Psy. D., Antioch University, 2015, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

This dissertation focused on capturing and describing the experience of sexuality for women between the ages of 65 and 75 as they live in American society. The main research question asks how these women gain awareness, perceive, and react to the stereotypes, assumptions, expectations, and negative images associated with their sexuality. The participants completed a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview with the principal researcher. Information was gathered about age, relationships, family history, employment, and sexuality. In the interview general and specific questions were asked relating to sexuality in order to answer the research questions. The data from these was analyzed to answer the research questions. The short term goal of this research was to gain understanding and inform the field of psychology and the public about the experience of the studied population. Another goal was to outline possible implications of the findings for clinical practice and future research. The data collected was able to answer questions related to how social influences played a role in the lives of older women. The electronic version of the dissertation is accessible at the Ohiolink ETD center http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Sharleen O'Brien Psy.D (Committee Chair); Bella DePaulo Ph.D (Committee Member); Whitney Dunbar Psy.D (Other); Susan Kolod Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Gender Studies; Psychology; Social Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2013, Counselor Education (Education)

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) are at a greater risk for victimization when compared to individuals without disabilities (Petersilia, 2001; Sobsey, 1994) and individuals with other types of disabilities (Harrel & Rand, 2010). In 2008, approximately 34,000 individuals with cognitive impairments in the U.S. were victims of non-fatal violent crime, with approximately 1,500 incidents classified as rape or sexual assault (Harrell & Rand, 2010). Sexuality education and safety training are tools suggested by researchers and practitioners to decrease vulnerability to victimization for individuals with ID (e.g., Champagne & Walker-Hirsh, 1993; Planned Parenthood, 2009; Sobsey, 1994). Peer-to-peer training is one method of safety and sexuality education for specific populations of children and adults with disabilities (Bullard & Wallace, 1978; Orzeck, 1984; Utley et al., 2001). However, there is a no published literature regarding this peer-to-peer safety and sexuality training for adults with ID. This exploratory qualitative case study provided new information on peer-to-peer safety and sexuality training for individuals with ID. Naturalistic, qualitative inquiry is beneficial for examining novel concepts, therefore qualitative methods were employed for the current study. The study presented a bounded case analysis of the peer-to-peer safety and sexuality training provided by individuals with ID at The Thomas Adventures in Lifelong Learning (TALL) Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio, using individual interviews, observations of peer-to-peer trainings, and analysis of the safety and sexuality curriculum. This case study is a rich, thick description of the peer-to-peer safety and sexuality training provided by individuals with ID at The TALL Institute. The central research questions were: 1) What is the peer-to-peer safety and sexuality training program at The TALL Institute? 2) How do students at The TALL Institute describe their experiences as peer-t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Mona Robinson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Yegan Pillay Ph.D. (Committee Member); Scott Sparks Ph.D. (Committee Member); Adah Ward Randolph Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Counseling Education; Counseling Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Psychology; Rehabilitation; School Counseling; Special Education

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2024, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Human sexuality is a basic foundation of the human experience. In graduate school for psychology, students are often taught about sexuality in terms of gender identity and sexual orientation. However, there is a lack of education around sexual functioning in terms of sexual wellbeing, arousal, and disorders. Many psychologists are licensed as general practice clinicians but only a small percentage of psychologists have training in human sexuality. However, many generalist psychologists hold a caseload of couples and individuals who are experiencing sexual concerns. Due to the limited training, therapists are less likely to assist clients in therapy around sexual concerns. Social-cognitive theory can be used to conceptualize how having access to sexuality training in graduate school might increase a therapist's self-efficacy to assist clients in therapy. Making it mandatory for all therapists to have human sexuality training would provide insight into a component of the human experience that is often overlooked. The current study expanded on previous research by collecting data regarding whether or not APA accredited graduate programs offered a human sexuality course. Data were collected from program directors and department chairs programs via surveys. The study found that of the 47 programs who responded, fewer than 10 programs offered a human sexuality course and only one had a mandatory course. This means that despite the existing research supporting the benefits for human sexuality training for psychologists, there are still many clinicians entering the workforce without human sexuality training. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Kathi Borden Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Nancy Ruddy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Gina Pasquale Psy.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2021, Film Studies (Fine Arts)

Scholarship regarding mythic narrative structures use predominately male-centered narratives to analyze male-centered heteronormative films in American popular cinema. In such mythic narratives, women are usually a destination for nurture, or a trophy for the male conqueror. This, in turn, condenses scholarship to analyze films within the structures of male-centered, heteronormative, mythic narratives. Consequently, this leaves women-centered mythic structures vastly understudied and underutilized when analyzing films that pertain to women's cinema and queer cinema. The objective of my thesis is to infuse women-centered mythology with cinematic discourse. In particular, my thesis seeks to reclaim and reshape the myth of Lilith to be used as a narrative structure to analyze women-centered films in queer cinema in ways that examine both the sexual oppression and sexual pleasure of lesbian sexuality.

