Jane Grant Dissertation Fellow
- Rhiannon Lindgren, Philosophy, “Revolutionary Love and Reproductive Struggles: Feminist Politics of Care for the Queer Future.”
Graduate Writing Completion Fellows
- Sarah Agou, Romance Languages, “Narrative Sovereignty in Contemporary Cuba, Haiti, and Indigenous Quebec: Exploring forms of Inhabiting Against Geographical, Political, Economical, and Identitarian Forced Enclosures.”
- Olivia Wing, History, “Common and Contested Ground: Chinese and Japanese American Youth Culture in the Pacific Northwest, 1920s–1960s” (Giustina Fund).
Graduate Student Research Grantees
- Tal-Hi Bitton, Philosophy, “Steadfast Watermelons: Social Reproductive Struggle and Colonialism in Palestine/Israel.”
- Malvya Chintakindi, Anthropology, “Chasing the Good Life: Caste, Class, and Dalit Women in India’s Informal Economy”
- Liesl Cohn De Leon, Anthropology, “Migrant Memories of Guatemalan Maya Women in Oregon: Community and Identity Building in a New Territory” (Giustina Fund).
- Yalda Eskandari, Art, “Between the Two Trees.”
- Yuan Fang, Anthropology, “Bronze Mirrors: Serving the Beautiful or the Powerful? Viewing Bronze Mirrors in Ancient China from a Gender Archaeology Perspective.”
- Madison Fowler-Niblock, Environmental Science, and Moe Gamez, English, “Queer Resistance, Abolition, and American (Homo) National(ist) Narratives: Reading the 2016 Designation of Stonewall National Monument.”
- Margaryta Golovchenko, History of Art and Architecture, “Strange-Kinship: WomenAnimal Relationships in British and French Art, 1700–1900.”
- Megan Hayes, Environmental Studies, “How to Love an Oyster: Chemistry, Attachment, Slippage.”
- Nat Ivy, Folklore and Public Culture, “‘This is traditional song; we can’t let you stay happy long’: Murder Ballads, Gender, Race, and Crime in 19th Century America.”
- Bex Macfife, Sociology, “Gen(der)italia: Pelvic Physical Therapy and Feeling in the Shadow of Biomedicine.”
- Gretchen Nihill, Psychology, “Compounding Safety Cues for Women of Color.”
- Ruby Oboro-Offerie, Sociology, “Economic Values, Ethical Norms, and Gender Stereotypes as Predictors of Trust in Women’s Movements: A Multi-level Approach.”
- Sammy Plezia, Family and Human Services, “Exploring the Relationship Between Gender Identity, Culturally Relevant Gender Roles, and Body Dissatisfaction among Goan Adolescent Girls: A Qualitative Investigation.”
- Raechel Root, History of Art and Architecture, “Future Objects: Building Queer Feminist Worlds in the Photography of Oregon’s Lesbian Lands” (Giustina Fund).
- Haifa Souilmi, Political Science, “Democratic Backsliding and the Ebbs and Flows of Gender Equality in Tunisia.”
Faculty Research Grantees
- Corinne Bayerl, Clark Honors College, “Gendered Practices in Early Modern Cryptography.”
- Marjorie Celona, Creative Writing, “The Year of X: A Novel.”
- Miriam Chorley-Schulz, German and Scandinavian Studies, “A Queer History of Yiddish.”
- Alisa Freedman, East Asian Languages and Literatures, “Telling the Stories of Vietnamese Women Educators and Their New Academic Fields.”
- Judith Raiskin, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, “Outliers and Outlaws: A Documentary Film” (Giustina Fund).
- Julie Weise, History, “Guest Worker: Lives Across Borders in an Age of Prosperity."
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By Olivia G. Wing, PhD Candidate, Department of History
In the late 1930s, Portland’s Chinese Girl Reserves and Japanese Girl Reserves each hosted a variety of fund-raising events to support causes of their choosing. Fundraisers were not unusual for a service organization sponsored by the YWCA. In the late 1930s, however, the Chinese and Japanese Girl Reserves each chose to sponsor seemingly diverging causes: war relief for Chinese refugees and summer camp, respectively.
In the late 1930s, Portland’s Chinese Girl Reserves and Japanese Girl Reserves each hosted a variety of fund-raising events to support causes of their choosing. Fundraisers were not unusual for a service organization sponsored by the YWCA. In the late 1930s, however, the Chinese and Japanese Girl Reserves each chose to sponsor seemingly diverging causes: war relief for Chinese refugees and summer camp, respectively.
Social Reproduction and Palestine
by Tali Bitton, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy
For many colonized women, gender-based violence (GBV) is never solely about their being women. When considering GBV within Palestine and Israel, like other forms of political violence, GBV functions as a mechanism of male supremacy within and across both peoples as much as a mechanism of settler colonization. But whereas Israel has a long history of documented GBV against Palestinians (as the UN has found occurred systematically in Israel’s current genocidal campaign in Gaza), the view of GBV within Israel is often presented in inverted form.
