BA, Oberlin College, 2021, Politics

This paper aims to trace the development of carceral feminist politics within United States institutions and feminist movements. I first define and describe Modern Carceral Feminism. I then argue that the development of Modern Carceral Feminism hinged on two different political moments: the development of a homogenous understanding of women's oppression in the second wave feminist movement, and the rising political salience of racialized crime leading to punitive policies nationwide in the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s. As a result, carceral feminist logics became pervasive within institutional and feminist activism against sexual violence. By the 1980s, reactionary feminist anti-violence movements, like the anti-rape movement and the battered women's movement, relied on mostly punitive enforcement and policing. This tradition expanded with federal action against the so-called "campus rape epidemic” solidifying the domination of carceral feminist approaches in the 2010s. I end by highlighting a different kind of feminism, abolition feminism, coined by activist and legal scholar Angela Y. Davis. Learning from Black and POC-led abolition feminist organizations, I find that there are three key elements to activism that works to reduce both interpersonal violence as well as the violence caused by the carceral state.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2015, Educational Leadership

My paper presents the tensions between the concepts of global feminism and transnational feminism and outlines the difficulties and contradictions of inclusions that continue to be characterized by power and hierarchical relationships that present (neo)-colonial tendencies. Attentively listening to the stories told by six women who are or have been through U.S. institutions of higher education, I sought to establish the availability of what I termed “global spaces” where difference is not only tolerated but accepted. The research questions that guide this study are what stories do Southern African women tell about their experiences in U.S. higher education in this era of globalization? What space is available for a healthy conversation that does not perpetuate the “them” “us” dyad that has complicated the formation of a global sisterhood? My theoretical foundations of transnational feminism and postcolonial theory challenge ethnocentrism, and implore curriculum to go beyond Tomlinson's (1991) “zone of intelligibility” to learn, understand and accept our differences. My findings revealed that items of our “experience” are not in and of themselves unique phenomena in experience, but instead they are in relation to some other structures of meaning, in particular, location, space, and time. I also found out that identities can be ascribed due to stigma and stereotype, making it very difficult for some groups to claim a “global space”. Even though migration of women from Southern Africa, the so-called Global South, may cause a traumatic upheaval of dispossession of status, I argue for the possibility of locating oneself in a global context without erasing the cultural specificity of oneself. This study is particularly significant because these women speak of historicizing and denaturalizing the ideas, beliefs, and values of globalization such that the underlying exploitative social relations and structures are m (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2011, French

Since the colonial era, there has been a hierarchy between the colonizers and the colonized nations. Due to this stratification of power between these two groups, a series of conflicts has presented itself and a racist discourse has been used in order to describe the colonies' peoples and cultures. Unfortunately, the women of the former colonies, like Sub-Saharan African women, have particularly suffered due to these interactions. Even in the Western feminist movement, the rhetoric found therein supported this hierarchy and concentrated solely on women's empowerment in the white, Western context. As a result, African women can no longer support this subjugation by the Western woman and have demanded the right of self-representation. Despite the racist past that had formerly defined the interaction between these two groups, these two types of feminisms are starting to reconcile because Western feminist academics are beginning to accept the value of the African perspective. In reality, it is due to this incorporation of the African woman in the development of Western feminist discourse that has allowed her to develop a more positive image that she herself created.

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2024, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

The present study utilized Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in order to examine the lived experiences of young adult, cisgender women and the development of internalized sexism. Eight participants completed semi–structured interviews focused on their relationships with other women and subsequent views of womanhood. Themes found were (a) womanhood is taught by women throughout the lifespan, (b) women are sexually responsible for men, (c) women are emotional caregivers, (d) there are biological bases of womanhood, (e) women are expected to “do it all,” (f) expectations of women are fueled by media portrayal, (g) traditional femininity is seen as oppositional to the feminist movement, and (h) womanhood is a community. The results of the study found that young adult women hold similar beliefs and attitudes surrounding what it means to be a woman. Additionally, young adult women's perceptions of womanhood are similarly influenced by common external factors that stem from society's sexism and misogyny and lead to behaviors of internalized sexism. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2024, Art History (Fine Arts)

