Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Cineture: Shared Narratives And Cultural Exchanges Between Iran And The Us (Introduction), Naghmeh Esmaeilpour

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire: Female Directors Subverting The Male Gaze, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

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.

Gendered Discourses And Classed Access Routes For Feminist Djs In Irish Subcultural Scenes, Andrea Cleary

Irish Communication Review

This article examines feminist collectives in Ireland’s electronic/dance music (E/DM) and music technology (MT) scenes, focusing on how gender and class intersect to shape access and participation. Drawing on thematic analysis of interviews with five collective members active between 2016 and 2025, it traces paths to participation from "musical homes" to instrument education to university DJ societies. To do this, it examines the overlapping family, cultural and subcultural capitals which shaped their journeys. Finally, this article considers the role of feminist collectives in creating alternative educational spaces and networks for women and gender minority participation in E/DM cultures.

Embodied Horror: Women And Medical Authority In Video Games, Jocilynn Denise Colombo

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

Through a critical analysis of interactive horror, this paper argues that video games can function as ethical diagnostic narratives that uniquely expose systemic failures surrounding women’s bodies and medical authority. Focusing on Silent Hill 3 (2003) and Alice: Madness Returns (2011), I examine how these games render harm legible through player participation. By requiring players to move characters through hostile environments and make decisions within systems that simultaneously grant and restrict control, these games foster identification and complicity by positioning players directly within the structures they critique.

While feminist horror scholarship—notably from Julia Kristeva and Barbara Creed—has explored societal anxieties …

Dark Wave - Comics And Transgender Studies In Practice, Mieke Vanderveen

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This is a thesis in two parts. Its goal is to provoke the intersection of superhero comics and transgender studies in order to interrogate the parallels between those two identities and explore ways in which pairing them together can strengthen each other narratively and academically. Rather than seeking an answer to a question, the project as a whole serves as a way of communicating trans internalities from a transfeminine perspective in a format that brings the issues to the forefront of the narrative in an in-depth and entertaining way. The result is hopefully a coherent artistic work that achieves those …

The Ghosts Of Times Square: A Zine Exploring Representations Of Times Square Through Film, Kel R. Karpinski

Publications and Research

My zines are often an extension of my research—either a jumping off point or a way to create a more visual project (or both). They are in their own way a form of excess - they are often too scandalous, too smutty, too much — everything that is spilling out of the margins.

My zines and research focus on lesser known queer histories, trying to highlight them and bring them to a new audience and new generations.

Using zines as a creative form of research, I am able to reach a broader audience both inside and outside of academia. I …

Adapting Identities: Multimodal Expressions Of African Women’S Agency In Francophone Film​, Alicia M. Hilaire

Department of French Studies Graduate Student Association Conference

No abstract provided.

Women’S Agency And Pleasure (Wap): Toward A Black Feminist Theory Of Sexuality, Jelisa S. Clark, Erica Campbell

Journal of Research Initiatives

Black feminist theory has identified sexuality as a site of oppression for Black women, however, there has been limited attention to Black women’s pleasure. We suggest that WAP by Cardi B and Meg the Stallion provides a conceptual lens through which Black women's sexuality can be more humanely envisioned. WAP, in the tradition established by Black women in the blues, represents Black feminist theorizing about sexuality. Themes of Cultivating Community and Developing Voice through Self-Definition are central to discussions of Black women's pleasure. In this work, we bridge academic theorizing and Black women's cultural productions to reinvigorate Black feminist theorizing …

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 …

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.

Silenced, Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Silenced (2025), directed by Selina Miles.

Humanity Is Evolving Its Consciousness: The Role Of Archetypal Energies As Guides During An Unfolding Weeding Out And Alignment Process, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Humanity is evolving its consciousness at individual and collective levels.  Given these seemingly tumultuous times, as of this writing (January 2026), to make such a statement may sound like a strange thing to say.  However, I suggest that if you are alive today and if you are reading these words, these are the very times for which you were born—to assist Humanity as it evolves its consciousness with your unique gifts, whatever they may be.  That is, this period of our individual and collective human being-ness may be characterized as an unfolding period of weeding out and alignment with the …

Framing Affect: Close Up To Feeling With Women At The Eighteenth-Century Theatre On The Twenty-First Century Screen, Ros M. Ballaster Professor

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Period films and television dramas of the twenty-first century use scenes of attendance at the theatre by women in the (long) eighteenth century as a test of their capacity to feel. Such scenes provide an opportunity to measure the competing affordances of screen and stage regarding affect in the eighteenth century and our present moment. Explored are scenes of theatrical affect from Dangerous Liaisons (1998) to The Duchess (2008), Harlots (2017), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), Bridgerton (2020). The figure of the liberated, educated, and aesthetically sensitive woman serves in period fiction on stage, screen and page more …

Wicker, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Wicker (2026), directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson.

