Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Patriarchal Constraints In Everyday Lives: Gender Roles, Matrilineality, And The Status Of Contemporary Khasi Women, Mebarisuk Langstieh, Sudhansubala Sahu

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Khasi tribe from Meghalaya in northeast India practices a matrilineal system, which is believed to be more egalitarian than patrilineal systems. The women of the Khasi tribe are often regarded as having a higher status than other women in India. However, despite belonging to a matrilineal society, Khasi women still face challenges in their social lives stemming from patriarchal constructs. This qualitative study examines the social status and subsequent challenges faced by Khasi women in contemporary India. Using in-depth interviews and observations of thirty urban and rural Khasi women in the East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya, the study …

The Local Outsider: Sleeping Sickness Drug Trials, Social Exclusion, And Responses Of Women In The Uyui District Of Tanzania, 1964-2005, Hamisi M. Machangu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Unethical practices in sleeping sickness drug trials conducted in the Uyui District of Tanzania from 1964 to 2005 resulted in physical and psychological disabilities among participants and contributed to the social exclusion of its women participants. Although these practices are understood to have caused disabilities, existing studies have overlooked their contribution to the social exclusion of women. Drawing from both primary and secondary sources, this article treats the impact of such practices as a window to examine the nature and dimensions of social exclusion of women with disabilities and how these women responded to social exclusion at the grassroots level. …

Bodies And Beyond: Reading Liminal Corporealities In Ambai’S Short Stories, Keerthana S

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article demonstrates how the Indian writer Ambai’s short stories construct counter-narratives to phallogocentric structures, opening up fresh avenues of theoretical engagement in the cultural context of Tamil Nadu, India. Despite advancements towards gender equality, cultural symbols and metaphors such as tali (ornament worn by Tamil women denoting their marital status), karpu (chastity), and veera tai (valorous mother), often govern the lives of women to a great extent. I argue that Ambai’s stories both resist the hegemonic constraints of such cultural symbols and also endeavour to reconfigure them. Ambai’s renderings of cultural semiotics enable women to experience their bodies removed …

The Liminal Socioeconomic Status Of The “Fallen Woman” In Elizabeth Gaskell’S Mary Barton, Şebnem Düzgün

Journal of International Women's Studies

Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848) is an English social-problem novel that addresses sociopolitical and economic issues, most notably prostitution. The protagonist Esther’s position as a low-income factory worker forced by circumstance to engage in sex work grants her an ambiguous position in Victorian England’s patriarchal, capitalist society. Since she appears as an active economic agent by exchanging her body for money in the sex industry, Esther seems to have more socioeconomic freedoms compared to married women. However, her freedom as a sex worker is limited by patriarchal capitalism. She becomes an outcast in the capitalist market, where capital is possessed …

Art And The Good Neighbor Policy: Grace Morley’S Role In The Office Of Inter-American Affairs Art Committee During World War Ii, Andrea Matallana

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article examines the pivotal role of Grace McCann Morley in promoting Latin American art in the United States during the era of the Good Neighbor Policy (1933). As director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and a key figure in the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA), Morley challenged Eurocentric perspectives and advocated for Latin American art’s unique identity. The article focuses on her organization of itinerant exhibitions, highlighting the cultural diversity of Latin American art while navigating political and institutional obstacles. Using archives and correspondence, I reassess Morley’s contributions to the cultural diplomacy efforts …

Recasting The Sacred: Gendered Embodiments In The Shadow Puppet Theatre Of Kerala, V. K. Karthika

Journal of International Women's Studies

Tholppavakkoothu, traditional leather shadow puppetry from Kerala, a southern state within India, has long been performed in temples as a sacred ritual. This ritual art form was a male-dominated performance in which ideas regarding physical purity (in connection with menstruating female bodies) excluded women from participating. Such patriarchal codifications were challenged when Pentholppavakkoothu, an all-women leather puppetry troupe, emerged in 2021, as it not only took the art outside temple premises but enabled the participation of women in the making and performance of the art. This paper critiques the gender dynamics within Tholppavakkoothu, analysing how cultural rituals and body politics …

“I Painted It This Way Because I Belong Nowhere”: Using Body Mapping To Explore Gender, Subjectivity, And Resilience Among Afghan Immigrant Women In Iran, Mina Naji, Ali Mehrabi, Ehsan Aghababaeec, Treena Orchard

