Gender and Sexuality Commons^™

The Marginal Sexual Equality Game: Defining The Incentives For Sexual Equality Using Economic Game Theory And Butler’S Gender Trouble, Blaise Bowers

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project takes an interdisciplinary economic and gender studies approach to explain subversion, sexual equality, and the marginal nature of sexual rights. The project uses advanced economic game theory to derive the Marginal Sexual Equality Game Formula. The formula explains the various political-economic incentives for a minority gender/sexual identity’s subversion of dominance, a dominant sex's incentive to suppress, the impact of cooperation versus division among minority genders/sexual identities, incentives and impacts of cooperation between sects of minority genders/sexual identities and the dominant gender/sexual identity, and the various consequences of various social mobility and elasticity. Additionally, the formula proves and showcases …

Gendered Socialization Of Comfort With Risk And The Selection Of A College Major, Eliza S. Staton

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study investigates the potential relationship between the gendered socialization of risk preferences and the selection of a college major. Women are underrepresented in many fields of study, but especially in those related to science, technology, engineering, and math (S.T.E.M). Careers in STEM fields tend to require degree paths that require difficult classes, with lower average grade points, and a high chance of failure. As of 2023, only 24% of the student body in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas was composed of women (Uark 2023). These high-pressure, male-dominated environments have been found to lose women at …

Utilizing A Social-Ecological Approach To Understand Healthcare Professional's Ability To Identify Child Sexual Exploitation, Vanessa Gudiel, Alyssa Fierro

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Commercially sexually exploited children (CSEC) are an underrecognized population who face barriers when receiving healthcare services in emergency settings. A common theme that prevents them from receiving services is the healthcare professionals' (HP) inability to recognize warning signs and engage with victims. This stems from an absence of CSEC-focused curriculum in institutional settings, leading to a lack of education and confidence in identifying CSEC. CSEC screenings are not mandatory in most healthcare settings, leaving the discretion to the HP and enabling the continued missed opportunity to identify victims. The proposed study will utilize an exploratory design to conduct qualitative interviews …

Queer Placemaking, Rebranding, And Place Attachment In Northalsted: A Sociological Analysis Of Neighborhood Identity, Inclusion, And Urban Change, Matthew Grydzuk

University Honors Program Senior Projects

This study examines how online discourse reflects public negotiation of neighborhood identity through a qualitative content analysis of Reddit discussions about the renaming of Chicago's Boystown neighborhood to Northalsted. Prior research on LGBTQ neighborhoods has emphasized gayborhoods as sites of safety, identity formation, political mobilization, commercialization, and uneven inclusion. This project builds on that scholarship by examining digital discourse as a site where place attachment, queer placemaking, and urban branding are debated in everyday language. The study asks why people continue to use the name Boystown after the official rebranding and how online participants interpret, resist, or reinterpret the name …

The Goad, The Bad, & The Ugly: The Livestreamed Vice Signaling & Body Fascism Of Clavicular & Asmongold, Jacob T. Fry

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the rhetorical, material, and symbolic implications of fascist livestreaming in the United States through two popular streamers: Clavicular and Asmongold. These two streamers represent a small slice of the rise of different reactionary rhetorics online and how the use of different masculine subcultures—in this case ‘Looksmaxxing’ or Gamer inspired rhetoric—are used as ideological texts for white male supremacy. Whether in front of the glow of their gaming monitor or the flashing lights of a nightclub, the livestreaming of the body, home, relationships, and lifestyles challenge rhetorical conceptions of style, the ‘public/private sphere,’ and political communication. As different …

We Are Still Here: A Narrative Inquiry Examining The Experiences Of Black Women Chief Diversity Officers At Historically White Institutions, Jasmin M. Robinson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of Black women serving as CDOs in higher education institutions to understand their unique challenges, opportunities, and contributions as diversity leaders. The study uses a narrative inquiry approach, comprising of in-depth, semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis to understand how six Black women CDOs lead DEI efforts at historically White institutions, what their identities mean to them, and the lessons learned along the way. Eight core themes emerged from the findings addressing institutional commitment to DEI, institutional perceptions of CDOs, chief diversity officer responsibilities, how Black women understand their race and gender, how …

Beyond The Cycle: How Menstruation Influences Gender Identity And Well-Being In Binary And Non-Binary Adults, Rin Nguyen

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

Approximately 1.8 billion people worldwide menstruate, including transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people, yet their experiences remain underrepresented in research. Given that menstruation can affect gender alignment and psychological well-being, understanding its impact on TGD people is critical. Gender congruence, or alignment between one’s gender identity and expression, is a key factor influencing well-being, with research linking it to reduced depression and anxiety. Furthermore, emerging research on gender euphoria, the joy experienced when gender congruence is experienced, suggests it may serve as a protective factor for mental health and well-being. Gender euphoria has been associated with reduced psychological distress and increased …

