Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons^™

International Resource Network (Irn) Presents Seminars In The City, Naveed Alam

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

One of the major achievements of the IRN this year was our collaboration with CLAGS's ongoing Seminars in the City series. The Seminars in the City series is part of CLAGS's mission to make scholarly research in Queer Studies accessible to the general public.

Film Review: Masculinity & Interracial Intimacy In 'Star Trek' And 'Gran Torino', Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

Race has long been a central object of political reflection. The salience of racial difference remains hotly debated, figuring in both “utopian” and “dystopian” visions of America’s political future. If race is a primary configuration of “difference” and inequality in the nation, then intimacy between the races is often construed as either a bellwether of equality and political utopia or a re-inscribing of political dominance, typically represented as sexual predation by men against women. Quite expectedly, these political fantasies and fears are often played out at the multiplex, and we can see them in stark relief in two recent films …

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’S Decolonizing Ritual De Conocimiento, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s work makes up one of the many Chican@ works that contribute another history, a history repressed by the national discourses on both sides of the border. Influenced by antecedents of U.S. Hispanic Literature who superposed “official” history with another history, Chicano activists had already enacted a retrieval of pre-conquest histories to revive their people’s historical consciousness. As Saldívar-Hull states in “Mestiza Consciousness and Politics: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/ La frontera,” the publication of Borderlands/ La Frontera distinguished itself from the Chicano movement’s as it unveiled the curtain that hid the Aztec goddesses and kept aspects of pre-conquest history …

Is Disney Surfing The Third Wave? A Study Of The Pervasiveness Of The Third Wave Of Feminism In Disney's Female Protagonists, Emily S. Ellington

Senior Honors Theses

It is important to understand factors that have influenced Generation Y’s view of womanhood. One way to do this is to analyze third wave feminist messages portrayed by Disney, the media powerhouse. In order to determine if Disney reflects feminist values, the third wave themes portrayed in The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Pocahontas (1995), and Mulan (1999) are examined. It is concluded that Disney portrays the feminist values of independence and multiculturalism; however, the films are set within patriarchal societies and portray women to be domestic. Ultimately, Disney portrays four messages about womanhood: Women are equal …

Establishing The Rhode Island Community Learning Network (Ricln) 2009, Joseph A. Santiago

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Center

The Rhode Island Community Learning Network (RICLN) is a public-private partnership creating a community linked and operated learning and cultural exchange to encourage all of the arts to become a larger part of our lives. Presently this effort is a collaborative partnership between the URI GLBT Center and Tomorrow's Voice Writing Circle. We seek to provide an environment that allows all people equal access to education, training, and information for the development of new skills, improve the communities awareness of complex identity, gender, and cultural issues inherent in the Rhode Island area, and encouraging life-long learning and sharing. We are …

Troubled Waters: Mid-Twentieth Century American Society On "Trial" In The Films Of John Waters, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article Professor Banks argues that what makes many of filmmaker John Waters early films so subversive is his use of the “white-trash” body—people marginalized by and excluded from conventional white America—as countercultural heroes. He uses the white trash body as a surrogate for talk about race and sexuality in the early 1960s. I argue that in many ways Waters’ critiques of mid-twentieth century American society reflect the societal changes that occurred in the last forty years of that century. These societal changes resulted from the civil rights, gay pride, student, anti-war and women’s movements, all of which used …

Internet Defamation As Profit Center: The Monetization Of Online Harassment, Ann Bartow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Efforts to decrease the sexist aspects of online fora have been largely ineffective, and in some instances seemingly counterproductive, in the sense that they have provoked even greater amounts of abuse and harassment with a gendered aspect. And so, in the wake of a series of high profile episodes of cyber sexual harassment, and a grotesque abundance of low profile ones, a new business model was launched. Promising to clean up and monitor online information to defuse the visible impact of coordinated harassment campaigns, a number of entities began to market themselves as knights in cyber shining armor, ready to …