Journal of International Women's Studies

This qualitative study explores how second-generation Afghan women born and raised in Iran create belonging and identity despite gender, legal, and cultural barriers. Although they represent a large part of the Afghan community in Iran, their daily embodied experiences are rarely discussed in migration or gender studies. Using body mapping and semi-structured interviews conducted with four women aged 18–40, this study examines how displacement and everyday exclusion shape their feelings, identities, and coping mechanisms. The visual and narrative data show how inequalities in education, family life, and social position are felt and carried within the body. At the same time, …

Feminist Reflexivity In Practice: Addressing Positionality And Building Sisterhood Through Fieldwork With Black Migrant Sex Workers In Istanbul, Yeliz Kendir-Gök

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article addresses feminist reflexivity and researcher positionality in ethnographic fieldwork with undocumented Ugandan women sex workers in Istanbul’s Tarlabaşı and Aksaray neighborhoods. Drawing on fourteen months of immersive research, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and reflexive journaling, the study examines how both the researcher and participants engaged in strategic forms of resistance within racialized and gendered urban spaces. The analysis is grounded in a feminist epistemological framework that draws on Kandiyoti’s notion of patriarchal bargaining and Scott’s theory of hidden transcripts. Findings reveal how participants and the researcher used subtle forms of resistance, such as strategic silence or performative …

Collective Memory Of Partition: A Study Of Trauma, Martyrdom, And Survival In Women’S Post-Partition Fiction, Abi Sarkar, Sandip Sarkar

Journal of International Women's Studies

Gender and the distortion of memory are two important aspects of Partition literature about the division of the Indian subcontinent into two nations, India and Pakistan. Women writers, such as Geetanjali Shree in Tomb of Sand (2022) and Anjali Enjeti in The Parted Earth (2021), delineate the collective trauma of the 1947 Partition of India through the theme of memory. This article will demonstrate two types of violence experienced by women during the time - political violence (perpetrated by Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs) and patriarchal violence and uncover how their memories haunt and shape their present, constructing and reconstructing their …

Rural Banditry In North Central Nigeria: The Experience Of Women In Affected Communities, Joseph Egidi Igbe, Tersoo Asongo, Evaristus Akpanke Ushie, William Okon Williams, Patrick Owan Bisong

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examined rural banditry in North Central Nigeria, focusing on women’s experiences in affected communities. The study specifically looked at women’s experiences with poor health, sexual violence, and physical harm caused by rural banditry and militancy in the study area. The study employs Kate Millet’s feminist theory of patriarchal power and structure to frame its theoretical standpoint. Four hundred women informants were selected through stratified random and purposive sampling techniques, and data were obtained using a questionnaire and eight in-depth interviews. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequency tables, while simple linear regression was used …

Penal Protection For Women In Jordan: How Compatible Are International Agreements And Jordanian Legislation?, Hasan Altarawneh, Hamzeh Abu Issa

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article analyses the degree to which Jordanian penal legislation conforms to international human rights standards regarding the protection of women from violence, specifically the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the United Nations Bangkok Rules. Jordan has implemented legislative reforms targeting gender-based violence; however, these reforms are incomplete, disjointed, and frequently misaligned with international standards. This study employs a doctrinal methodology to analyse Articles 292–311 of the Jordanian Penal Code and associated procedural rules, assessing their substantive and procedural provisions in relation to international legal obligations. This analysis includes rulings from the …

Whose Rules, Whose Rights?: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence And Legal Protections In Wartime, Sadaf Shabbir

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article critically analyzes conflict-related systematic sexual violence (CRSV) within the frameworks of international humanitarian law, particularly the Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols. Moving beyond viewing CRSV as an isolated atrocity, it situates sexual violence within the historical and political roots of conflict, using case studies from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Syrian Arab Republic. The analysis demonstrates how sexual violence operates as a weapon within exploitative wartime economies, where institutional collapse and illicit resource networks enable the commodification and control of women’s bodies. Furthermore, the article introduces a sectarian lens to the study of CRSV, …

