Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Crip Queer Storytelling: An Intersectional Analysis, Audrey T. Heffers

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

Abstract

Where are queer disabled characters, and how do they avoid tokenization? This particular approach will use the following criteria as its foundation:

1) The story has a character who is both disabled and queer. (This must be explicit in some way and not ambiguously coded within the text, or solely paratextual.)

2) The character is central to the narrative. (If the character were removed, would the story change significantly?)

3) The story can be affected by disability, but (with due respect to making space for such stories) the story isn’t solely/centrally about disability/overcoming ableism.

The hope with these criteria …

The Icarian Dilemma: The Battle Of Faith Versus Identity Addressed With Scenic Design, Allistar G. Barrett

Senior Honors Theses

American Christians and the LGBTQ+ community have long been in a cultural war with one another. However, queer Christians – individuals who are both LGBTQ+ and Christian – have rarely found solace in either community, instead being shunned and ostracized for their beliefs and identities. Using the transformative art of theatre to address cultural divides, a theatrical scenic design was developed for Joe Calarco’s Shakespeare’s R & J, a retelling of the traditional Romeo and Juliet script through the lives of four Catholic school girls. This design uses the Greek mythology of Icarus, Catholic culture, the original Romeo and Juliet, …

Le Silence, Le Prédéterminisme Et La Sexualité : Le Cas De Thérèse Desqueyroux, Daniel E. Folger

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Le silence fait partie intégrante de l’histoire de Thérèse Desqueyroux. A Argelouse, née d’une famille dont la tradition exige l’effacement de l’individualité, elle n’échappe pas à cette répression en se mariant avec Bernard, ni en se sauvant à Paris. La nature inéluctable de son destin fait qu’elle est parfois comparée aux héroïnes tragiques Andromaque et Phèdre. Néanmoins, la parole de cette dernière possède un pouvoir que celle de Thérèse ne détient pas. Malgré la nature étouffante du mutisme imposé sur elle, le silence prend quelquefois un côté positif, notamment lorsque Thérèse est auprès de son amie Anne de la Trave. …

Sobre El Arcoíris: The Queering Of Mariachi, Tyician Charles Knight

Music ETDs

Mariachi is an internationally renowned artform and tradition whose history spans over decades and several continents. However, there are many aspects still embedded in mariachi culture that remain problematic; machismo (toxic masculinity), alcoholism, and homophobia to name a few. While there has been an increase of mariachi scholars who have critically examined these issues, mariachi culture itself has yet to address the challenges brought forth by its history of gender discrimination and homophobia and embrace practical changes that would enable the creation of a more equitable environment and further develop this living tradition. This thesis analyzes the trajectory of queering …

Un-Silencing Dickinson: Emily Dickinson's Aversion To The Male Body And Heterosexuality In "My Life Had Stood–– A Loaded Gun", Cassandra Barron

Global Tides

This paper examines Emily Dickinson's aversion to heterosexual marriage and sexual initiation in her poem "My Life had stood-- a Loaded Gun". The ethics of deciphering through identifying and categorizing potentially Queer authors and texts impacts our understandings of frequently canonized authors such as Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson's nineteenth-century American context informed her ability to write deliberately about her experience of subversive sexual desire. Instead, Dickinson utilizes images of death, apathy, and immortality to illustrate her revulsion toward the male body and heterosexual marriage. This paper illustrates how utilizing Queer and feminist theories illuminates new and potential understandings of Emily …

Queer Bodies Defying Standards, Billy Adams

Audre Lorde Prize

No abstract provided.

Queer Advocacy For Palestinian Liberation, Andrew J. Joseph

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This paper is an examination of the ways that queer individuals have advocated for the decolonization of Palestine, and the ways in which tensions have arisen as a result of the intersection of the movements.

Breaking Binaries: Gender Non-Conforming Lesbians And The Undercurrent Of Biopower On Dating Apps, Lily M. Connolly

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how gender nonconforming lesbians experience and navigate algorithmic constraints, commodification, and self-expression on dating apps. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of biopower, this study analyzes focus group discussions to argue that dating apps encode and enforce traditional gender norms. However, rather than acting solely as sites of constraint, dating apps also provide spaces where gender nonconforming lesbians creatively resist these limitations and subvert platform design to assert their politicized queer identities. This research highlights how biopower operates within digital dating platforms while also illuminating the subversive strategies users employ to reclaim agency. By situating gender nonconforming lesbian …

Witch, Please: The Campy, Sexually Depraved, And Sacrilegious Anti-Morality Tale, David Veatch

Playwriting (MFA) Theses

There will be no explanation, only reputation.