Communicating Queer Identities Through Personal Narrative And Intersectional Reflexivity, Richard G. Jones, Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is currently a lack of intersubjective research involving human participants and conceptual frameworks that include queer theory. Queer theory's poststructuralist epistemology tends toward desubjectification, problematizing research that relies on participants' self-reports of lived experience. The author proposes that the interdisciplinary nature of Communication Studies, which is situated within the humanities and social sciences, leaves communication scholars well poised to contribute to ongoing metatheoretical and metamethodological conversations regarding queer theory and intersubjective research, particularly in relation to cultures and identities. To contribute to this scholarly conversation, the author utilizes the deconstructionist lens of queer theory to contextualize communication, employs personal …

Marketing Under Feminist Scrutiny, Andrew Harris

XULAneXUS

At first glance, an ad in a magazine may appear harmless when left critically unexamined, but when studied closely, patterns start to arise that express male dominance which habitually goes unnoticed because male dominance has long been taken for granted. Laura Mulvey writes on phallocentrism in her essay entitled “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” and explains how to recognize the distinction between men and women in popular media. The most dominant theme in her essay is that marketers depict female characters so they seem like man’s opposite, suggesting that women only exist when defined by their “castration” or penislessness. This …

Analysis Of The Supporting Websites For The Use Of Instructional Games In K-12 Settings, Mansureh Kebritchi, Wendi M. Kappers Phd, Atsusi Hirumi, Renee Henry

Publications

This article identifies resources to be included in a website designed to facilitate the integration of instructional games in K-12 settings. Guidelines and supporting components are based on a survey of K-12 educators who are integrating games, an analysis of existing instructional game websites, and summaries of literature on the use of educational software in K-12 settings and teacher technology training. The results indicate that educators face three main challenges when integrating games, including: (a) technical and logistical requirements, (b) curriculum integration, and (c) teacher training. To overcome these challenges, K-12 educators should be provided with: (a) curriculum resources, (b) …

Mourning Eros: Hieroglyphic Love And Loss In H.D.'S Helen In Egypt, Shauna Karine Dorotich

Theses : Honours

H.D. and Lacan both articulate a philosophy of love that exists beyond the sexual relationship. This thesis highlights the concordance between their later writings on love, with a specific focus on Lacan's Book xx; On Feminine Sexuality, the Limits of Love and Knowledge, 1972 - 1973 (Encore), and H.D.'s Helen in Egypt. Initially, I address the paradox of erotic love to explicate the way fantasy results in the death of the woman within the sexual relationship. I then argue that a subject must experience a phase of mourning the fantasy of erotic love in order to progress to …

Liberal Arts 2.0, Bridget B. Baird

Convocation Addresses

The title, Liberal Arts 2.0., "stems from the term Web 2.0, which refers to the recent evolution of the Web as interactive, participatory, collaborative and collective. Web 2.0 includes blogs, wikis, user-generated media, social networking: like much of what it describes, the definition is amorphous and inexact." Baird believes that Web 2.0 and all that it implies will necessitate a revision of the way we do liberal arts and thus the title “Liberal Arts 2.0.”

Her premise: that a liberal arts college is a place where teaching and research are improved by digital tools, where students are taught to negotiate …

Rhetoric With Humor: An Analysis Of Hispanic/Latino Comedians' Uses Of Humor, George Pacheco Jr.

Dissertations

Hispanic/Latino comedians' use of humor as argument is a rich environment to study. The relationship between the comedian (as the joke teller) and the audience (as the receivers of the joke) creates an environment where many topical boundaries fall, and the comedian is free to express him/herself without fear of persecution or ridicule. More specifically, this setting allows the comedian to use the platform as joke teller to communicate arguments to the audience through humor. Comedians who use humor rhetorically often communicate arguments about well-known stereotypes freely because audiences attend shows expecting to laugh.

Using Kenneth Burke's (1959) perspective by …

A Feminist Criticism Of Work-Related Advice In Essence And Glamour Magazines For The Year 2007, Joelle Marie Cruz

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This feminist criticism study examines work-related advice in Essence and Glamour magazines for the year 2007. Essence magazine is an African American magazine destined to women, and Glamour is a mainstream publication mostly read by young to middle-aged women. A total of 24 issues pertaining to work were examined in order to assess the feminism of both publications. Findings reveal the presence of four main themes: success as hegemonic masculinity, modeling the ideal employee: maintaining capitalism, the gendered workplace, and postfeminism. The first theme indicates an emphasis on career advancement for women. Because this notion is framed in masculinist terms, …

