Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Autoimmunities After Covid: An Interview With Cindy Patton, Cindy Patton, Travis Alexander, Nishant Shahani

English Faculty Publications

Taken collectively, Patton’s scholarship and activism has laid the foundation for insights in the health humanities, particularly AIDS studies, that consider the inextricable connections between epidemiology and ideology. Patton’s theorizations of stigma and discrimination patterns, her deconstruction of “truth” discourses subtending science, her critical re-evaluations of axioms associated with risk, safe sex, community, and knowledge production have been crucial interventions in the understanding of health and illness as cultural and discursive scripts. Among Patton’s most enduring contributions has been her theorization of how “African AIDS” was invented and circulated—that is, the notion of geographically bifurcated HIV pandemics split by the …

Introduction (To Emotional Expressionism), E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Communications: Faculty Publications

The primary purpose of Emotional Expressionism: Television Serialization, The Melodramatic Mode, and Socioemotionality is to explore the forms, functions, and nuances of emotions in popular, mediated narratives. Clearly, emotions constitute a key means by which audiences experience and make sense of narrative media, in that mediated stories make compelling arguments or take up resonant positions through their emotional methods and meanings. The value of developing an emotional template for screen media lies in generating new analytical and interpretative approaches to narrative aesthetics, especially in terms of their pains and pleasures. As this study seeks to demonstrate, emotional analysis opens up …

Abortion Pills: Us History And Politics, Carrie N. Baker

Open Educational Resources: Textbooks

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive history of abortion pills in the United States. Public intellectual and lawyer Carrie N. Baker shows how courageous activists waged a decades-long campaign to establish, expand, and maintain access to abortion pills. Weaving their voices throughout her book, Baker recounts both dramatic and everyday acts of their resistance. These activists battled anti-abortion forces, overly cautious policymakers, medical gatekeepers, and fearful allies in their four-decade-long fight to free abortion pills. In post-Roe America, abortion pills are currently playing a critically important role in providing safe abortion access to tens of thousands of …

Exploring The Nexus Gender Equality And Economic Development In China: A Comparative Analysis, Hejie Liu

Honors Theses

This study will document the extent to which China continues to be affected by the influence of traditional gender norms, and the degree to which gender relations in China are changing in terms of culture, behavioral norms, labor force participation, and family structure. The study will also document the Chinese government’s family planning policy and marriage law that reflect traditional gender norms. In establishing the current state of gender equality in China, this study will assess the current and potential future impact of gender norms on economic growth and population growth. Subsequently, the Chinese experience will be contrasted with Japan …

A Critical Event Narrative Analysis Of African Women Immigrant Entrepreneurs In The United States: Impacts Before, During, And After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Damilola T. Fasinu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This doctoral research presents a qualitative critical event narrative study focused on African Women Immigrant Entrepreneurs (AWIE) in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to explore the unique challenges, coping mechanisms, and resilience strategies of AWIE by examining their experiences before, during, and after the pandemic. The research is driven by three guiding questions: (1) How do AWIE describe their experience before the pandemic? (2) During the pandemic? (3) After the pandemic? This inquiry provides a comprehensive narrative, capturing the challenges and successes experienced in the pre-pandemic environment, documenting the immediate impacts of the pandemic on …

Democratic Backsliding In The American States: The Case Of Judicial Independence, Meghan Leonard

Faculty Publications – Politics and Government

With ever-increasing gridlock and polarization at the national level, many new policy changes in the U.S. have come at the state level, including legislation that takes the form of democratic backsliding by restricting the right to vote, limiting free speech and expression, and gerrymandering state and federal legislative districts. A key component missing from scholarly discussion of federalism and the erosion of electoral democratic norms is the effect of federalism on the structure of institutions within the states, particularly on judicial independence. In this article, I examine the relationship between measures of democracy and introduction of court-curbing legislation in the …

Learning Chinese Vocabulary: Understanding Students' Perspectives, Austin Gasiecki, Zuotang Zhang

The Coastal Review

This study used a survey to investigate self-study and university-enrolled Chinese learners’ habits in studying Chinese vocabulary in order to determine what study methods influence a.) learners’ confidence in learning Chinese vocabulary and b.) what aspects of Chinese vocabulary they consider easy or difficult. We were particularly interested in seeing what the data had to say about students’ attitudes towards characters and the written language, given that the field of Chinese language pedagogy is known for a stronger focus on the written language as opposed to the spoken language. We found that aspects of Chinese vocabulary associated with the spoken …

Practicing Hedonism In The Face Of Nihilism: Onfrayian Insights On Individualism And Autonomy, Scott Truesdale

The Coastal Review

Where many define nihilism as the belief that life and all moral principles are meaningless, the French philosopher, Michel Onfray, expounds on this classic definition and argues that true nihilism is the refusal to accept the world as it is. Unlike monotheistic religions and totalitarian regimes that urge their followers to practice asceticism now to attain happiness in the future, Onfray believes that hedonistic pleasure can be found when the individual rediscovers autonomy and returns to an atomistic worldview that is immersed in the imminent.