Committee: Erin Schlumpf S. (Advisor); Ofer Eliaz (Committee Member); Brian Collins (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Folklore; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2016, English

Imagine if This Were in Comic Sans is a collection of poems that acts as an exploration of scripted womanhood and sexuality as well as an examination of the physical and emotional body as a site of both trauma and desire. With no formal sections, the collection is composed of poems along with sparse images and cellphone screenshots that deal with the admiration of viscera, tortured movements through the mundane, and the warped filters trauma presses upon women's desires. As a corrective to the assumptions that equate women's emotional expression with melodrama and sentimentality, the work adopts a deliberately melodramatic, even grotesque tonality. The conversational style of the speaker in these poems is intended to solicit the reader's empathy and/or identification with painful, sometimes shocking issues, traumas, and desires. Visuals added throughout embody the social, sexual subconscious that surrounds the speaker.

Committee: Cathy Wagner (Committee Chair) Subjects: Gender Studies; Mental Health; Multimedia Communications; Personal Relationships; Psychology; Recreation; Theater

MEd, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Education : Health Promotion and Education

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between sexual knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of college students based upon the approach to sexuality education they received in Junior and Senior High School. Healthy People 2010 addressed the need for prevention of STIs and encouraged health educators to provide needed information to obtain the intended goals. Student participants from the Behavioral Sciences Department at Raymond Walters College were surveyed regarding their sexual knowledge, sexual attitudes, sexual behaviors, and sexuality education received in junior high or high school. Total students surveyed were 372. The instrument contained 14 sexual knowledge items, 18 sexual attitude items and 4 sexual behavior items. The participants were asked to distinguish their sexuality education received between abstinence-focused sexuality education and comprehensive sexuality education. Few statistical differences were seen in sexual knowledge, sexual attitudes and sexual behavior dependent upon the type of sexuality education received. Results demonstrate the need for more research and a redevelopment of current sexuality education programs in the schools. This should be covered under the auspices of Health/Physical Education programs in school, with the same clarity as nutrition and hygiene.

Committee: Randall Cottrell (Committee Chair); Amy Bernard (Committee Member) Subjects: Health Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2011, American Culture Studies/Communication

This dissertation considers how heterosexual women's sexual pleasure was negotiated in the popular and underground press in the 1970s, focusing particularly on two virtually unexamined parts of U.S. culture: sex magazines for women and woman-authored underground comics. Publications such as Playgirl, Viva, and Foxylady reveal essential differences between sex magazines for men and those for women, particularly how each type of publication addressed its readers through editorial content as well as advertising and marketing. Through the marketing of male centerfolds for women, women were asked to consider their sexual appetites for men's bodies as equivalent to those of heterosexual men for women's bodies. This project argues that sex magazines for women offered an evolving narrative of sexual liberation that was intrinsically wedded to, and in constant conversation with, the women's movement. Playgirl and its competitors strategically embraced some of the tenets and language of the women's movement while generally refusing to support the movement as a whole. This dissertation examines how the visibility and cultural influence of the women's movement encouraged male magazine publishers to employ women editors as spokespersons. These women wrote often of sexual liberation, but they avoided engaging in any systematic critique of male power in society or heterosexual relationships. The final chapters take a broader view of the publishing industry and women's sexuality in the 1970s. They examine representations of women's sexuality in woman-authored underground comics, publications with titles such as Tits and Clits and Wet Satin, and the impact of these representations on sexual culture in the United States. It argues that woman-authored underground comics exemplify approaches to sexual imagery and women's sexuality that emerged out of feminist consciousness. The authors of these comics negotiated their own brand of feminist sexuality and their work is indicative of wha (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Leigh Ann Wheeler (Advisor); Gary Oates (Committee Member); Vivian Patraka (Committee Member); Donald McQuarie (Committee Co-Chair); William Albertini (Committee Member) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2008, Psychology/Clinical