Aids Art: Activism On Canvas, Lucy Sumners

Senior Honors Projects

Protest art is all around us. Whether we realize it or not, we are influenced by the political, social, or cultural messages that are within the artworks. I have always been interested in the effects of disease on a population and disease has had an effect on artists and the artworks that they produce throughout the ages. Today, AIDS has affected almost every single person on this planet and is a topic that enters political debates, affects the social constructs of society and carries many negative cultural connotations. AIDS first stormed through the United States in the early 1980s affecting …

Art Therapy With Native American Cancer Survivors: An Observation Of Nonverbal Communication Styles, Kathryn Dengler

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

There is a high morbidity rate among Native American women with breast cancer. Research suggests that traditional beliefs in addition to miscommunication within the healthcare setting may affect the treatment Natives receive. This study observed the nonverbal communication patterns of ten Native American cancer survivors participating in an art psychoeducational workshop. Mapping techniques and situational analysis were used to observe nonverbal communication patterns during the workshop. It was hypothesized that Native Americans would use nonverbal cues more readily than verbal communication.

The results of the study supported the hypothesis. Nonverbal cues were the primary means of communication throughout the workshop. …

Chicana Photography: The Power Of Place, Ann Marie Leimer

NACCS Annual Conference Proceedings

Abstract:

The concern with space, location, place, and geographic site has received heightened attention from artists and theorists from the 1960s onward. For critics and creators engaged with these concepts, the analysis of the interaction between of the processes of spatialization, identity formation, and memory has emerged as an important aspect of critical discourse. Lucy Lippard defines space as a physical site, understood as landscape or nature, while place implies intimacy, a familiarity with a certain geographic location. For Lippard, human interaction and, most importantly, the infusion of memory into space or a geographic site produces place. Michel de Certeau …

The Use Of Violence As Feminist Rhetoric: Third-Wave Feminism In Tarantino's Kill Bill Films, Leah Andrea Katona

Theses Digitization Project

For the purpose of this thesis, the main focus of the feminist rhetorical criticism method was specifically linked to gender-related power inequities. This method was especially appropriate for the analysis of how film violence is used as a feminist rhetorical strategy in the Kill Bill films. This thesis is more closely aligned with challenging rhetorical standards as it sought to identify feminist counter positions of rhetoric in film violence.

Cover To Cover: Contemporary Issues In Popular Women’S Magazines, Debbie Danowski

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Exposure to popular magazine covers is widespread among even those choosing not to read a particular magazine. With news racks in all grocery and convenience stores, the American public cannot escape at least a quick glance at the material presented on the cover. Because of this, it is vital that we analyze the messages being disseminated each month through these publications.

This study will attempt to analyze and categorize the messages sent out via the covers of the five most popular general interest women's magazines with the highest circulation during the year 2000: Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, …

Cinema, Race, And Justice: A Qualitative Analysis Of Selected Themes., Katherine Clay Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine 7 different crime and justice films and provide a content analysis incorporating restorative justice and peacemaking perspectives. The 7 films examined in this study included 12 Angry Men, A Family Thing, American History X, American Me, Crash, Shawshank Redemption, and Traffic. The researcher examined the films and used content analysis to examine the behaviors and actions of the characters. The films were examined using 5 different analytical themes: "embracing change", "second chances", "hope", "connectedness", and "becoming more human". The current study found the 7 films …

Session 11 - “Dangerous Things”: A Symbolic Domain For Killer Bees, Daniel E. Lebas

International Symposium on Technology and Society

Viewing usage of words in culture as key symbols, Sherry B. Ortner's indicators were applied to an analysis of the lay-public’s use of "killer bee", "Africanized Honey Bee", and "honey bee". While conducting social impact study in southern Nevada, the author noticed that informants were not associating "killer bee" with "honey bee" imagery. Interviews were conducted with residents in the community of Boulder City, Nevada focusing upon symbolic linkage between the expressions: honey bee, killer bee and Africanized Honey Bee. It was determined that people do not link these expressions together in the same symbolic domain. Ethnohistory of the human/bee …