The ideology of the Islamic revolution has influenced the representation of Iranian women in photography after the 1979 revolution. Typically, women are portrayed passively, even in fine art photography, and their representation is often isolated and objective. Equality movements for Iranian women's rights have periodically existed in the years after the 1979 Revolution. However, with the expansion of social networks, photography plays a significant role in the representation of Iranian women and in creating an image in contrast to the previously passive Iranian woman who was repressed and socially excluded. The influence of social networks and photography on the representation of women's bodies in Iran can be traced back to 2017, with the repetitive of Vida Movahed's figure, whose photo protesting the mandatory hijab led to the display of similar images. The influence of photography in turning women's figures into memes has expanded in Iran and worldwide, especially after the moral police killed Mahsa Amini in September 2022 over the issue of hijab. Many Iranian women are inspired to join the WLF/Woman, Life, Freedom movement after seeing viral images of other female figures. These images capture the figures of schoolgirls, protesters cutting their hair, and individual female figures that resemble the iconic figure of Vida Movahed. The WLF representatives can be seen in these photos, and the movement continues growing as more women participate. In this research, I analyzed the street photos of the Women, Life, Freedom movement in 2022 using anthropological and interview methods. In addition, interviews with Iranian photographers and their lived experiences show that due to the oppression system of the current regime of Iran regarding the female bodies and femineity, representation of the body was one of the concerns of their art formation. Furthermore, this research analyzes how Western magazines, like Time, portray the visual culture of the Middle East and Iran. (open full item for complete abstract)

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Communication

Scholars have repeatedly found an orgasm gap in heterosexual relationships that show higher rates for men's orgasms compared to females. The current study seeks to examine the pro-women's pleasure discourse on the site OMGYES. Using standpoint, materialist, and pro-sex feminism as a lens, I analyze how the orgasm gap is portrayed on OMGYES as well as how pro-women's pleasure discourse on the site portrays the causes and solutions to the orgasm gap. Findings from analysis show an overall celebration of women's pleasure, anatomy as a tool for women's orgasms, as well as causes (shame, the dominant sexual script, and the need to redefine ‘sex'), and solutions (knowing your body and specific techniques to try, gender labor, and the romance narrative) to the orgasm gap. Findings illustrate how OMGYES' rhetoric de-radicalizes pro-sex feminism by both individualizing and instrumentalizing the orgasm gap.

MA, Kent State University, 2023, College of the Arts / School of Art

The patriarchal structure of education and the lack of political equitability calls for feminist(s) leadership as the opposing structure, where power thrives with the inclusion of others, and is informed by the sharing of others' lived experiences. This study aims to contribute to the active conversation of feminism(s) in the field of art education through a cross-generational examination of feminist(s) narrative experiences. Focusing on qualitative methods such as narrative inquiry, feminist ethnography, and arts-based educational research, data was collected through personal journaling, participant journaling, and a panel interview of six feminist-identifying art educators. The findings presented through data analysis coincide with current feminist(s) art educators' discussion of mentorship or co-mentorship, inclusive leadership and feminist(s) action, deconstruction of patriarchal curriculum, and continuous conversations across generations with a focus on reclaiming the joy and histories of feminism(s).

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2022, English

As The Awakening explores feminist ideals and themes of women's empowerment through the protagonist Edna Pontellier, so too does it highlight the privilege and prejudice both Edna and author Kate Chopin embody as wealthy white women existing within a white supremacist society. In the final scene of the text, as Edna swims out into a sea rich with metaphor and symbolism, reminiscing about an idyllic childhood, to her assumed death, readers are forced to contemplate the impact of the protagonist's death on the feminist ideals set forth in the novel. Through Sara Ahmed's The Promise of Happiness, queer theory, and Black feminist studies, readers are able to imagine a space in which marginalized people can thrive under oppressive social structures hostile to their happiness, present satisfaction, and social progress via beloved community and collaborative advancement, in a way which Kate Chopin and, therefore, Edna could not. Ultimately, Edna's perspective was shaped by the white patriarchal society she was raised under to her detriment, as, I argue, she is limited by the supremacy mindset of her presumed centrality that she is unable to fully escape, leading to her being incapable of imagining a fulfilling life for herself by the end of The Awakening. The novel fails, in my view, to move past the limiting and internalized mindset of patriarchy and the dominant society's conceptions of future-oriented happiness. Ultimately, the ending and Edna's death redefines all feminist themes through the context of Chopin's version of white-centered feminism. I assert that Chopin's participation in white supremacy and investment in the privileges afforded to whiteness, is closely tied to her character, Edna's, resulting death and failure to imagine a future outside of that privileged space.

