carol Ann Duffy, Robin Seiler-Garman

Senior Theses

Our conceptualization of sexuality is rooted in gender. Modern, western society defines sexuality as which genders one is and is not attracted to—often appearing as a binary between homosexuality and heterosexuality. Recently, however, queer theorists have begun to push against the idea of binary sexuality altogether.

The interplay between gender and sexuality additionally manifests in the history of literature. Because the two are so intimately intertwined, writing about sexuality necessitates writing about gender. Twenty-One Love Poems by Adrienne Rich and Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy are two poetry collections where, as lesbian poets, gender and sexuality play an important role. …

Who Is A “Person Of Color?”, Nadia Al-Yagout

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

No abstract provided.

Folding Time, Places That Linger And Other “Queer” Modes Of Representing Sense Of Place, Karen A. Lambert

The Qualitative Report

The notion that place and identity are mutually constitutive suggests that attachments to place forge attachments to self that linger over time. In order to consider the ways in which sexual identities and places influence the development of a “queer sense of place” over time I returned to an autoethnographical experience from 2002 to write about it in 2015. Then something unusual happened - time showed itself and folded to reveal the lingering affect of place, loss and identity. By drawing upon insights from then (2002) and now (2015), with sense making in between, I create an assemblage of moments …

Frida's Daughter, Myrta Vida

Theses

The purpose of my creative writing is to highlight a group of U.S. citizens still woefully underrepresented in literature proper: the Latinx middle class. I’m keenly interested in exploring Puerto Rican and first- and second-generation Latinx immigrant stories. Even though some of the experiences from these groups have been elegantly visited by writers such as Giannina Braschi, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Diaz, Julia Alvarez, and others, there are nuances to the Latinx middle class experience that are yet to be uncovered. Being stuck in the cultural, linguistic, socio-economic, and political middles in a country that has recently taken a largely nationalist …

The Book That Made Me: A Girl, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

Faculty Publications

In this installment of The Book That Made Me, a series from Public Books reflecting on the books that have changed our lives, Daniel Pollack-Pelzner reflects on the freedom he received—to become a whole other person, in a whole other place—from an unexpected source.

"From Local To Global: Exploring The Unique Identity Of Afro-Caribbean Women", Matthew A. Henry Sr.

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

The Caribbean by far is probably one of the most diverse regions represented in the face of history. Geographically, each island is dynamic in the continuous change and flow of possession by Europeans and influences of the countless peoples of various extractions. This diversity is evident in the realization that there is a queer inability for scholars, and people alike to truly define what is the Caribbean and what it means to be a part of this region. Referencing the Caribbean is almost always focused on a specific island community/locality in that region, which gives the impression of the Caribbean …

Restoration, Shannon M. Slaight-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The marks I make in clay have different characteristics, and the physical mark of one’s fingertips or visual record of the hand is personal and intimate. This visible activity is the evidence of my constant presence and control within each object. Its repetitive meditation produces a private relief from my persistent anxieties. This exploration for me is not only visual, but also physical. This is the start of my infatuation with the idea of pattern. It has its own discrete visual language and modes of communication; and through my research I am developing a method of intercommunication.

A Theory Of Veteran Identity, Travis L. Martin

Theses and Dissertations--English

More than 2.6 million troops have deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, surveys reveal that more than half feel “disconnected” from their civilian counterparts, and this feeling persists despite ongoing efforts, in the academy and elsewhere, to help returning veterans overcome physical and mental wounds, seek an education, and find meaningful ways to contribute to society after taking off the uniform. This dissertation argues that Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans struggle with reassimilation because they lack healthy, complete models of veteran identity to draw upon in their postwar lives, a problem they’re working through collectively …

Drag Performance And Femininity: Redefining Drag Culture Through Identity Performance Of Transgender Women Drag Queens, Cristy Dougherty

