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

Playing With Privilege: A Creative Way For Students To Unpack Privilege, Ashley D. Garcia

Feminist Pedagogy

Although privilege is a foundational concept in many courses, students often have only a vague notion of it, which hinders discussion and analysis. This activity/assignment, grounded in bell hooks' engaged pedagogy, tasks students with visually representing and explaining a concrete instance of privilege to their peers. Through creating comic strips, students must interrogate their assumptions of privilege and begin to encounter its intersectional structure. Creating comic strips that depict privilege helps students grasp the concept and apply it in their self-reflection. Moreover, this establishes a foundation from which students can interrogate the positions of privilege that structure their social realities.

Editor's Statement: Bringing The Past Into The Digital Present, Ryan Debrovner

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Documentary Review: Coded Bias, Sydney Elaine Brammer

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Harnessing Your Feminist Rage: A Multimedia Assignment For Upper-Level Courses, Caitlin E. Lawson

Feminist Pedagogy

"Harnessing Your Feminist Rage" introduces a three-part multimedia assignment that encourages students to think critically about feminist anger, particularly as refracted through social media. First, students introduce and analyze a media text or phenomenon that made them angry and reflect upon that anger. Then, using whichever online medium they choose, students call out the offender and express their anger to the audience of their choice in order to meet a specific goal. Finally, students reflect on their expression of anger and their experience creating their response. Overall, the goal is for students to combine their knowledge of feminist theories and …

The Queer Dictionary, Mia Lew

Graphic Communication

With the government continually obstructing queer education in public schools, it becomes harder and harder for queer people to understand themselves than in turn, have the tools to explain what they are going through to others. This is a problem but in turn an opportunity. While there are queer literature and children’s books out there, they typically only encompass one story or one view on queerness. Thus, this project's main goal is to encompass queerness as a whole by using as many LGBTQ+ words as possible, people's stories under each word, historical graphics, highlights on the internationality of queerness, pronoun …

Witnessing With Cameras Off: Feminist Pedagogy And The Zoom Classroom, Kristin Comeforo

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

What’S The Word On The Street?: Witnessing/Performing Theory, Desirée D. Rowe

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Scavenger Hunts & Photo Essays: Helping Students See Inequality In The World Around Them Through Project-Based Learning, Emily Cabaniss, Kylie Parrotta

Feminist Pedagogy

This paper outlines two scavenger hunt project-based learning approaches we have used with our students to help them see gender inequality around them and to think sociologically about it. The first assignment asks students to dig deeply into one-gender related issue or inequality that interests them in their immediate surroundings and to create a photo essay that says something about the nature, experience, consequences of, or reaction to that issue or inequality. The second assignment asks students to look broadly at the culture around them and to identify everyday examples of gender inequality by participating in a gender scavenger hunt. …

Analyzing The Gender Gap In Field Positions On Commercial Construction Projects, Adriana L. Frazier

Construction Management

The percentage of women working in the construction industry is on the rise. However, most women working in the construction industry often fill administrative roles, office positions, and project management roles rather than field positions such as tradeswomen, foremen, or superintendents. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2020, women constitute 10.9 percent of the entire construction industry. Specifically, 86.7 percent of those women are in office positions with only 3.5 percent of women in trade positions. Those numbers signify that the construction industry is not benefitting from women in field positions. That is due to …

Suspicion Encoded: Women Of Color And Biometric Technology In The United States, Lilith A. Saylor

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper explores the commodification of privacy through biometric technology in the United States. It examines the impact of this technology on poor women of color (WOC), arguing that poor WOC face intersectional discrimination based on the convergence of sex, race, and class in their identities. I highlight the unique and powerful intrusion of biometric technology into the lives of poor WOC, and argue that the connection between data and the physical body created through biometric data has formed an environment in which the state wields unrestricted control in all spheres over the privacy of poor WOC.

Editorial: Sprinkle And The Untimely, Steven Ruszczycky

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Editorial: Dismantling The Ivory Tower Through Feminist And Queer Intervention, Esme Lipton

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

The Boy In The Mirror: A Tale Of Radical Queer Muslim Liberation, Shariq I. Farooqi, Khansa Noor

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This photo-series & its connected narrative captures the ornate reality of identifying as a Queer Muslim of color. The photos were beautifully curated by a photographer and dear friend of mine, Khansa Noor. The images are meant to visually conceptualize how queerness can manifest outwardly in one's bodily expressions and demeanor. The guilt, shame, and relief that I described in the narrative translates intimately in my brown skin and my movements. Both pieces merge to illustrate the layers of queer Muslim survival in concealing one's queerness while simultaneously remaining unequivocally bold in queer spaces.

“Beychella:” Beyoncé’S Homecoming To A Futuristic Queer Utopian, Jolie V. Brownell

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella performance and 2019 Homecoming film set the stage for a radical Black queer reimagining. Yet, how can Beyoncé—who is straight—be located within a queer critique? In this paper, I argue that through a radical and political expansion of queer, the creative deployment of dis/identification, and the unapologetic expression of the erotic, Beyoncé performs an embodiment of queer of color critique. These creative gestures within “Beychella” invite viewers into a queer futuristic utopian and provide new creative modes to politically inhabit, resist, and reimagine interlocking systems of oppression.

