<p> The Catholic nun and nunnery participate in the formation of eighteenth-century gender and national identities. Not only do nuns and nunneries appear in literary works from the Restoration to the Regency period and beyond, they also act as sites upon which major aesthetic, political, cultural and material theories of identity work themselves out in the eighteenth century. This dissertation argues that the antiquarian, literary, and aesthetic understanding of nunneries in the long eighteenth century had everything to do with imagining ideal domestic femininity, and at the same time disavowing that imagination. </p> <p> I begin with an analysis of the post-Reformation antiquarian treatment of medieval English nunneries, and then apply that analysis to three sites of literary imagination: Alexander Pope's "Eloisa to Abelard" (1717), Sophia Lee's The Recess (1783-5), and the gothic novels of Ann Radcliffe (1790-97). I also pair my analyses of these texts with cultural, political, and material contexts such as antiquary John Brand's treatment of Godstow Nunnery, William Beckford's architectural folly Fonthill Abbey, accounts of French emigres during the Revolution, the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots, and images of monastic ruins and wax bodies. </p> <p> With these varied contexts in mind, I come to the conclusion that the repression of Roman Catholic identity involves a very specific re-imagining of the nunnery and the nun's body within it; this re-imagination narrates Protestant domestic identity onto the site of female monastic ruins in order to re-signify such mutable sites as fixed symbols of virtuous femininity and maternity. I conclude with a look at how this construction of ideal femininity figures in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1798) and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley 's Secret (1861-62), as they both take as their setting a convent-turned-country house. The popular consumption of poetry, antiquarian history and art, novels, and consumer goods converge in my conclusion to show how concerns with a lack of distinction between the public and private are also about a lack of distinction between the ideal and subversive woman, as she is a version of there-imagined Catholic nun. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>2023-06-01</p>

This study explores chosen families within the queer community in Belgium. Chosen families and their dynamics are not well understood because they do not follow the heteronormative way of forming a family. The aim is to see how queer individuals understand and construct their families. It is important to show how people outside of the heteronormative system care for each other because they don’t fit in to the norms that are upheld in society. Five people were interviewed, and the resulting transcripts were analyzed using queer phenomenology and thematic analysis. The material showed that there are different ways of constructing a queer family, and that there are certain objects and places that support this process. It also shows how the participants care for their families by sanctioning some heteronormative practices, such as marriage and caring for “kids”. These findings provide us with insight into how families can be created in unique ways, and how people care for others by challenging the norms of what it means to be in a family. / <p>2023-09-14</p>

Sexual violence (SV) among women is a significant public health concern linked to several adverse mental and physical health consequences. Though national estimates suggest that more than 50% of women experience SV in their lifetime, recent research finds that sexual minoritized women experience greater risks for SV and adverse health consequences. SV disclosure experiences, including who, when, and responses from disclosure recipients, has been previously studied to understand how these interactions may serve as a buffer and/or barrier for SV survivor recovery. However, SV research often group together sexual minoritized individuals into one category and therefore fails to consider potential heterogeneity between lesbian and bisexual SV survivors. Accordingly, the current study addresses these limitations by investigating SV experiences, SV disclosure characteristics, and survivor well-being, from a national sample of heterosexual (HW), lesbian (LW), and bisexual women (BW). Guided by Ullman's (2010) Social Ecological Model to Sexual Assault Disclosure and Help-Seeking Outcomes and Meyer's (2003) Minority Stress Model, this dissertation examined (1) SV experiences, SV disclosure characteristics, and SV survivor well-being across sexual identity, (2) the associations between disclosure characteristics and well-being and (3) if, and to what extent, does sexual identity moderate the association between SV disclosure reactions and well-being. Using a convenience sampling approach where participants completed a cross-sectional online survey and were recruited from the CloudResearch Prime Panels survey platform, women SV survivors (n= 923; HW= 455; LW= 166; BW= 302) and women SV survivors who disclosed (n=571; HW= 250; LW= 107; BW= 214) were assessed. Results show that there were unique differences in SV survivor experiences across sexual identity groups and negative social reactions from disclosure recipients were uniquely associated to greater symptoms of depression and anxiety for HW and LW, but not BW survivors. This study has implications for research, theory, and tertiary SV prevention efforts.

