Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

[2026 Honorable Mention] Impact Of Chicana Rewritings Of La Virgen De Guadalupe And La Malinche, Destiny Villarreal Quintero

Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award

This piece elaborates on the cultural significance of La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Malinche in Mexican/ Chicanx communities and how they impact women's gender roles.

Tùn-Scene And A-Futurism: Biomythography, Opacity, And Posthuman Imagination, Minglu Du

Masters Theses

Grounded in the author’s position as a Chinese feminist, this thesis examines how East Asian women, as well as East Asian-coded femininity more broadly, are objectified and othered within futurist visual culture in the age of artificial intelligence. Through an engagement with ornamentalism, techno-Orientalism, and posthumanism1 , it argues that the persistent figure of the feminized humanoid cyborg continues to reproduce colonial and patriarchal structures of desire, rendering marginalized bodies as fetishized and violable surfaces. In response, the thesis develops Tùn-Scene, a biomythographic artistic framework and the first experiment in what the author provisionally names A-Futurism. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s …

The Image Falls Apart, Alexa N. Curran

Masters Theses

The Image Falls Apart is a phenomenological account of my collision with Rogier van der Weyden’s The Descent from the Cross (ca. 1435). In an ever-expanding landscape of visual stimuli, how do we make sense of images that are an encounter with the sacred? Of what use to a modern viewer is an altarpiece of the late medieval period that, in its miraculous rendering of each of its human figures, reflects the impending iconophobia of the Protestant Reformation? And what does falling have to do with it? With careful attention to the assembly of bodies in space, this multidisciplinary project, …

Thomas Mann’S Unbound Bodies: A Formal Analysis Of Disease In The Magic Mountain, Julia Shi

Student Theses and Dissertations

My senior thesis argues that disease is a formal element in Thomas Mann’s novel, The Magic Mountain, through the lens of a newly theorized genre: the “Bindungsroman” (“binding-novel”). The scholar Jonas Rosenbrück proposed the Bindungsroman as the successor genre to the Bildungsroman after the latter fell out of public favor after World War I.  Whereas the Bildungsroman narrates its hero’s maturation as a process of integration into society, the Bindungsroman’s hero is ontologically unstable and does not achieve normative resolution. This paper examines The Magic Mountain’s protagonist’s development as defined by the doubled play of binding and …

Menstrual Monster Or Criminal Lady?: Ella Castle, Biopower, And The Plight Of The Female Kleptomaniac In Late 19th Century America., Grace S. Teske

Madison Historical Review

On October 5, 1896, Ella Castle, a San Franciscan socialite, was arrested in London for shoplifting. In the proceeding months, Castle's trial became a transatlantic sensation, as her initial veneer as a respectable upper-class woman was replaced by the image of an ill and unstable woman suffering from kleptomania. The case of Ella Castle is representative of the larger social and economic processes that developed in the late 19th century that converged together in the diagnosis of kleptomania. One of the main transformations was the development of consumer capitalism which manifested into the new urban institution of the department store. …

Between Authenticity And Exploitation: Rethinking The Intended Audience Of Sean Baker's Tangerine, Ava Brandt

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Sean Baker's Tangerine (2015) has generated genuinely divided responses among trans critics, and for good reason. This paper takes that division seriously, using two reviews published on Autostraddle within six weeks of each other to frame a central question: who is Tangerine actually for? Existing scholarship on trans cinema has tended to evaluate films on a spectrum from exploitative to affirming, but this paper argues that framework is insufficient for a film like Tangerine, which operates as both simultaneously. Through close reading of the film alongside its production history, paratexts, and reception, and drawing on Paige Macintosh's scholarship on trans …

"Black History Is Black Horror": Hauntology And Cultural Trauma In 20th And 21st Century Black Women's Gothic Horror, Destini S. Beckwith

Theses

Octavia Butler’s Afrofuturistic, gothic horror, neo-slave narrative Kindred (1979) vividly illustrates the story of a woman, Dana, involuntarily time-traveling from her home in 1976 Los Angeles, California, to a plantation in 19th-century Maryland. The interactions that she has with her ancestors, such as Alice, a free Black woman, and Rufus, a white man who enslaves Alice, leave Dana mentally and physically scarred. The 20th-century novel is meant to graphically reflect on the horrors of enslavement and the mental and physical effects that Black people endured/still endure because of it (i.e., grief, racial violence, and post-traumatic stress disorder). Furthermore, the novel’s …

Queer Perspectives In African Politics And Socialisation, Samuel A. Nuamah

FIRE Fund Bibliographies

The research guide provides a spectrum of department relating to the debate of queer identities. The concept of queer identity has been considered as not of African indigene but a European import. The guide provides different authors and their argument of queer presence and marginalization.