For many colonized women, gender-based violence (GBV) is never solely about their being women. When considering GBV within Palestine and Israel, like other forms of political violence, GBV functions as a mechanism of male supremacy within and across both peoples as much as a mechanism of settler colonization. But whereas Israel has a long history of documented GBV against Palestinians (as the UN has found occurred systematically in Israel’s current genocidal campaign in Gaza), the view of GBV within Israel is often presented in inverted form.
Migrant Memories: Community and Identity Building in a New Territory
By Liesl Cohn De León, PhD Student, Department of Anthropology
The Guatemalan migrant population in the United States has been growing in the last few decades. Although Guatemalans started coming to the US in the 1980s during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), between 2010 and 2020 the Guatemalan population increased by about 60%.1 According to the 2020 Census, about 1,683,093 Guatemalans live in the United States. However, there are estimates2 of at least 3,256,047 people from Guatemala living in the US.
It All Started with a Mirror: Questioning How We Assign Sex in Ancient Tombs
by Yuan Fang, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology
One summer break back home in China, I visited the Henan Museum and found myself drawn to a bronze mirror on display. I had seen many before, but something about this one stopped me. Its delicate designs were beautiful, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what it meant. I pictured a Tang dynasty court lady using it for daily grooming—the familiar image often used to represent bronze mirrors as feminine tools tied to beauty.
One summer break back home in China, I visited the Henan Museum and found myself drawn to a bronze mirror on display. I had seen many before, but something about this one stopped me. Its delicate designs were beautiful, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what it meant. I pictured a Tang dynasty court lady using it for daily grooming—the familiar image often used to represent bronze mirrors as feminine tools tied to beauty.
Gender, Social Politics, and Media Sensationalism in 19th-Century American Murder Ballads
by Nat Ivy, Master’s Student, Folklore and Public Culture Program
Murder ballads have been around for centuries. A murder ballad is a narrative song that tells the story of murder. However, as with any vernacular tradition, there’s a lot more to them than that. American murder ballads are most associated with Appalachian folk music, emerging in the early 19th century as Scottish and Irish immigrants made new homes in North America. As the century progressed, these Appalachian songs blended with African musical traditions, producing blues ballads.
Murder ballads have been around for centuries. A murder ballad is a narrative song that tells the story of murder. However, as with any vernacular tradition, there’s a lot more to them than that. American murder ballads are most associated with Appalachian folk music, emerging in the early 19th century as Scottish and Irish immigrants made new homes in North America. As the century progressed, these Appalachian songs blended with African musical traditions, producing blues ballads.
How to Love an Oyster: Chemistry, Slippage, and Attachment
by Megan Hayes, PhD Candidate, Environmental Studies Program
It was oysters who taught me about tides. Or, more precisely, it was oysters who taught me to give better attention to the tides. An oyster is a kind of bivalve, and bivalves are a class of aquatic mollusks that have, in the collective poetic descriptive of Wikipedia, “laterally compressed soft bodies,” which are enclosed in calcified exoskeletons made up of a hinged pair of half-shells, or valves.
Trust in Women’s Organizations: Evaluating Gender Gap and State Characteristics
by Ruby Amanda Oboro-Offerie, PhD Student, Department of Sociology
Public trust in institutions has long been a focus of social science research, yet most studies have concentrated on political institutions (Van Der Meer 2010), banks (Fungáčová et al. 2019), and regional (Ron and Crow 2015) and international organizations (Torgler 2008; Hessami 2011). In contrast, limited attention has been paid to trust in women’s organizations (e.g., women’s rights/empowerment groups or feminist movements), despite their growing role in civil society, global gender advocacy, and transforming social norms and gender power relations (Hassim 2006).
Public trust in institutions has long been a focus of social science research, yet most studies have concentrated on political institutions (Van Der Meer 2010), banks (Fungáčová et al. 2019), and regional (Ron and Crow 2015) and international organizations (Torgler 2008; Hessami 2011). In contrast, limited attention has been paid to trust in women’s organizations (e.g., women’s rights/empowerment groups or feminist movements), despite their growing role in civil society, global gender advocacy, and transforming social norms and gender power relations (Hassim 2006).
Finding Edie X. A Writer Explores Gender, Motherhood, and Disability through Art
by Jori Celona, Associate Professor, Creative Writing Program
My third novel, The Year of X, begins with Edie X., a mid-career artist, leaving her husband to attend a yearlong artist residency in upstate New York, bringing her young daughter, Lou, along for the ride. Her proposed project is a reimagining of Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, in which she plans to document her own top surgery in a series of photographs. But shortly after arriving at the residency, she begins to have bizarre seizures, which hijack her life and art, and alter her sense of personhood in the world.
My third novel, The Year of X, begins with Edie X., a mid-career artist, leaving her husband to attend a yearlong artist residency in upstate New York, bringing her young daughter, Lou, along for the ride. Her proposed project is a reimagining of Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, in which she plans to document her own top surgery in a series of photographs. But shortly after arriving at the residency, she begins to have bizarre seizures, which hijack her life and art, and alter her sense of personhood in the world.