Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons^™

Double Bind Of Muslim Women's Activism In Pakistan: Case Of Malala Yousafzai And Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Naila Sahar

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

A majority of Western2 feminist studies has dealt with women from the third world as a homogenous entity of poor and passive victims without agency, who need saving and thus need to be spoken for. Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak have both underscored the urgency of seeing and dealing with third world feminism in terms of a genre that is different in socio-cultural background from Western dynamics, and they emphasize the importance of being wary of the ways in which Western feminism creates the 'discursive homogenization and systematization of the oppression of women in the Third World' (Mohanty, …

Feminists As Cultural ‘Assassinators’ Of Pakistan, Afiya S. Zia

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Pakistan’s annual Aurat March (Women’s March) signifies a milestone in the culture of feminist protest, but a tense impasse follows a series of encounters between sexual and religious politics, and this has serious implica- tions for rights-based activism in the Islamic Republic.

The Fundamentalist Nexus Of Neoliberalism, Rentier Capitalism, Religious And Secular Patriarchies, And South Asian Feminist Resistances, Fawzia Afzal-Khan

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

In two case studies from Pakistan, which I then link to Afghanistan (under the Taliban before and after the Soviet/ US proxy war there) as well as the Farmer’s Movement in India—I wish to proffer an intersectional analysis of debates around the issue of women’s rights in the global south. Feminist artivism (art-as-activism), can help build solidarities to mount resistances against globally-inflected state repression in our age of neoliberal economic and religious fundamentalisms, which, working in tandem, seek to roll back the rights of women and minorities in and across South Asia, as elsewhere.

Performing Dalit Feminist Youth Activism In South India: Rap, Gaana, And Street Theater, Pramila Venkateswaran

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Young Dalit men and women are changing the narrative of casteist oppression in India. Youth activists perform protest songs in the genre of rap and gaana, using elements of slam poetry and rap from African American artists and blending them with local musical innovations. The performances have deliberate messaging, signaling particular caste and gender injustices, both current and historical. This paper will analyze Dalit youth performances of rap, gaana, and street theater (koothu) in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, to understand the poetics of protest against caste and gender oppression. It will look at the notion of space in …

Looking At The Nation Through A Lover's Eye: N. Padmakumar's Film, A Billion Colour Story, Shreerekha Pillai Subramanian

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Cinematic response in India to social justice movements, even when aimed at rectifying communal violence and tensions, reifies entrenched orders separating Hindu from Muslim, citizen from the 'Other,' native from the diasporic. To the polyphony of films focused on interfaith love, a recent indie film adds a new 'look'. Narasimhamurthy Padmakumar's, A Billion Colour Story (2016) focalizes on a child's point of view in a black and white filmic narration to dismantle old hatreds and re-ignite love of culture and nation for the very diversity that has become pixelated, walled, entombed and reactionary. More like Nollywood in its reliance on …

“Fiery Sparks Of Change”: A Comparison Between First Wave Feminists Of India And The U.S., Shoba Sharad Rajgopal

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The celebration of the centenary of the 19th Amendment in 2020 has seen the resurgence of interest in the struggles of the Suffragette/Suffragist movement. This article examines the representation of first wave feminism in the developing world, with a focus on the Indian Subcontinent, from a postcolonial feminist perspective. As such, it critiques the colonialist perspective regarding women's movements of resistance in the developing world and links it to the critique of racism within the women's movements in the West. It discusses early feminists from India such as Tarabai Shinde whose spirited exposé of the double standards women were subjected …

Subverting Patriarchal Interpretation Of The Ramayan Through A Feminist Lens: A Critical Study Of Sita's Ramayana, Shruti Chakraborti

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

“Re-vision – the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction – is for us more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival”, writes Adrienne Rich in her seminal essay, “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision”. Rich firmly advocates that women authors should create spaces for subversion of patriarchal values and ideals through their literary works. Revisionist mythmaking, from a feminist literary perspective, evolves through challenging a preceding text which predominantly manifests androcentric ideas. The present paper aims to examine a female reinterpretation …

