History of Gender Commons^™

“Blessed Within My Selves”: The Prophetic Visions Of Our Lorde, Flávia Santos De Araújo

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

This essay discusses the intellectual and poetic work of Audre Lorde and its significance for contemporary global movements for liberation. My discussion considers Lorde’s theorizing of difference and power, as well as her poetic work, as prophetic interventions within the context of the 1960s to the early 1990s. I argue that Lorde’s intellectual and literary work is the result of a black woman’s embodied experiences within the intersections of many struggles—notably, the ones against racism, sexism, and homophobia. This strategic positionality becomes, as I discuss, the centrality of Lorde’s prophetic vision of collective and inclusive liberation: one that permeates past …

Seduction As Power? Searching For Empowerment And Emancipation In Sex Work, Jennifer Chisholm

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

A longstanding debate within feminism has been whether sex work is empowering or ultimately disempowering for those who engage in it. This essay seeks to contextualize discourses about seduction, prostitution, and sexual tourism as they relate to Brazil and to make a preliminary assessment as to the ways in which the act of seduction might be empowering for Brazil’s sex workers. Based on ethnographic research and borrowing from literary theory, tourism theory, and interdisciplinary theories of power and agency, I argue that seduction has the potential to be empowering for Brazilian prostitutes who can capitalize on the racial and ethnic …

Sexual Real Estate: Repatriation, Reterritorialization, And The Digital Activism Of Nicole Amarteifio’S Web Series An African City, Tori Arthur

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

When Nicole Amarteifio, a Ghanaian born-United States raised repatriate to Ghana, uploaded the first episode of An African City to YouTube on March 2, 2014, she began a transnational televisual movement. The series, with two seasons completed and aired and a third season in the works, is a global powerhouse that not only shifts narratives about African mass media production and consumption, but also challenges limited notions of African life, especially for a new generation of the continent’s women. As the first of its kind on the African continent, the web series not only reconfigured the West African media landscape …

Women’S “Empowerment” In The Bangladesh Garment Industry Through Labor Organizing, Chaumtoli Huq

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

By critiquing empowerment in international development discourse and reconceptualizing it, the article shows how Bangladeshi garment workers have used the trade union space to achieve socio-economic empowerment despite barriers to labor organizing. Further, it argues for the development of working class women’s leadership.

Review Of The Economies Of Queer Inclusion: Transnational Organizing For Lgbti Rights In Uganda, By S.M. Rodriguez. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Lexington Books, 2018, Katharina Wiedlack

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

The Economies of Queer Inclusion interrogates the politics of international LGBT activism and its effects on the kuchu (LGBTQIA) people in Kampala, Uganda. It deconstructs Western ideas about Uganda, using counter-storytelling from an anti-racist, decolonial, feminist and queer people of color perspective, merging historic discourse analysis, qualitative sociology and various ethnographic forms such as autoethnography.

Review Of Darkness Now Visible: Patriarchy’S Resurgence And Feminist Resistance. By Carol Gilligan And David A. J. Richards. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. 172p. $20.59., Bekeh Utietiang Ukelina

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

The authors argue in the book that Trump’s election shows the power and presence of patriarchy in American society and how gender can become the optics and hermeneutics of seeing things within a patriarchal framework.

Law School News: Rwu Law Will Dedicate Classroom To Ri's First African-American Woman Lawyer 9-4-2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

In Her Own Hands: How Girls And Women Used The Piano To Chart Their Futures, Expand Women's Roles, And Shape Music In America, 1880–1920, Sarah F. Litvin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

American girls and women used the parlor piano to reshape their lives between 1880 and 1920, the years when the instrument reached the height of its commercial and cultural popularity. Newspapers, memoirs, biographies, women’s magazines, personal papers, and trade publications show that female pianists engaged in public-facing piano play and work in pursuit of artistic expression, economic gain, self-actualization, social mobility, and social change. These motivations drove many to use their piano skills to play beyond the parlor, by studying in conservatory, working as classical and popular music performers and composers, founding and teaching at schools, working as department store …

The South African Women's Movement: The Roles Of Feminism And Multiracial Cooperation In The Struggle For Women's Rights, Amber Michelle Lenser

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the historiography of South Africa’s recent past, focus has been most heavily placed on apartheid and the anti-apartheid movement, with much emphasis placed on male involvement and men as the primary agents of change in the country. Women are largely viewed as playing a supportive role to male activists throughout the movement, and far less has been written on female involvement or women’s activism in its own right. Running parallel to the anti-apartheid movement, however, was a women’s movement characterized by women across the racial and socioeconomic spectrum struggling to secure their own rights in a very hostile and …

