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

Transcinematheque: Defining Cinematic Language In The Trans New Wave, Mel Turnage

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis aims to analyze the films of the Trans New Wave in order to define tropes and motifs of cinematic language and structure. The language of the filmmaking itself presents a different approach from mainstream transgender films, and this changes how certain imagery of transness is contextualized in a larger narrative. In particular, the films of the Trans New Wave operate in contrast to both historical trans films and modern prestige/studio films to deliver more realistic portrayals of trans peoples’ experiences and beliefs. This new language of the Trans New Wave serves to create a more accurate and profound …

Big Community In Little Chinatown: How Asian Americans (Re)Present Their Community Today, Meghan Morrison

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper looks at a series of modern Asian American pieces of media in order to analyze how women and LGBT+ depict and create their community, especially in relation to another marginalized ethnic group. By examining the relationship between these groups within popular media, we can uncover how Asian Americans choose to represent themselves and gain a deeper understanding on how marginalized groups choose to portray themselves.

When Misclassification Is Misgendering: Gender Prediction In The Context Of Trans Identities, Sean Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a subdomain of author profiling, gender prediction (sometimes called gender inference) has received a substantial amount of attention—both as a task in itself, and for other downstream analyses. Throughout the existing literature various statistical and machine learning methods have been applied to extract features in order to either characterize and differentiate female and male writing styles, or simply to achieve maximum accuracy on gender prediction as a binary classification task. However, researchers often do not disclose how they conceptualize gender nor do they consider the implications that gender prediction has for non-binary and trans individuals. Along with an overview …

Transgender In College: Engaging Marginalized Collegiate Students, Lo Ferguson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In an educational structure not built for marginalized students how can inequality be counteracted within the system itself? Specifically, what are the best practices to engage and empower transgender students within student involvement and leadership on college campuses, specifically through engagement within the Office of Student Life? This thesis theorizes that practices that are inclusive and respectful to transgender students creates climates that engage and retain them. It will establish an understanding of the basics of what being transgender means, discrimination that impacts this community, and reviewing the transgender collegiate experience. These cumulative aspects of the transgender experience will prove …

The Morphology Of Sex: Tracking Change In The Sex Discourse At Augustana College, Robert E. Burke

Women's and Gender Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

ere, I track how the criteria for deeming sex as acceptable or unacceptable have changed over time at Augustana College. To do so, I apply two critical lenses to archived issues of the Augustana Observer. The first lens involves Rubin's concept of the "sex hierarchy," a variety of categories by which we may judge sex as good or bad. The second lens is related to Berlant and Warner's "national heterosexuality," a concept that claims that sexual norms are intrinsically elastic but politically, culturally, and economically firm under capitalism. Making use of a localized "snapshot" approach, I use recent Augustana history …

The Morphology Of Sex: Tracking Change In The Sex Discourse At Augustana College, Robert E. Burke

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

Here, I track how the criteria for deeming sex as acceptable or unacceptable have changed over time at Augustana College. To do so, I apply two critical lenses to archived issues of the Augustana Observer. The first lens involves Rubin's concept of the "sex hierarchy," a variety of categories by which we may judge sex as good or bad. The second lens is related to Berlant and Warner's "national heterosexuality," a concept that claims that sexual norms are intrinsically elastic but politically, culturally, and economically firm under capitalism. Making use of a localized "snapshot" approach, I use recent Augustana history …

Sex Education Or Self Education? Lgbt+ Experiences With Exclusionary Curricula, Karli Reeves

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Though much research exists on LGBT+ exclusion from school-based sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education, the strategies used by LGBT+ individuals during their search for knowledge regarding the subject are not as widely documented. Using the ethnographic research method of semi-structured interviews, this research explores the experiences of young LGBT+ adults with formal sexual and reproductive health education and examines the self-education methods employed by this population in the context of exclusionary and cisheteronormative curricula. This project also functions to contribute to existing literature in the field of anthropology and other social sciences regarding the subject of SRH education, particularly …

Laverne Cox And The Fight For Lgbt+ Rights, Kelley Ambrose

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

This research paper highlights Laverne Cox and her life, accomplishments, and fight for equality among women, people of color, and the LGBT+ community. It speaks of different laws and regulations that hold or have held transgender people back and explains Cox’s relevance to the First Year Seminar course “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”. It also touches on discrimination and the problems faced by transgender people in America.