Sense Of Belonging Of Lgbtq+, Racial Minority, And Religiously Affiliated College Students At Binghamton University, Nusrat Islam, Leah Cingranelli

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Binghamton University and institutions alike have put forth certain rules and efforts to ensure that students of the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and students who are religiously affiliated feel safe. The reality is that many of these students feel unwelcome and ostracized due to their social identities (Blakmon et al., 2020). The aim of this non-experimental study was to investigate if there was a significant difference in sense of belonging among minority groups of undergraduate students who attend Binghamton University, as well as those who are not part of minority groups. We hypothesized that the sense of belonging amongst …

Hacia Un Contra-Archivo Radical Y Queer: El Archivo De La Memoria Trans Y La [Re]Construcción De La Memoria Colectiva Sobre La Violencia Institucional En Argentina, Valeria Bula

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación analizará algunos procesos vinculados a la producción de la memoria travesti y trans* en Argentina a partir de la experiencia del Archivo de la Memoria Trans (AMT). Reconociendo el espacio de la memoria en Argentina como un espacio de lucha política, compuesto por diferentes interpretaciones y narrativas, el relato ofrecido por el AMT se estudiará como la adición de una nueva dimensión de complejidad al campo de la memoria en torno al terrorismo de Estado, específicamente en relación con la identidad de las víctimas. En este trabajo, propongo un análisis de la manera en que el AMT se …

Decolonizing Genderqueer: An Inquiry Into The Gender Binary, Resistance, And Imperialistic Social Categories, Lauren E. Abruzzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines core metaphysical properties of nonbinary and genderqueer categories in dominant U.S. contexts. I address a prevailing argument that these categories, by definition, resist the gender binary and are therefore radical modes of existing. In response, I put forth a view of ‘nonbinary’ and ‘genderqueer’ that I call the Diachronic Approach, which describes these categories as yet another set of tools within an imperialistic gender system, much like ‘man’ or ‘woman.’ In other words, they are what I refer to as imperialistic social categories. While nonbinary and genderqueer people do not fall perfectly within the U.S. gender …

Spa203. ¿Qué Hacemos Con La Lengua? Lenguaje, Diversidad Y Derechos Humanos, Juan Jesús Payán

Open Educational Resources

Descripción del curso

SPA203 - (For native or near-native speakers.) The grammatical structure of today's standard Spanish. Intensive practice in reading, speaking, and elementary composition.

En SPA203 vamos a explorar la relación entre el lenguaje y la diversidad en el marco de los derechos humanos fundamentales. El título del curso, “¿qué hacemos con la lengua?”, nos pregunta dos cosas: qué tipo de prejuicios perpetuamos por medio del lenguaje y cómo hacer para que la lengua albergue de manera efectiva la diversidad de nuestra sociedad. En un contexto actual, sorprendente estancado en la indiferencia, la ignorancia, el prejuicio y estigmatización de …

Fostering Queer Consciousness: Using Performative Art As An Activism Tool To Talk About The Lgbtq+ Community In The State Of Bahia, Brazil, Elisangela Pereira Brito

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current scenario in Brazil has attracted the attention of queer artists activists since violence against LGBTQI+ ranks the country as one of the most dangerous places for this community. This study examined how Black gay men have used performative art as activism to foster queer consciousness in the state of Bahia, Brazil. This research employed a qualitative approach, in-depth interview, by providing the unique experiences of three Black queer men artists. Results showed that the early and present experiences of the participants provided a single understanding of how the three Black queer men have used the principles of Pedagogy …

Dignity, Respect, And Freedom, Lindsey Abercrombie

Anthós

This paper looks at Irene Redfield, a character from Nella Larsen's Passing, analyzing how dignity is prioritized above all else in her life. Viewing Irene through the lenses of race, sexuality, and class, this paper delves into the intricacies of Irene's mind, attempting to contextualize her by her overt and repressed desires. Passing is a nuanced novel with complicated characters. Many scholars have attempted to understand the symbolism Larsen has imbued the novel with, producing insightful works to challenge the reader's initial perceptions of the novel and the characters. Through taking a deep-dive into Irene's mind, readers can become …