A number of religious teachings and spiritually-integrated literature supports viewing sexuality, particularly marital sexuality, as having divine character and significance, and such perceptions of sanctification may facilitate healthy couple functioning. However, few empirical links have been documented among sexuality, marriage, and religion (e.g., Young et al., 1998). Studies on sanctification within the family have focused on the sanctification of marriage (Mahoney et al., 1999) and sexual intercourse in loving relationships (Murray-Swank et al., 2005). This study extends empirical exploration of the sanctification of marital sexuality. Among a sample of 83 newly married individuals, higher sanctification of marital sexuality was positively correlated with greater sexual and marital satisfaction, sexual and spiritual intimacy, investment in the sexual bond, and positive and negative religious coping. Higher sanctification also related to less global distress from sexual difficulties. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that sanctification of marital sexuality contributed an additional 1% to 17% of the variance in sexual, psychological, and spiritual criteria after accounting for demographic variables and conventional religiousness, with total variances accounted for by the regression models ranging from 28%-53%. Further analysis of two subscales of sanctification revealed that perceiving marital sexuality as sacred tended to contribute to significant variance over and above the perception of marital sexuality as a manifestation of God. Correlations between sanctification and sexual and non-sexual processes have implications for continued research and support the integrated assessment of religion and sexuality in marital therapy.

Committee: Annette Mahoney (Advisor); Kenneth Pargament (Committee Member); Anne Gordon (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Arts and Sciences: Sociology

Sociologists have dedicated considerable attention to studying occupational inequality. However, they focus predominantly on the external causes and neglect to look in-depth at how socialized differences in preferences contribute. Further, the sociological attention to leisure inequality has mostly dropped off. In this dissertation, I argue that sociological understanding of occupational inequality can inform research on video games, a relatively new form of leisure and that this field can present multiple unique insights into occupational inequality. This research uses a mixed-method dataset collected in 2023, consisting of 4,271 survey participants and 53 interviews to illustrate the overlap between these two seemingly unrelated fields by using occupational inequality frameworks to explore video game inequity. In Chapter 2, I use occupational prestige and the gendered pay gap to understand how video games are differentially prestigious and how gamers are afforded disparate social capital. I find that video games have a relatively stable prestige hierarchy that seems to be shaped by gender. Games associated with women, queer people, and children are viewed as lesser than their masculine counterparts. In Chapter 3, I use pink-collar careers and college major selection to understand whether the same forces that shape women's participation in work also shape their selection into certain video game genres. I find that the same factors that structure women's preferences for certain types of work also explain some of the women's preferences for genres. Finally, in Chapter 4, using gendered carework expectations and the second shift, I illustrate that gender not only shapes selection into game genres but also into individual work roles within video games. I find that women, feminine, and feminized groups disproportionately select into roles that are characterized by carework and subordinated as being less difficult than their masculinized counterparts. These thre (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeffrey Timberlake Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kishonna Gray Ph.D. (Committee Member); Katherine Jones Ph.D. (Committee Member); Erynn Casanova Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Undergraduate Honors Program, Malone University, 2025, Honors Thesis

This study aims to gain a better understanding of the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) Christians and their experiences within Protestant evangelical contexts. Throughout nine interviews, this study gained insight into the process by which participants formed their identity, supportive and unsupportive experiences within family systems and faith communities, and explored implications for both faith communities and relationships. This study notes the importance of policy transparency, creating inclusive spaces, using inclusive language, and advocating for LGB communities in a public manner—however that looks in one's specific faith context. This research highlights specific ways in which readers can support LGB people when they disclose their identity to individuals in their lives. Finally, for individuals and faith communities looking to create more hospitable spaces for LGB individuals, the results of this study point towards maintaining a posture of humility and open-mindedness as LGB individuals share their stories and their experiences within faith communities.

