Women's Studies Commons^™

Cosmetic Nationalism: Fashion And Feminine Performance In Trump-Aligned America, Nicola Rountree-Williams

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This paper examines how fashion, beauty, and feminine presentation operate as political tools within Trump-aligned American culture. Drawing on historical examples from fascist Italy, Francoist Spain, and European aristocratic fashion, it argues that aesthetics have long been used to reinforce nationalism, gender hierarchy, and political authority. The paper analyzes contemporary trends such as “Republican makeup” and “Mar-a-Lago face,” arguing that these hyper-feminine and highly racialized beauty standards function as performances of loyalty, wealth, and traditional femininity within Trump-aligned politics. Through figures such as Kristi Noem, the paper demonstrates how women’s appearances can visually legitimize masculine authority while limiting women’s autonomy …

A Catalyst For Change: The Extraordinary Anaka Women’S Collective During The June 2026 Belfast Pogrom, Dianne Kirby

The Journal of Social Encounters

Prompted by the pogrom that erupted in Belfast in June this year, this article explores how a women’s collective, Anaka, established by female asylum seekers, refugees and migrants (ASRMs) less than a decade previously, took the lead in ensuring the safety and welfare of the city’s migrant communities in a context where they were horrifically failed by police and politicians, by the state and the institutions meant to protect them. Anaka began as a small-scale endeavour to mitigate the difficulties confronting women struggling to navigate a harsh asylum system. It became a widely respected advocacy and campaigning group for ASRMs. …

Women And Wars: Understanding Women’S Political Empowerment Post- Conflict In France, Lebanon, And Sierra Leone, Alaa S. Sayed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis attempts to discusses how conflict can be a time of change for women and how conflict can be a crucial aspect for change and improvement. Conflict provides a chance for the women to witness and experience the disruption of gender roles, which was a common practice during wartime, as women were placed in roles that were not officially theirs, according to what society adheres to or ascribes as acceptable roles for women. The conflict is presented as a “window” of opportunity. However, the reality of the situation of this “window” is not uniform across all post-conflict societies; the …

Mothers On The Ballot: Gender And Partisan Dynamics In The Evaluation Of Maternal Political Candidates, Jimena Sanchez

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

While scholarly research on the interaction between gender and political candidacy has grown, there is limited research on the way mothers are perceived in politics when they choose to run for office. The goal of the paper is to answer the following research question: how do partisanship and gender influences public perceptions of mothers running for political office, and to what extent does social desirability shape these attitudes? Through a list experiment, I surveyed individuals in the United States to capture the beliefs of the public toward mothers running for political office. Specifically, I analyze the opinions of survey participants …