Identity In The 21st Century Nigerian Fiction: A Case Study Of Blackass By Igoni A. Barrett., Ogochukwu B. Ossai

Beyond the Margins: A Journal of Graduate Literary Scholarship

This paper attempts to examine the allegorical narrative strategies and politics of identity—race, and gender, using postcolonial and racial frameworks. The novel, Blackass written by a Nigerian writer is a 21st century fierce comic satirical adaptation of Metamorphosis, a novella by Franz Kafka. The intricacies and culture within a society and ethnicity in a nation such as patriarchy are explored through the language, characters, and development of the plot in Nigerian literature. For this essay, I enter into the discourse of race by analyzing the social and cultural phenomena that occur throughout the structure of the fictional work.

Homage To Eleanora: A Musical Journey Through The Billie Holiday Songbook, Keith A. Dames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Billie Holiday was a singer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and composer in the fields of music, black culture and more specifically the genre of jazz. The primary focus of this study is Billie Holiday’s discography, music, and compositions as treated in relation to the black culture of production. This study will explore a secondary content analysis of Billie Holiday’s music, musicianship, musicality and compositional skills within the American jazz mainstream, broader jazz audience and world at large. This project will take an analytical look at the structure and form of the compositions of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday is credited with composing …

How Marlon T. Riggs Queered The Documentary Form, Anthony M. Sweeney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Marlon T. Riggs’s documentary films and their paratextual elements are rooted in his intersectional identities as a Black and gay man. His activist goal of Black gay liberation was based on what he saw as deeply engrained internal and external racist and homophobic societal structures that subjugated Black queers. In this thesis, I place research from Black cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, and film studies in conversation with one another to show how Riggs’s filmography is an example of queer form. In doing so, I attempt to redefine the focus of the scholarship on Riggs from an avant-garde filmmaker …

I Still Love You, Despite Everything, Amy Bravo

Theses and Dissertations

My practice seeks to reconcile the family—be it a found, queer family, or blood relatives. Addressing ancestral conflict, the complications of US/Cuba relations and my physical and cultural distance from the island I hail from, my work offers another world for communing with those you cannot physically reach.

Coming Out As A Queer Latinx, Giselle Barajas

Audre Lorde Prize

This paper explores the feminist theories post-colonialism and gender theory to better understand the coming out experience for the queer latinx community. The latinx community face unique hurdles when coming out including battling cultural values, colonialism, language barriers, and identity. In order to better understand the coming out journey of queer latinxs and create safe queer spaces I propose that we reimagine familismo to emphasize love and acceptance over colonial ideas of machismo and marianismo. We can also decolonize both feminist theory and language.

Sexual Profiling & Blaqueer Furtivity: Blaqueers On The Run, T. Anansi Wilson

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

This article has taken some time to recollect. I have been struggling to find the grammar to communicate a phenomenon that is both central to BlaQueer life and beyond BlaQueer living. This difficulty, the silences, the gaps, the nonsensical and agrammatical nature of this phenomena—that of BlaQueer furtivity, the strict scrutiny of Black life and sexual profiling—are central features not only of this project but of the legal, extralegal and social logics and powers that mark, make and remake BlaQueer folks as always, already furtive, subject to strict scrutiny and necessarily sexual profiling. I have been struggling with whether to …

Counternarratives Of Color: Race In Queer Archiving, Sanjula Rajat

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research aims to better understand how race figures into the policies, processes, and materials at IHLIA LGBT Heritage, Europe’s largest LGBT-focused archive. By situating IHLIA within the broader history of alternative archives and Dutch homonationalism, the different ways in which race is an important consideration for the archive is examined. Particular attention is paid to the history, organization and location of the archive as well as the publicly funded nature of IHLIA to better understand the possibilities and limitations posed by the notion of an LGBT archive as opposed to a queer(ed) archive.