Keywords: Beyoncé, queer, dis/identification, erotic, QoCC, …

The Medicalisation Of Gender Nonconformity Through Language: A Keywords Analysis, Angelo Cosma Galluzzo

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Language is an important part of the way gender nonconformity is legislated and medicalised. In 2012, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) changed the nomenclature of the ‘gender identity disorder’ (GID) to ‘gender dysphoria in the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to reduce the social stigma attached to transgender identities. While the recognition of gender nonconformity by the medical authorities has led to some beneficial consequences, scholars have shown that the language of pathology has narrowed the definitions of gender nonconformity and has created social stigma. I use the web pages of five major health providers of English-speaking …

Poems By Noor Smadi, Noor Smadi

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

To have grown up with limited to relatively zero representation in pop culture was a challenge. I felt invalid and invisible in my struggle. I had voices in my head telling me that I’m the other of the other of the other but no one to relate my experience to. However, I still found power, solidarity, and strength in all things intersectional. The joys and tears that we share because we all are familiar with the pain is what pushed me to write and share my story. I found my savior to be Audre Lorde who stood strong and proud …

Queering Kitchens: Dismantling Violence And Reimagining Livable Spaces, Asher Warg

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper addresses the ways in which the kitchen has historically existed as a site of violence and worked to actively exclude marginalized people. Working with Judith Butler’s definition of queer and José Muñoz’s concept of queer futurity, the concept of queering the kitchen is discussed as a method for creating accessible, equitable, and inclusive kitchens.

Editorial: Liberation, Not Assimilation, Caroline Roberts

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Kyoto University Students’ Perceptions Towards Sexual And Gender Minorities, Mingfang Xu, Pasindu Herath

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

LGBTQ movements have attracted attention to the rights of sexual and gender minorities across many parts of the world in recent years. Japan holds a middle-of-the-road stance by neither criminalizing nor legalizing same sex sexual acts. However, various sources describe incessant discrimination faced by LGBTQ people in Japan. It is evident that sexual and gender minorities experience hardships in numerous spheres such as employment, accommodation, family life, and education. Discrimination in educational institutions has, in extreme cases, even resulted in the loss of lives. Therefore, LGBTQ-friendliness has drawn a significant amount of attention in Japanese universities. While research about LGBTQ …

Editorial: Undergraduate Knowledge Production As Transformative Pattern Making, Katie Ettl

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Editorial: Revisiting Our Work, Elizabeth Adan

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

(Re)Memberance In Practice: Making Famous, Transforming The Legacies Of Ill-Fame, Fionna Fahey

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Recent legislation has increased scrutiny and vulnerability to sex worker communities. Sex work has been a highly contested issue in academia and politics, despite its long history. By centering works of thinkers from historically marginalized communities, this research will act intentionally in solidarity with sex workers most vulnerable to harm. Theorizers in Black and Indigenous Feminisms, Queer theory and Trans studies have crafted methodologies to (re)cover and (re)member histories lost to colonial structures of violence. This project centers the epistemologies of these communities in order to account for the variety of intersecting identities held by sex workers. Archival (re)search, oral …

Doe Re Mi: The Unsung Reality Of ‘Doe’ Nomenclature, Mercedes De Los Santos

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This two-person spoken word piece was written and performed at the University of California, Santa Barbara during the UCSB Womxn’s Ensemble Theatre Troupe’s 2020 production of One Night Stand: A Collection of Feminist Bedtime Stories (a non-profit production of feminist theatre). It is dedicated to Chanel Miller, and all of our fellow survivors everywhere--yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

The Subaltern Magazine, Rebecca Fox, Riese Nichols

Social Sciences

The Subaltern intends to reach Cal Poly students who do not feel as if their voices are heard and allow them the platform to share their stories. Our focus is on unheard stories from our campus - whether this involves race, class, gender identity, mental health, ethnicity, culture, or any unique part of one’s identity or experience. We hope that these stories will begin to shed light on what we usually consider “taboo” topics and allow students to feel as if they aren’t alone.

Being a very homogeneous campus, it is important for us to realize that privileged voices are …

Redefine: Messages About Masculinity, Anna Leonidovna Goryachikova, Mason Mitchell Montgomery, Hannah Jayne Martell

Communication Studies

REDEFINE: Messages about Masculinity was held in the Berg Gallery on May 7th, 2019. REDEFINE’s story began on an evening of Fall Quarter of 2018 at Barrelhouse in Downtown San Luis Obispo. The overarching goal of the event was to start a conversation about masculinity and to educate. As communication students, we studied the value of building relationships and communicating effectively. We believe that listening to personal narratives of diverse interpretations through monologues, music, and video is a great way to learn about masculinity. As audience members and performers, we came to understand how crucial it is to create a …

Expanding Our Work, Elizabeth Adan

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Editorial Note, Sprinkle Vol. 12 Editorial Team

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

A Sprinkling Of Gratitude: An Introduction To Volume 12, Katie Ettl, Gage Greenspan

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Sexual Citizenship, Incest, And The State: "The Unseen Of The Crime", Kelsey Zazanis

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper analyzes the colonial state’s role in manufacturing sexual violence. Deconstructing parallels between sexual violence in state detention centers and incestuous abuse of children, this paper examines theories of normativity, sexual citizenship, U.S. nationalism, and Marxist interpretations of the family unit. In identifying all citizenship as sexual citizenship—and identifying queer as all those who are denied sexual citizenship—I suggest that liberation from the state is crucial to queer liberation and the amelioration of sexual violence.

Not All Your Neighbors Are Free: Community Building With Incarcerated Folks In San Luis Obispo, Gianna Bissa

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The American criminal justice system is rooted in white supremacist ideology that is predicated on the murder, displacement, exploitation, and marginalization of people of color. Scholars and activists recognize the American prison system as a modern form of slavery. Only three miles away from Cal Poly’s campus, the California Men’s Colony State Prison (CMC) operates as one of thirty-four state prisons in California. Nearly 4,000 men, trans women, and nonbinary people are being held at the CMC. Not only can mass incarceration be identified as one of the most dreadful state projects that violates human freedom, but also non-incarcerated community …