Du Undergraduate Showcase Abstracts: Research, Scholarship, And Creative Works, Sophia Wismar, Henry Staats, Allison Metzler, Chloe Puckett, Rachel Levine, Christa Kilpatrick, Scott Wolf, Joe Walsh, Grace Doolittle, John Engebreston, Zoe Lopez, Christopher Aaby, Audrey Duff, Timothy Sisk, Katelyn Lamberton, Angela Narayan, Gilkah Argueta, Habiba Samir, Girena Tesfazghi, Genet Kenore, Sinit Tesfamariam, Effley Brooks, Abi Newell, Megan Doherty, Natalie Baer, Lexi Blood, Talya Riciputi, Jessica Jimenez, Devin Hernandez, Lynn Clark, Taj Kumar, Sunil Kumar, Allen Rutman, Mira Pronobis, Tess Carson, Anna Sher, Frankie Stroud, Tamra Pearson D'Estree, Alyssa Wilson, Emily Melnick, Jenalee Doom, Yihang Gao, Gwendolyn Geiger, Noah Gettle, Scott Nichols, Clare Ayoub, Cara Dienno, Sunny Walker, Zoe Hansen, Maya Wheeler, Addison Rice, Patrick Martin, Sanjana Acharya, Daniel Mcintosh, Amanda Mckellips, Calli Cain, Justin Blake, Peter Sokol-Hessner, Natalie Miller, Max Weisbuch, Sophia Dellota, John Macikas, Charlotte Snow, Mark Siemens, Zoe Lynch, Alex Huffman, Prachi Shah, Jason Roney, Halcyon Levi, Nicole Herzog, Andrea Koly, Daniel Linseman, Annie London, Xi Yang, Avery Zwisler, Jane Smith, Chaz Contag, Michael Kerwin, Lucy Rand, Grace Schroeder, Michelle Rozenman, Nissa Tapper, Guiming Zhang, Mateo Mazariego-Halpern, Keith Meyer, Julie Do, Dakota Park-Ozee, Travis Herink, Kara Neu, Jonathan Plomin, Eve-Odine Duchaufour, Debbie Gale Mitchell, Tennyson Anderson-Stricklin, Lily Treitz, Samantha Rosenberger, Sierra Griffith, Finley Joseph, Daniel Sampson, Emmy Davis, Skyler Kasnoff, Evon Lopez, Vivian Nguyen, Cassy Young, Franklin Sellner, Martin Tobon, Ila Graham, Zach Billings, Holden Hedit, Decatur Boland, Paul Kosempel, Cory Chandler, Jay Mahoney, Sam Dragan, Susan Dagget, Yarrow Ator, Heidi Vuletich, Owen Weber, Andrew Kloeppel, Petersen Gray, Mandi Schaeffer-Fry, Razleen Bassra, Bryanna Rodriguez, Christina Blue, Taubie Sanders, Rachel Epstein, Luke Milburn, Camryn Evans, Ezra Martinez, Mary Westwood, Gabri Notov, Robin Tinghitella, Lilou Cabrol, Eli Barbour, Juliet Mendik, Selma Myers, Zac Wise, Noah Fahlin, Michelle Knowles, Abigail Hopper, Michael Greenberger, Romi Laclair, Sarah Watamura, Sabrina Efroymson, Casey Barker, Sydney Seltzer, Bryn Yehle, Jennifer Hoffman, Sara Garcia, Ryuka Nagamine, Trevor Briggs, Remy Le Boeuf, Elena Krone, Eileen Farrell, Regan O'Rourke, Elena Roel, Greg Mortimer, Ali Ayoub, Stefani Langehennig, Caitlin Turk, Logan Scmid, Stefan Chavez-Norgaard, Karen Kim, Tatiana Peccedi, Courtney Cassidy, John Sebesta, Rhianna Lewis, Janice Bening-Lacek, Vivian Lawless, Mckenna Hanson, Jeffrey Amidon, Riya Joshi, Ram Ambre, Brady Worrell, Perrin Schneider, Ali Azadani, Brooke Agulnek, Lyndsie Salvagio, Elise Siemanowki, Yan Qin, Andre Allen, Melodie Nguyen, Megan Livengood, Abby Reams, Saffron Hartreeve, Bri Wylie, Sarah Brookman, Mariah Loiacono, Green Russo, Abhia Lodhi, Gabrielle Welsh, Nika Spehar, Shahked Levin, Evrim Baykal, Kimberly Chiew, Jocelyn Torres, Kailey Hicks, Mykaela Tanino-Springsteen, Audrey Bellows, Akam Chahal, Madeline Tepper, Shannon Murphy, Alexa Fonseca, Deborah Han, Cassandra Perez, Oluwatoyin Alaba, Julia Roncoroni, Vy Nguyen, Nana Burn, Sarah Sasse, Rubin Tuder, Anthony Gerber, Nancy Lorenzon, Christine Vohwinkel, Camryn Gunter, Tristan Weber, Sam Rommel, Brian Michel, Muskan Fatima, Alannah Oleson, Kira Frey, Edward Garrido, Beckett Morris, Kerstin Haring, Drew Middleton, Abigail Walpert, Liam Dee, Gabby Ishaw, Cole Carnes, Maddie Weiser, Claire Fox, Valeriia Vlasenko, Kateri Mcrae, Riley Smith, Abigail Templin, Kushani Rajapaksha

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

Abstracts from the DU Undergraduate Research Showcase.

