In this research study, I sought to understand and describe the Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) Program at Berea College by exploring it through the experiences of students, faculty, administrators, and alumnae. I designed and implemented a feminist organizational ethnography. Organizational ethnography is a naturalistic, qualitative research tool for understanding organizational communication and culture in organizations. I used qualitative research methods to create a portrait of the WGS Program at Berea College by observing and interviewing students, administrators, faculty, and alumnae, and interpreting their stories using constant comparative analysis. Standpoint theory is the theoretical framework that guided how I collected data because it requires the researcher to begin with the lives of marginalized peoples. It also requires inclusion of multiple perspectives. The overarching research questions of this study are: 1) How is the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Berea College perceived or experienced by its stakeholders (students, administrators, faculty, and alumnae)? 2) How is its reality constructed through the overlapping lenses of each? 3) How does the WGS Program approach, prepare for, and respond to political and economic challenges? I concluded that the WGS Program at Berea College is a model program because the leadership uses student-centered feminist pedagogy and they celebrate diversity, succeed with low resources, and clearly value the experiences and voices of the students. The leadership in the WGS Program at Berea College creates a home on campus where students go to learn about things they can’t find anywhere else on campus. / Department of Educational Studies

Information studies writers from various theoretical perspectives, including feminism and critical race theory, have argued that information classification systems are politically charged artifacts that privilege some types of information while marginalizing others. Although several writers have documented the limitations of classification systems in representing marginalized topics, few have studied how searchers understand, address, and circumvent these limitations. To investigate this question, I conducted a qualitative study of the information seeking behavior of nine disability studies scholars. In semi-structured interviews, I asked faculty members and graduate students about their experiences conducting disability studies research. In this thesis, I discuss three main themes from the interviews: research challenges, search tactics and strategies, and interaction with subject headings. I also discuss the Library of Congress Subject Headings for one book, Eli Clare's Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation, as a case study. I situate scholars' experiences in relation to disability studies as a field that is interdisciplinary, relatively new, and concerned with a group that has been socially and economically marginalized. I offer suggestions about how librarians and knowledge organizers can address the needs of researchers in disability studies and other critical interdisciplinary fields. / text

British Library MS Harley 2253 is a unique fourteenth-century miscellany consisting of 140 folios and containing 116 different texts, including lyrics, political poems, fabliaux and other secular and religious texts in verse and prose, Latin, Middle English and Anglo-Norman. While the so-called “Harley Lyrics” popularized by Brook’s edition may have registered widely on scholarly radar, many of the non-English texts in the collection have failed to elicit critical attention. However, these texts are vital points in the narrative of English literary history. In particular, the four Anglo-Norman fabliaux included in Harley 2253 constitute a majority of the extant pre-Chaucerian fabliaux produced on the English isles, and of these, Le Dit de la Gageure and Du Chevalier a La Corbeille have no Old French analogues. This report explores the Anglo-Norman fabliaux in this manuscript, their relationship to the continental French tradition and to the subsequent English (ie. Chaucerian) fabliaux incarnations. Specifically, I argue that representations of female desire – figured as an opposition between “stillness” and doing one’s “will” – surface in these obscene misogynist stories that simultaneously objectify and colonize the female body. “De Clerico et Puella”, Le Dit de la Gageure and Le Chevalier qui fist Les Cuns Parler all include an unmarried female who articulates her sexual desire freely, a sharp contrast to the traditional cuckoldry plot of Old French fabliaux which revolves around a married woman’s illicit affairs. Indeed, the grotesque images of sexual violence and the pornographic images of sexual fulfillment in these pre-Chaucerian fabliaux are not contained by the ecclesiastic context from which these texts originate, but rather they linger and are transformed by the female characters, patrons, readers and hearers of the medieval manuscripts in their domestic contexts. / text

<p> The computing profession in the United States would benefit from an increasingly diverse workforce, specifically a larger female presence, because a more gender-balanced workforce would likely result in better technological solutions to difficulties in many areas of American life. However, to achieve this balance, more women with a solid educational foundation in computing need to enter the computing workplace. Yet a common problem is most colleges and universities offering computer-related degrees have found it challenging to attract females to their programs. Also, the women who begin a computing major have shown a higher tendency than men to leave the major. The combination of these factors has resulted in a low percentage of females graduating with a computing degree, providing one plausible explanation for the current gender imbalance in the computing profession. </p><p> It is readily apparent that female enrollment and retention must be improved to increase female graduation percentages. Although recruiting women into computing and keeping them in it has been problematic, there are some who decide to pursue a computer-related degree and successfully finish. The study focused on this special group of women who provided their insight into the pursuit and completion of an undergraduate computing degree. It is hoped that the knowledge acquired from this research will inspire and encourage more women to consider the field of computing and to seek an education in it. Also, the information gathered in this study may prove valuable to recruiters, professors, and administrators in computing academia. Recruiters will have a better awareness of the factors that direct women toward computing, which may lead to better recruitment strategies. Having a better awareness of the factors that contribute to persistence will provide professors and administrators with information that can help create better methods of encouraging females to continue rather than leave. The investigation used a sequential explanatory methodology to explore how a woman determined to pursue an undergraduate computing major and to persevere within it until attaining a degree.</p>