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

From Fort To Prison: The Production Of Iloilo City, Ram Paulo A. Anayan

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

The foundation of colonial cities in the Philippines rests on violence. The Spanish policies of the reducción forced the natives to settle in pueblos where colonial power is ensured. The resistance of some natives brought about the divide between tagabayan (town dweller) and tagabundok (mountain dweller)—respective connotations of civilization and savagery (Lumbera and Lumbera, 36). This paper examines how this centripetal-centrifugal force of simultaneous identity-production and displacement is echoed in the metonymy of the fort on which the origins of Iloilo City stand. I navigate how this movement manifests in the consciousness of the city across historical periods represented by …

Re/Inventing Desire: Asexuality As A Tool For Utopian Intimacies, Amaranta Martinez Martinez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Asexuality became widely known in 2001 when David Jay, launched the Asexuality, Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), however, it’s been just throughout the last decade that it has gained popularity among LGBTQ studies. This thesis explores asexuality beyond its conventional framing as a sexual orientation, positioning it instead as a theoretical framework with the potential to challenge hegemonic understandings of sexuality. It does so by tracing the historical construction of sexual desire through the discipline of sexology, demonstrating how its discourses helped reinforce compulsory sexuality—the expectation that individuals must experience and act upon sexual desire (Emens 2014). Building upon this …

The Stream Of Life, Yitao Yuan

Masters Theses

The repetitive engagement with technological objects erases the depth of emotion by creating habits that bypass embodied and erotic pleasures and lead to a de-sexualized form of technology fetishism. The stimuli produced by machines that humans engage with are not able to convey the strength of intimacy between humans. Such virtual stimuli as the words and images produced and mediated through modern machines continuously shape conscious perception. This thesis book is split into two sections: a theoretical text and a series of images and explanations about my installation practice and process. They both seek to investigate the intersection of human …

The Rainbow War: Ballot Measure 9 And The Fight Over Gay Rights In Oregon, Patrick Douglas Lasalle

Dissertations and Theses

On November 3, 1992, Oregonians were asked to vote on Ballot Measure 9, an amendment to Oregon's constitution that would prohibit anti-discrimination protections for homosexuals, prohibit the use of public funds and facilities to "promote" homosexuality, and require schools to actively discourage homosexuality as "abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse." In this narrative history, I will explore Measure 9 and the ways in which it divided the state, beginning with its introduction in May 1991. I examine the history and reasoning of the Oregon Citizens Alliance, the Christian Right organization behind the measure, as well as the gay and lesbian community’s …

“Take This Job And Shove It”: How Black Women’S Fight For Economic Rights Informed Their Participation In The Broader Social Movements Of The Twentieth Century, Kyndle Diane Lee

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the vital role of Black women in the American labor movement during the twentieth century, emphasizing how their leadership and union participation were central to both labor organizing and the broader fight for human rights. Black women workers navigated and resisted the effects of racism, sexism, and class exploitation in a century marked by industrial expansion, economic upheaval, and major civil rights struggles. Far from passive participants, they emerged as key organizers, negotiators, and strategists in their communities, labor unions, and national movements. Additionally, their work extended beyond their demands for better wages and safer working conditions. …

Recollections Of A Tejana Life, Carolina Yáñez

Art Theses and Dissertations

This thesis encompasses the life of a young woman navigating life in Texas through various political and social barriers. My interdisciplinary practice analyzes the historical context of Mexicans in Texas from its Revolutionary period into current injustices. Through fiber, printmaking, and photography I create a visual diary to illustrate what the political has made personal. These works display the beauty of Tejano culture, but also the power struggles that threaten communities I care for, as well as my own existence that persists against far-right wing agendas.

