The purpose of this thesis is to examine the psychological development of South Asian masculinity in a diaspora that is depicted in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia and V.S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men. Together, Kureishi and Naipaul construct a complete understanding of masculinity through childhood, adolescent, young adult, and adulthood. Chapter 1 explores the need to displace their father’s masculinity and seek better masculine models that align with the social norms of the diaspora. Chapter 2 establishes the motivation behind seeking peers to define the meaning of masculinity in a diaspora and the disadvantage of this pathway. Chapter 3 demonstrates two possible outcomes for South Asian men attempting to construct a secure masculinity. The difficulties these characters encounter when developing their identity is both a product of their diasporic environment and the lingering effect of colonization through the presence of hegemonic masculinity. They attempt to rectify the inadequacies in their masculinity by refuting a portion of their identity tied to being South Asian in order to better assimilate to the ideals of their diaspora. Ultimately, there are two possible consequences for South Asian men in a diaspora: one is to attempt to negotiate their position as a mixture of both the ideals of the diaspora and South Asian culture and the second is to continue to live a fragmented life of denying aspects of their identity tied to either the diaspora or South Asian culture.

In this project I outline the current discourse within feminist epistemology and elucidated its limitations of feminist epistemology particularly its lack of formal attention to the modes of theorization and, in complementarity, the generative potential of an analysis foregrounding materiality. The first chapter explores the theories that constitute the field of study and the relationships between both feminist empiricism and standpoint theory illuminate the conceptual concerns of feminist epistemology. Building from this, I present an analysis that examines the rhetorical and disciplinary structures that determine the kinds of arguments and methodologies that are possible within these frameworks. This argument simultaneously presents an analysis of theoretical formation as well as a critique of the lack of attention given to the rhetorical and formal scaffolds which render additional epistemic limitations perceivable. Lastly, I demonstrate a mode of knowledge production that centers materiality and body which exerts pressure on the very frameworks utilized in the analysis of materiality and embodiment. If materiality has the capacity to articulate relationships between knower and knowledges formed by the knower and formal elements of research has the capacity to render the limits of knowledges created from the research, then feminist epistemology should account for the formal and the material in its attempts to explicate the possibilities and limitations of epistemology.

Women today are still highly outnumbered by men in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study analyzes the relationship between girls’ gender role attitudes in adolescence and their likelihood of working in a STEM occupation between the ages of 25 and 30 years old. My paper focuses on how conservative gender role attitudes, with men thought of as the breadwinners and women as the homemakers, may negatively affect a woman’s likelihood of holding a STEM career. I use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) to analyze both a strict definition of STEM as well as a broader one that includes related professions in the social sciences and teaching. Via a regression approach, I hold constant other adolescent attributes to find a direct, negative relationship between adolescent girls with conservative gender role attitudes and future STEM careers. I find that for strict STEM careers, women are .46 percentage points less likely than men to work in STEM between the ages of 25 and 30 years old with statistical significance at the 1% level. Creating an interaction variable for conservative gender role attitudes and female, I distinguish by gender to find an additional improbability of holding a STEM job for conservative women. Conservative women are .32 percentage points less likely work in a STEM job between the ages of 25 and 30 years old with statistical significance at the 5% level. Helping to explain the gender gap in STEM, my results show that adolescent girls with conservative gender role attitudes are much less likely than boys to work in a STEM career.

Within this thesis I examine Western practices and conceptualizations of childbirth from three distinct angles, with the goal of better understanding how one can negotiate agency in contemporary childbirth. First, I outline the history of the medicalization of childbirth in the West, using a reference frame of the famous second wave feminist text, Our Bodies, Ourselves. Next, I conceptualize agency in the context of contemporary childbirth, first defining the ‘agency’ that I am working with, and then outlining some of the factors that play into the negotiation of agency in one’s childbirth; some of these factors include race, class, location, and information provided about specific medical and physical procedures. Finally, I destabilize the hegemonic Western understanding of labor and birth pain by situating pain as culturally constructed and contextually specific. I provide a few examples of ways in which we can reconceptualize pain in a way that situates it as a unique experience for each individual. The end goal of this thesis is to contextualize current childbirth practices within a specific history of medicalization, and to illustrate the complex nature of agency, but the importance of it to a childbirth in which the mother feels as safe and supported as possible.

This thesis explores both what feminism looks like in a digital age, as well as how the Internet and technology inform the ways in which feminists interact, build communities, and form identities. I found that online feminist spaces are built as communities of validation and support, education and empowerment, as well as spaces of radicalization and contention. Ultimately my thesis leads toward a new understanding of feminist activism that incorporates the unique characteristics and abilities of online feminism.

Branding exists at the intersection of culture and economics and is an increasingly important tool in distinguishing commodities. Over the past few years, more and more companies have started to use discourses of female empowerment, celebrating femininity, womanhood, and all things “girly” to sell their products - spiking sales, racking up millions of online views, and starting important conversations in the process. Procter & Gamble's “Like A Girl” campaign for Always creates a productive tension and way of thinking about both brand and buyer. The “Like A Girl” campaign is unique because it presents a feminist message to and about younger girls, a group that is often left out of broader discussions of feminism, and it creates a space for support, identification, and critical engagement with essentializations of the female body.

This thesis delves deep into an analysis of madness in two seventeenth century tragic plays: William Shakespeare's Macbeth and John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. The first portion of the dissertation will provide historical background and context. The rest will be a critical literary analysis centered around the argument that both plays present an inextricable connection between loss of mental clarity and gender.

This paper compares the effectiveness of an NGO and a government branch at promoting development through gender equality in Tanzania, in an attempt to determine whether one actor is more suited to this sector of development. Due to the nature of the actors, their approaches impact different parts of the population of Tanzania and are complementary in their impact. Both NGO and government efforts can help to empower women and in turn promote economic development in Tanzania.

Diversity efforts implemented by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hope to improve the Association through the addition of multiple voices in athletics. Notably, the Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) designation is intended to encourage and promote the involvement of female administrators in meaningful ways in the decision-making process in intercollegiate athletics. This role, created under Article 4.02.4 of the NCAA constitution, is to be filled by the highest ranking female in each NCAA athletic department or member conference (Levick, 2002; Raphaely, 2003). Given the evolving definition and nature of the SWA designation and of female managerial roles (Eagly & Karau, 2002), there exists a question as to whether the SWA designation has provided the scope of decision-making and authority suggested in the NCAA definition of the designation. Research must show if SWAs are able to use their power and give different opinions. It must also uncover if there is still a need for the SWA role and if the title is still appropriate for this designation.

Approximately 1 in 11 births in the United States are preterm (gestation). Within the United States, there are huge racial disparities for risk of preterm birth, an issue understudied and rarely addressed by research in the field. There is a wealth of biological knowledge surrounding pregnancy and labor, but causes for preterm birth are poorly understood. A genetic factor that has been shown to play a key role in many biological processes crucial to a healthy pregnancy and timely labor is microRNA (miRNA). MiRNA have an active role in the regulation of various tissues, especially developing tissues like those found in the placenta and uterus. Additionally, oxidative stress has been shown essential to placental development and the initiation of labor. Here, a study is proposed that aims to address the effect of oxidative stress on myometrial miRNA expression, specifically the miR-200 family and miR-199/214 cluster. This work also underscores the importance of addressing racial disparities with regards to preterm labor during research, while bringing up ethical considerations for conducting such research. The thesis will conclude with an outline of the many considerations vital for discussing the research and analysis of preterm birth disparities using a feminist, antiracist, queer self-reflexive analysis.