Cien Botellas En Una Pared And Blanco Nocturno: The Feminization And Queering Of Representations Of Violence In Latin American Novels Of The 21st Century, Mariana Romo-Carmona

Publications and Research

A look at two novels at the turn of the 21st Century that emerge in clear counterpoint to the Boom, recognizing the violence inherent in national historical realities, and shattering the marginalization of writers subordinated by gender, class, or race. Portela and Piglia portray the heritage of violence in their characters, and the tension of their subjectivities in dialog with a historical understanding of the nation, both in their inimitable, unique, and ebullient narrative style.

Roots And Webs And Nets And Branches And Bulletin Boards And Banners And Newsletters And Mutual Aid Text Threads And Kin And Caretakers And Porches And Poems Of Today And Spaces Of Survival, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo

Theses and Dissertations

As I welcome Richmond, VA into my family, I find myself needing to make roots and webs and nets and branches that ground me, that place myself as a Black, queer, mixed race, artist, activist, educator, storyteller, and cultural worker in this city. I am called to the streets before I am called to my studio. I question what it means to be a part of an institution that is slowly eating this city up. I become a story collector. I need to know where I am and whose land I now call home.

De La Discriminación A La Descriminalización: El Camino De Las Mujeres Transgénero De Queens Por Sus Derechos Laborales Como Trabajadoras Sexuales, Bruce Gil, Sara Herschander, Juanita Ramos

Capstones

Una mirada a la legislación propuesta que despenalizaría el trabajo sexual en la ciudad de Nueva York a través de las historias de las trabajadoras sexuales inmigrantes transgénero que se están organizando en Queens, Nueva York.

http://trabajadorxssexuales.tilda.ws

Exhibit Me / Prohibit Me, Alok Vaid-Menon

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

Racialization.Spectacle.Liberation, Sm Rodriguez, Chriss Sneed

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This special issue navigates the complexity of racialization, experiences related to identity, social structure, and inequality, and that which emerges when one/many embark on journeys towards liberation. “racialization.spectacle.liberation” is an intentional provocation; in both punctuating each word and leaving them affixed, wegesture towards the curious amalgamations that are produced at the intersections of where each project begins and ends. Such processes are not benign.

The Fantasy Of Spotting Human Trafficking: Training Spectacles In Racist Surveillance, Elena Shih

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

In January 2019, in honor of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in the US, the Marriott International hotel group announced that it had successfully trained 600,000 hotel workers to spot the signs of human trafficking in its hotel properties around the world. This training, planned and executed in partnership with anti-trafficking organizations and law enforcement, reflects the recent proliferation of training schemes to identify victims of trafficking. This paper explores how such trainings script racist optics into the surveillance and policing of potential victims. Using proxy markers of poverty, sexuality, race, and nation, victim identification trainings expand policing--by …

The Mammy, The Strong, Or The Broken: Politics Of Hair Afrocentricities In Scripted Television, Hayley Blackburn

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The general literature on the experiences of Black women in America consistently discusses the way that more Afrocentric appearances— whether through skin tone, hairstyles and textures, clothing, language, or a combination of all the above— have been negatively framed throughout cultural and media histories ...

Presumed Nonhuman: Black Women Intellectuals And The Struggle For Humanity In The Academy, Andrea N. Baldwin

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

In this article I engage with the work of Sylvia Wynter, Christina Sharpe, and Kevin Quashie, weaving in my own personal narrative of being presumed nonhuman to detail the everyday struggles Black women academics face. Herein I also illustrate how these struggles become sites of resistance, building, and hope.

Dreaming With A Future: Queer Memory Beyond National Trauma, Cynthia Melendez

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This article examines queer memory in Peru through the works of artists Christian Benday.n, Barboza-Gubo and Mroczek, and the collective No Tengo Miedo. I suggest that they construct alternative memories to the hegemonic one, as they denounce the violence against the LGBTIQ population during the years of political violence (1980-2000).

Black Queer Times At Riis: Making Place In A Queer Afrofuturist Tense, Jah Elyse Sayers

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

This paper posits a queer Afrofuturist mode of spatiotemporal production in queer and trans Black, indigenous and people of color’s navigation to and making of a queer beach to honor Black queer and trans histories and build Black queer and trans futures in opposition to multiple forms of displacement.