Migration Narratives Of Ukrainian Women In South Tyrol: A Comparison Of Pre- And Post-War Experiences, Giulia Isetti, Irem Güney-Frahm

Journal of International Women's Studies

Through qualitative interviews with Ukrainian women who migrated to South Tyrol, Italy before and after the 2022 Russian invasion, this paper explores the experiences, motivations, challenges, and integration strategies of these migrants. Findings highlight the gendered nature of migration, as Ukrainian women often face occupational downgrading, in which they are forced to work in low-skilled sectors due to language barriers, bureaucratic hurdles, and labour market discrimination. Social integration remains a challenge particularly among post-war arrivals. Unlike other Orthodox Christian migrant groups, respondents report weak communal solidarity, although individual acts of support from local organizations and colleagues mitigate isolation. Finally, the …

Confinement And Consent: A Comparative Analysis Of Sexual Abuse In Finnish And U.S. Prisons, Madison A. Greico

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

The Bangkok Rules and The Basic Principles for The Treatment of Prisoners are a specific outline of protections and rights for individuals( Bangkok specifically about women) within prisons adopted by the United Nations compromising states. While The United States is a leader in the United Nations and adopted this set of rules, their failures of commitment are extremely apparent. Every year, thousands of prison rapes occur behind bars in New York alone by the very guards meant to protect them. In Finland, another United Nations member, however, has virtually no record of sexual abuse within their prisons. In investigation of …

Media Review Of Recovering The U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Digital Collections, Lingyan Yang

Feminist Pedagogy

This media review of Recovering the U.S. Hispanic literary heritage digital collections encourages feminist teacher scholars to use them to teach and research Latino/a American culture and history, esp. in feminist classes.

More Than Muses: Digital Archive As Pedagogical Tool, Valerie Hegstrom, Anna-Lisa Halling

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Recovering The Unobserved Works Of Feminist Educators Using Digital Archival Approaches, Jacquelyne Thoni Howard, Clare Daniel

Feminist Pedagogy

In 2020, we curated a bibliography about applying feminist pedagogical principles to online and hybrid learning environments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bibliography demonstrated that feminist educators, though largely unobserved in the national discourse around online learning, were already in conversation about how to apply feminist pedagogy online. This initial bibliography would later become the foundation of the Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online Guide, a digital humanities recovery project that has had lasting implications on our classrooms, communities, and teaching philosophies. The guide now serves as a digital archive that documents how feminist educators are adapting to new …

A Reader's Archive: Embodied Experiences And Digital Records, Olivia Brooks, Suzanne M. Edwards

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

How Questions Of Editing Shape Our Learning: Introducing Students To Digital Manuscripts, Marlowe Daly-Galeano

Feminist Pedagogy

This article presents a pedagogical approach for introducing literature students to digital manuscripts and editorial processes through hands-on engagement with archival materials. The teaching activity centers on May Alcott Nieriker's essay "London Bridges," using four different versions of the text—two handwritten manuscripts, one nineteenth-century periodical publication, and one contemporary republication—to illuminate how editorial decisions shape literary canons and student learning. The four-part assignment integrates literary analysis, manuscript transcription, variant identification, and editorial decision-making to help students understand the material conditions that determine which texts survive and become part of academic curricula. Through this assignment, students gain critical insights into the …

"In Her Own Words: Annotating A 19th-Century Southwest Florida Diary", Jordan L. Von Cannon

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

(Introduction To The Special Issue) Restoring Women’S Literary Past: Exploring Digital Recovery Pedagogy Through An Intersectional Feminist Lens, Alice Martin, Tracy A. Fernandez Rysavy

Feminist Pedagogy

In Roopika Risam (New Digital Worlds, 2018) and Lauren Klein and Catherine D’Ignazio’s (Data Feminisms, 2020) recent work, they call for more attention to the intersecting relationships between feminist practice, content, and technical specifications through an awareness of the ways the design and implementation of technology can exclude and objectify people. In response to this, we introduce a special issue on teaching digital recovery in the classroom, with a focus on recovering women writers of America through digital projects.