Current politics and government leadership in Texas have inspired me to make artwork calling …

Influence Of Neo-Colonial Relationships On The Gender Norms Of The Pacific Islands, Katelynn N. Nicholas

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

The intersection between domestic violence and formerly colonized countries has long drawn the attention of scholars and researchers. Many of the Pacific Islands are known for their low Human Development Index scores. Because of their treatment of women, they also often have very low Gender Development Index scores. The understanding that there will be no receipts after the exchange of a human being, usually a child, has encouraged British men to seek out sex work in Thailand. Arguably domestic violence and colonization fully overlap in the sexual objectification of ethnic groups in Oceania and the woman there who fall into …

“Re-Storying” Anne Shirley And The Adhd Child: A Crip Genealogy Of Anne Of Green Gables, Darian Aleyna Wilson

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the contested nature of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), focusing on its cultural and historical constructions. While ADHD has been included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders since 1980, its legitimacy remains a subject of debate across medical, disability studies, and historical scholarship. Using Eli Clare’s critique of diagnosis as a tool rather than a fact, this project examines how ADHD is both pathologized and re-storied within societal and medical discourses. It highlights the tension between medical classifications and lived experiences of those diagnosed with ADHD, particularly in the context of girlhood.

The central …

Pedro Aceves Mfa Thesis, Pedro M. Aceves

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

My Work is about looking at Cruising through a queer decolonial lens. Using multiple mediums such as photo, glass, Augmented reality, and film, I explore these queer histories and aesthetics through not just an anthropological approach but also an artistic epistemological approach weaving together narratives of prehispanic and modern queer Latinidad.

Race, Sex Work, And Spatial Segregation In Storyville, New Orleans, Paige M. Magoto

All Theses

Storyville, New Orleans, operated as a legalized vice district from 1897 to 1917. This 38-block area facilitated sex work and prostitution “across the color line,” perpetuating and encouraging the practice of white men seeking sexual acts from Black women and women of mixed-race descent. I engage with multiple interacting subsections of historiography within this thesis project. The historiography spans Southern history from the early nineteenth century in the Old Antebellum South until the early twentieth century in the Progressive Era. The broader historiographic dimensions of labor and sexuality were also influential in curating this research project, engaging with the evolving …

Internalisasi Misogini: Kekerasan Seksual Sebagai Senjata Perang, Umanitya Fitri Hanryana, Lg. Saraswati Putri

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This study examines the role of internalized misogyny in sexual violence used as a weapon of war. Misogyny in patriarchal cultures fosters hatred towards women, facilitating sexual violence in armed conflicts. Cases in the Congo, Rwanda, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia demonstrate how sexual violence is systematically employed to demean and destroy women. Through a feminist critical approach and qualitative analysis, this research reveals that sexual violence in war is often not recognized as a weapon of war due to the inferior position of women in patriarchal societies, being merely seen as ordinary crimes despite being systematic and structured human rights violations. …

Uncovering Artemisia: Turning Rage Into Fame, Sophie Longo

Undergraduate Theses in Art History

During the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries in Italy - more commonly known as the Italian Renaissance and early Baroque periods - masters like Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio made a name for themselves and secured legacies through the widespread popularity and study of their masterpieces. As time progressed, however, more artworks have been found, and more histories, especially by women Baroque artists, have been explored. With the rise of women’s rights movements and social justice campaigns from the mid-20th century on, stories of female artists and figures have further emerged from the woodwork and hold greater precedence in …

Death Becomes Us: The Consumptive Body In Nineteenth-Century Gothic Literature, Jennifer Marie Mcmahon

All NMU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the impacts of nineteenth-century tuberculosis epidemics on gothic literature published between 1842 and 1872. In this period of time, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the United States and in Europe, killing an estimated one in seven people. Using theoretical lenses of psychoanalysis and material ecocriticism, this project considers borders between material bodies—specifically those between bacterial agents and humans—to be illusory and socially constructed. The first chapter focuses on the ways in which representations of tuberculosis, and its associated entanglement with the environment, appear in the work of two authors from the United States: Edgar …

For The Birds, Charlotte L. Middleton

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

For the Birds is a homogenous material exhibition of porcelain pottery that explores the relationships between, expectations of, and roles placed upon women and pottery. Using traditional craft processes, still life imagery, and the language and limits of porcelain, I create arrangements that expose the viewers assumptions of both subjects. Pottery- pitchers, cups, and vases—is a product of anthropocentrism and anthropomorphism and can be entirely taken for granted- their role is assumed and unquestionable—to serve. The language and expectations of these objects are the medium I build with.

