Women's History Commons^™

From The Pen Of The Secretary: Latter-Day Saint Women And Relief Society Minute Books, 1868–1889, Mckall Erin Ruell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

In 1868, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon church) re-organized their women's organization, the Relief Society. The secretaries of each local ward or congregation of the Relief Society in Utah kept a record of their meetings in their own minute books. These records have largely been neglected by scholars and much can be learned about nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint women through their pages. This thesis examines Relief Society minute books from Cedar City, Fillmore, Meadow, Holden, Spring Lake, Provo, Salt Lake City, and Millville, Utah, looking specifically at Latter-day Saint women's discourse, testimonies, and …

Women And Religion In The Mongol Empire, Karlie Barnett

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

Aspects of the Mongol Empire have been well studied in academia, but these analyses, like much of our recording and analysis of world history overall, have largely excluded women. This thesis seeks to contribute to the effort to restore women to Mongol history, focusing on how the relationship between Mongol women and religion impacted the development of the Mongol Empire and Eurasian religions during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. With a focus on elite women due to the nature of the sources, I draw upon historical chronicles, traveler accounts, artwork, and contributions from scholars in this field to assert that …

Gender, Race, And Religion In An African Enlightenment, Jonathan D. Lyonhart

Journal of Religion & Film

Black Panther (2018) not only heralded a new future for representation in big-budget films but also gave an alternative vision of the past, one which recasts the Enlightenment within an African context. By going through its technological enlightenment in isolation from Western ideals and dominance, Wakanda opens a space for reflecting on alternate ways progress can—and still might—unfold. More specifically, this alternative history creates room for reimagining how modernity—with its myriad social, scientific, and religious paradigm shifts—could have negotiated questions of race, and, in turn, how race could have informed and redirected some of the lesser impulses of modernity. Similar …

Brigid Of Kildare: The Saint Who Got A Facelift, Aimee Hunt

Student Research

On the outskirts of Papal authority, early medieval Ireland created its own Christian identity separate from other European nations closer to Rome. Saint Brigid of Kildare, one of the patron saints of Ireland, played important yet problematic roles in that identity. After her death, the church began to alter her history. Being a female bishop, performing the first recorded abortion, and having both men and women within her monastery, Brigid had trodden on the male-dominated system in a way that few women had. Deemed unacceptable but having already been sainted, the Catholic church gave Brigid a holy facelift.

Medieval Infertility: Treatments, Cures, And Consequences, Zia Simpson

The Forum: Journal of History

Since the first civilizations emerged, reproductive ability has been one of the most prominent elements in assessing a woman’s value to society. Other characteristics such as beauty, intelligence, and wealth may have been granted comparable consequence, but those are arbitrary and improvable. Fertility is genetic, and for centuries it was beyond human control. Among the medieval European nobility, fertility held even greater power. The absence of an heir could, either directly or indirectly, bring about war, economic depression, and social disorder. Catholicism provided a refuge by allowing barren women to retain their hopes, while simultaneously enriching Rome’s coffers. Other women …

Law Library Blog (September 2020): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Virginity, Elizabeth, And The Power Of Persona: Examining The Shift Of Queen Elizabeth's Image In The 1570s-1580s Where She Replaced The Virgin Mary, Defeated The Spanish And Became Immortal, Abigail Sorkin

Scripps Senior Theses

Why did Queen Elizabeth I portray herself as the Virgin Queen? Why were both elements, virgin and queen, essential to her longevity and her success? Scholars have traditionally argued that Elizabeth’s persona as the Virgin Queen is a result of the end of her last marriage negotiation in the mid 1580s as it was now clear she would never marry and remain childless. However, considering the religious and diplomatic implications of this image, this interpretation not only seems too simplistic, it neglects the ways Elizabeth deliberately represented herself in a way that would appeal to her public. The Virgin Queen …

A Girl's Song: Recounting Women And The Nantucket Whaling Industry, 1750-1890, Natalie Mitchell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this honors research project, I intend to explore the effect of the whaling industry on women who lived in the community on the island of Nantucket, as well as how they affected the industry. The period I will focus on is the end of the 18^th century through the middle of the 19^th century, because this was the height of the whaling industry in the United States and during the majority of this time span Nantucket was home to the most active American whaling port, making it advantageous to examine the island’s community for my research. This …