Piano Composition And The Role Of Women In Nineteenth Century Europe, Khang Nguyen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In the nineteenth century, women underwent a social transition, slowly obtaining more employment and educational opportunities. The lives of women piano composers were similar, with their status as women affecting their compositional careers. This thesis explores the connection between piano composition and the role of women in the nineteenth century, with a focus on Western Europe. A brief history of Europe in the nineteenth century will be given, followed by an overview on how music and the music industry were gendered at the time. Then, the lives of Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel, and Agathe Backer Grøndahl will be analyzed as …

Killing The Hot Vampire: Gender, Camp, And The Stakes Of Desire In Nineteenth-Century Vampire Fiction, Ella G. Kehr

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the representation and destruction of the Hot Vampire in nineteenth-century vampire fiction, focusing on Dracula (1897), Carmilla (1872), and The Blood of the Vampire (1897). It argues that these texts construct the female vampire as a figure of excessive sexuality, independence, and deviance which causes both societal (patriarchal) and narrative disruption. In the male-authored texts, the construction of the Hot Vampire is exaggerated beyond the neat bounds of gothic excess and monster theory. The destruction of these vampires also follows this unbound extravagance. The Hot Vampire’s death becomes the ritualized restoration of patriarchal order, which is often …

Two Genres, One Narrative? A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Gendered Relationships In Top Hip-Hop/R&B And Country Songs (2015-2025), Alyssa A. Yarbro

Honors Theses

For this research, I examined how gendered relationships are depicted in the lyrics of 55 top-charting Hip-Hop/R&B and Country songs from the past decade (2015-2025). I employed Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis to examine how song lyrics use language to reproduce or challenge dominant ideas of gendered relationships. My analysis identified three prominent themes within the lyrics: Respect, Commodification, and Regret. Songs within the Respect category were characterized by these of romance, affection, and non-sexual intimacy. The commodification category included songs that had dominant themes of objectification, sexualization, and depicting individuals as disposable or interchangeable goods. The songs in the …

The Invisible Toll: Black College Women And The Intersection Of Academic Stress, Rest Deficiency And Exhaustion At Clemson University, Jomya Ford

All Theses

Leisure has been an under-explored aspect of Black women’s lives in higher education, particularly within predominantly white institutions (PWIs), where limited culturally relevant opportunities and racialized isolation shape daily experiences. Constraints around rest, rooted in racism and gendered expectations, continue to influence how Black college women navigate academic pressure, deficiency narratives, and exhaustion. Guided by intersectionality, this qualitative study draws on semi‑structured interviews with Black undergraduate and graduate women at a PWI to explore how cultural upbringing, institutional climates, and internalized expectations shape their definitions and practices of rest. Findings show that while participants recognize rest as necessary, they rarely …

Gender Dynamics In Upward Influence: Career Outcomes And Organizational Implications, Carrie Berg Ed.D.

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

This study explores gender-based differences in the perceptions and outcomes of upward influence strategies within nonprofit organizations. Using qualitative thematic analysis grounded in Social Role Theory and Impression Management Theory, this research draws from structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with 37 professionals across diverse nonprofit sectors. Findings reveal that men’s influence efforts are more frequently perceived as credible and authoritative, while similar strategies used by women are often subjected to increased scrutiny and bias. Key themes include gendered influence styles, differential recognition and credibility, mental and emotional labor, organizational gatekeeping, leadership receptivity, and informal networks. The study contributes to understanding …

Abortion Politics And Policy: Stigma And Access In The Silver State, Celene Fuller

Lincy Institute Events

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) overturning Roe V. Wade, states have taken divergent paths in regulating access to abortion services. In 2024, Nevada voters overwhelmingly passed Question 6 proposing to codify abortion rights into the state constitution. In November 2026, Question 6 will again be on the ballot for final confirmation. If it passes, these rights will be protected from future legislative action.

