Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“Yellow Fever” + Pornhub Statistics: A Sociological Sickness, Patricia Plachno

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

This essay was written to explore the complexities behind "Yellow Fever," or the fetishization of Asian women. In further understanding the origins of "Yellow Fever", shining a light on historical stereotypes and microaggressions assist in problematizing this phenomenon. Pornhub's yearly statistics provide a tangible outline of the sheer volume of participants in racial fetishization.

Black Lips Don't Turn Blue: A Womanist Critique Of Discriminatory Language In Medical Education, Alison Lawrence

Womanist Ethics

This paper examines race and gender inequities in healthcare as it pertains to the unequal presentation of descriptors of illness in medical textbooks. The author adopts a womanist perspective to criticize the use of the white male body as the standard for all patients, which causes signs and symptoms in women and people of color to be dismissed as less important. Following an analysis of normalizing language in current medical texts as well as its consequences for patients, the author calls for a system-wide shift to more inclusive, intersectional medical education that not only acknowledges differences among patient groups, but …

For [Redacted], Lalini Shanela Ranaraja

Vázquez-Valarezo Poetry Award

This poem was written following the attempts of a close friend and myself to create awareness for the ongoing genocide in Tigray, Ethiopia in particular, and in reaction to activism in the age of social media in general. The digital age and related phenomena, such as hashtag activism and cancel culture, has enabled certain social justice movements to gain rapid traction while other equally worthy movements struggle to find a foothold. Simultaneously, standards of accountability and ethics continue to decline among global news media, with non-Western countries such as Ethiopia and my own home country of Sri Lanka bearing the …

Sense Of Community And Space, Amanda Corona

Celebration of Learning

Sense of community (SOC) is defined as a person’s experience of a group or specific area (Kenkmann et al, 1996). Physical spaces can affect SOC; small colleges have higher SOC on average than universities (Lounsbury & DeNeui, 1996). A person’s identity, especially ethnic identity, can also influence SOC (Rivas-Drake, 2012; Liu, 2005). However, there is less work on the intersection of physical space and ethnic identity (Devlin et al, 2008). This raises the questions: how does the experience of a community space affect someone’s SOC, and would it vary by ethnicity?

The relationship between communal spaces and identity can be …

Jesse Routte: Using Style To Signify Injustice, Emma Nordmeyer

Race, Ethnicity, & Religion

Jesse Routte, first African-American student to graduate Augustana, made national headlines in 1947 for wearing a turban on a visit to Alabama. In this paper, I explore how Routte's stylistic choices uprooted and questioned the racism of the Jim Crow era.

Paper: An Ecowomanist View On The Dakota Access Pipeline, Ariana Raya

Womanist Ethics

This paper examines the Dakota Access Pipeline using ecofeminist and ecowomanist philosophies, provides a brief historical background of African American and Native American communities, explains the dangers of the pipeline to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and offers constructive alternatives.

Toward A Theology Of Transformation: Destroying The Sycamore Tree Of White Supremacy, Hannah Kathleen Griggs

Celebration of Learning

Black liberation theologians come to terms with white supremacy by collectively remembering the story of the Exodus and Jesus' crucifixion--affirming God's preference for freedom and in-the-world salvation. The particular history of white American Christianity requires a different story to provide the foundation for our social memory. As white American Christians, we have certain blind spots—blind spots created by historical and social privileges that have given white people unequal access to power and resources. The story of Zacchaeus has the potential to help reframe white Christianity’s conception of race relations in the United States, shifting from a reconciliation paradigm to a …

Sr. Holy: A Calling From The Lord, Caitlyn Schaffer

Ask a Sister: Interview Wisdom from Catholic Women Religious

This paper includes a portion of an interview with Sr. Holy, a woman religious missionary who belongs to the congregation of Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, where her theological beliefs are enacted by her service to others. Within the congregation of Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, she is focused on directing the novitiate, giving spiritual direction, volunteering with the aid for women, networking with the aid for women, and taking part in a life learning center making disciples. She uses her gifts that Jesus has given her to employ her virtues in the service of others. Throughout her life she mentioned the …

Toward A Theology Of Transformation, Hannah Kathleen Griggs

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

Black liberation theologians come to terms with white supremacy by collectively remembering the story of the Exodus and Jesus' crucifixion--affirming God's preference for freedom and in-the-world salvation. The particular history of white American Christianity requires a different story to provide the foundation for our social memory. As white American Christians, we have certain blind spots—blind spots created by historical and social privileges that have given white people unequal access to power and resources. The story of Zacchaeus has the potential to help reframe white Christianity’s conception of race relations in the United States, shifting from a reconciliation paradigm to a …

Salvation Through Community And Protest, Hannah K. Griggs

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

This essay examines the theodicies of Nancy Pineda-Madrid, Kelly Brown Douglas, and Dorothee Soelle to strategize ways for Christians to combat rising threats to marginalized communities. Synthesizing the arguments of these three feminist Christians, I argue that only a theodicy of protest succeeds in accounting for structural injustice caused by kyriarchal relationships. As Christians come to terms with America’s current political situation, I call for a reimagining of Anselm’s salvation narrative. My protest theodicy theorizes a new Christian narrative that strives to alleviate this-worldly suffering in order to produce salvation through radical community, by “signifyin’” to disrupt power, and using …

Music And The Migrant: A Transnational Account Of Cumbia, Irene L. Mekus

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

This paper looks into the cultural synthesization and the transnational ties of cumbia between Latin America and the United States. Three case studies look at the story of migrants and their transnational ties through cumbia and are analyzed through an ethnomusicology framework.

The Multiple Victims Of Rape, Maureen Azar

Audre Lorde Writing Prize

No abstract provided.

Education, Crystal C. Gray

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

Education is a spoken word poem that explores many aspects of the African American struggle within (self-knowledge). It starts with an African American college student who is disappointed with the lack of courses about her culture. Most curricula in the United States tend to be from a Eurocentric perspective, leaving out a multitude of information about people of color. All groups of people of color have unique experiences, however, African Americans have the most known (or perhaps I should say, unknown) history. The standard explanation of their existence is often limited to the start of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, when …