Between Pain And Glory: Memory Disputes Of The Brazilian Dictatorship In Retrato Calado And O Que É Isso, Companheiro?, Angela R. Mooney

The Coastal Review

This article analyzes Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes’ Retrato calado (Silent Portrait) published in 1988, considering the theoretical discussions on testimonio's epistemology—addressing the challenge of narrating trauma and the risk of stylization. It compares Fortes' memoir with Fernando Gabeira's O que é isso, companheiro? (What's This, Comrade?) from 1979, examining diverse approaches to capturing historical trauma through literature and its impact on collective memory about Brazilian Dictatorship (1964-1985).

Horror Stories: Oblivious Women In Luis Puenzo’S La Historia Oficial (1985) And Santiago Mitre’S Argentina 1985 (2022), Stephanie R. Orozco

The Coastal Review

Adriana Cavarero's conceptualization of Medusa serves as a potent metaphor for the subtle redirection of violence of oblivious women who ignored the brutalization of pregnant victims during Argentina’s military dictatorship (1976-83). In Luis Puenzo’s La historia oficial (1985) and Santiago Mitre’s Argentina 1985 (2022), skillfully unveil the ghastly practice of torturing pregnant women, unraveling the vulnerability of both mothers and their infants, evoking a sense of disgust and repugnance that is eventually shared by oblivious women. Beyond mere storytelling, these films challenge prevailing power dynamics and discourses, shedding light on the complicit ignorance of elite women during an era marked …

Global Communities: The Potential Of Street Art And The Public Space, Elena Picech

The Coastal Review

This paper highlights the significance of physical proximity and the potentiality of socio-spatial situations as tools to enrich study abroad programs. Particular attention is given to street art and the public space. While, studying on-site can be somewhat uncomfortable, it can potentially prompt unique reflections, enhance student’s learning and encourage introspection. Being on-site provides the opportunity to come into contact and to connect with the physical objects and their environment. It enables a multisensory and immersive embodied experience. Leveraging art for communicative educational activities can facilitate a participatory experience, promote critical thinking and enhance cultural understanding.

The Femme-Fatale “Bear’Ing Her Teeth: The Relation Between Women And Animals In Prosper Mérimée’S Lokis, William B. Holley

The Coastal Review

Abstract: Many French fantastic texts from the nineteenth century employ the use of a femme-fatale to highlight and underscore the dangers inherit with the female figure. This can be seen in vampires, ghosts, fairies, and other supernatural phenomena wherein a female character takes on incredible attributes. Propser Mérimée’s Lokis offers readers a tale wherein those same female figures are given traits that resemble the traditional femme-fatale, but in doing so they highlight the deadly nature of the titular half-man/half-bear creature. This paper offers a reading of Lokis which brings together an understanding of the social and political climate in which …

State Politics And Stress Amongst Lgbtq+ Students At Florida’S Private Colleges: A Psychological And Normative Analysis, Alise Fortune

Honors Program Theses

The recent wave of anti-LGBTQ+ politics and policies in Florida pose potential risks to the mental health and well-being of Florida’s LGBTQ+ students. The present study surveyed LGBTQ+ students attending private colleges in Florida to measure their self-reported stress levels in comparison to non-LGBTQ+ students, the level at which they believed specific sources of stress contributed to their stress levels, their level of distress upon experiencing discrimination, their sense of sexual identity distress, and their awareness of and involvement in advocacy against Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ bills. Survey results suggested that anti-LGBTQ+ politics in Florida and the personal lives (social and family …

Queering The Tropics: A Cartography Of Tropical Materialism, Queer Ecology & Spectral Tropicality, Christian Jil Benitez, Gregory Luke Chwala, Anita Lundberg, S. N. Nyeck

Filipino Faculty Publications

This special issue entitled “Queering the Tropics” explores how queering as a methodology and gender and sexuality as a critical rubric complicate the study of the tropics and conceptions of tropicality. It also engages with how the tropics as a worldly zone, and the notion of tropicality as simultaneously material and imaginary, reconfigure notions of queer sexuality. In other words, our aim has been to study how the tropical might queer queerness itself. This is to attempt to understand queer as a way to initiate and pursue critical encounters with the tropical world—indeed to begin queering the tropics. This first …