Sky, the little g god, is in their forest on the first Halloween, scheming on how to ascend to Big G God status, will Sky be able to bop their way to the top, or will a fascist plot, accidental immaculate conception, and their hubris ruin the bitchin'est night of the year?

Equity And Representation In Video Games: An Analysis Of Attitudes Toward Queer In-Game Romance And Sexuality Across Diverse Populations, Jai Yerbich

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Despite studies showing that women play video games at close to, if not the same rates as men, there still lies a sexist belief that games are only for men, and no one else. In 2004, the Developers Software Association reported that games catered primarily to men’s sexuality, using advertising attempts to lure in players by catering to that sexuality and portraying women in their games to appeal to them. In recent years, with the release of massively popular role-playing games (RPGs) such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard, gamers have complained that games are now “too …

Prophets Instead Of Priests: Diagonal Orientations & Coming-Of-Age Queerness In Jane Eyre And Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Emily G. Flanders

Honors Theses

This project asserts that the moment in which a girl leaves the trajectory of the expected in favor of the unknown in order to pursue her discovery of self is when her coming-of-age narrative becomes queer. This is demonstrated through Jane in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Jeanette in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Jane and Jeannette’s respective coming-of-age narratives–that is, them creating their fully embodied selves, the girl they believe and know themselves to be–happen off the expected life path in the liminal, in-between, undefined space of the queer oblique. There are moments …

“Windows For Witness: Dan Fishback’S Radical Access”, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

Dan Fishback’s Jewish crip aesthetic – art made within a framework of integrated access – is rooted in the human (or Jewish!) capacity to be generous and so much more. He expands our understandings of who is in the room, who is in the world, who is in our community, who lives at the same time as us but in a different way. This connection in his show between chronic illness and Palestine is not only about alienation it is about identification and solidarity.

Queer In & Out Of Montana: Oral Histories Of The Lgbtq+ Exodus From Montana, Erin T. Heaton

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This project will summarize findings from six oral histories of LGBTQ+ people who lived in Montana, but have left or are leaving in the near future. This project will explore the questions: Why are queer and transgender people leaving Montana? What are common experiences for LGBTQ+ people living in Montana? The answer to these questions will be derived from the stories of the Narrators who provided their oral histories. The questions utilized in the oral histories covered topics of identity, “coming out,” living history, cultural observations, community experiences and perceptions, well-being, healthcare, laws, and reasons for leaving. Thematic Analysis was …

Skin And Bones: Transgenerational Trauma, Experimental Storytelling, And The Texture Of Hope, A Creative Dissertation, Janine Blue

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation theorizes and enacts experimental storytelling as a method for engaging transgenerational trauma, highlighting how form shapes the ways histories are remembered, embodied, and reimagined across generations. Grounded in hope rehearsal as both a theoretical and creative framework, this project examines how BIPOC writers use experimental writing techniques to navigate the afterlives of historical trauma and reclaim storytelling as an act of meaning-making, communal care, and futurity. The dissertation begins with a critical chapter that explores these experimental techniques as strategies for recovery and resistance. The dissertations’ creative chapter, Andre Lyle: Skin and Bones, expands on these ideas …

One Man Show/ Who Am I, Devin Baker

Dance (MFA) Theses

Historically, stereotypes of ideal masculine physiques and attributed qualities have led to discriminatory and exclusionary practices that adversely affect black queer men and how they show up in various performance and social spaces. As a result, black male bodies in these spaces have employed the alter ego as a tool to imagine themselves inside/outside these constructed masculinities. How can the alter ego aid in transcending dated notions of race and gender, beholden to black male bodies within concert dance? Through the intertwining of personal narrative and research rooted in psychology and gender studies, this work examines the alter ego as …

Queer-Keying: Performing Video Processes As [Trans]Gressive Resistance, Wren Tiffany