The title of the show, For the Birds, is both a …

When Dystopia Becomes Political Criticism: Why Margaret Atwood Wrote The Handmaid's Tale, Celeste Deale

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

When Margaret Atwood published The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985, she didn’t think it’d still be relevant nearly forty years later. Yet, her use of historical imagination helped her create a novel that permeates time and space. This essay explores the production and reception of The Handmaid’s Tale, asking how the novel was both a product of the political and cultural context of its production in the 1980s and a critique of Atwood’s own contemporary moment. Atwood drew on biblical themes, Puritan history, and the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu to construct Gilead's social and political order and comment on American …

Feeling Foreign / Foreign Feeling: Affect In Southeast Asian Diasporic Short Story Collections, Francys Aerin Fortes

Theses and Dissertations

Affect studies have long been saturated with scholarship investigating the fluidity of emotions, though a larger turn in the field now prioritizes the felt experiences of marginalized peoples. Sianne Ngai’s work is one part of this turn that seeks to unpack the effects of oppressive systemic forces on Black, Brown, and queer bodies. Sianne Ngai reexamined the nature of emotions in her seminal text Ugly Feelings (2005), particularly concerned with how negative feelings are disproportionately felt by marginalized bodies as a result of conditions of obstructed agency, systems of power, and wage labor capitalism. Drawing from Ngai’s writing, this thesis …

"A Changed Understanding Of Our Present": Moby-Dick As Prophetic Ecological Activism, Katie Ann Schini

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale is a classic of American literature, spanning multiple genres and remaining culturally relevant nearly 175 years after its original publication. Though on the surface Moby-Dick reads as an adventure story of a man who experiences the whaling industry firsthand, Herman Melville’s text continues to invite new generations of readership through the framework of the twenty-first century climate crisis.

In this thesis, I position Moby-Dick as a text that can be used to understand our modern society’s current dispositions of ecological grief. My thesis operates at the intersection of three main literary critical theories: ecocriticism, affect, and …

Performing Masculinities: The Assumption Of Men’S Roles By Women Left Behind By Male Migrant Labourers In Southern Tanzania, Nives Kinunda, Angelus Mnenuka, Samwel Mhajida

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This article examines the empowerment of female farmers in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania due to male labour migration during the British colonial rule. The study sought to highlight the history of gender-based division of labour, the dynamics of labour division during the colonial period, the trend of females’ adoption of males’ activities, and women’s empowerment resulting from their assumption of males’ responsibilities. Data were collected through oral interviews, documentary reviews, group-focused discussions, and archival sources. The data were analysed and interpreted using a gender framework theory, which includes, among other things, gender roles and gender relations. Findings show that …

Kamala Harris As Durga: United States Presidential Elections And The Goddess In The Imagination Of Hindu Diaspora, Anisha Saxena

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

The Hindu diaspora in the United States has been one of the most educated and highest earning immigrant groups. They exert considerable influence in the arenas of culture, economy and recently politics. They are attempting to institutionalize Hinduism and “educate” Americans about the religion through creation of lobby groups and the use of social media. Motivated by these recent developments, the article examines the processes of creation, reimagination, and consumption of images of the South Asian goddess in the public sphere, and how these images are perceived by the Hindu diaspora.

Señoritas On And Off The Silver Screen: How Chicana Women Organized For Equality And Challenged The Cultural Prison Of Sexualized Media Representations In The First Half Of The Twentieth-Century, Rossandra Paloma Martinez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research is personal for me due to lived experience and day-to-day situations where I have felt the pressures of unattainable beauty standards and society’s fluid definition of beauty and femininity surrounding Chicana, Latinas, Mexican, and Mexican-American women. What inspired me to pursue these issues and topics was the work of Dr. Vicki Lynn Ruiz in her book From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. This research focuses on rival and contested images of Chicana, Mexican, Mexican-American and Latina labor advocates and activists from the early twentieth as opposed to sexualized and eroticized packaged caricatures that Hollywood …

Good Grief!: The Challenging Of Middle-Class Life By Youth Culture In Mafalda And Peanuts, Eden E. Baize

The Cardinal Edge

The politically and socially tumultuous world of the mid-20th century in both Argentina and the United States inspired the creation of two incredibly influential comic strips: Joaquín Salvador Lavado’s, also known as Quino’s, Mafalda in Argentina, and Charles Schultz’s Peanuts in the United States. These comics changed the popular conception of childhood in their respective countries by reflecting the cultural shifts which challenged existing social conventions like family organization. Primarily, however, the central theme of these works rested in the commentary on the growing middle-class and the role of younger generations in championing countercultural and antiestablishment movements against this expansion. …