The Boy With The Pet Dog, Allan N. Derain, Christian Jil Benitez

Filipino Faculty Publications

Set at the beginning of the hot season in the Philippines, when heat starts to crawl on skin, the short fiction “The Boy with the Pet Dog” (“Ang Batang May Alagang Aso”) stages an encounter between the titular character and a young man from the province who intends to work on his family’s farm. Queerness figures in the narrative as intimately entangled with class, and becomes articulable only through a language made possible by the tropics itself, in the form of butterflies coming out of chrysalises, brown bodies glowing with sweat, and swiftlets flocking mango trees. At the heart of …

The Mediation Of Critical Themes Of Motherhood Studies In Storytelling: The Case Of The Girl Who Drank The Moon, Catalina Millán Scheiding

Faculty Works

By contemplating the emotional and intellectual link between the reader and the book, this article considers how a contemporary text might respond to current motherhood studies’ issues, and how these studies are mediated to be considered appropriate for an audience of young readers. A psychosocial research strategy is used, through a feminist theoretical framework, to analyze how the young adult novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon incorporates key ideas of motherhood studies through characters’ agency and the storytelling arch. Motherhood is represented as an institution, an individual identity and an emotional experience, and the novel offers the young reader …

Understanding The Effects Of Hormone Treatments On The Transgender Singer: A Pedagogical Study And Voice Studio Guide, Erin M. Hannon

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Transitioning from one gender to another can be an arduous and emotionally charged experience, accompanied by many physical and mental transformations. The journey of self-discovery and vocal explorations is both unique and deeply personal. Modifications that emerge in an individual's vocal characteristics have a profound influence on their capacity to communicate and express themselves.

Transgender vocal students and professional singers must navigate the delicate balance between their vocal and gender identities while considering the possible risks of Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy. Though these therapies may significantly alter one's appearance and overall well-being, they are also capable of causing notable declines …

Intercultural And International Communication In The Surrogacy Industry, Jessica Baker

Undergraduate Scholarship

Understanding the relationship between intercultural communication, international communication, and the proper way to discuss sensitive topics (infertility, surrogacy, LGBTQ+) in the surrogacy industry leads to strong communication. When communicating internationally or interculturally, there may be challenges such as language barriers, cultural differences, and cultural taboos. In order to avoid uncomfortable situations or miscommunication, knowing how to change the way we communicate with Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) is a necessity to navigate important conversations. In the surrogacy industry, knowing how to communicate interculturally and being culturally competent about sensitive topics such as infertility or loss can determine the success of a …

Shaping Socially Engaged Art Practice And Critical Pedagogy In The Uk Arts And Cultural Sector: An Auto/Biographical Framing Of Class, Gender And Political Activism, Chrissie Tiller

Doctoral

Situated at the intersection of critical pedagogy, radical theatre and political activism, this PhD thesis reflects critically on a series of publications and an interdisciplinary counterhegemonic socially engaged art practice between 2010-20. Mobilising the auto/biographical as a conceptual framework for critical analysis, the thesis addresses questions of systemic inequalities, cultural democracy and social transformation in the UK arts and cultural sector. By examining my lived experience through the analytical lenses of intersectionality and feminist standpoint theory, the thesis foregrounds how interconnecting oppressions of gender and class have contributed to the formation of my creative practice and its pedagogical interventions, constituting …

A Qualitative Analysis Of Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Development Toward Teaching Mathematics For Social Justice, Catherine Lynne Manley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

While some might say that mathematics is neutral, free from political and social bias, social justice concerns can be found in the day-to-day actions of teachers in mathematics classrooms. Teaching mathematics for social justice requires teachers to gain knowledge of the world and systems of oppression as well as current efforts to both address systemic issues as well as the fight for those in power to maintain their cultural capital. Mathematics teachers also need to learn the pedagogical practices that support social justice in education and the specific ways in which mathematics content can be used as a tool to …

That Garden Of Hope, Bhavika Sicka

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

The poem explores themes of freedom of speech, the power of words, and the pursuit of knowledge.