All But The Death Penalty: Incomplete Protection For Civilian Internee Mothers, Minju Kwon

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How did unrecognised gender biases impact the codification of international humanitarian law (IHL)? While recent studies on IHL have highlighted historical lawmaking processes, little research has examined gender biases behind the codification of the “Protection of Women” in the Geneva Conventions and additional protocols. This study examines gender biases and state interests reflected in the codification process by focusing on Article 76§3 of the 1977 Protocol Additional I, which incompletely protects civilian women internees who are pregnant or have dependent children by prohibiting execution but leaving room for pronouncement of the death penalty. Referring to the theory of benevolent sexism, …

Diasporic Belonging Of Palestinian American Women In New England, Elizabeth Muller

Political Science Undergraduate Theses

No abstract provided.

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Women And Right-Wing Movements: Why Women Join, Ryland L. Adzich

The Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Where Are The Women Memorialized? Commemoration Of Women In The U.S. Congress, Deborah Saki, Alexander Leasure

The Journal of Social Encounters

In the United States, a study of the memorialization of political actors through monuments reveals the disgracefully small number of women memorialized. We find little effort to preserve the memory of trailblazing women in the U.S. Congress. By 2021, as the National Monument Audit indicates, only two congresswomen were memorialized in public spaces across the country: Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-T.X.) and Rep. Millicent Fenwick (R-N.J.). Drawing on frameworks of historical memory and theories of reputational politics, we examine the public conversations that led to the memorialization of these women. We find motive, institutional power, and clarity of narrative in …

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, …

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.

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.

From Compliance To Care: Reconstructing Feminist Accountability In Global Aid Governance, Andi Pangeran, Ani Widyani Soetjipto, Shelly Adelina

Global: Jurnal Politik Internasional

This article critically examines the literature on global aid governance through a feminist lens, focusing on three key areas: epistemic power, organisational depoliticisation, and the ethics of accountability. The review reveals that the coloniality of knowledge in global aid governance creates epistemic hierarchies grounded in claims of objectivity and efficiency, thereby marginalising local voices. Meanwhile, processes such as NGO-isation and professionalisation have transformed activism into administrative compliance. However, within these structures, reflective agency can still emerge through negotiated autonomy and the politics of translation, allowing feminist organisations to maintain their political significance. Regarding ethics, feminist accountability is redefined as a …

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 …

Review Of: Feminist Conversations On Peace, Matilda Maseno

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Japan And Its Hesitation In Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage, Morgan R. Lewellen

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Japan is the only state in the G7 that has not legalized same-sex marriages despite increasing support of LGBTQ+ rights and norms for respecting human rights. While some local governments and constitutional courts have made progress with recognizing same-sex partnerships and deeming the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the Japanese national government has not enacted comprehensive pro-LGBTQ+ policy. Instead, the Diet (Japan’s legislative body) passed the “LGBT Understanding and Enhancement Bill” in 2023, which is a law that fails to legally recognize same-sex marriage or provide protections. This project aims to explore Japan’s hesitancy by examining politics, culture, history, and …

The Politics Of The Black Womb: How Education And Power Reinforce The U.S. Black Maternal Health Crisis, Foluke Akinkunmi

Honors Scholar Theses

This study investigates the alarming maternal mortality rates among Black women in the U.S. today first by exploring the historical exploitation of Black maternal bodies during enslavement and with the rise of professionalized gynecology. It challenges the narrative that attributes these outcomes to individual choices or supposedly inherent biological factors, arguing instead that the devaluing of Black women’s well-being and authoritative knowledge have been constructed along with the United States itself. To advance a constructive response, the paper analyzes curriculum competencies for obstetric and midwifery healthcare providers, surveys of Black women's birthing experiences in the previous 20 years, and interviews …