Bate Family Papers (Mss 673), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 673. Correspondence, business, and legal papers of various members of the Bate family of Sumner County, Tennessee. Some of the children are located in San Augustine, Texas. Most of the correspondence centers around the mother, Ann Franklin (Weatherred) Bate and her children, particularly Eugenia Patience (Bate) Bass Bertinatti and Humphrey Howell Bate, and to a lesser degree their siblings. Includes extensive documentation about the financial and legal condition of Bertinatti after the Civil War. The originals are in the Tennessee State Library & Archives, Nashville, Tennessee.

Interview Of Margaret Mcguinness, Ph.D., Margaret Mcguinness Ph.D., Stephen Pierce

All Oral Histories

Dr. Margaret McGuinness was born in 1953, in Providence, Rhode Island. She went to an all-girls Catholic high school called St. Mary’s Academy Bayview in Providence where she graduated in 1971. McGuinness went on to major in American Studies and Civilization as an undergraduate at Boston University graduating with a B.A in 1975. She continued her work at Boston University where McGuinness earned a master’s of theological studies (M.T.S) focusing on Biblical and Historical Studies in 1979. She would move to New York to work on her dissertation at Union Theological Seminary finishing with her Ph.D. in 1985 concentrating on …

Monstrous Maternity: Folkloric Expressions Of The Feminine In Images Of The Ubume, Michaela Leah Prostak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubume is a ghost of Japanese folklore, once a living woman, who died during either pregnancy or childbirth. This thesis explores how the religious and secular developments of the ubume and related figures create a dichotomy of ideologies that both condemn and liberate women in their roles as mothers. Examples of literary and visual narratives of the ubume as well as the religious practices that were employed for maternity-related concerns are explored within their historical contexts in order to best understand what meaning they held for people at a given time and if that meaning has changed. These meanings …

Design-Based Research Mobile Gaming For Learning Jewish History, Tikkun Olam, And Civics, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

How can Design-Based Research (DBR) be used in the study of video games, religious literacy, and learning? DBR uses a variety of pragmatically selected mixed methods approaches to design learning interventions. Researchers, working with educators and learners, design and co-design learning artifacts and environments. They analyze those artifacts and environments as they are used by educators and learners, and then iterate based on mixed methods data analysis. DBR is suited for any "rich contextualized setting in which people have agency." (Hoadley 2013) such as formal or informal learning environments.

The case covered in this chapter is a mobile Augmented Reality …

Abdurraqib, Samaa, Iris Sangiovanni, Samar Ahmed

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Samaa Abdurraqib is a Black, queer, Muslim woman living in Portland, Maine. Abdurraqib was raised in Columbus, Ohio. She attend the University of Ohio, and later the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a PhD in English Literature. After graduating she worked as a visiting professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Next she went on to work the American Civil Liberties Union in Maine as a reproductive rights organizer. She now works for the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. Her advocacy and organizing work has included places such as Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, …

Women, The Church And Equality: The Religious Paradox, Donna M. Nowak

History Theses

ABSTRACT OF THESIS

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.[1]

Traditional religion and biblical interpretation helped to cement the passive role of women in the United States for hundreds of years. The emergence of spiritualism and communal societies, however, challenged the traditional role of women, and the very fabric of American …

Review Of Sarah Osborn's World: The Rise Of Evangelical Christianity In Early America By Catherine A. Brekus, Edward E. Andrews

History & Classics Faculty Publications

Reviews the book Sarah Osborn's World: The Rise of Evangelical Christianity in Early America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013) by Catherine A. Brekus.