M.A. (Master of Arts in English), Ohio Dominican University, 2022, English

It becomes important to recognize the root of the issue with labeling a writer or her writings as feminist—which is that the feminine remains the deviation from societal norms and, in order to meet the standard, masculinity is the greatest option. In light of this, rather than use any restrictive terms or labels regarding what kind of poetry is allowed to be labeled as feminist, I continue the argument that any poetry viewed through the perspective of a woman's experiences or as an act of rebellion against a male figure or patriarchal gender roles may be qualified as feminist. Given the definition of “feminist poetry” as outlined above, I believe that this definition can serve as a lens through which readers can view Gluck's poetry. In doing so, scholars will be provided with a specific framework under which Gluck's future work may be critiqued. It is necessary to analyze Gluck's work by putting her speakers in conversation with other major works of the time, such as Betty Friedan's "The Feminist Mystique". In doing so, this will also allow her most recent work to shed new light on her poetry throughout the entirety of her career as analyzed under a feminist lens. Given this, Gluck's poetry can—and should—be regarded amongst the feminist figureheads such as Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich due to both the historical context of her poetry as well as the repeated motifs and female-centered narratives throughout her entire body of work.

Doctor of Musical Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Music

The following document discusses Katherine Hoover's Clarinet Concerto (1987), while setting the Concerto in context with the rich history of women in classical music, jazz, and feminist theory. It traces the intersection of history, feminism, and genre, discussing feminist theory and its application to music. Flutist and composer Katherine Hoover (1937-2018) was a world-renowned composer, known for her elegant and intense style for wind instruments, primarily the flute. Her repertoire for clarinet is not only versatile, but virtuosic, and explores a wide variety of genres, from jazz to Greek folk song. The Clarinet Concerto (1987), written for jazz clarinetist Eddie Daniels, is a powerful work, which presents challenges both with traditional performance and jazz-based improvisation. An in-depth biographical sketch of Katherine Hoover is provided, documenting her development from a young student with limited music education, into a world-renowned artist and composer. Also included is a brief history of women composers and performers in both classical music and in jazz, along with biographical sketches of historic jazz clarinetists and their impact on the genre. Finally, the Clarinet Concerto is explored as a performance guide, including tips on improvisation for those who might be uncomfortable with the medium. The Clarinet Concerto is promoted herein for clarinetists, not only for its invaluable musical elements that blend jazz and classical sounds, but for its reflection of a feminist work that has helped to shape music today.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2021, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

This research aims to insert the theory of gendered space into the narrative history of the American settlement movement by analyzing how settlement residents manipulated private spaces to engage in Progressive-Era politics. Hull House, the first settlement home, is used as a case study to demonstrate how female settlement residents utilized the settlement home as a hybrid public-private space to legitimize their social reform activities in urban areas. By embracing gendered spaces and cultural feminist beliefs about the natural role of women, settlement residents were able to effectively bargain for a more active role and voice in political life. Despite the social and political gains female settlement residents were able to achieve, their approach has been widely criticized by feminist scholars, since the embracing of gendered spaces and essentialist female traits continues to inhibit women from breaking free from structural forms of patriarchy.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, History (Arts and Sciences)

Betty Friedan and her landmark manifesto, "The Feminine Mystique," have a complex and challenging history. In 1963, the book roused countless women from domestic slumber, leading to the transformation of the social fabric of the United States. Despite the book's influence, much of Friedan's intellectual legacy, the core of which is identity, grounded in liberal, mid-century values, has been lost or forgotten. Fully understanding Friedan's ideas requires a fresh look at the historical and intellectual forces that shaped her thinking. Sigmund Freud, existentialism, humanist psychology, and mid-century liberalism all influenced Friedan and her vision for women's liberation from the “mystique.” Modern feminism, however, differs significantly from Friedan's original vision, detailed in "The Feminine Mystique." The feminist pursuit of identity eclipsed Friedan's liberal vision and prescription for gender equality, leading to divisive and illiberal consequences. "The Lost Legacy of Liberal Feminism" traces this development, following the thread of identity from the intellectuals who influenced Friedan, to the message of "The Feminine Mystique," to the birth of identity politics. Despite having begun as a movement intended to bridge gaps in the liberal democratic promise, by the end of the 1960s the women's movement took a troubling turn, contributing to the current state of identity politics that threatens the gender equality Friedan sought to achieve.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Although Latinx communities are highly concerned with the environment, there is a lack of scholarship on Latinx environmentalism. Mainstream environmentalism is founded on a history of colonialism and racism, and thus this dissertation argues that Latinx communities have an environmentalism that is oppositional to the mainstream by acknowledging histories of colonialism and white supremacy. With growing concern about climate crisis in the public eye, this dissertation examines various types of Latinx creative expression, from music and poetry to photography and jewelry making, in order to explore oppositional environmentalism among Latinx communities. One musician, Lido Pimienta, constructs an embodied sense of environmentalism in her music videos, speeches, and performances that is built on her own experiences, and the history of her Afro-Indigenous communities. Young Latinx reporters and photographers for small regional presses in California use their photography and essays to present an alternative foundation for fighting drought conditions--one that is a critique of a capitalist view of water as a resource. The comics of Breena Nunez center Afro-Latinx queer people while imagining a different world where environmentalism rejects environmental fascism wholeheartedly. Finally, interviews with artists April Montiel and Aideed Medina discuss the importance of art in environmentalism, and the role the creative process has in fighting for a better future.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2020, English/Literature