Compulsory Sterilisation And Reproductive Injustice In India: The Global Impact Of The American Eugenics Movement, Marina Cortez

Institute for the Humanities Theses

On 8 November 2014, Dr RK Gupta performed eighty-three tubal ligations at a makeshift clinic in Bilaspur, India — thirteen of which resulted in death. The women, most of whom belonged to the Dalit or “untouchable” caste, were recruited by family planning agencies, lured in by cash incentives or other gifts in exchange for sterilisation. Sadly, however, the Bilaspur tragedy does not exist in isolation — but rather belongs to an extensive history of government-sponsored abuse, the majority of which has been directly led by white, Western powers. Funded by the New York-based Population Council, India was one of the …

Personal Perspectives Of Political Action: A Case Study Of How Women Discuss The Black Panther Party’S Free Breakfast For Schoolchildren Program, Megs Peterson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to investigate the impact ideology has on social movement actors. I do this by conducting a case study on the influence of Marxist feminist ideologies on the Black Panther Party’s (BPP) Free Breakfast for Schoolchildren Program (FBP). Within this case study, I narrow my focus to Marxist feminism, rather than Marxism more broadly, to choose a theoretical framework that aligns with my subject while ensuring gender is considered as a critical axis for examination. This research is situated at the intersection of feminisms and social movements, drawing from both social movement scholarship and Women’s, …

Struggles Around Transgenderism In Hungarian Feminism: An Autoethnographic Account, Dalma Feró

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this autoethnography, I am using my personal experiences as data to examine the inextricable personal, political, social, and cultural aspects of one of the most decisive ruptures in Hungarian “progressive” activism of the second half of the 2010s. In the mid-2010s, I was part of an informal collective of women that started to outline a feminist approach critical of mainstream individualistic renditions of women’s rights as social progress, thereby diverging fundamentally from the country’s institutionalised feminism. As I and the circle of women I worked with focused on women’s reproductive autonomy, we encountered central feminist questions about sex and …

The Paradox Of Survival: Gendered Food Insecurity, Labor Inequalities, And Coping Strategies During The 2023/4 Drought In Eastern Ethiopia, Meron E. Lemma

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In drought-prone regions of Eastern Ethiopia, recurring droughts profoundly reshape everyday life in ways that deepen existing gendered inequalities. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Fedis district, including semi-structured interviews with women, project implementers, and government officials, as well as group discussions with community members, this study explores how women experience, navigate, and resist the gendered impacts of drought. By attending to the sociopolitical dynamics of drought and the development interventions that accompany it, I analyze how these forces restructure labor, land, food systems, and authority in ways that reproduce and exacerbate existing inequalities. Women’s coping strategies, ranging from begging and …

Invisible No More: Looking And Listening Locally To Build Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Resilience, Anjali Thakore

CMC Senior Theses

The ubiquity of sexual violence, with its devastating physical and psychological consequences, has rendered conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) one of the most effective and enduring “invisible crimes” of war. Despite receiving growing attention across academic, political, and activist circles, wartime sexual violence remains pervasive in contemporary conflict zones. Against the backdrop of these frequent and recurring violations, this thesis explores the dissonance between high-level rhetorical commitments to preventing and punishing CRSV and on-the-ground realities. What soon emerges is a troubling pattern in which gendered violence—and women’s lived experiences more generally—while increasingly visible in theory, remains marginalised in practice. By investigating …

Let's Talk About Sex: Investigating Radical Feminist Theories On Prostitution In The United States, Anna E. Peterson

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores the feminist debates surrounding prostitution through an analysis of Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin’s abolitionist theories, juxtaposed with critiques from Wendy Brown, Janet Halley, Susie Bright, and Marxist feminist abolitionist Esperanza Fonseca. The text examines the systemic forces of patriarchy and capitalism that commodify women’s bodies and the challenges of legislative approaches to the sex trade. While MacKinnon and Dworkin identify the structural inequalities underpinning prostitution, their legislative proposals often fail to address the stigma and systemic conditions that perpetuate the marginalization of prostituted people. Critics like Brown and Halley highlight the limitations of punitive measures, calling …