Elze, Diane, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Diane Elze is and has been an active member of the LGBTQ community in Portland, Maine for many years. Diane has spent most of her adulthood and professional life participating in activism and advocacy for LGBTQ adolescents. She was involved with the Wilde Stein club at the University of Maine at Orono, where she also founded the Greater Bangor Rape Crisis Center. After being unable to find a job in the Bangor area, Diane moved to Portland where she began working with the MLGPA, the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and taking a leadership role with Outright, among many other …

"A Bias Steam-Ironed Into Women's Lives": A Conversation With Author Phyllis Chesler About Women And Madness, 47 Years After Publication, Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

A conversation with Phyllis Chesler about Women and Madness, 47 years after publication, conducted by Jody Raphael. Chesler discusses her motive for writing Women and Madness and its early reception. She reflects on changes and lack of changes in views and treatment of women by society and the mental health system in the years since its publication. Her feminist analysis now includes Islamic fundamentalism, prostitution, and surrogacy, which are not always politically correct views among feminists today.

Sage, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Sage explored her highly religious upbringing and relationship with her family. She is of Greek descent and her Greek-American culture played a large role in shaping her identity. Her parents rejected her during her young adulthood due to her sexuality and Sage discussed the impact that the ostracization had on her development. Her positive experience with being a part of a long-term, loving lesbian relationship was one that she frequently came back to during the course of the interview. On top of relationships and religion, Sage also examined her experiences undergoing workplace harassment and feeling unwelcome and unsafe in many …

Ossie, Johnna Conference Paper “Querying The Past: Intergenerational Conversations And Queer Community”, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Paper from a presentation given by Johnna Ossie (University of Southern Maine, Class of 2019)

Talking Bodies: fourth biennial interdisciplinary, international conference

Institute of Gender Studies at the University of Chester, England

April 10 - 13, 2019.

Citation

Please cite as: Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries.

For more information about the Querying the Past: Maine LGBTQ Oral History Project, please contact Dr. Wendy Chapkis.

"Sometimes You Have To Be The Leader": A Minnesota Oral History On Fighting Sexual Exploitation, Trudee Able-Peterson

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Prostitution survivor Trudee Able-Peterson used oral histories to research and document the efforts of women and men to respond to the sexual exploitation of women and children in Minnesota. Her findings illustrate the leadership needed to overcome centuries of commercial sexual exploitation to obtain a beginning societal response. Respondents indicated the importance of their interaction with pioneer leaders in other locales. Their comments also illustrate the many issues and challenges still facing the community.

Harold, They're Lesbians!: Interrogating And Understanding The Histories Of "Lesbians.", Chloe Sheraden

History Presentations

No abstract provided.

Exploiting The Patriarchy: Privilege, Context, And Masculine Accomplishments, Elizabeth Iobst

History Presentations

No abstract provided.

"La Llorona": Evolución, Ideología Y Uso En El Mundo Hispano, Raquel Sáenz-Llano

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studies the evolution, ideology and use of the myth of La Llorona through time in the Hispanic World. Considering this myth as one of the most known traditional narratives of the American continent, I begin by providing visual, ethnohistorical and ethnographical insights of weeping in Mesoamerica and South America and the specific mention of a weeping woman in some Spanish chronicles to say how western values were stablished in “the new continent” through this legend. I suggest that during the postcolonialism the legend did not tell anymore about a mother that cries and search a place for their …

Robinson, Betty, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Betty Robinson was raised in Maryland and attended Colby College, the University of Maryland, and Boston University for her Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degree, respectively. She worked for many years in workers rights, for the Massachusetts Nurses Association and for the Maine State Employees Union. She worked briefly for the Massachusetts Battered Women Coalition before laying herself off from the position because the program's federal funding was cut. During this time she became involved in the Boston women's movement. After being involved in union work for many years, she decided she needed a change and applied for a teaching position …

Reckitt, Lois Galgay, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Lois Galgay Reckitt was born and raised in Massachusetts. She attended Brandeis University and then Boston University for her graduate degree. After college, she married a man who was in the Coast Guard. They moved to South Portland to the house she still lives in today. She came out at age 33 when she was deeply entrenched in the growing women's movement. She had a rocky divorce with her self-proclaimed feminist husband who blackmailed her when he found out she was a lesbian. In 1971 she became the treasurer for the first National Organization for Women (NOW) chapter in Maine. …

Janja Majstorovic, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Mara Bojic, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project 2018 Annual Report, Michael S. Nassaney

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Western Michigan University (WMU) hosted its 43rd annual archaeological field school this past July and August under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project. The Project is a long-term, multidisciplinary, community-based partnership between the City of Niles and WMU that investigates and interprets colonialism and the fur trade in the region.

