Oral Session 3 - 4:30-5:30PM
Abstract Volume and Quick Reference Guide
_____________________________________________________________________
Room A
Moderator: Dr. Julye Bidmead
Peace Studies
4:30-4:45 pm
Women and Peace
Presenter(s): Gabrielle Guzy
Advisor(s): Dr. Lisa Leitz
The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ was adopted in the year 2000. This statute discussed how women play an important role in peacekeeping and peacebuilding as well as demanded there be an increase in women’s participation in peace processes (Schneiker, 2021). Women’s participation has been shown to increase the likelihood that a peace agreement is made and implemented (O’Reilly et al., 2015), yet women still consistently being left out of peace negotiations worldwide. In the years between 2015 and 2019, women only accounted for 14 percent of peace negotiators (Council on Foreign Relations [CFR], 2022). One reason could be that there are socially constructed gender roles in place that seem to prevent women from holding peacemaking leadership positions, despite the fact that these “feminine” characteristics would actually be traits we would logically want in our leaders (O’Reilly et al., 2015). These traditional gender roles reflect a hierarchy where masculinity is superior to femininity and this in turn perpetuates gender inequality (Greene et al., 2019). I will be analyzing data that confirms that women do, in fact, improve the peace process and the implementation of peace agreements as well as data that confirms that we are currently living in a climate
still dealing with gender inequality.
4:45-5:00 pm
Madar I Millat
Presenter(s): Maha Ishaq
Advisor(s): Dr. Lisa Leitz
Many do not know that a Muslim woman, Fatima Jinnah, helped to develop the “two nation theory” that led to the 1947 partition of Pakistan and India, which also ended British colonialism there. Fatima Jinnah was a reputable and honorable individual in Pakistan, as seen through history and various sources. With extensive research, this paper reveals Jinnah’s drive for gender equity, religious nationalism, and civil and democratic rights. Fatima Jinnah, also known as Mader-e Millat ("Mother of the Nation"), was a prominent figure in the founding of Pakistan; she was the younger sister and constant companion of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who founded Pakistan and become the country’s first Governor General. Fatima was a proponent for peace, secularism, and democracy. She remains a symbol of feminism and Pakistani nationalism. In this paper, I will explore the development of women’s leadership in Pakistan during and after the 1947 partition from India. Fatima had graduated from the University of Calcutta with a dental degree in 1923, becoming India's (including Pakistan’s) first female dentist. She was an outspoken opponent of the British Raj, and later became a key proponent of the two-nation idea and a leader in the All-India Muslim League. Fatima Jinnah was not only a public figure who demonstrated the abilities of women in public life, but she was also a peacebuilder who was instrumental in peace diplomacy. Jinnah also organized various feminist movement groups to that mobilized for change in early Pakistan after the 1947 partition.
Religious Studies
5:00-5:15pm
“I don’t really feel like it was a conscious choice:” The Experiences and Motivations of Young Female Religious Converts and Reverts
Presenter(s): Amea Wadsworth
Advisor(s): Dr. Julye Bidmead
In a modern age where adolescents have access to a wealth of information through education and technology, young adults have much more freedom of choice when it comes to deciding on a religion to follow. Using a series of ethnographic interviews with five female converts and reverts aged 18-30 of various faiths, including Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, I researched their motivations behind conversion, level of religious exposure and education, relationships with family, and experience converting as a woman. In my research, I found that all women had relatively sheltered family lives that restricted religious exposure to fall within their family’s belief system, which was usually Christianity. While I hypothesized that converts would have used their access to online information to research various religions, each interviewee (aside from one) instead reported that they were introduced to their chosen faith through a peer or family member and all interviewees only researched their chosen faith after this introduction, rather than researching a variety. All interviewees also noted that they had difficulty with gender imbalances in either their original and/or chosen religion, but no issues of gender inequality were enough for them to entirely abandon their new chosen religion. Participants each reported a different level of healthy attachment to their parents growing up, but all did show some difficulty with parental and/or familial relationships, which corroborates research regarding parental attachment theory and religious
conversion and apostasy.
5:15-5:30pm
"Harry Potter: An Engagement Guide for the Critical, the Caring, and the Curious."