"Veiled With A Special Veil": Rabi'a Of Basra And The Ascetic Reconfiguration Of Identity, Olga Solovieva

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Freedom Indivisible: Gays And Lesbians In The African American Civil Rights Movement, Jared E. Leighton

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This work documents the role of sixty gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals in the African American civil rights movement in the pre-Stonewall era. It examines the extent of their involvement from the grassroots to the highest echelons of leadership. Because many lesbians and gays were not out during their time in the movement, and in some cases had not yet identified as lesbian or gay, this work also analyzes how the civil rights movement, and in a number of cases women’s liberation, contributed to their identity formation and coming out. This work also contributes to our understanding of opposition to …

Ferrell Family Papers (Mss 60), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 60. Correspondence of Thomas V. Ferrell, teacher and businessman, and of his wife, Winnie (58 items), and of their daughter Thelma (94 items), of Somerset, Kentucky; Ferrell family legal papers (7 items); notes of Thelma, who worked for the Somerset Journal for years; and miscellaneous receipts, clippings, etc.

Mcintire, Tandie Lewis, 1865-1947 (Mss 396), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscript Collection 396. Correspondence to family, friends, and acquaintances of Tandie Lewis McIntire, Edmonson County, Kentucky. Collection contains educational material related to McIntire's career as a teacher in Edmonson County. Also includes tracts and pamphlets related to McIntire's involvement in religious organizations, particularly Baptist entities.

Spiritual Liberation Or Religious Discipline: The Religious Right’S Effects On Incarcerated Women, Eva Delair

Scripps Senior Theses

The history of the prison system in the US is inextricably linked to Christianity. Penitentiary shares its root word, penitence, with repentance. Quakers and Congregationalists started the very first prisons because they viewed the corporal punishment of that time to be cruel (Graber 20). Even today, prisons are required to hire chaplains to make sure incarcerated people have the freedom to practice religion inside of the prison. The largest volunteer group serving incarcerated people is Prison Fellowship, an arm of the Religious Right which began in the 1970s and is now the largest faith based group of its kind1 (Prison …

Chintz Appliqué Albums: Memory And Meaning In Nineteenth Century Quilts Of The Delaware River Valley, Carolyn K. Ducey

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examined two sub-sets of a unique style of chintz appliqué album quilt that developed in the 1840s in Delaware River Valley, specifically Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey. The two groups provide examples of two distinct roles that the album quilts played in the lives of their makers: one acting as a literal record of familial ties, serving to preserve memory and reinforce family structure and the other representing the work of the members of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, providing a vehicle to recognize and appreciate dedicated service and playing a role in encouraging interest and …

Robertson, Stephen & Cindy Robertson (Fa 436), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 436. Interview with June Long conducted by Stephen Robertson and Cindy Roberston for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class.

The Roles Of Patrician And Plebeian Women In Their Religion In The Republic Of Rome., Lesa A. Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper looks at the roles of patrician and plebeian Roman women in their religion. It investigates the topic during the period of the Republic (509-30 BCE) and pulls the information together in a concise manner.

The primary sources used were narrative histories and literature from the late Republic, as well as from the Imperial period up through the second century, that reflect the opinions of the Imperial period. The secondary sources precipitated further research into primary sources and comparisons of these studies.

It was found that women played private and secondary roles in their religion. Due to changes in …

(Review) A Negotiated Settlement, Marc R. Forster

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lewis-Starling Collection (Mss 38), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 38. Correspondence, Civil War military and personal papers, business papers, land records, scrapbooks, account books, clippings, and genealogical records of the Lewis and Starling families of Logan and Christian counties in Kentucky, and associated families.

Interview With Virginia Pannell About Her Life (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an oral interview with Virginia Pannell about her life and times conducted by Charlotte Postlewaite for an oral history project titled "Do You Remember When, 1900-1949." In the interview Pannell discusses her life in Greenville, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. She talks about teachers and teaching, schools, education, politics, health care, World War I, World War II, Influenza, radios, B. Mathis, coal mines and mining, strikes, telephones, vigilantism, Prohibition, rationing and religion.

Constitution And By-Laws Of The Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Association

Women's history in Arkansas

This is a small booklet containing the constitution and by-laws of the Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Association of Little Rock, Arkansas. This is a sample of the pages found in the booklet. The organization's constitution and by-laws were adopted on June 5, 1867. The cover of the booklet is a metallic purple with gold print.