Mentoring Latinas On Doctoral Journeys: Testimonios Of Cultural And Gender Identity, Jacqueline Rangel

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In the United States, Latinas are underrepresented in obtaining PhDs that lead to high level professional careers and academia. This may be due, in part, to patriarchal academic institutions and approaches that have historically devalued the cultural experiences and identities of marginalized populations, including Latinas in higher education. However, research suggests that mentorship can support Latinas in successfully obtaining PhDs and disrupt institutional norms and practices. Framed by LatCrit, Mestiza Consciousness, and Mujerista Mentoring, this study sheds light on the experiences of twenty-four Latinas who earned PhDs-with or without mentors during their doctoral journeys. As such, the purpose of this …

Teaching Dobbs To Disrupt U.S. Hegemony And Build Feminist Solidarities, Derek P. Siegel

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The Dobbs decision has created both opportunities and challenges in the classroom. On one hand, Dobbs animated student interest, increasing awareness of reproduction. On the other hand, media coverage of Dobbs primed students—particularly those who had not been exposed to reproductive justice—to think about abortion access in isolation from other topics and from an exclusively U.S. perspective. In this article, I discuss my experience teaching Politics of Reproduction in Fall 2022. Among other goals, I wanted to expose students to La Marea Verde, or the “Green Wave,” of countries expanding abortion access in Latin America. By teaching Latin American abortion …

Profiles Of Activism In The Lives Of Writing, Rhetoric, And Literacy Studies Scholars, Ruth Osario

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

[Introduction] When I was an undergraduate student, I dreamed of being a badass scholar-activist like Angela Davis the way that young kids dream of being a princess or a dragon. As a baby feminist and scholar, I admired Dr. Davis for her powerful writing and speaking on Black feminism and class struggle, and her impeccable style. When I decided to apply to graduate school, I did so with Angela Davis in mind, imagining a future career where I meandered in a labyrinth of books one day and shut down the streets in a protest the next.

Rainbow-Washing The Occupation: A Critical Examination Of Israeli Claims To Feminist And Gay-Friendly Modernity, Melia Oliver

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I employ a queer analytic to uncover how Israel weaponizes claims to feminist and gay-friendly modernity—referred to as pink- and purple washing, respectively—as forms of propaganda to justify their occupation of Palestine. Pink- and purplewasing narratives rely on racist and Orientalist conceptions of Palestinian “barbarism” which Israel reproduces in order to bolster their settler colonial project. I analyze pink- and purplewashing propaganda as symptoms of larger homo- and femonationalist formations which stem from and further reinforce settler colonialism. I address allegations of “weaponized rape” during and after the events of October 7th and argue that this form …

Queer Formations Of The Self In Woolf And Forster, Margaret M. Bancroft

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines queerness and the Bildungsroman in three novels by Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster: Jacob’s Room (1922), Maurice (1971), and Orlando (1928).

Improving American Men's Quality Of Life By Economically Empowering American Women, Margot Rosenblatt

Scripps Senior Theses

In this paper, I explore the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and men’s quality of life in the United States. I created an index of women’s economic empowerment based on county-level data on labor force participation rates, rates of pay, teen birth rates, and families in which a woman is the primary income earner. I then created an index of men’s quality of life based on financial, physical, and mental health indicators. Adjusting for income, dominant industry type, age, population density, race variables, and environmental factors, I found a statistically significant positive correlation between women’s economic empowerment and men’s quality …

“Even The Hardest Stone Can Fracture:” Racialization, Reproductive Control, And The Wake Of Slavery In N.K. Jemisin’S The Fifth Season, Elsbeth Sanders

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

When the science fiction and fantasy novel The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin won the Hugo Award in 2016, Jemisin became the first Black author to win the prestigious literary science fiction award. A departure from similar novels at the time, The Fifth Season has a strong understanding of systems of oppression and how they are built and upheld. This thesis argues that The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin follows the conventions of the neo-slave/meta-slave narrative to explore themes of racialization and reproductive control under enslavement and oppression. I conduct a feminist literary of the novel, focusing on these themes, …

Gender Wobbles But It Don’T Fall Down: Feste And The Instability Of Gender In Twelfth Night, Evangeline Thurston Wilder

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night appears to some readers as a conservative story of gender-bending, in which all is made “right” in the end. The central character, Viola, disguises herself as Cesario in order to survive. In the final scenes of the play, this character reveals herself to have been a woman all along, and immediately enters a cis-heterosexual marriage with the Duke Orsino. To other readers, the play appears to be an early depiction of what we might now call transmasculinity. In this view, the central character is not just dressing up as a man to survive; he really is Cesario. …

Survivor-Shaped Specters And Gaps, Seo-Young J. Chu

Publications and Research

...survivors are disappearing from academia. Our schools, our syllabi, our classrooms, our bibliographies, our campuses, our research labs, our thesis committees, our libraries, our conference panels, our departments, our programs, and our monographs are riddled through and through with survivor-shaped gaps. Each gap is a place in academia where someone has gone missing due to bullying, harassment, retaliation, predation, sexual assault, mobbing, and/or other abuses of power. Some of these gaps are shaped like allies who have left academia due to moral injury. Not every gap, moreover, is shaped like a survivor. Not every victim survives.