Under The Guardianship: Experiences Of Mothers In Egypt’S El Nayaba El Hesbaya, Hana Khayry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the intersectional lived experience of El Nayaba El Hesbaya in Egypt. El Nayaba El Hesbaya, operating under Law 119/1952, is the administrative and judicial body responsible for overseeing the financial and legal affairs of minors whose father or mother had passed. Hundreds of thousands of mothers in Egypt have (had) children under the guardianship of El Nayaba El Hesbaya. This research delves into the experience of mothers whose children are or were under the guardianship of El Nayaba El Hesbaya, examining how it shape(s/d) their everyday life as women, mothers, widows or ex-wives, citizens, and legal subjects. …

An Ethnographic Exploration Of The Lived Experiences With Gynecologic Cancers, Norma Naser Aldeen

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis stays close to conversations with nine women who spoke about living with and through gynecologic cancers, from moments of finding out, through treatment, and into what follows. These encounters unfolded primarily through digitally mediated exchanges across Baalbek, Beirut, and other translocal settings shaped by distance and movement. Rather than approaching illness as a bounded biomedical event, this thesis attends to how gynecologic cancer is narrated as something that lingers—pressing into everyday life through bodily sensations, altered rhythms, and ongoing recalibrations of care, responsibility, and what remains possible.

Across these encounters, care rarely appears as a stable system …

Little Red Riding Hood Rewritten: The Abject In Angela Carter’S “Company Of Wolves”, Samantha Frohring

CAFE Symposium 2026

This project considers Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection to bring attention to the content within Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves." This postmodernist rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood" brings attention to feminist topics such as female sexuality and agency. In consideration with Kristeva's theory of abjection, it sheds light on potentially cringeworthy aspects of our bodies and embraces all of the "filth."

Paternalism Vs. Progress: Chile Under Michelle Bachelet, Sasha Ilchenko

CAFE Symposium 2026

Following the end of Pinochet's dictatorial rule of Chile, the country became a presidential system in which voters could elect their representatives. Michelle Bachelet was elected as Chile's first female president in 2006, and, in 2014, she was reelected for a second term. I aim to compare how her gender influenced her policymaking decisions and the public's reaction to her presidency as well as how those two themes differed between Bachelet's two terms.

Hercules In Myth And Animation: Masculinity And Heroism, Noah Bautista

CAFE Symposium 2026

Disney's Hercules is a model man in today's society who combines the best aspects of both masculinity and femininity. In the myths, however, Hercules was much different and did not act as such a bridge between femininity and masculinity at the time. Through other scholarly works, the way that masculinity, heroism, and instrumentalization are presented and used is examined. Mythological Herakles is found to be a much more aggressive archetype of a man rather than Hercules, who is based upon strength in moderation and a more social society. Each fit into the ideals of the society they come from, perpetuating …

Hillary Rodham Clinton's Roadblocks To Political Power, Molly Hayter

CAFE Symposium 2026

My research delves into how Hillary Rodham Clinton's political career was impacted by misogyny and gendered backlash. She was represented unequally in the media in comparison to male politicians and faced criticism for displaying both male and female characteristics, yet she did not let her focus on gendered policy decisions fade as she tackled foreign policy in her role as Secretary of State.

Instilling Patriotism And Prejudice Through Game Of Battles Or Fun For Boys, Gabby Gavaghan

CAFE Symposium 2026

For my Poster Project, I dove into the underlying socialization and indoctrination embedded within a board game from 1899 called "Game of Battles or Fun For Boys." I explored the overwhelming messages of toxic masculinity, the encouragement of enlisting in the military, and the lack of representation of women and African Americans.

Aquatic Interrelations In Malika Mokeddem’S Novel N’Zid (2001), Laura C. Klein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

This article offers an ecological analysis of Malika Mokeddem's novel N'Zid (2001), moving beyond postcolonial and anthropocentric interpretations. It centers on the protagonist Nora's individuation, arguing this process is intrinsically linked to her evolving relationship with the aquatic environment from which she emerges. The article aims to situate N'Zid within an ecological perspective, particularly relevant in the Anthropocene, an era compelling a reassessment of humanity's place. Echoing Bruno Latour, addressing inter-relationality is essential as the stable physical framework of the Moderns becomes unstable. This view necessitates rethinking environmental issues and encourages a scientific interpretation of the novel, drawing on neurosciences, …

Together Forever, William L. Blizek, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Together Forever (2026), directed by Gregory Barnes.