We selected the theme “Technology Then and Now,” to focus our activities in 2019. We recognize that technology is not only important in the 21st century, but has defined humanity since our earliest ancestors crafted simple tools to assist them in their survival. Most of the archaeological …

Curation, Erika K. Hartley, Miro Dunham

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Table of Contents

• Preserving the Past for the Future
• Common Curation Challenges
• Fort St. Joseph Collection
• Did You Know?
• Collection Challenges
• Fort St. Joseph Curatorial Fellowship
• How You Can Help

Limitation, Liberation, And The Latter-Day Saints: The Establishment Of Mormon Womanhood In The Woman’S Exponent, 1872-1890, Meaghan Harrington

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Navigating the establishment of Mormon womanhood from 1872-1890 in the Exponent shows how Mormon women related to their outer world, their inner world, and themselves. This thesis analyzes the thoughts, feelings, and desires of a complex sociocultural grouping, and asks the reader to question their own attitudes towards gender and culture. The rhetoric of Mormon womanhood in the Exponent and the culture from which it stemmed have implications for understanding both “the rights of the women of Zion, and the rights of the women of all nations.”

Nevenka Vazgec, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

The Social Interaction Model Of Objectification: A Process Model Of Goal-Based Objectifying Exchanges Between Men And Women, Sarah Gervais, Gemma Sáez, Abigail R. Riemer, Olivier Klein

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

People perceive and treat women as sex objects in social exchanges. The interaction processes through which women are objectified, however, have rarely been considered. To address this gap in the literature, we propose the Social Interaction Model of Objectification (SIMO). Rooted in social exchange and objectification theories, the SIMO predicts objectifying behaviors stemming from sexual goals between men and women. We propose that the behavioral dynamics of objectification can be understood through a series of goal-based exchange processes that are shaped by patriarchy. Articulating the SIMO and its predictions for Behavior in social interactions, we describe the scant social psychological …

Bad Gurley Feminism: The Myth Of Post-War Domesticity, Erin Amann Holliday-Karre

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

According to feminist history, the 1950s constitute a lapse in feminist literature as women in the post-war era were ushered into the realm of domesticity. In this article I argue that this perceived literary “gap” was both created and perpetuated by feminist historians and scholars who insist that Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963) was the defining feminist text of the time. I offer an alternative discourse to that of Friedan by presenting feminist writers who challenge, rather than adopt, masculine ideology as the means to women’s empowerment. I end by encouraging feminists to allow commonly dismissed feminists from the …

Contact, Christine M. Stevralia

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

A year after Alyssa Milano’s tweet launched the #MeToo movement, survivors of sexual assault are being called ‘accusers’ in the media, and public opinion is swinging in favor of guilty men. #MeToo raised awareness but not understanding. What is rape? What is consent? As evidenced by the #MeToo movement and the backlash against it, clearly, as a society, we don’t know. Contact is a work of Creative Nonfiction that uses scenes and details from the narrator’s personal experiences to illuminate the micro-negotiations that occur in sex and seduction.

In a world where women are still expected to stay small and …

Degoosh, Milo, May Hohman

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Milo Degoosh is a 28 year old FTM transgender adult. He works at Bard Coffee Shop in Portland, and competes in National Barista competition. He elaborates on how the Queer community has influenced the Barista competition and how he is a Queer figure in this environment. Milo has two moms and big family, all of which have helped him in his transition. He started hormones in 2015 and has had many changes since, such as mood, attitude, and work ethic. Milo participating in the National Campaign for Marriage Equality by knocking on doors. The necessity and cost for transition …

Beck-Poland, Sherry, Ariana Wenger, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Sherry Beck-Poland is 64 years old and lives in Lewiston, Maine with their wife Dee, and two sons, Jacob and Joe. Sherry has dedicated much of their life helping others including fostering over ten children, adopting their two sons, working for DHHS with individuals with PTSD, personality disorders, and other disabilities, as well as their involvement with political activism for marriage equality, and their help in organizing pride in Lewiston.

Sherry has attended the University of Southern Maine for their undergraduate degree where they graduated with honors, then attended Seminary where they received their master’s degree in theology. Sherry is …