Despite Nevadans’ strong support for abortion rights, the state’s dearth of abortion providers limits access to these services. As this lecture explores, both providers and individuals seeking abortions, …

We’Ve Been Dying From Trying: Taylor Swift, Earnestness, And The Collective Repudiation Of Cool., Kathryn J. Lively

The Manuscript: Journal of Taylor Swift Studies

This essay argues that cool operates not as an aesthetic preference but as a feeling rule—a socially enforced constraint on which emotions are permissible in public life. Drawing on Thornton's concept of subcultural capital, Goffman's dramaturgical framework, and Hochschild's theory of feeling rules, the paper identifies three structural requirements of cool: distinction in the mode of appreciation, performative concealment of effort, and emotional constraint. Taylor Swift violates all three. Through analysis of the Eras Tour, Swift's songwriting, her public persona, and the ritual practices of her fandom, the essay demonstrates that Swift's cultural significance lies not in her popularity but …

The Oppression Of Transgender People Across The World, Dheeraj Swaminathan

Student Scholarship

Spring 2026 SOCI 232: Social Policy and Global Issues course.

This paper will analyze:

1. How do cultural belief systems and biases such as religion affect transgender people and a country’s perception of transgender people?
2. What historical and political context affects the oppression of transgender people as well as the betterment of transgender rights?

Book Review – The Fierce Methodology Of Fierce, Fabulous, And Fluid: How Trans High School Students Work At Gender Nonconformity, Robyn Tomiko

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This book review of Fierce, Fabulous, and Fluid explores the methodological fidelity with which LJ Slovin centers gender non-confirming youth during a year-long ethnographic study in a high school. The focus of this review is on the mechanism of rigorous accountability of teachers that Slovin employs in order to hold themselves and their work accountable to the youth who participated in the study.

The Risk Of Risk, Julia Sinclair-Palm, Lj Slovin

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

For decades, research centered on risk narratives as a strategy to compel safety interventions in schools. In this report, we query the left’s continued attachment to this discursive positioning of trans youth and ask: what are the implications of relying on an articulation of trans youths’ right to exist in relation to risk in order to advocate for resistance? Drawing on queer and trans theory, we argue that research about trans youth is trapped in an understanding of trans youth as victims in need of saving. We desire responses from the left that are not mired in conservative narratives, and …

Why Keep The Lgbtqia+ Acronym Together – "Wouldn't It Just Be Best To Split The Acronym?", Kim Andreassen, Bri Mckenzie, Julian Chen, Wendy Cumming-Potvin

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Drawing on the authors' reflections after hosting a community launch event that shared outcomes from research about LGBTQIA+ inclusion in K-12 education in Western Australia, this report examines the importance of keeping the LGBTQIA+ acronym together, emphasizing its role in promoting inclusion, intersectionality, and equitable education. Global legislative actions targeting gender-diverse and queer youth, such as recent restrictive laws in the United States, threaten the fundamental right to education and undermine efforts toward achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 4 of quality education for all. Utilizing relevant education literature, researchers' reflections and introspective questions, this report stressed the interconnectedness …

From The Field: Lessons From Saskatchewan, J Wallace Skelton, Ashlee Sandiford, Alex Schmidt, Hannah Paul

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Just before the 2023-2024 school year, Saskatchewan enacted transphobic school policy and then legislation. Four Saskatchewan educators describe the ways this legislation has impacted them, their students and their colleagues, and ways they are engaging in resistance through activism, pedagogy and research.

“No (My Parents Can’T Know I’M Trans)…For Now:" Resisting Anti-Transgender Backlash In Schools Through A Policy Experiment, Lee Airton, Mik Turje

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This From the Field account describes an intervention we and our colleagues offered in the Canadian culture war surrounding transgender children and youth, as clinical and research experts on K-12 education policy and supports for transgender youth and their parents. In 2023, following comprehensive review by K-12 school administrators, lawyers and experts in child welfare, we released No For Now (NFN). NFN responded to the impending passage of laws which directly harm transgender youth by essentially forcing them to be outed to potentially unsupportive parents. We suggest that NFN enacts an experimental kind of policy-based resistance to these laws and …

Pride On The Prairie: Resistance As Pedagogy In Oklahoma, Madelyn D. Evans, Ashley Herndon, Sage A. Mauldin

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

With an increasing number of attacks on two-spirit, transgender, queer, and gender non-conforming (2STQGNC) students, it is critical to critique the intersecting systems of oppression that work in tandem to eradicate anyone who does not conform to ‘regimes of normalcy,’ particularly cisheteronormativity. In Oklahoma, legislative assaults are taking place to erase 2STQGNC identities and limit civil rights and civil liberties within K-12 schools. This report examines various oppressive policies, highlights student-led resistance as a pedagogical tool, discusses the reciprocal relationship between student activism and community support, and concludes with recommendations for K-12 Educators and 2STQGNC Students.