Committee: Elizabeth Patterson Roe (Committee Chair); Andrew Reynolds (Committee Member); Marcia Everett (Committee Member); Kathryn Huisinga (Other) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Glbt Studies; Personal Relationships; Religion; Social Research; Social Work; Spirituality

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1968, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1971, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1965, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Antioch New England: Marriage and Family Therapy

The double bind of Black womanhood has been long documented in Black feminist literature. This dissertation seeks to greatly contextualize how Black women experience make sense of, and heal from, sexual trauma given the nature of gendered racism in the United States (U.S). Utilizing a convergent parallel design grounded in Black Feminist Theory and hermeneutic phenomenology, the lived experiences of 98 Black women from across the U.S. were investigated. Regression analyses revealed that the frequency of gendered racial microaggressions and the associated appraisal were not significant predictors of participants' PTSD symptoms. Additionally, PTSD symptoms were inversely predictive of current perceptions of healing and healing progress. A mediation effect of negative alterations in cognitions and mood on the relationship between sexual objectification, specific to Black women, and progress in healing was also evident. Gendered racism did moderate the relationship between PTSD symptoms and perceived healing at the lowest point but not healing progress. The major themes that emerged from the interviews included “Negative Consequences of Sexual Assault,” “Pathways of Healing,” “Barriers to Help and Justice-Seeking,” “Dimensions of Racial-Ethnic Socialization,” and “Dimensions of Gendered Racial Socialization.” Combined, these findings highlight the unique sociocultural and historical context of Black female survivorship and amplify the necessity for clinicians to integrate Black feminist therapeutic praxis to inform treatment assessment, goal, and intervention. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu/) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Kevin Lyness Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Denzel Jones Ph.D. (Committee Member); DeAnna Harris-McKoy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; Black History; Black Studies; Counseling Psychology; Ethnic Studies; Mental Health; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Quantitative Psychology; Social Research; Social Work; Therapy; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2024, History

This thesis argues for an interdisciplinary examination of the origins and subsequent appearance of the Wassermann blood test, the first test developed for detecting syphilis, in eugenics initiatives and medicolegal mandates. When this seemingly impartial medical tool intersected with preexisting social and cultural biases regarding syphilis its story became one of blood purity initiatives for the preservation and proliferation of white normativity. Reframing the Wassermann as more than a passive medical tool highlights how ostensibly impartial medical processes can produce institutional violence in masculinized spaces of control. While the Wassermann offered a source of hope for protecting against syphilitic infection, in application, the serodiagnostic tool served as a source of scientific validation when misapplied as a quantifiable method for justifying medicolegal interventions in the 20th century US. This examination traces the bioethical legacy of the Wassermann from its 1906 development in Berlin to its appearance in eugenics-based legal mandates in the US. Through an analysis of scientific publications and court records at archives across the East Coast this paper centers those who didn't benefit from the Wassermann and investigates how scientific authority derived from an imperfect diagnostic test was harnessed to reproduce and reinforce the sociocultural biases that linger today.

Committee: Kimberly Hamlin (Advisor); Madelyn Detloff (Committee Member); Amanda McVety (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; European History; Gender; History; Law; Medical Ethics; Medicine; Public Health; Science History; Technology; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Sociology

Recent cohorts are more likely to identify as bisexual than ever before, surpassing those identifying as gay or lesbian. Moreover, bisexual people make up nearly 50 percent of the sexual minority population and are the fastest-growing sexual minority group in the U.S. today. Despite the growing population of bisexual people, there are significant gaps in our understanding of bisexual people's identity formation and development. Drawing on a queer theory approach and in-depth interview data from 25 bisexual-identified young adults, I ask the following research questions: 1) How do bisexual young adults gain an understanding of their sexuality? And 2) How do bisexual young adults understand their sexuality in the context of other identities such as race/ ethnicity and gender identity? Results suggest that for the participants in my study, seeing and interacting with queer people, spaces, and media, provided them representation to draw from. Queer people, spaces, and media all served as exposing mechanisms for the bisexual people I spoke with, allowing them to discover and form their own sexual identity based on the representation provided. Through examining sexual identity within the context of intersecting dimensions of identity such as race/ ethnicity, gender identity, and relationship context, this thesis informs discussions surrounding identity for bisexual young adults, highlighting the distinctive experiences of bisexual young adults.

