Sylvia Wynter and the New Seville Project
By Brooke Burns, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy
CSWS Graduate Student Research Grant
Too Sensitive? Living with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
By Isabella Clark, PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology
Gender Roles in the Testimonial Narratives of Andean Women
by Gloria Macedo-Janto, PhD Student, Department of Romance Languages
Futuremaking in a Disaster Zone: Indigenous Women and the Everyday Politics of Climate Change in Peru
by Holly Moulton, PhD Candidate, Department of Environmental Studies
The Rise of Witch-Hunting & Witch-Killing in Assam, India
by Daizi Hazarika, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology
During the winter of 2023, with the help of a CSWS graduate student research award, I had an opportunity to visit Assam, India, for two months to conduct dissertation research on witch-hunting and witch-killing. During my field trip to Assam, I conducted research in Guwahati (the capital city of Assam) and a village called Dabli, among the Rabha community (a tribal community of Assam) in the Goalpara subdivision of this region. In Guwahati, I interacted with several government officials regarding their perceptions of the current-day witch-hunting in Assam and the steps taken by the Assamese government to combat this practice.
Disclosing Enslaved Women’s Resistance in Puerto Rico’s History of Slavery
by Rosa M. O’Connor Acevedo, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy
White Women’s Linguistic Terrorism
by Annie Ring, PhD Candidate, Department of Philosophy
J.L. Austin’s How to Do Things with Words demonstrates that language is not just descriptive but in some cases is performative. That is, Austin’s speech act theory argues that language itself performs, changes, or does things in the world. Speech act theory classically considered institutions like marriage, where a pronouncement weds people into a legally binding relation, or boat christening, where naming and blessing a boat before the maiden voyage protects its passengers (Austin).
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.
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...