<p> Compared to actual infidelity, little research has been carried out on intended infidelity. Based on male-female differences in sexual interest, stronger male than female interest in extra-dyadic sex (EDS) was predicted. The effects of relationship quality and individual differences in sexual interest, sensation seeking, and masculinity on intended EDS were also assessed. Males scored significantly higher than females on almost all sexual interest variables and indicated a significantly greater interest in EDS. </p><p> Sexual interest, as measured by socio-sexual orientation (SO), was a much stronger predictor of intended EDS than gender or relationship quality. SO fully mediated the effect of gender on EDS; however, sensation seeking and masculinity revealed no mediation. Contrary to expectations, relationship satisfaction had a greater impact on intended EDS at higher levels than at lower levels of SO. Willingness to have sex with someone who is already in a relationship proved the strongest predictor of intended EDS. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> Infidelity, Male, Female, Sexuality, Extra-dyadic sex (EDS), Relationship quality, Socio-sexual orientation (SO).</p>

<p> Females, in this modern age of feminism, have excelled in all fields of study and graduate from college in larger numbers than males. However, few women go into the STEM fields (Hill, Corbett, &amp; St. Rose, 2010). To close this gap in mathematics-related fields, it is paramount that high schools produce female students who are advanced in Mathematics. The problem was the underrepresentation of females in mathematical fields of study, with a more pressing issue of underrepresentation of females in college preparatory mathematics classes at the high school level. The purpose of this study was to determine if the geographical region of a high school contributed to the resulting ratio of males to females enrolled in college level mathematics courses. In this mixed methods study, 21 urban, 14 suburban, and 30 rural public school districts in Missouri, were selected and the ratio of males to females enrolled in Calculus for each district was obtained. The researcher's rationale for this comparison was that the culture of each geographical region created bias affecting females' choice in their fields of study. </p><p> The research question was: Does the ratio of males to females differ between urban, rural, and suburban high schools in advanced mathematics courses? Two types of analyses were applied in this study and obtained the following results. The data analyzed in the study did not support a difference in ratios when comparing urban, rural, and suburban schools, nor did it support a difference in male to female ratios enrolled in advanced placement coursework. The data did not support a relationship between the ratio of Calculus students and the district budget, but did yield a mild positive correlation when comparing the ratios of male to female students in Calculus and male to female mathematics teachers. </p><p> Historically, lower enrollment of women in the STEM fields than males is a trend supportable by the findings of this study. In rural and suburban areas there were fewer females than males enrolled in advanced mathematics. However, in the urban areas a slight difference yielded more females than males enrolled in similar coursework.</p>

<p> Demonstrations in response to the harsh austerity budget in Greece which cut valuable government services, and the civil unrest in Athens specifically, are an outward, visible response to economic crisis. In an androcentric society such as Greece, women are disproportionately affected by the austerity measures because of the feminization of budget cuts. This ethnographic study explores how middle class women in Athens are coping economically, politically and socially in a national and global financial crisis. Through studying middle class Greek women, one can intensively illustrate the faults of neoliberal economic policies that pride themselves on the creation of the so-called middle class while simultaneously eliminating it. This research examines the survival strategies and adaptation methods of middle class women in Athens as well as placing them within the global economic context further displaying the fallacy of neoliberal economic policies as an economic growth agenda.</p>

<p> This dissertation explores the artistic expressions of Native womanhood by Native women artists. The intention is to offer further examples of creative acts of resistance that strengthen Native identities, reinforce female empowerment, and reclaim voice, and art. This qualitative study utilized the narratives and the artwork of six Native women artists from diverse artistic practices and tribe/nation affiliations. Visual arts examples included in this study are digital images, muralism, Ledger art, beadworks, Navajo rugs, and Navajo jewelry. Through Kim Anderson&rsquo;s theoretical Native womanhood identity formation model adopted as framework for this study, the results revealed three emergent themes: cultural connections, motherhood, and nurturing the future. Native women artists lived experiences shaped their visual expressions, influencing their materials, approach, subject matter, intentions, motivation and state of mind. This dissertation discloses Native womanhood framework is supportive of visual expressions created by Native women.</p><p>

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Like many institutions of high education throughout the United States, the University of North Texas requires all students to pass introductory United States History courses. While the purpose of these courses should be to create a population well versed in U.S. history and sociopolitical and economic context, the foundational textbooks utilized in these courses promote American exceptionalism and U.S. supremacy. Their omission of the complex and controversial history of the United States creates a false master narrative based on an idealized version of U.S. history. Even textbooks that include diversity continue to uphold a progressive master narrative that ignores issues of systemic racism, sexism, and homophobia. My theoretical analysis of the required textbooks, Exploring American Histories: A Survey with Sources, is applicable to all introductory U.S. history textbooks. Decolonialism, critical race, and intersectional feminism are theoretical lenses that disentangle and highlight otherwise invisible aspects of American exceptionalism and the serious consequences of the subjugation of subaltern historical narratives. This thesis applies theory with examples of how textbooks or supplemental teaching can expose foundational oppression, violence, and discrimination to teach students critical thinking and help them see connections between the past and their present.