Incomplete Utopianism: Homosexuality In The Dispossessed, Beck O. Adelante

Access*: Interdisciplinary Journal of Student Research and Scholarship

This paper draws on research about queer theory and history to analyze, through a literary utopian lens, Ursula K. Le Guin’s treatment of homosexuality in her novel The Dispossessed. The novel itself is said to be “an ambiguous utopia,” a description that holds up in an analysis of the other various parts of the novel. When it comes to sexuality, however, Le Guin’s discussion and writing on the topic is notably lacking. It is paid lip service through a brief showing of neutral attitude on the “anarchist” planet in the novel, but never given further analysis or a more …

Queer Mysticism In The High Middle Ages: Pain, Love, Earth, And The Female Body In The Illustrations Of Hildegard Of Bingen’S Scivias, Becky Bushnell

Undergraduate Research Posters

Many view Hildegard of Bingen as one of the most important female theologians of the 12th century, and her writing and sphere of influence is remarkable considering her gender. Many scholars, like Barbara Newman, Caroline Walker Bynum, and Carolyn Worman Sur, agree that Hildegard’s portrayals of God in Scivias are distinctly feminine. Scholars like Karma Lochrie, Sheryl Chen, and Flora Lewis have written on Christ’s wound as a metaphor for the womb or vulva. Yet what scholars don’t seem to focus on, as Lochrie writes in “Mystical Acts, Queer Tendencies,” is the ways that the work of many female mystics …

Privilege And Marginalization In Drag Communities In The United States, Dustin Satterfield

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Within the gay and lesbian community, there is a smaller community of drag performers. These entertainers make a performance of gender stereotypes. Non-male performers have observed that male privilege is reproduced in this community despite a hyper awareness of oppressions and gender status. Using an online questionnaire I examined male privilege and non-male marginalization in United States drag communities. I asked drag performers about their perceptions of themselves and their perceptions of other performers within their local drag communities. I find that self-perceptions of privilege are highest for male performers and self-perceptions of marginalization are higher for non-male performers. I …

Interviews With Transgender Students: Academic And Environmental Factors, Thomas Stevenson

Honors College

Although research on gay and lesbian students has taken off in recent years, there is a serious lack of research devoted solely to the transgender population, and even less specifically focused on transgender students. The research that has been conducted on transgender individuals is often focused on discrimination that they experience, and the effects of that discrimination. College is a period of personal growth and discovery for all students, but perhaps especially for transgender students. This study, therefore, aims to better understand how being transgender affects the college experience.

This qualitative study interviewed self-identified transgender students within the University of …

Determining Multidimensional Gender: Development And Psychometrics Of A Measurement Instrument, Karyl Lounsbery

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gender identity is often thought of only as a binary construct, masculine and feminine, despite the fact that there are many people who do not see themselves as fitting this dichotomy (Rochman, 2006). Within the counseling field, it is likely that every counselor will eventually see someone who will be struggling with issues of gender identity (Ehrensaft, 2011). The introduction of the Arkansas Multidimensional Gender Scale (AMGS) will show there is a much broader scope of gender identity, more in line with the idea that all gender identities are normal and that there are as many gender identities as there …

Representation, Liberation, And The Queer Press, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

Lesbian and gay people lay special claim to the power of the printed word. It is through the printed word, consumed privately and anonymously, that we often first call ourselves queer. Coming out stories are thick with accounts of self-discovery through reading and exploration in libraries.