Jane Grant Dissertation Fellow
- Marena Lear, Comparative Literature, “Their Bodies, Our Selves: Posthuman Embodiment in Latin American Speculative Cinema.”
Graduate Writing Completion Fellow
- Maria Baudoin Teran, Romance Languages, “Writings in Multitude in Latin American Literature of the 20th and 21st Centuries (Escrituras en muchedumbre en la literature latinoamericana de los siglos XX y XXI).”
Graduate Student Research Grantees
- Precious Adejumobi, Anthropology, “Medicine on-the-bus: Alternative Healthcare for Women on Transportation Routes in Lagos, Nigeria.”
- Shahinur Bashar, Planning, Public Policy, and Management, “Workplace Diversity and Inclusion: Guidelines and Best Practices for Organizations in Bangladesh Hiring Transgender People.”
- Neeka Bayat-Barooni, Human Physiology, “Investigation of the Mechanisms Underlying Fetal Metabolic Programming Following Exposure to Adverse Intrauterine Environment.”
- Mary Cartee, Education Studies, “We Can’t Just Yoga and Hot Tea Our Way Out of Systems of Oppression: A Research and Support Group Project.”
- Ivy Fofie, School of Journalism and Communication, “Women in Local Language Advice Programs in Ghana: History, Political Economy, Content.”
- Victoria Guazzelli Williamson, Psychology, “Is Other-oriented Social Cognition the Missing Link Bridging Social Status and Internalizing Disorders in Young Women?”
- Jack Hart, School of Journalism and Communication, “The Invisible Labor of Personal Gender-Queer Video Games.”
- Dee Jolly, Anthropology, “Determining the Role of Social Determinants of Health in Sexual Orientation-based Chronic Pain Disparities in the United States.”
- Rosa O’Connor Acevedo, Philosophy, “Archival Research on Gender and Racial Discourse on Enslaved Women from Puerto Rico.”
- Min Young Park, English, “Tempted Bad Taste: An Ethical and Affective Approach to Unread the Failure of Art, Fashion, and Food in Late Modernist Novels.”
- Annalee Ring, Philosophy, “Investigating White Women’s Linguistic Terrorism through Sociogenic Feminist Semiology.”
- Anu Sugathan, English, “Re-examining the Context, Culture, and Medium in the Representations of Gender in South Asian and South Asian American Graphic Narratives.”
- Ariadne Wolf, Conflict and Dispute Resolution, “Recovering My Lost History: The Aunt Whose Story Helped Me Find My Own Voice.”
- Wenyi Yang, Sociology, “A Queer Quantitative Query: Sexual Injustices and Social Contexts.”
Faculty Research Grantees
- Lana Lopesi, Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies, “Care: Samoan Feminism, Care Work, and Immaterial Labor.”
- Michelle McKinley, School of Law, “Bound Biographies.”
- Isabel Millán, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, “Illustrating Resilience: Children’s Picture Books for Oppressive Times.”
- Xiaobo Su, Geography, “Aliens at Home: Myanmar Wines and the Exercise of Border Biopolitics in Yunnan, China.”
- Priscilla Yamin, Political Science, “Contextualizing Social Egg Freezing: Eugenics, Feminism, and the Commodification of Motherhood.”
‘Feeling With’ Other Bodies: The Posthuman in Latin American Cinema
By Marena Fleites Lear, PhD Candidate, Department of Comparative Literature
Over the last several decades, feminist philosophers have given us different frameworks for understanding how individual and collective bodies are made vulnerable to sociopolitical forces, but also how bodies in turn shape those networks of power. They remind us that our bodies (differentially marked by racism, colonialism, ableism, etc.) are the very stuff of politics.
Power of the ‘Multitude’: Women’s Autobiographical Writings in Latin American Literature
by Magela Baudoin, PhD Candidate, Department of Romance Languages
Women’s autobiographical writing has historically faced devaluation within the realm of so-called “high” literature (Huyssen 2006). This marginalization stems from several factors: firstly, the misguided association of “literary” with “fiction,” which tends to discredit narratives perceived as not purely imaginative (Lejeune 1989; Molloy 1996); secondly, entrenched paradigms in modern Western thought...
Disclosing Enslaved Women’s Resistance in Puerto Rico’s History of Slavery
by Rosa M. O’Connor Acevedo, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy
On February 20, 1824, a mayor in Puerto Rico writes to Governor Miguel de la Torre pleading for support to apprehend a fugitive slave referred to in the colonial documents as “Negra Martha.” According to the letter, Negra Martha ran away from the grips of her enslaver, Daniel Peterson, two years before the letter was written describing the maroon woman’s whereabouts.
Tempting Bad Taste: Unreading the Failure of Art, Fashion, and Food in Late Modernist Novels
by Min Young Park, PhD Candidate, Department of English
Nella Larsen’s Quicksand opens with a vivid portrait of Helga Crane’s room. It is brimming with furniture and garments of her “rare and intensely personal taste” (1). The emphasis on the privacy of her taste is easily overlooked as it is soon followed by a disturbing remark by a white priest who claims that “Naxos Negroes…had good taste” because “[t]hey knew enough to stay in their place” (3)...
Re-examining Context, Culture, and Medium: Gender in South Asian and South Asian American Graphic Novels
by Anu Sugathan, PhD Student, Department of English
My interest in graphic narratives as a research topic emerged during my master of philosophy studies. While contemplating my thesis, I discovered various Indian graphic novels by contemporary writers and artists that brought back memories of my childhood comic books like Balarama, Balabhumi, and Champak. However, unlike earlier comic books, these graphic novels stood out due to their distinctive style, paper quality, and thematic depth...
A Queer Quantitative Inquiry: Sexual Injustices and Social Contexts
My dissertation builds on a stance that views pleasure and safety as fundamental human rights. I am motivated by a wish to democratize pleasure for all, and specifically the questions, “What prohibits individuals from fully enjoying the sexual aspect of their humanity,” and “When it comes to sexual encounters, why do some groups of people consistently have a better and easier time than others?” I use critical feminist theory and queer quantitative methodology to examine how social contexts influence young adults’ experience with sexual injustices and sexual victimization.
Care: Samoan Feminism, Care Work, and Immaterial Labor
by Lana Lopesi, Assistant Professor, Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies
Two years ago, I moved from Aotearoa, New Zealand, to take up my current role as an assistant professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies. When we first made the move, the key word was “adjust,” and the mission was to adjust to a new country and to a new academic context, while carving out my own space here. Now that Kalapuya Ilihi is growing in familiarity, I have delved into new research projects, including one tentatively titled “Care: Samoan Feminism, Care Work, and Immaterial Labor.”
Illustrating Resilience: Children’s Picture Books for Oppressive Times
How might children’s literature help us respond to our current political climate? While all literature is politically (or at the very least, ideologically) motivated, a picture book that exemplifies political content for children is Maya Gonzalez’s When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times. Not only is it an indirect comment on Trump but it also reframes US history through bully discourse in its reflections on colonization, slavery, war, and xenophobia. When read as political texts, picture books have the potential to inspire collective action or activism.
Aliens at Home: Myanmar Wives and the Exercise of Border Biopolitics in Yunnan, China
by Xiaobo Su, Professor, Department of Geography
In August 2023, at the entrance of Muke village, an ethnic Jingpo (equivalently, Kachin in Myanmar) village one kilometer away from the China–Myanmar border, I and my interpreter parked our car and stopped by a snack shop to learn where to find the village head for more information about cross-border marriage. The female owner, Ruishan, was a Myanmar wife originally from Kachin state, just across the border.