In this gendered literary analysis, Victoria Bryan examines the importance of food and eating space as gendered subjects, citing the masculine outsider perspective in dining in the homespace. She uses all key elements of Eudora Welty’s food writing to underscore the highly gendered eating spaces of men and women, and argues the following: In […]
Author: Wendy Robertson
“Opening Doors for Iowa Women,” Anna L. Bostwick Flaming.
This article, originally published by the State Historical Society of Iowa, discusses the movement to address woman homemakers, displaced from the home and forced into employment by divorce, widowhood or any variety of marital problems.
“Smart Women, Stupid Shoes, and Cynical Employers,” Marc Linder
In this article, originally published in the Journal of Corporation Law in 1997, Marc Linder analyzes the discrepancy in professional footwear between genders, paying particular attention to the apparel expectations of flight attendants.
The effects of generational status on college adjustment and psychological well-being among South Asian American college students
This doctoral dissertation by Munni Deb seeks to understand the ways in which South Asian American college students’ experiences of college are affected by their parents’ educational statuses. By analyzing data on academic success and emotional well-being, the author looked at whether students whose parents attended college have advantages in those areas over first generation college students. Deb writes, More than […]
The effects of the first year of college on undergraduates’ development of altruistic and socially responsible behavior
The value of college education goes beyond simply gaining academic knowledge, and researcher Ryan David Padgett explores two particular social benefits that are often overlooked by those who allocate funding to higher education: altruism and social responsibility. Padgett gives special consideration in his study to first generation college students. Padgett writes, Findings from this pretest-posttest, longitudinal study suggest […]
Getting out, missing out, and surviving
In her 2013 dissertation, Georginna LaNelle Martin explores the ways in which social class mediates the experiences of White, low-income, first-generation students as they progress through higher education. Using a critical theoretical lens, Martin analyzes how this aspect of their identity influenced how these students viewed themselves and others in the college context. …the many hours low-income, […]
“Blood, Lust and Love,” Gigi Durham
This article by Meenakshi Gigi Durham, published in the Journal of Children and Media, analyzes through a feminist lens the ways in which the popular Twilight series enforce ideas of gendered violence. Examining both the explicit and implicit verbal and visual messaging of the Twilight books and films, Durham critiques the expectations put forward by the author with regard to masculine violence and feminine acquiescence.
“Picket Lines, Picket Fences,” Kenneth Dofner
In this article, written as part of an undergraduate history seminar at the University of Iowa, Kenneth Dofner argues that feminist theory and action created the foundation that helped shaped policy during and after the Farm Crisis. Looking at the ways in which second-wave feminism shaped grassroots organizing during the Farm Crisis, he illustrates the important social and political role that women played in Iowa’s rural communities in the 1980s and beyond.
“Is this working out?” Kristine E. Newhall
Kristine E. Newhall’s 2013 dissertation looks at gender barriers in gyms and how space impacts use across gender. Looking at three Massachusetts-based gyms, she traces the use and disuse of gym space and its consequences for women’s fitness, who owns it and who shapes it.
“We are alive,” Chelsea D. Burk
Chelsea D. Burk’s 2014 essay in the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies looks at Leslie Marmon Silko’s influence on poet Jo Harjo. In particular she examines the ways in which Harjo’s character Noni Daylight extends ideas introduced by Marmon Silko’s character Yellow Woman.
“Love. Sex. Shoes.” Suzanne Marie Cody
In this collection of performance essays, Suzanne Marie Cody uses shoes and clothes to explore the many lives a woman may live. Each pair conveys a different experience, a different time and different lessons like chapters of a book, while constantly calling attention to what it means to walk a mile in a woman’s shoes – whether they’re hiking boots or red stilettos.
“Baby, you’re a rich man,” Donna A. Lancianese
In this dissertation, Donna A. Lancianese looks at the impact of social class on how we relate to one another. Through focus groups at the University of Iowa, she establishes socially constructed profiles of the “Rich Guy” and the “Poor Guy,” using them to gain a greater understanding of how social classes are constituted and how gender alters or conforms to these ideas.