The Western patented term `feminism' adds another layer to the hegemony of white solipsism in a way that supplants other subjectivities in women's struggles around the world. However, the emergence of Third World feminisms initiated the necessary process of separating idea feminism from label feminism. The latter bears the insignias of Western feminist principles whereas the former denotes universal dialogic principles of amending strained relations between sexes in a bid to restore equity and balance along political, economic, and sociocultural lines. This thesis recenters idea-feminism in the context of the Nigerian society with a primary focus on the Yoruba people of Southwest Nigeria. Using African cosmology and African oral literature as theoretical insights, I read Ayobami Adebayo's Stay With Me and Lola Shoneyin's The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives to understand the nature of myths and myth-making. A body of conventional, yet unwritten laws, myths sanction the modalities for discipline and punishment in the most subtle ways that hide the horror of the violence they perform. Stay With Me and The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives portray the precarious situations of the lives of the modern Nigerian/Yoruba women in marriage as it relates to myths about children, barrenness, and fidelity, but the most significant import of these texts lies in the agency of the female protagonists. Although cultural expectations weigh heavily on both men and women, women carry additional burdens of oppression, tangential to what Angela Davis (1981) calls “the deformed equality of equal oppression” (Davis 8). Building on the notion of gender dialogue, this thesis interprets African feminism as a dialogic and expands on the vernacularism framework of Womanism to theorize gender relations in Nigeria. This work contends that the most significant breakthrough in the women's movement in Africa will not be where women merely fill the parliament or occupy the highest seat of power in t (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Theatre

The Harlem Renaissance and New Negro Movement is a well-documented period in which artistic output by the black community in Harlem, New York, and beyond, surged. On the heels of Reconstruction, a generation of black artists and intellectuals—often the first in their families born after the thirteenth amendment—spearheaded the movement. Using art as a means by which to comprehend and to reclaim aspects of their identity which had been stolen during the Middle Passage, these artists were also living in a time marked by the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and segregation. It stands to reason, then, that the work that has survived from this period is often rife with political and personal motivations. Male figureheads of the movement are often remembered for their divisive debate as to whether or not black art should be politically charged. The public debates between men like W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke often overshadow the actual artistic outputs, many of which are relegated to relative obscurity. Black female artists in particular are overshadowed by their male peers despite their significant interventions. Two pioneers of this period, Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966) and Eulalie Spence (1894-1981), will be the subject of my thesis. Both artists, whose work is in close conversation, were innovators in their field. In this thesis I will argue that black women like Johnson and Spence were true innovators during the Harlem Renaissance/New Negro Movement despite the fact that men like Locke and Du Bois are often seen as its figureheads. Johnson and Spence are salient examples for two key reasons. First, their work represents a false dichotomy—art vs. propaganda—which I will endeavor to refute. Second, their work, despite its differences, engages with many of the same themes related to feminism and intersectionality. While there has been an influx of research into the lives and work of such women as Johnson and Spence in recent years, my aim is to furthe (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, History