Presenter(s): Emma Brandel
Advisor(s): Dr. Julye Bidmead
As a group final project for the experimental course REL 329: Deconstructing Hogwarts, this project was titled “A Harry Potter Engagement Guide: for the Critical, the Caring, and the Curious”, and was created by students to address both the elements of the Harry Potter novels and the later additions from the author J.K. Rowling to her Wizarding World. This Engagement Guide for young readers attempts to address both the problematic elements of J.K. Rowling’s writing (including her public Anti-Trans statements on social media) as well as the neutral and good elements of the books, movies, and other affiliated media. The intention behind this text is to serve as a tool to teach young readers how to critically analyze media and also the world around them, and uses the Harry Potter series as a metaphorical petri dish for these conversations.
This presentation will discuss how the contributors to this project were inspired by the course and class discussions to create the Engagement Guide, and cover the major topics discussed within, such as religious allegory, racism and colonialism, misogyny, consent, death, historical parallels, transphobia, homophobia, and ableism. Finally, the presentation will also explain why guides such as this one are so important, and the importance of teaching young readers critical thinking skills through topics and media they already know and love.
Moderator: Dr. Julye Bidmead
Peace Studies
4:30-4:45 pm
Women and Peace
Presenter(s): Gabrielle Guzy
Advisor(s): Dr. Lisa Leitz
The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ was adopted in the year 2000. This statute discussed how women play an important role in peacekeeping and peacebuilding as well as demanded there be an increase in women’s participation in peace processes (Schneiker, 2021). Women’s participation has been shown to increase the likelihood that a peace agreement is made and implemented (O’Reilly et al., 2015), yet women still consistently being left out of peace negotiations worldwide. In the years between 2015 and 2019, women only accounted for 14 percent of peace negotiators (Council on Foreign Relations [CFR], 2022). One reason could be that there are socially constructed gender roles in place that seem to prevent women from holding peacemaking leadership positions, despite the fact that these “feminine” characteristics would actually be traits we would logically want in our leaders (O’Reilly et al., 2015). These traditional gender roles reflect a hierarchy where masculinity is superior to femininity and this in turn perpetuates gender inequality (Greene et al., 2019). I will be analyzing data that confirms that women do, in fact, improve the peace process and the implementation of peace agreements as well as data that confirms that we are currently living in a climate
still dealing with gender inequality.
4:45-5:00 pm
Madar I Millat
Presenter(s): Maha Ishaq
Advisor(s): Dr. Lisa Leitz
Many do not know that a Muslim woman, Fatima Jinnah, helped to develop the “two nation theory” that led to the 1947 partition of Pakistan and India, which also ended British colonialism there. Fatima Jinnah was a reputable and honorable individual in Pakistan, as seen through history and various sources. With extensive research, this paper reveals Jinnah’s drive for gender equity, religious nationalism, and civil and democratic rights. Fatima Jinnah, also known as Mader-e Millat ("Mother of the Nation"), was a prominent figure in the founding of Pakistan; she was the younger sister and constant companion of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who founded Pakistan and become the country’s first Governor General. Fatima was a proponent for peace, secularism, and democracy. She remains a symbol of feminism and Pakistani nationalism. In this paper, I will explore the development of women’s leadership in Pakistan during and after the 1947 partition from India. Fatima had graduated from the University of Calcutta with a dental degree in 1923, becoming India's (including Pakistan’s) first female dentist. She was an outspoken opponent of the British Raj, and later became a key proponent of the two-nation idea and a leader in the All-India Muslim League. Fatima Jinnah was not only a public figure who demonstrated the abilities of women in public life, but she was also a peacebuilder who was instrumental in peace diplomacy. Jinnah also organized various feminist movement groups to that mobilized for change in early Pakistan after the 1947 partition.