Rethinking woman’s place in Chinese society
Linghua Xu’s 2015 MA thesis uses the 1934 Shanghai film New Woman to closely examine the place of women in Chinese society. Writes Xu: The conception of “new woman”(xin nü xing, 新女性) was popularized during the New Culture Movement beginning from 1919, which was a whole-scale criticism and rethinking of Chinese culture surrounding almost every aspect of Chinese […]
Examination of Iowa Turnout Statistics Since 2000 by Party and Gender, Timothy M. Hagle
In 2014, Associate Professor of Political Science Timothy M. Hagle published an examination of Iowa voters in presidential and midterm elections since the year 2000. Professor Hagle focuses on party and gender as he looks at who votes, how often, and when.
Women’s Suffrage in Iowa Collection
In honor of the 90th Anniversary of women’s suffrage, the UI Libraries digitized thousands of documents, photographs, and artifacts highlighting Iowa’s unique heritage. The materials come from the Iowa Women’s Archives, the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Special Collections Departments of The University of Iowa and Iowa State University libraries.
“Shades of an urban frontier,” Robert Arthur Gillespie
Robert Arthur Gillespie’s 2015 dissertation looks at cities, science fiction literature and the place of race within them. Looking at urban expanses like Frank Herbert’s Arrakeen in Dune, Gillespie uses “two city typologies […] the ‘imperial city’ that reigns at the heart of sf’s many empires, and the empty metropolis of the ‘dead city’ or ‘ghost city.'”
Tight Spaces, Kesho Scott et al.
A tri-autobiography, Tight Spaces shares the remarkable stories of three women (and UI students): Kesho Scott, Cherry Muhanji, and Egyirba High. Their stories and essays examine the social and physical geographies of the Midwest and the place of race, class, age, gender, and sexuality within them. These “tight spaces” are opened and explored, fleshed out and felt, in the sensitive, wry, and determined voices of the book.
“Exodus of champions,” Daniel Lawrence Taradash
Daniel Lawrence Taradash’s 2015 dissertation looks at how popular heavyweight champions were shaped by the political and social environments of their time. Focusing on Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman, he explores the differences in opinion each man had regarding issues such as segregation and how they defined themselves against Ali’s largely ignored, hardline segregationist stance.
“Who do you think you are?”
Dr. André Brock’s 2009 POROI essay looks at Black identity in personal and online contexts. As he explores its impact on our understanding of identity, Brock also discusses ways in which the Internet facilitates the circulation and visibility of “formerly private spaces to non-Blacks.”
Sociocultural Influences on Undergraduate Students’ Conversations on Race at a Predominantly White Institution
Dr. Sherri Edvalson’s 2013 dissertation explores how students talk about race and what influences their views. Her focus on students from various racial backgrounds attending a small, private Midwestern university yields interesting results.
“Muchakinock: African Americans and the Making of an Iowa Coal Town,” Pam Stek
In the early 1880s, recruitment of African American miners to Mahaska County led to the development of a community that would become a thriving settlement, home to black miners, merchants, and professionals. The coal camp of Muchakinock, Iowa, which flourished for about 20 year s during the late nineteenth century, was an unusual community for that time in the state’s history.
Should Writers Use They Own English?
Vershawn Young responds to an article in the New York Times by Stanley Fish which asserts there only one way to speak and write to get ahead in the world.
A study of the experiences of Black college female student athletes at a predominantly White institution
The purpose of this study was to gather descriptive data on the experiences of Black female student athletes. A better understanding of the experiences of Black female student athletes as students, as athletes, and as developing young women may help student affairs practitioners better understand their collegiate experience; provide them with information to make decisions […]
“Another layer of blackness,” Patrick B. Oray
Patrick B. Oray’s 2013 dissertation, “Another layer blackness: theorizing race, ethnicity, identity in U.S. black public sphere,” takes a more granular look at the construction of race in America with particular emphasis on migration and immigration.
Back to Buxton
Eula Biss’s creative essay explores efforts towards racial integration in an Iowa mining town and in an Iowa college town a hundred years later.