Committee: Rin Reczek (Advisor); Cindy Colen (Committee Member); Rachel Dwyer (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation explores Spanish autobiographies in the form graphic narratives, together with my own autobiography. It addresses mental and physical health in three Spanish graphic novels through two queer autobiographies, Roberta Marrero's 2016 El bebe verde (The Green Baby, 2016) and Juan Naranjo's 2020 Mariquita (Sissy, 2020), and a “special needs' parents' memoir” entitled Una posibilidad (A Chance, 2016). While chapter 1 addresses the authors' experiences during childhood through early adulthood to come to terms with the incapacitating heteronormative ideal, chapter 2 tackles the difficulties in understanding and sharing the perspective of a three-year-old with a cognitive disability such as cerebral palsy. Eventually, my autobiography pays attention to, on the one hand, gender and sexuality, and illness and disability, on the other. As I approach my gender and sexual identities, I explore how these intersect with different diagnoses, including, but not limited to, depression and Cystic Fibrosis in COVID-19 times. This dissertation shows the importance of understanding how society influences how people identify themselves, in addition to proving that there is an expectation of being cis and heterosexual (Rich), and able-bodied (Ruer). In the analysis of these visual and verbal representations of gender, sexuality, and disability, as well as in the autobiography, I demonstrate that these given situations are worsened through the incapacitating society that rejects queer and disabled populations. As I address many instances of repudiation, I can exemplify how these lived experiences are dismissed and aggravated.

Committee: Eugenia Romero (Advisor); Jorge Pérez (Committee Member); Ana del Sarto (Committee Member); Laura Podalsky (Advisor) Subjects: European Studies; Foreign Language; Gender Studies; Literature; Mental Health

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2024, English

This paper analyzes the manner in which poetry written by Black queer-identifying men portrays gender, sexuality, and masculinity. Black queer men were and continue to be one of the groups most affected by social and cultural scrutiny. The poetry produced by queer black men tells of the intersecting ideals of racism, expectations of masculinity, and the homophobia that directly impacts the ways in which Black queer men exist in any space. I believe this poetry allows for insight into safety and agency. Throughout my research of the poetry chosen, it became obvious to me that forcing gendered ideals onto these Black men requires assimilation and controlled conformity, emphasizing that intersectional bonds cannot be ignored. I argue that if queer Black men are to exist, they must be stereotypically “queer” in the way that the poems have depicted; within the poetry I have analyzed, they must feed into stereotypes, hide their queerness, or they must escape the bonds of heteronormative expectations. The poetry depicts their sexuality and gender as a performance, a dance of survival Black queer men must practice and execute regularly in order to be visible in both racial and queer society. The performance of stereotypical queerness expressed within the poetry of Black queer male poets exemplifies the way in which queerness enables modes of survival.

Committee: David Fine (Advisor); Adam Williams (Committee Member); Thomas Morgan (Committee Member) Subjects: African Literature; Literature; Performing Arts

Bachelor of Science of Media Arts and Studies (BSC), Ohio University, 2024, Media Arts and Studies

This thesis essay describes the research, process, preparation, and production of an animated short film that presents feminist theory and the creator's experiences with womanhood through the medium of animation.

Committee: Beth Novak (Advisor); Wolfgang Suetzl (Advisor) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender Studies

MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

My thesis discusses the history of gender and sexuality politics in postcolonial Zimbabwe. It utilizes the convening of Christianity and politics to explore how these areas of public life combined to influence different perceptions towards gender and sexuality identities. The background appraises the impact of African Traditional Religion (ATR) during the colonial period and the changes ushered in by Western Christianity. During this time of colonial conquest, ATR was the cornerstone of all the sectors of life including politics. This included the worshiping of God through nature and ancestral spirits. Reincarnation was a very prominent practice of the colonial Zimbabwe ATR, also known as the Mwari cult. The concept of reincarnation was considered an effective way of communicating with the dead through the Masvikiro (spirit mediums) who transmitted information, requests for rains, or prayers for healing and harvest to Mwari or Unkulunkulu (God). Masvikiro gained popularity as the quest for nationalism continuously shaped every aspect of colonial Zimbabwe especially in the anti-colonial protest of 1896-97 Chimurenga (war of independence). Although there was transition in religion since the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial period where ATR's prominence began to diminish due to the absorption of western doctrines, all the three historic phases elaborate how religion was shaped by the prevailing situations until it became a chief cornerstone of every aspect of the postcolonial economy. As a result of colonialism, a significant number of people converted to Christianity. My thesis, therefore, serves to confirm the existence of a continued influence of religion in politics. It reexamines the various ways in which a combination of religion and politics affected the perceptions of gender and sexuality identities. This pinpoints dimensions in which gender identities were understood and perceived in independent Zimbabwe and most significantly how these changed through (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Timothy Scarnecchia (Advisor); Kenneth Bindas (Committee Member); Richard Steigmann-Gall (Committee Member) Subjects: African History; African Studies; Bible; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious History; Spirituality