This dissertation explores how players of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, responded to in-game instances of sexism and racism before and after the Activision Blizzard lawsuit was made public. It also covers the responses of players to the lawsuit itself to see if player responses changed once the lawsuit was made public. These results illustrate if and how player responses may change regarding in-game social issues based on the real-world environment that the game is being created within. To establish what players are seeing in the game, I first analyzed the narratives of four major World of Warcraft characters to identify if sexist and racist story lines were utilized within the narrative. I then analyzed forum posts from players speaking on in-game sexism and racism before the lawsuit, player responses to the real world allegations against Activision Blizzard during the lawsuit, and the player discussions of in-game sexism and racism after the lawsuit. I then categorized the forum post responses into Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's (2018) racial frames. I found that players can recognize sexism and racism within the real world, but disconnect the real world from the virtual world when speaking on sexism and racism within the game. Therefore, players tend to deny in-game sexism and racism exist. Although there was slightly more recognition of sexism and racism in-game after the lawsuit, many responses remained the same as before the lawsuit. This study brings to light the disconnect between the real-world and the game world that players utilize to continue playing the games they enjoy while absolving themselves of responsibility for supporting the game and the company.

No description available.

In U.S. society, the systems of gender and race operate to privilege and oppress individuals based on their location within these systems. All of the interactions an individual experiences as they go about their day-to-day lives are shaped by these interlocking systems. As a result, there is an extensive body of sociological literature addressing how individuals in U.S. society are privileged and oppressed on the basis of their perceived membership in gender and race categories; however, relatively little research exists examining how individuals come to be seen by others as members of gender and race categories in the first place. In order to address this gap in the existent literature, this thesis asked 354 participants to perform gender and race categorizations for 28 target individuals of various gender and race category memberships. Participants were asked to make a categorization, rate how confident they were in that categorizations accuracy, and then explain why they made the gender or race categorization that they did. In analyzing these categorizations, this thesis produced three important findings about the process of gender and race categorization. First, this thesis identified two gender categories ("female" and "male") and eight race categories ("White," " Black," "Latino," "Asian," "Southeast Asian," "South Asian/Indian," "Middle Eastern," and "Mixed Race") used in gender and race categorization. Second, particularly in the common usage of the biologically-based concepts of "sex" and "race," rather than the socially-based concepts of "gender" and "ethnicity." Third, this thesis found interactions between the gender and race systems in categorization, finding that White individuals and male individuals are gender categorized more easily than Black individuals or female individuals, and individuals will less "ambiguous" skin coloration are more easily categorized than others.

Claude Cahun, born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, was an author, playwright, surrealist photographer and anti-fascist activist who spent most of their lives in France and the Isle of Jersey from their birth in 1894 to their early death in 1954. Throughout their career they went by various aliases and pennames, settling on Claude Cahun in 1917, a gender-ambiguous name in French. While they considered themselves a writer before a photographer it is their photography that they are probably best known for today, becoming popular for their "modern" content that explores gender identity and its presentation. These self-portraits, along with their personal writings, support the conclusion that Cahun was (or could be considered, as they did not have the language of gender and sexuality in their lifetime) a transgender, nonbinary individual, possibly gender fluid. For this reason, throughout this research I will be using the singular they/them pronouns in reference to Cahun as well as their partner Marcel Moore. This thesis will investigate and analyze the photographic work of Claude Cahun as their own personal exploration of their sexuality and gender identity. I will use both the context of their writings, and those of other contemporaries within a framework of early 20th cenrtury culture to better understand their content.

The current study examined the relationship between the sexualization of women in the media and its effects on women's self-objectification and sexual priming with sociodemographic variables as a mediator. It was hypothesized that (1) exposure to increased sexual content in music videos would positively correlate with increased sexual priming among viewers and (2) increased sexual priming among females would be associated with increased self-objectification and increased objectification of other women. Additionally, the current study aimed to examine sociodemographic factors and if they correlate to the impact of sexual priming on self-objectification and the objectification of other women. The results of the current study indicated that the participants results to sexual priming when exposed to sexual music videos whether censored or not were significantly different than those who were not exposed to any content prior to answering any questionnaires.

No description available.