Religious Studies
5:00-5:15pm
“I don’t really feel like it was a conscious choice:” The Experiences and Motivations of Young Female Religious Converts and Reverts
Presenter(s): Amea Wadsworth
Advisor(s): Dr. Julye Bidmead
In a modern age where adolescents have access to a wealth of information through education and technology, young adults have much more freedom of choice when it comes to deciding on a religion to follow. Using a series of ethnographic interviews with five female converts and reverts aged 18-30 of various faiths, including Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, I researched their motivations behind conversion, level of religious exposure and education, relationships with family, and experience converting as a woman. In my research, I found that all women had relatively sheltered family lives that restricted religious exposure to fall within their family’s belief system, which was usually Christianity. While I hypothesized that converts would have used their access to online information to research various religions, each interviewee (aside from one) instead reported that they were introduced to their chosen faith through a peer or family member and all interviewees only researched their chosen faith after this introduction, rather than researching a variety. All interviewees also noted that they had difficulty with gender imbalances in either their original and/or chosen religion, but no issues of gender inequality were enough for them to entirely abandon their new chosen religion. Participants each reported a different level of healthy attachment to their parents growing up, but all did show some difficulty with parental and/or familial relationships, which corroborates research regarding parental attachment theory and religious
conversion and apostasy.
5:15-5:30pm
"Harry Potter: An Engagement Guide for the Critical, the Caring, and the Curious."
Presenter(s): Emma Brandel
Advisor(s): Dr. Julye Bidmead
As a group final project for the experimental course REL 329: Deconstructing Hogwarts, this project was titled “A Harry Potter Engagement Guide: for the Critical, the Caring, and the Curious”, and was created by students to address both the elements of the Harry Potter novels and the later additions from the author J.K. Rowling to her Wizarding World. This Engagement Guide for young readers attempts to address both the problematic elements of J.K. Rowling’s writing (including her public Anti-Trans statements on social media) as well as the neutral and good elements of the books, movies, and other affiliated media. The intention behind this text is to serve as a tool to teach young readers how to critically analyze media and also the world around them, and uses the Harry Potter series as a metaphorical petri dish for these conversations.
This presentation will discuss how the contributors to this project were inspired by the course and class discussions to create the Engagement Guide, and cover the major topics discussed within, such as religious allegory, racism and colonialism, misogyny, consent, death, historical parallels, transphobia, homophobia, and ableism. Finally, the presentation will also explain why guides such as this one are so important, and the importance of teaching young readers critical thinking skills through topics and media they already know and love.
Room B
Moderator: Dr. Nasim Estakhri
Art
4:30-4:45 pm
Desert X Case Study
Presenter(s): Eugene Kim
Advisor(s): Lia Halloran
Art in a gallery - that's traditional. Art with no white walls, no ceiling, no building at all, in the middle of a desert, and in Palm Springs heat - that's Desert X, a biennial art exhibition held in the Coachella Valley since 2017. The decision to use the desert grounds for a place to present art isn't as simple as being where Desert X founder Susan Davis lives. But the Desert X lore deepens when diving into how the art interacts with the land, its audience, and the art culture of Palm Springs. Desert X’s mission to show in every major desert in the world shows their intentionality with the space and the hyper-specific relationship that it creates with the art.
This case study will examine Desert X’s decision to use the desert as a space to present art. It will explore the importance of deserts to the works included, such as Cara Romero’s Jackrabbit, Cottontail & Spirits of the Desert and Zahrah Alghamdi’s What Lies Behind the Walls and how these works conceptually belong in their respective land. This case study will also research how the desert alters a viewer’s perception of objects around them, and the art itself like Alicja Kwade’s In Blur. This study will be done through research on the artists and curators, going on site to hear from Susan Davis and other people who have contributed to this project, and finally, looking at other art practices from artists and curators outside of a gallery to
see how the art interacts differently to space.
4:45-5:00 pm
Desert X and the Indigenous Community
Presenter(s): Hannah Emerson
Advisor(s): Lia Halloran
LANDBACK is a movement that has been present for multiple generations that has the goal of obtaining Indigenous land and returning it back to the Indigenous people. This movement hopes to establish Indigenous governments in areas that were once theirs and allow for them to have more control of the land that is theirs.
Desert X is a biennial art exhibition that takes place in the Coachella Valley where artists display pieces throughout the desert. The first iteration occurred in 2017 and takes place every two years.
