Research
The faculty, graduate and undergraduate students in the Women's Studies Department and Program are engaged in a variety of new and ongoing research projects. The following is a list of dissertation projects being conducted by the
graduate students of the Women's Studies Department and Program. For more information obtaining approval for human subjects research, please refer to the University's Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Luh Ayu Prasetyaningsih
"The Maze of Race:
Contextualizing Skin Color in the Lives of Indonesian Women"
My
dissertation will examine the importance and meanings of light skin
to Indonesian women, both in Indonesia and, as travelers, students,
or immigrants, in the United States.
Na-Young Lee
"Negotiating Boundaries of Nationalism, Colonialism, and Globalization:
The Korean Women’s Movement against Prostitution in U.S. Camptowns
(Kijich’on Movement)"
My doctoral research examines the impacts and implications
of the Korean women’s movement against military prostitution
in the United States camptowns. The Kijich’on movement,
which uses various means and strategies to end military prostitution,
reflects the complexity and specificity of Korean society and history
and reveals the multiple symptoms embedded within an androcentric
culture. My research, therefore, seeks to understand the multi-faceted
aspects of the women’s movement as well as its complex navigation
of androcentric societies across time and space.
Kimberly Williams
"Starring
Russia as Herself: Icons, (Imagi)Nations and the Trans/National Traffic
in Women."
Through a number of specific examples in pop culture
and media, this dissertation explores the myriad ways in which women's
bodies (both "real" and imagined) are used to justify and legitimate
US imperialism in the post-Soviet period, specifically with regard
to the gendered nationalisms that continue to stymie the diplomatic
relationship between the US and Russia. Specifically, it interrogates
the cultural conditions that make the United States the third largest
destination country for women trafficked from Russia and Eastern
Europe.
Sarah M. Tillery
Our cultural understandings
about and personal relationships to fatness are informed by an intricate
configuration of medical, legal, and political messages that convey
notions of acceptable and unacceptable body size. This dissertation
will examine multiple instances wherein the negotiation of these
messages produces complicated subject positions for bodies of size.
Through an analysis of the performative texts of the film, Real
Women Have Curves, the photography collection of Women En Large, and the
synchronized swimming performances of the Padded Lilies, this project
will examine the representations of fat women to illustrate how fat
subjectivities are neither merely accommodating nor simply resistive.
Nikki Stewart
This dissertation examines
African American girls relationship to black girl images within visual
media. Black feminist intellectuals and creative artists have responded
to the visual dimensions of black women’s oppression by creating a multimedia alternative image
movement. In contemporary U.S. culture, black feminist alternative
images of black girlhood circulate alongside mainstream media images
featuring black girls and together these comprise a contemporary
black girl mediascape. This dissertation explores African American
girls relationship with the black girl mediascape by exposing a small
group of middle school girls to the educational resources of black
feminist visual media and image production technology.
Heather Rellihan
I am studying the role of religious organizations in the school systems
of Antigua, Belize and Grenada. I intend to write a history of the
role of religion in education in these countries using both traditional
and non-traditional sources (novels). I will be looking at curriculum
reform in the post independence era, and how religious organizations
help or hinder these reforms. I will also look at the way religious
ideology relates to gender equality in education.
