Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Popular Culture

Popular culture is rife with stereotypes of sex workers. One of the most common, the sex worker with a heart of gold, has many iterations as a classic literary trope (Rahab from Judeo-Christian literature) and has now evolved into twenty-first-century television and film (Moulin Rouge! and Firefly). These stereotypes are largely affected by class, race, disability, gender, and sexuality, are often subjected to gendered violence and sexualization, and are narratively limited by their relationship with male protagonists. The sex worker with a heart of gold also maintains some similarities regardless of genre. This thesis examines the trope within westerns and romantic films.

Committee: Becca Cragin Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Sarah Rainey-Smithback Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jeffrey Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Media; Womens Studies

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch Santa Barbara: Clinical Psychology

The purpose of this research study is to identify the ways in which recently passed anti-sex-trafficking laws, Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) affect the community of consensual sex workers. Due to the well-documented history of statistical violence against sex workers, the goal of this research is to explore appropriate methods to better support this marginalized community while approaching it through a phenomenological lens. Conducting qualitative interviews with sex workers who operate in a diverse range of sex work services, four significant themes were identified regarding the ways in which they endorsed being affected by FOSTA/SESTA. The effects of FOSTA/SESTA reported in these interviews were discovered to be (a) a lack of autonomy, (b) a decrease in online accessibility for resources, (c) emphasis on the need for the decriminalization of sex work, and (d) a lack of positive benefits received in response to these anti-trafficking bills. These recorded findings are intended to add to the body of literature regarding the sex worker experience in the United States and provide an academic platform for the voices of those who make the autonomous decision to pursue this realm of criminalized work. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu/) and Ohio Link ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Brett Kia-Keating EdD (Committee Chair); Stephen Southern EdD (Committee Co-Chair); Eric Sprankle PsyD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Counseling Psychology; Demographics; Gender; Glbt Studies; Mental Health; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Public Policy; Social Research; Therapy; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2020, Anthropology

This research investigates political and economic issues of inequality and unemployment in Uganda, as manifested in one informal settlement in Kabalagala, and the effect of these issues on HIV. Uganda is one important site to study the intersections of inequality, formal sector unemployment, urbanization, and HIV/AIDS. Contemporary inequality and formal sector unemployment are driven by colonial policies that shaped urban stratification, and postcolonial policies that privileged economic growth over job creation. A central goal was to understand men's risk of HIV in the context of these and other structural and social drivers of risk. This research used an explanatory sequential mixed methods study design, including a pilot study (2016), survey pre-test (2017), and 12 months of fieldwork that began with survey data collection (N = 292) and ended with in-depth interviews (n = 54, a subset of the survey sample). Survey data were analyzed using multiple linear regression, and interview data and field notes were analyzed through thematic analysis. Quantitative data described the patterning of risky sexual behavior (e.g. HIV risk), while qualitative data expanded on these relationships and helped to clarify areas of contention. Men in this study have lower rates of HIV testing, compared to national averages. Men also frequently report defaulting on ART, once they do receive a positive diagnosis and begin treatment. Inequality and unemployment impact their daily lives through experiences of uncertainty that must be managed. Economic instability is important, and when men cannot access resources, they are likely to engage in a variety of strategies to improve their economic status. Men also face myriad vulnerabilities driven by the political-economic context, from housing instability to incarceration. This work contributes to the anthropological literature on the political economy of health, HIV, vulnerability, and social resilience. Men's experiences of HIV and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Janet McGrath Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lee Hoffer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jill Korbin Ph.D. (Committee Member); Aloen Townsend Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Public Health

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

This dissertation examined media rhetoric in the Los Angeles Times about 51 murdered marginalized women in the “Southside Slayer” serial killer cases. The “Southside Slayer” was five different Black men who did not fit the profile of a serial killer and were able to continue murdering women from 1983 to 2007. The victims and/or killers were all associated at one point with the “Southside Slayer” moniker and/or task force, even though some of the killers were later given different nicknames in the press. The goal of this study was to identify harmful narratives against marginalized women victims, and how they were perpetuated through the Los Angeles Times. Through qualitative archival research and a feminist social constructionist lens, language and word/phrase choices in 126 articles from the Los Angeles Times dating from 1985 to 2020 were examined for the use of synecdoche, derogatory language, and negatively connotative language when referring to the fifty-one women. In addition, use of the victims' names, use of the killers' names, and use of killer-friendly language were examined. Using critical discourse analysis and grounded theory, harmful narratives and dehumanization of the women were perpetuated through the underuse of victims' names combined with overused combinations of synecdoche, derogatory, and/or negatively connotative words/phrases. Digital media of today was also examined, and perpetuation or disruption of the harmful narratives and dehumanization varied.

Committee: Lee Nickoson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christopher Ward Ph.D. (Other); Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Member); Chad Iwertz-Duffy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Rhetoric; Social Structure; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2021, Educational Administration (Education)

The main goal of this study was to understand the perceived influence of the Income Generating Activities (IGAs) on women's empowerment in The Republic of the Sudan. The study raised questions about the empowerment process, the project output and the impacts of JASMAR project for Female Sex Workers FSWs in White Nile State in The Republic of the Sudan. To address the research questions, the study utilized a qualitative inquiry combined with a multi-disciplinary theoretical framework. The data were collected using multiple methods including observation, document analysis, and qualitative interviewing. The data were analyzed using manual coding. The results show mixed influence of the JASMAR (IGAs) program on the sex workers status of empowerment.

Committee: Emmanuel Jean-Francois (Committee Chair) Subjects: Educational Leadership

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2011, Public Health

The first objective of this study was to identify inconsistencies in implementation of diagnostic algorithms for gonorrhea/chlamydia (GC/CT) and bacterial vaginosis/trichomoniasis (BV/TV) diagnosis in female sex workers (FSWs) in Madagascar. Using data from clinical charts, we arrived at algorithm-based diagnoses and compared these to diagnoses recorded by clinicians implementing the same algorithms. The second objective was to identify predictors of inconsistencies between algorithm and clinician diagnoses using generalized estimating equation (GEE) logistic regression modeling. Data were collected between 2003 and 2009 and included 45,021 visits from 13,080 FSWs. We identified disagreement between algorithm and clinician diagnoses of GC/CT in 19.39% of visits and BV/TV in 5.95%. The Kappa measures of agreement for GC/CT and BV/TV were 0.56 and 0.52 respectively. Healthy vaginal pH (below 4.5), FSWs in all age categories, and presence of cervicitis or cervical motion tenderness were each identified as significant predictors of discordance in clinician and algorithm diagnosis.

Committee: J. R. Wilkins III DrPH (Advisor); Abigail Norris Turner PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biostatistics; Epidemiology; Health Sciences; Medicine; Public Health; Statistics; Womens Studies