Theses and Dissertations

As part of the 2025 VCUarts MFA Thesis Exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), I transformed the 'Sponge' gallery on the top floor of The Anderson, VCU’s historic thesis exhibition home, into The Green Room, a neon green, immersive video and performance space featuring mirrors, disco lights, a foam tile dance floor, makeup stations, and a functioning green-screen editing suite. This hybrid drag rehearsal and ‘Chroma-key’ green video production room deepened both my understandings of Queer performance art and process-based art making during the Spring of 2025, through two public performance activation …

No More Pinkwashing At The Pink Pony Club: A Feminist Media Analysis Of The Potential Shift In Queer Popular Culture To Decenter Homonationalism And Pinkwashing, Taylor G. Maki

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Previous research on queer popular culture highlights the influence popular culture has had on the United States’ legal and political protections for queer people—specifically cisgender gay men and cisgender lesbians with the legalization of same-sex marriage and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” However, some scholars and queer activists critique the homonationalist and pinkwashing agendas deployed by LGBTQ popular culture activists. This research examines whether or not there has been a shift in dominant queer popular culture that decenters homonationalism and pinkwashing. Using a feminist media analysis, this research examines contemporary queer musicians’ activism against the United States’ involvement …

"The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love": Identity Creation, Compartmentalization, And Belonging Among Queer Peace Corps Volunteers, Laura N. Keeran

Theses and Dissertations

The Peace Corps advertises that it accepts anyone, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation; however, recruiters and staff ask volunteers to go back into the closet for their twenty-seven months of service due to the Peace Corps’ safety concerns about their volunteers being out in their host countries. Queer Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) answer the call to serve, accepting that it means they will need to keep their queer identities concealed for two years and three months. I conducted ethnographic interviews with ten people who have served or are currently serving in the Peace Corps and identify under …

Phantasma, Grace Wright

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Ever since the infamous Ides of March, scholars have been debating the true psychology behind Brutus’s betrayal. The purpose of this project is to take a step back from the politicized motivations and explore the emotional, strenuous conditions of Julius Caesar’s assassination. This project will transform William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar into a novella with its central focus on the relationship dynamics between the key figures of Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. The intention of the novella is to not only analyze the play through a critical queer lens, but to interrogate the themes of violence and desire that surround male relationships …

Grieving In Doorways: A Critical Autoethnographic Exploration Of Embodied Knowledge Amid Shifting Reality And Radical Possibility, Holly Rae

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis is a critical autoethnographic exploration of embodied knowledge amid shifting reality and radical possibility. Beginning and ending with my own body, I explore how grief, as an embodied companion, offers wisdom and power in moments of profound change. Rooted in a methodology of slowness, rest, walking, and active listening, this work resists the extractive pace of modernity and instead invites building a relationship with grief and discomfort. This research is an experiment in co-creating knowledge with bodies and their intersectionality within systems that would keep us separate from knowing our embodied knowledge. As a location of research for …

Staring At A Glass Door: Three Models For Queer Engagement In Theatre Education At Christian Universities, Christopher Jerabek

Theses and Dissertations

Many have documented the impact of Christianity on higher education in the United States, and some have written on the impact of an institution’s religious heritage on its queer students. There is far less literature concerning the study of theatre at religious institutions, or how a university’s religious affiliation affects queer engagement in theatre education. This study analyzes the theatre departments at four Christian universities in Southern California to determine how their respective denominational affiliations influence how their theatre programs engage with queer students and queer content in theatre productions. Chapter 2 explores the prevalent literature regarding religion and theatre …

Bechen-Rivera, Liam, Devon Rosano

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Liam Bechen-Munoz is a 38-year-old trans man living in Portland, Maine. He grew up in a conservative Catholic town in Massachusetts before attending the University of Maine in Farmington, where he performed and did activism as a member of the Queer Student Alliance. After coming out, Bechen-Munoz faced discrimination and experienced getting fetishized online. He is a queer musician who has dealt with substance abuse but became sober in November of 2023. In this interview, Bechen-Munoz discusses some of the challenges he has faced, especially around coming out.