Right-Wing Populist Mobilizations And Gender: France's Rassemblement National And Italy's Fratelli D'Italia, Meredith Mckinley

Scripps Senior Theses

European right-wing populist (RWP) parties are increasingly touting their attention to women’s issues and representation, and this has coincided with stronger electoral performances. Thus, the following puzzles emerge: how have RWP parties harnessed gender frames, issue salience, and women’s representation as part of a mainstreaming process, and through what mechanisms are these strategies resonating with voters? I address these questions by comparing France’s Rassemblement National (RN) and Italy’s Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), tracing their developments from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. I find that immigrants’ perceived relationship with the welfare state, feelings of insecurity due to terrorism, and RWP …

Women’S Fear Of Violent Crime: Examining Media Consumption And Misconceptions Of Violent Crime, Kate Lindfors

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Within the United States, women are disproportionately victimized by crimes of domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV). However, media narratives do not accurately represent the threats that women face within society, and women are often unaware of and lack protection from the forms of violence that they are most commonly subjected to. Therefore, this paper examines how the media frames violent crime and the victimization of women, as well as how underrepresentation and misconceptions contribute to the levels of fear that women feel toward violent crime. Through using data from the Chapman University Survey on American Fears from …

Casar Student Debate Series #5 : 'The 2024 Us Elections On Gender & Reproductive Rights', The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

Every semester, CASAR AUC holds miscellaneous student debates discussing the hot controversial topics in the US, Egypt and from around the world in hopes of raising awareness about these topics & broadening the perspectives of our students as they learn to engage in fruitful discussions as they share different opinion on the topic being deliberated. At this CASAR Student Discussion event #5 in light of the current 2024 US Elections, we debated about who should win strictly from a gendered lens. A brief into was given by event moderator CASAR Assistant to Director and Adjunct Faculty Yasmeen El-Ghazaly, followed by …

Ua12/2/2 Talisman: Legacy, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Fall 2024 Talisman:

• Our Mission
• Harrington, Ragan & Cecilia Alali. Legacy
• Muscutt, Carson. The Spirit of Western – Big Red
• Hardesty, Emma. Beyond the Letters – Fraternities & Sororities
• Lein, Samantha. The Iceberg Beneath You – Poem
• Pollard, Evynn. Echoes of the Past – Jonesville
• Sutton, Avery. Tasting Tradition – Recipes
• Phelps, Brett. The Hill
• Colovos, Christina. Pale Blue Dot – Poem
• Rainwater, Riley & Carson Muscutt. Marking Time – Marching Band
• Vickers, Abigail. Grassroots – Political Campaigns
• Muscutt, Carson. Horoscopes
• Legacy Issue 17 Playlist
• Lasting Impact

Effects Of Climate Change On Women’S Security Dynamics In Baragoi, Samburu County, Kenya, Rehema Zaid Obuyi

The Journal of Social Encounters

The paper unearths how climate change influences women’s security dynamics in fragile and conflict-affected contexts in Baragoi Samburu County Kenya. It provides an opportunity to rethink security. Security responses must be at par with evolving security underlying forces. One of the precursors is that individuals and groups that were traditionally excluded from combat both as participants and targets such as women and children have now become prime targets. This demands a shift in strategy by not only focusing on traditional threats but also getting more specific linking our approaches to gendered non-traditional security threats. Alternative soft power approaches to addressing …

The Social Contract And Feminism, Grace A. Albertson

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

This paper seeks to prove the value placed on women in society, and disprove the claim that the social contract is inherently patriarchal. Radical feminists claim that society as a whole is irreparably flawed and operates patriarchally. Therefore, they call for a systematic shift and condemn the current fabric of our society and nation. The social contract, an idea centered around the philosophical works of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes served as the primary way that the founders of the United States justified the formation of American democracy and had immense influence on American political thought. However, feminists seek to …