For my paper, I will be exploring the relationship between the history of the LANDBACK movement and how this movement coincides with Desert X, as well as how the Indigenous community is involved in Desert X. There have been a couple pieces dealing with concepts of Indigenous rights, like Nicholas Galanin’s Never Forget and Jeffrey Gibson’s ALIVE!. New insight will be gained through research of Desert X, the history of LANDBACK, the Indigenous people of the Palm Springs area, and through interviews with members of the Desert X team. It is expected to find that there are Indigenous artists involved in the biennial and that there is more involvement beyond that, but there is also more room for involvement with featuring more Indigenous artists and including them in high positions. Also, it is expected to find that there has been previous support for LANDBACK and possible ways for them to collaborate in the future.
Film
5:00-5:15pm
Sociocultural Pressures Among Parents of Queer Children in Films with Non-Western Environments
Presenter(s): Samay Bhasin
Advisor(s): Dr. Ian Barnard
The heteronormative and cisnormative nature of society has required queer individuals to undergo the phenomenon of “coming out” as their queer identity. This phenomenon has the potential to take great tolls on queer individuals especially when it comes to parents. Queer individuals with unaccepting parents are eight times more likely to attempt suicide, six times more likely to experience clinical depression, and three times more likely to suffer under substance abuse (Ryan et al., 2009; Ryan et al., 2010). However despite such concerning statistics, there is still a significant gap in scientific research on creating supportive environments within families for queer children (Caroline et al., 2018). The current study aims to investigate films that depict queer children’s relationships with their parents using in-text, semiotic, and iconic analyses. Specifically, I aim to understand what existing explanations in film can serve as predictors for homophobic behavior among parents. Current research finds that ethnic minorities were more likely to exhibit signs of rejection of LGBT children and that “parental reactions to their child's sexual identity occurs within a sociocultural context” (Richter et al., 2017). Unfortunately, such findings are broad and uninvestigated, leaving the complex stories within queer films at an international scope as the next best option. Through the analyses of various queer films (The Wound, XXY, José, Pariah, and Moonlight), I hypothesize that heightened sociocultural pressures may accelerate homophobia because of a western presence rooted in colonialism and oppression. This could be because the existence of racism and oppression towards these ethnic and cultural minorities heightens the need for these individuals to uphold traditions and identities consistently. Conversely, this could also be because historic western intrusion into these cultural spheres injected less sympathetic perspectives of LGBTQ identities than what was previously present.
Moderator: Dr. Nasim Estakhri
Art
4:30-4:45 pm
Desert X Case Study
Presenter(s): Eugene Kim
Advisor(s): Lia Halloran
Art in a gallery - that's traditional. Art with no white walls, no ceiling, no building at all, in the middle of a desert, and in Palm Springs heat - that's Desert X, a biennial art exhibition held in the Coachella Valley since 2017. The decision to use the desert grounds for a place to present art isn't as simple as being where Desert X founder Susan Davis lives. But the Desert X lore deepens when diving into how the art interacts with the land, its audience, and the art culture of Palm Springs. Desert X’s mission to show in every major desert in the world shows their intentionality with the space and the hyper-specific relationship that it creates with the art.
This case study will examine Desert X’s decision to use the desert as a space to present art. It will explore the importance of deserts to the works included, such as Cara Romero’s Jackrabbit, Cottontail & Spirits of the Desert and Zahrah Alghamdi’s What Lies Behind the Walls and how these works conceptually belong in their respective land. This case study will also research how the desert alters a viewer’s perception of objects around them, and the art itself like Alicja Kwade’s In Blur. This study will be done through research on the artists and curators, going on site to hear from Susan Davis and other people who have contributed to this project, and finally, looking at other art practices from artists and curators outside of a gallery to
see how the art interacts differently to space.
4:45-5:00 pm
Desert X and the Indigenous Community
Presenter(s): Hannah Emerson
Advisor(s): Lia Halloran
LANDBACK is a movement that has been present for multiple generations that has the goal of obtaining Indigenous land and returning it back to the Indigenous people. This movement hopes to establish Indigenous governments in areas that were once theirs and allow for them to have more control of the land that is theirs.