This dissertation comparatively analyzes the role of Islam, secularism and reform in the development of feminism in Egypt and Turkey in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. Based on two years of archival research in Turkey, Egypt, and the United Kingdom, my work establishes a dialogue between Turkish and Egyptian feminisms, compares secular and Islamic trends within them, and takes stock of their interactions with and resistances to western feminisms. As the modern period opened, what are now Turkey and Egypt were still parts of the multiethnic Ottoman Empire. The main center of Turkish-language cultural production was Istanbul, and the main center of Arabic-language cultural production was Cairo. The feminist movements of the region developed accordingly. I argue that in Turkey, feminist endeavors gradually carved out a congenial secular space—bypassing religion, or at least loosening the rigid understandings of Islam—where older traditions and more modern structures continued to coexist but with little connection between them. In contrast, Egyptian feminists' modes of approach and analysis tended to conform to traditional and legalistic norms that governed the discussion of the women's role in society. Although Egyptian feminist thought expanded with concepts like humanism and secularism, these concepts were constantly and carefully modulated with a native, vernacular, Islamic discourse. The material that I present in this dissertation suggests that in societies with a strong heritage of secular liberal reform, wherein progressive tradition is engineered by intellectual and official cadres, such as in the Ottoman center and in the Turkish Republic, feminism becomes a state-centric political project and an intellectual exercise in which more conservative manifestations of feminism are side-lined for the sake of a swift rate of progress. But in societies with a strong heritage of Islamically grounded modernization and social advances, such as in Eg (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Popular Culture

This postcolonial feminist analysis of Agatha Christie novels uses the activity of tourism. In order to narrow the study of Christie's work, I concentrated on Western tourists (mainly English and American) in non-Western locations such as the Middle East, the Caribbean, and South Africa. The tourists are of different social classes, but by narrowing these white Westerners by activity and behaviors performed according to that activity my research provides a more targeted approach. Focusing on The Man in the Brown Suit, Appointment with Death, Death on the Nile, Caribbean Mystery, and They Came to Baghdad, which have specifically tourist interactions with locals and tour workers, my research shows not only Orientalist attitudes presented by the protagonists and narrators, but also how such perspectives are questioned by those they other in the stories. Examining the behaviors of tourists through a postcolonial feminist lens illuminates the subject of gendered orientalism and imperial feminism¿Western women are championed, often at the expense of people of color. Christie's life experiences, especially those related to her second husband's archaeological work in the Middle East, challenged some of her views on the superiority of the British empire and that played out in her books. Therefore, while her older protagonists like Miss Marple remained conservative and hierarchical, Victoria Jones from They Came to Baghdad could see a commonality with the people of Iraq beyond race and culture. Although they never took center stage, the people of color spoke back to the Westerners in a number of her novels, thus rupturing their perceived lack of agency. Christie's work may romanticize the bygone days of British power, but there are enough cracks of modernity to allow the Other to shine through.

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2017, Political Science

This paper examines the strategies by which the American Muslim community seeks to normalize its presence within mainstream American culture, and assesses how the social and moral customs of liberal society are internalized and operationalized by American Muslims as orthopraxy, or correct practice and conduct. Recent trends by American Muslims toward “inclusivity,” particularly as it requires the prioritization of non-religious, social and/or political understandings of the function and purpose of the hijab, will form the primary focus of this examination. What has become increasingly prevalent is the use of non-religious language pertaining to the hijab, particularly as a religious symbol functioning in and engaging with the public sphere. The central argument will demonstrate exactly how and why the hijab, a key religious symbol, and being a “hijabi,” (an identifier of women who wear the hijab) is being liberalized (and consequently secularized). This liberalization and secularization of the hijab result from the increasing appeal by American Muslim public figures to individualism, autonomy, and other liberal sensibilities over established theological edicts when making sense of why they cover and what it means to cover.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1981, Graduate School

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2016, English

Mediums and Their Material investigates how late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century women mediums interrupt and re-contour discourses of the body—biologically, medically, textually—through their representations of technological and spiritual contact. Recent critics have regarded women as particularly suited for mediating communication, be it through technological devices such as the typewriter or telegraph, or spiritualist practices like the seance or automatic writing. What made these women's bodies so viable for these ends, scholars have noted, was the ubiquitous perception at the turn of the century that the female body possesses “natural” feminine qualities: passivity, moral refinement, spiritual superiority, and sympathy. Developed out of the supposed weakness of the female body, this critical attention on the social construction of femininity and women's mediation has, to this point, eschewed any discussion of mediums' actual bodies and the agency those bodies might express. Where most critical discussions of mediation explore the gender lines that qualify, or circumscribe, the female medium's agency and the vulnerability afforded her by her passive qualities, my project takes a material feminist approach to develop an alternative reading of female mediation that retrieves the female body from paternalistic, patriarchal, and racist constructions, and demonstrates how female mediums' bodies and their organic function operate as powerful sites of agency. Contributing to both material feminist conversations and the fields of Victorian and Modernist studies more generally by looking closely at the materiality of the bodies employed in spiritual and technological mediation, Mediums and Their Material imagines women mediums and their technological and spiritualist experiences as working in their own time to promote their economic and political development—through authorship, women's rights movements, and other systems of knowledge conveyance.