Leviticus, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Leviticus (2026), directed by Adrian Chiarella.

A Review Of Alberto Toscano’S Late Fascism, Clint Burnham

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

A Review Of Zahi Zalloua's The Politics Of The Wretched: Race, Reason, And Ressentiment, Benjamin Davis

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Exploring Chinese Elements In J.D. Salinger’S Works: A Response To Mccarthyism In The Early Cold War Era, Yixin Lu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Since the publication of “The Laughing Man” in 1949, various ideas about “China” have emerged in J. D. Salinger’s famously obscure works. This article aims to argue that Salinger’s incorporation of elements related to China and ancient Chinese philosophy in his works illustrates an artistic response to American anxieties during the McCarthy Era. The article uses “The Laughing Man” and “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period” as case studies to demonstrate how Salinger’s engagement with “China,” including the concept of indiscrimination from Zen Buddhist ideas, as well as notions of naturalness and non-action from Taoist ideas, develops not only a mystical writing …

Ginsberg’S China Experience And Its Influence On His Series Of Poems On China, Xiankai Ren

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

As a renowned poet and representative of the Beat Generation, Allen Ginsberg was invited to be a member of the US Writers’ Delegation to visit China in 1984. His China trip as well as his reading of traditional Chinese literature constitute his China experience, which is represented in Ginsberg’s poetry. This essay examines Ginsberg’s series of poems on China. It first shows that Ginsberg’s introduction to the Beat Generation poets and their poetics provided the inspiration for his poetry writing. Then it discusses Ginsberg’s observation of Chinese society during his visit and his reading of the Chinese poet Bai Juyi. …

“No Ifs, Ands, Or Butts”: Analyzing Race And Gender In Sex And The City Through Black Feminist Theory, Daniella Orias

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This article analyzes Season 3, Episode 5 of Sex and the City, “No Ifs, Ands, or Butts,” through the lens of Black feminist theory. It investigates how race and gender are constructed, stereotyped, and selectively represented within the episode’s narrative. The analysis focuses on two Black characters who were featured only in one episode of the series, Adeena and Chivon, and examines how the show portrays harmful stereotypes such as the angry Black woman (Adeena) and sexualized Black male (Chivon) in the episode. These limited and harmful representations are further scrutinized by the fact that the show is often …

Enjoying The Golden Screen Of Asian American Representation In A Colorblind Era: Neoliberalism, Narrative, And Negotiation, Jered Mabaquiao

English Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation contributes to Asian American studies, Cinema and Media Studies, and Critical Theory by interrogating how contemporary Asian American representation is shaped by the intertwined pressures of racial politics, neoliberal market demands, and psychic life. Working across race studies, media studies, psychoanalysis, and phenomenological questions of ontology and being, the project argues that Asian American film and television cannot only be understood  through the language of popular culture representation, narrative progress, media visibility, or political inclusion. Instead, I combine such angles to examine how popular culture media participates in the contradictory production of Asian American subjectivity as culturally present …

From Voice To Noise: Accented Speech, Constructed Languages, And Subtitling Practices As Markers Of Difference, Alice Alonso Limongi

Course Work

This monograph explores three main strategies of vocal exotification in Anglophone film: representations of accented speech, inclusion of constructed languages, and non-subtitling of snippets of other languages. Using Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding framework, I approach these practices as rhetorical devices that both construct and are constructed by the complexity of our social landscapes. Portrayals of accented speech, constructed languages, and subtitling practices form a gradient of abstraction, where the denotative meaning of words gradually loses importance to the sonic characteristics of the voice. Combining broader cultural scholarship from Edward Said, sound studies writings on power and language from Nina Sun Eidsheim …