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Viewing gender as a performance reveals how gender identity is shaped and formed. There is currently tensions associated with drag queen performance as an act of subversion and transgression from the heteronormative definition of gender and drag as a perpetuation of heteronormative definitions of gender. There is also a tension between the affirmation of femininity and transgression from gender binaries of womanhood. In order to address these tensions, this thesis project examined the reasoning behind how transgender women and gay men drag queen performers navigate the world of femininity. Specifically, this study explored the varied reasons behind performing femininity through …

More Than “Sluts” Or “Prissy Girls”: Gender And Becoming In Senior Secondary Drama Classrooms, Kirsten Lambert, Peter R. Wright, Jan Currie, Robin Pascoe

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article examines the relationships between the embodiment of dramatic characters, gender, and identity. It draws on ethnographic data based on observations and interviews with 24 drama teachers and senior secondary drama students in Western Australia. We explore how student becomings in year 12 drama classrooms are mediated and constituted through socially overcoded gender binaries in a dominant neoliberal culture of competitive performativity. We ask the questions: What constructions of femininity and masculinity are students embodying from popular dramatic texts in the drama classroom at a critical time in their social and emotional development? Are these constructions empowering? Or disempowering? …

Performing Gender: An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Expression And Identity, Allegra Barnes

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper discusses the relationship between gender expression and gender identity. It recounts my personal exploration of the two through the process of photographing two fellow AFAB individuals to create visual representations of their gender expressions while interviewing them to examine how these expressions relate to the gender with which they identify. Following this, I engage in self-reflection taking into consideration both the narratives of my peers as well as Judith Butler's insights on gender. The project culminates with a series of self portraits and a conclusion on how I came to understand both facets my gender.

At The Edges Of Queer: Navigating Ambiguity In Identity, Community, And Politics, Madeline Mccray Batzli

Honors Papers

When queer took the world of AIDS activism and the academy by storm in the late 20th century, activists and academics leapt to understand and define this reclaimed word and predict its trajectory. Some academics claimed that queer would avoid obsolescence, remaining an anti-assimilationist beacon for activists, while others worried that lumping anyone with non-normative sexualities or lifestyle practices under the same umbrella would inaccurately homogenize disparate groups and detract from specific causes. This study aims to understand the meanings of the word queer among students at Oberlin College today, over a quarter century after the beginning of the word’s …

MaríA De Zayas And The Art Of Breaking Free, Erin Cygan

Audre Lorde Prize

This paper analyzes a short story by the 17^th-century Spanish author María de Zayas. In Her Lover’s Slave, Zayas’s protagonist Isabel Fajardo is raped and decides to transform into a Moorish slave woman in order to pursue her rapist throughout the Mediterranean and avenge her honor. I examine the effect of this transformation on Isabel, a Christian noblewoman who is subject to the restrictive honor code of early modern Spain, as well as the effect on her Spanish audience. I argue that Isabel’s tale sends didactic messages to early modern and contemporary readers, messages that promote solidarity among …

How The Climate Of Opinion In States And Countries Influences Gay Rights, John Poe

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation examines attitudes on same-sex marriage and how personal predispositions toward support and the climate of opinion interact to help create attitudes. Over the past few decades, support for gay rights has increased dramatically in the United States and many other countries around the world. I argue that, while the set of basic personal determinants of attitudes toward homosexuality and gay rights stays roughly the same, the impact of such determinants changes over time and space. The framework used in this dissertation draws on attitudinal and political psychology, political sociology and theories of contextual effects. I argue that over …

The Emergence Of The Feminist Fatale In American Film Noir, Anne Dennon

All Master's Theses

The femme fatale, a quasi-eternal figure of female transgression and retributory violence, has gradually entered popular culture’s symbolic lexicon as representative of mainstream feminism and postmodern femininity. Tracing the development of the femme fatale into a feminist pop culture icon necessitates establishing her sociopolitical status in the late modern era through her presence in Victorian sensational literature. The femme’s translation from the Victorian context to the American mediascape presages her evolving presence in three cinematic eras: classic film noir, neo-conservative retro noir, and millennial neo-noir. Feminist film criticism tends to identify the femme fatale as a protofeminist, a productive transgressor …