Gender-Linked Stereotypic Content In Youth Magazines, Devon Cadwell Bazata

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

This study evaluates youth magazines aimed at or read by three different target audiences--boys, girls, boys and girls--and examines whether the magazines reinforce gender stereotypes, and whether the intended audience makes a difference in that reinforcement or lack of it. First, this study established a theoretical framework upon which the selection of the target age group for the sample was based. Piaget and Kohlberg's seminal work, and Gilligan and other feminist theory, is considered in the context of the results. Second, it defined stereotypic, counter-stereotypic, and gender-neutral attributes based on five previous peer-reviewed studies dating from 1957-1975, and confirmed the …

Cyberfeminism In The Arab World, Dalia Al Nimr

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The Internet has become a viable source of news, information, entertainment, and social integration for people worldwide. The Internet is also a medium where gender identity operates vehemently. Feminists, in particular, hailed the medium as a domain where women can assert their identities without patriarchal constraints and can challenge their stereotypical portrayal in the media. But does the Internet provide such utopianism? A content analysis of 18 websites targeted at Arab women shows that the Internet is marred by the same gender stereotypes that have pigeonholed women for decades, circumscribing them in their domestic roles as housewives and mothers and …

Some Thoughts On China's Sexual Revolution: Sexuality And Social Change In Contemporary China, Sun Zhongxin

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The last two years saw several changes in the public discourse around sex and sexuality in China. So what are some of the most controversial sex-related topics to be raised in China recently?

Letter From The Executive Director: Queer Studies Goes Digital, Paisley Currah

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Google books, journals available only online, Wikipedia. With so much knowledge going digital, is print culture on its way our? While print probably won't disappear as a scholarly medium in the foreseeable future, it is important that CLAGS remain at the cutting edge not just in terms of the kinds of research we support, but in terms of how we disseminate that research. We are currently involved in several long-term projects to share digital resources with our membership and the community at large, expanding on our longstanding commitment to making print and analog materials available that are often not accessible …

Lessons In Sex And Fascism: Dagmar Herzog's Pedagogy Workshop, Megan Jenkins

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

On December 4, 2006 Dagmar Herzog, Professor of History at the CUNY Graduate Center, led a lively workshop titled "What's So Sexy about Fascism? And Why is it Important to Think About it in the Classroom?" as part of the CLAGS/CSGS LGBTQ Plans Pedagogy Workshop.

Encyclopedia Of Gender And Technology, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Research

This encyclopedia compiles 213 four- to five-page entries making observations about the role of gender in human interaction with information technology and the IT profession. Intended as a preliminary research agenda encompassing essays on gender and IT education and the workplace, the volume contains many essays that simply survey struggles faced by women in many parts of the world who interact with the Internet or telecommunications technology.

Gender Portrayal In J.K. Rowling's “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix”: A Feminist Rhetorical Criticism, Nicole Ackman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined J.K. Rowling’s (2003) novel entitled, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Although this novel has not yet been classified as a fairy tale, it does contain fairy tale elements. This study reviewed literature in the field of folklore, fairy tales, and feminism. Foss’ (2004) four-step feminist criticism model was employed to analyze gender portrayals in the novel. According to Foss’ model, the novel was analyzed for masculine or feminine perspectives of the world, effects on the audience, improvement of women’s lives, and impact on rhetorical theory. Although Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix …

M/Others : One Lens, Multiple Maternities, Toni Wilkinson

Theses : Honours

This body of photographic portraits re/presents the maternal relationship as a significant one in a cultural economy than 'downgrades motherhood', and fails to adequately recognise the contribution of mothers to society, as they struggle to uphold self and family in contemporary life. Throughout this work, which fuses religious visual art principles and photographic documentary, a more complex, powerful maternal figure emerges than the singular, passive and restrictive example of motherhood, commonly portrayed in art history. I undertake a comparative analysis between traditional Madonna and child icons and contemporary female photographers involved with maternal themes, to highlight that certain photographs facilitate …

The New Face Of Queer, The New Face Of Cuny, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The seventh Queer CUNY conference for LGBT students, staff, faculty, and alumni, took place at Brooklyn College on April 1, 2006. Students from all over the CUNY system of schools gathered to discuss, debate, and deconstruct what LGBT community is and what it might be.