Selling Ideals: Sexualization In Teen Girl Magazines, 2007-2017, Megan Coogan

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

Magazines are made to sell more than just a product; they sell lifestyles and ideals. Teen girl magazines target adolescents starting as young as twelve years old, but is the content in its pages appropriate and identifiable for that demographic? This study investigated how levels of perceived sexualization changed between 2007, 2012, and 2017, in Seventeen and Teen Vogue magazines. A decrease in perceived sexualization was expected across the ten-year period of time. This window of time reflects the last ten years of publication for both magazines. Research was conducted by creating and utilizing a grading system for non-explicit sexualized …

America’S Spectacle: The Business Of Female Beauty In Professional Cheerleading, Marlene Adelman

Capstone Showcase

The National Football League (NFL) is built on values that also represent the deep rooted patriarchal structures within the country it exists in. The NFL is more than a game; it’s a mirror of America’s powerful subjugation of its women. Using one of the most recognizable cheerleading teams, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, this thesis aims to illustrate how gender is constructed and commodified in professional sports media, which reinforces the male gaze, furthers racial and gender inequalities, and contributes to women’s mental health and body image issues. This paper uses several theories, including male gaze, gender, and intersectionality, along with …

Slay Her: The Rhetoric Of Violation In Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Lea N. Wright

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This research draws on feminist theory and monster theory to perform a close rhetorical analysis of incidents in the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy) where female characters are violated physically, psychologically, and/or sexually. Buffy is one of the most-analyzed television shows of all time, with a particular emphasis on the show’s engagement with feminism; however, the issue of violation has received little scholarly investigation despite multiple instances of it within the show. Through examining the rhetorical elements (such as dialogue, camerawork, body language, and character response) that surround incidents of violation, this research reveals that Buffy …

The Final Boys' Club: Conceptualizing A Final Boy Of 1980s Horror, Ej Newton

Masters Theses

Carol J Clover’s (2015) Final Girl, the female slasher protagonist who survives to the end of the movie, has become a staple of horror scholarship, providing insight into the function of gender within the genre as well as our cultural beliefs surrounding femininity. Given the attention paid to horror’s leading ladies, however, another fascinating figure has gone unexplored: the Final Boy. This project analyzes nine horror films from the 1980s with young male protagonists in order to conceptualize and critique this previously unidentified trope. Utilizing McKerrow’s (1989) critical rhetoric as a guide, this research not only provides a thorough definition …

“Is This Really Funny?” Humor, Rape Myths, And Social Semiotics In Nigerian Comedy Skits, Grace Oluwatofunmi Adeyemo

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how rape myth narratives are normalized through humor in Nigerian comedy skits. While existing research has identified rape-supportive beliefs in digital entertainment, it has paid less attention to the processes through which these meanings become socially acceptable. Guided by social semiotics, the study analyzes how semiotic resources use humor to normalize rape myth narratives in Nigerian comedy skits. Using a qualitative design, twelve purposively selected Nigerian comedy skits on YouTube were analyzed. The findings reveal that refusal is constructed as temporary, persistence is portrayed as effort, men's refusal is framed as abnormal, and consent is shaped by …

‘Politics! Not My Thing!’:The Misrepresentation Of Anne Boleyn In Six: The Musical, Natalie M. Bowen

UROP Posters

With the rise of Hamilton and Come From Away, stage musicals have become the next hottest form of historical reenactment, and the six wives of Henry VIII are no exception. These modern spins on Tudor history are typically riddled with inaccuracies that leave audiences with a skewed idea of Tudor England. The wives of Henry VIII, in particular, are the victims of centuries of historically inaccurate fictional media. Six: The Musical is a modern musical spin on this centuries-old story, following the six wives of Henry VIII as they reclaim their narratives in a pop concert competition on who had …

Ideology And Iconography In Gustav Machatý’S Ecstasy (1933), Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This essay discusses the cinematic construction of sexual ecstatic experience in Gustav Machaty's 1933 film Ecstasy. Sergei Eisenstein's theory of cinematic montage governs the shapes the way the filmmakers organize the representation of erotic desire and rapture. But the film also shows affinity with the Czech "Poetist" movement of the 1920s in constructing a guiding view of ecstatic experience. The essay analyzes many images in the film, and concludes with an application of montage theory of ecstatic cinema to the consumption of erotic videos and internet imagery.