Challenging Myths & Addressing Intimate Partner Sexual Violence In Lgbtq+ Relationships, Nora K. Whitten

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Intimate partner violence (IPV), including intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV), is a public health crisis that disproportionately affects members of the LGBTQ+ community. This paper draws upon related, though limited, research to identify the five prevalent myths surrounding IPSV in LGBTQ+ relationships, addressing the following misconceptions: 1) IPSV can only occur in heterosexual relationships, 2) IPSV in LGBTQ+ relationships is not as severe, 3) Women cannot commit acts of sexual violence, 4) The more “masculine” partner is always the perpetrator, and 5) IPSV is a “mutual fight” among partners of the same sex. These myths perpetuate victim-blaming, minimize the severity …

Kidman, Cathy, Sadie Mcnish

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Cathy Kidman, is a 60-year-old lesbian activist who has been involved in LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS advocacy work in Maine since the 1990s. Kidman first became involved in activism through her work at The AIDS Project in Portland in the late 1980s, during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This led her to become an adult advisor for the LGBTQ youth organization Outright, which she helped build into a nonprofit organization. Kidman describes how the AIDS epidemic catalyzed LGBTQ activism, bringing together the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities that had previously been more separate. She talks about the importance of creating …

Recognition Or Refusal? Marginalized Identity Development In Passing And The Color Purple, Lee M. Kassay

Theses & Honors Papers

The novels Passing by Nella Larsen and The Color Purple by Alice Walker both involve identity development in their black queer female protagonists, but previous scholarship has rarely discussed the works in tandem. Thus, I merge the discussion around these two works by analyzing them through the concept of G.W.F. Hegel's master-slave dialectic. Assessing how both protagonists participate in their relationships with their female love interests versus their male husbands shows the importance of mutual recognition in the development of identity.

Penny, Pollard, Sarah Winn

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Penny Pollard is a 71-year-old lesbian, who grew up in a middle-class Catholic family in Massachusetts and is the youngest of three children. She discusses her coming out process, her experiences in the LGBTQ community in San Francisco during the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and her career path which included various jobs such as furniture making, and speech-language pathology. Penny describes facing some discrimination and backlash when coming out, particularly from old friends and coworkers but also finding acceptance and community, especially after moving to Portland, Maine. She shares the story of how she met her now-wife when moving to Portland Maine. …

Gonzalez- Rodriguez, Alex, Robert Mitchell, Devon Rosano

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Alex Luna Gonzalez Rodriguez is a 25-year-old transgender woman who was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She first came out as bisexual to the only “out” gay person in high school before later discovering she was trans while attending college. She went to the University of Southern Maine after hearing about it on the radio in Austin, Texas. When she came to Maine, she discovered what she described as “the real me.” She discusses her journey of self-discovery and the challenges and support she has faced along the way. She discusses how life was different in Mexico, Texas, and Maine, …

Cardoza, Janice, Silvio Morales

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Janice Cardoza is a 73-year-old lesbian woman from Norway, Maine. She has lived in many places around New England and went to college in Boston, at the University of Massachusetts. She is a quiet woman and the youngest in the 3-child family. Cardoza grew up in a Catholic household but, as she matured, became disillusioned with the Catholic church and religion. She considers herself a Unitarian Universalist and attends a church in Norway, though she describes her relationship as more spiritual than religious. She met her wife at The Underground bar in Portland 40 years ago and they’ve been inseparable …

Queerly Cultivating Anti-Racist Feminist Pedagogy, Laurie Fuller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Queerly Cultivating Anti-Racist Feminist Pedagogy raises questions and analyzes classroom practices based on adrienne maree brown’s (2017) Emergent Strategy, a radical self-help manual for our current political climate that calls for a paradigm shift in organizing work. Black, mixed, queer, pansexual, feminist writer, pleasure activist, facilitator and sci-fi scholar, brown builds on a continuous tradition of women of color feminists resisting oppression to bring together science fiction and permaculture, biomimicry and organizing, pleasure and activism. She offers fresh perspectives on how to imagine liberation and provides dynamic ways to think about teaching and learning. Emergent Strategy provides principles to …

Queering “Lesbian” And “Writing”: Facing The Mirror As “Arche-Writing” Of Indian Queer Women, Kasturi Das

Journal of International Women's Studies

Facing the Mirror: Lesbian Writing from India (1999), edited by Ashwini Sukthankar, anthologizes short personal writing and fictional pieces, memoirs, poems, essays, letters and more, all produced by Indian women-loving-women (WLW) (an umbrella term for women with queer sexualities and romantic interests in women). The back cover of the book is blazoned with the quote: “A groundbreaking book where lesbians found their voice for the first time.” Even more than twenty years after its publication, there is not much scholarship on this book despite it being one of the first few publications to assert and embody the existence of a …