Beyond The Binary: Queer And Trans Activism In Ontario French As Second Language (Fsl) Classrooms, Robert Grant, Elm Allister

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Drawing from data from a larger doctoral study, this “from the field” report showcases the activist and pedagogical practices of two queer and trans/nonbinary French as a second language (FSL) teachers in Ontario, Canada. Through detailed accounts from elementary and secondary FSL classrooms, we demonstrate activism through empowering (using students’ pronouns and bringing in multiple identities in pedagogical resources), disrupting (challenging assumptions about "normal" identities and families), and resisting (parents' and stakeholders' homophobic and transphobic rhetoric). Our experiences reveal that proactive, consistent integration of 2SLGBTQIA+ representation throughout the classroom discourse minimizes student resistance, particularly in elementary settings where children readily …

Pedagogies Of Heart/Break: Nurturing Trans Resistance Through Beloved Witnessing, Page Valentine Regan

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This article calls for spiritual activism on behalf of trans young people. Drawing from the narratives and perspectives of a group of trans young adults of Color situated in the Southeastern United States, the author encourages pedagogies of heart/break. Such a pedagogical position requires a service-based orientation to education, rooted in beloved witnessing. Rather than affinity spaces, political action, or cerebral understanding, beloved witnessing may prove to be a more reliable condition for healing and self-actualization, especially in support of a trans of Color future in educational research, practice and places of learning.

Rural School Counselors Supporting Queer Students In The Southeastern United States, Harley Devon Locklear, Damaris Bates

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This article aims to explore the storied experiences of school counselors who actively, overtly and covertly resist the oppression of queer students within rural schools throughout the Southeastern United States. Narrative Inquiry was the research methodology utilized to collect, interpret, and reconstruct these stories, culminating in the synthesization of six overarching themes capturing the factors contributing to and limiting the advocacy efforts of rural school counselors: View of Role, Counselor Self-Efficacy, Stakeholder Push-back, Services Offered, Advocacy Efforts, and Training and University Support. Implications for school counselors, counselor education program, and school administers are also discussed in relation to improving …

Engines For Activism: Gsa Advisors Sparking Student Activism For Lgbtq+ Equity, Elizabeth J. Meyer, Rebecca Grace Kaplan, Erin Kurtz

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This article reports on a study on educators supporting student activism for LGBTQ+ equity in schools. The research questions we address are: What impacts do activist-educators have on the activities of the students in their GSA (Genders & Sexualities Alliance)? In what ways do activist-educators support student activism for LGBTQ+ equity? Based on in-depth interviews with seven educators in Colorado, we use grounded theory to present a conceptual model called “Engines for Activism” (EFA). We share data that explain how student and educator interactions within the space of a student club led by an educator-activist can drive advocacy and activism …

“You Can’T Ban That!”: Lgbtq+ Youth Of Color Speak Back To Book Bans In Utah, Sonny Partola, Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

This article explores how LGBTQ+ youth of color (LGBTQ+ YOC) in Utah perceive anti-LGBTQ+ book bans amid a hostile sociopolitical climate. Drawing from a critical ethnographic study at a public high school, and guided by Queer of Color Critique, we examine how censorship, heteronormativity, and White Christian nationalism shape book bans. Youth participants described such bans as mechanisms of erasure and harm that restrict access to affirming literature and reinforce marginalization, while also revealing contradictions in schools’ promotion of literacy alongside censorship. Despite these harms, participants resisted erasure—asserting visibility, belonging, and intellectual freedom. This study contributes to scholarship on censorship …

Editors’ Introduction: Loud, Proud, Rooted, And Resisting – Activism And Advocacy In Tough Times, Lee Airton, Elizabeth J. Meyer

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

After a (brief) period of time in which movements for equity and justice in K-12 schools had been winning and had seen sustained building for gender and sexual diversity (GSD) justice efforts in schools, calls for queer and trans erasure are not only back but are being instantiated in laws and policies on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, and in other contexts around the world. These efforts, however, come far too late as students are demanding livable queer and trans lives in the schools where they are legally required to spend most of their days, supported by queer and …

Contesting Protection: Digital Moral Discourses On Child Marriage In Bangladesh, Mashaekh Hassan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This thesis examines how child marriage is represented and morally negotiated on the official Facebook page of UNICEF Bangladesh. Drawing on transnational and Third World feminist critiques of development, it uses feminist content and discourse analysis to analyze twenty-five campaign posts and 2,677 comments (May–July 2025) to trace patterns of representation and moral reasoning. The analysis identifies three dominant representational patterns: child marriage as a rural girls’ issue, rural girls as constrained and victimized, and education as a universal solution, collectively producing a homogenized image of vulnerable girlhood. Two clusters of moral discourse emerge: pro–child marriage (privileging religious morality, critiquing …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha Rao

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.