Desert X is a biennial art exhibition that takes place in the Coachella Valley where artists display pieces throughout the desert. The first iteration occurred in 2017 and takes place every two years.
For my paper, I will be exploring the relationship between the history of the LANDBACK movement and how this movement coincides with Desert X, as well as how the Indigenous community is involved in Desert X. There have been a couple pieces dealing with concepts of Indigenous rights, like Nicholas Galanin’s Never Forget and Jeffrey Gibson’s ALIVE!. New insight will be gained through research of Desert X, the history of LANDBACK, the Indigenous people of the Palm Springs area, and through interviews with members of the Desert X team. It is expected to find that there are Indigenous artists involved in the biennial and that there is more involvement beyond that, but there is also more room for involvement with featuring more Indigenous artists and including them in high positions. Also, it is expected to find that there has been previous support for LANDBACK and possible ways for them to collaborate in the future.
Film
5:00-5:15pm
Sociocultural Pressures Among Parents of Queer Children in Films with Non-Western Environments
Presenter(s): Samay Bhasin
Advisor(s): Dr. Ian Barnard
The heteronormative and cisnormative nature of society has required queer individuals to undergo the phenomenon of “coming out” as their queer identity. This phenomenon has the potential to take great tolls on queer individuals especially when it comes to parents. Queer individuals with unaccepting parents are eight times more likely to attempt suicide, six times more likely to experience clinical depression, and three times more likely to suffer under substance abuse (Ryan et al., 2009; Ryan et al., 2010). However despite such concerning statistics, there is still a significant gap in scientific research on creating supportive environments within families for queer children (Caroline et al., 2018). The current study aims to investigate films that depict queer children’s relationships with their parents using in-text, semiotic, and iconic analyses. Specifically, I aim to understand what existing explanations in film can serve as predictors for homophobic behavior among parents. Current research finds that ethnic minorities were more likely to exhibit signs of rejection of LGBT children and that “parental reactions to their child's sexual identity occurs within a sociocultural context” (Richter et al., 2017). Unfortunately, such findings are broad and uninvestigated, leaving the complex stories within queer films at an international scope as the next best option. Through the analyses of various queer films (The Wound, XXY, José, Pariah, and Moonlight), I hypothesize that heightened sociocultural pressures may accelerate homophobia because of a western presence rooted in colonialism and oppression. This could be because the existence of racism and oppression towards these ethnic and cultural minorities heightens the need for these individuals to uphold traditions and identities consistently. Conversely, this could also be because historic western intrusion into these cultural spheres injected less sympathetic perspectives of LGBTQ identities than what was previously present.
English
5:15-5:30pm
Gendered Performance of Queerness in Dance: Onstage and in the Studio
Presenter(s): Lauren Bramlett
Advisor(s): Dr. Justine Van Meter
This project traces perceptions and performance of queerness in 21st century Western concert dance both on stages and in studio training settings. Examining texts including the archival video of performing bodies, books, articles, and ethnographic fieldwork, the project traces the trajectory of queerness in dance spaces and how queer identities are embodied on and off the stage. Additionally, the project considers sexual orientation relative to gender identity, with emphasis on the contrast in perception between cisgender LGBTQ+ men and cisgender LGBTQ+ women and a section on the mainstream dance industry’s rejection of nonbinary identities and gender fluidity more broadly. In the context of this project, the word "queer" is used to encompass a range of sexual orientations, gender identities, and modes of expressing such identities. The discussion of difference in the perception of queerness based on gender identity, then, is in reference to a difference in how both sexual orientation and gender performance are perceived. The project emphasizes the tendency for acceptance and seeming expectation of queerness demonstrated by cisgender male dancers as opposed to the taboo that continues to surround cisgender female queerness, in terms of both sexual orientation and gender performance. This argument is, of course, problematized by its binary structure, and of notable mention are the wealth of nonbinary and or genderqueer dancers whose expression of queerness is often further marginalized than that of cisgender female dancers, as particularly emphasized in casting and costuming procedures. This project aims to trace how the dance industry has arrived at its current relationship to queerness, to note where disparities exist, and to offer a way forward.