Where in the World Are the Lesbians?

In 2001 I became, as far as I can tell, the first person hired at a Catholic university specifically because of my work in LGBTQ studies. I am blessed, as it were, with a departmental colleague who publishes widely in postcolonial queer studies, a colleague in another department who teaches queer U.S. history every two years, and many supportive friends on the faculty. Still, I am the most public face of LGBTQ studies on campus, and if a new queer studies course is added to the curriculum, I am likely to be the one who develops it. Over the years I have come to realize that my role is not unusual, Catholic university or not. I was in a similar position at a large state university for seven years and have several friends and acquaintances across the country at a variety of institutions in similar spots. Most of us are not lucky enough to work among even a small clustering of others teaching in our field, even if we do have colleagues who assign queer theory in their courses or publish on queer topics. Of necessity this makes us chameleons, generalists. As an interdisciplinary scholar with an interdisciplinary doctorate, I feel suited to the role

Affirmational and Transformational Values and Practices in the Tolkien Fanfiction Community

Fanfiction based on the legendarium of J.R.R. Tolkien has existed for at least six decades and has been, within the past two, one of the most consistently active online fanfiction communities. Despite this, the fandom has been relatively unstudied by fan studies scholars. This paper considers how Tolkien-based fanfiction corroborates and complicates current theories of fanfiction, focusing especially on a theory proposed by obsession_inc that proposes two types of fandoms: affirmational and transformational. Current thought places fanfiction at the transformational end of the continuum. Using quantitative survey data of authors and readers of Tolkien-based fanfiction, this paper offers evidence that Tolkien-based fanfiction contains significant affirmational components that are an intentional and valued part of many Tolkien fanfiction communities. Authors and readers regard authority, critical functions of fanfiction, and reparative purposes for fanfiction differently than the more commonly studied media fandoms. Yet one cannot say simply that authors of Tolkien-based fanfiction are more affirmational than other fanwriters; instead, evidence shows that authors and readers of Tolkien-based fanfiction navigate transformational and affirmational elements in complex ways, and community cultures often center upon members’ values and practices

Best Practices for Serving LBGTQ+ Students in the 21st Century: A Systematic Literature Review

To best serve LGBTQ+ students in an academic library, it is necessary to develop a list of best practices. While there is ample literature on the topic of the needs of LGBTQ+ students in academic libraries and how to address those needs, there is no readily accessible list of evidence-based best practices for general implementation. To address this need, the author identified an initial pool of 210 articles published in library journals between 2000 and 2022. Of those 210 articles, 109 articles met all conditions for further review. A total of 21 articles within the review pool contained specific recommendations for serving LGBTQ+ students. Those 21 articles were assessed, and their findings were compiled to create a list of evidence-based best practices for serving LGBTQ+ students in academic libraries

Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report (Second edition; fully revised and updated)

No sooner was the Internet upon us than anxiety arose over the ease of accessing pornography and other controversial content. In response, entrepreneurs soon developed filtering products. By the end of the decade, a new industry had emerged to create and market Internet filters....Yet filters were highly imprecise from the beginning. The sheer size of the Internet meant that identifying potentially offensive content had to be done mechanically, by matching "key" words and phrases; hence, the blocking of Web sites for "Middlesex County," or words such as "magna cum laude". Internet filters are crude and error-prone because they categorize expression without regard to its context, meaning, and value. Yet these sweeping censorship tools are now widely used in companies, homes, schools, and libraries. Internet filters remain a pressing public policy issue to all those concerned about free expression, education, culture, and democracy. This fully revised and updated report surveys tests and studies of Internet filtering products from the mid-1990s through 2006. It provides an essential resource for the ongoing debate

Homosexual rights and the non-western world: a postcolonial reading of homosexual rights in international human rights law

This paper examines the calls for the international legal recognition and protection of rights for homosexual men and women. To undertake such an examination, the paper utilises theoretical paradigms from within the field of postcolonial studies. Opening with an overview of the theoretical bases and preconceptions of postcolonial analysis, the paper then examines the extant bases for the protection of the rights of homosexuals at international law. It then goes on to examine Dutch-American scholar Eric Heinze's calls for atreaty-based instrument to codify and enforce principles of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in international law. The paper argues that while homosexual rights are indeed worthy of protection at international law, the current means by which they are protected, and the current proposals for international legal reform in this area, articulate colonialist and specifically Western understandings of homosexuality and sexual orientation

Writing themselves in 3: the third national study on the sexual health and wellbeing of same sex attracted and gender questioning young people

Executive Summary Introduction This is the third of the Writing Themselves In national reports which have been conducted six years apart since 1998. In 2010, a total of 3134 same sex attracted and gender questioning (SSAGQ) young people participated in Writing Themselves In 3 (WTi3), almost double the number in 2004 and more than four times that of 1998. The participants, who were aged between 14 and 21 years, came from all states and territories of Australia, from remote (2%), rural (18%) and urban (67%) areas and from a range of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. There were more young women (57%) than young men (41%) and a smaller group (3%) who were gender questioning (GQ). Sexual feelings In 2010, the complex interaction of sexual attraction, identity and behaviour was even more evident than in previous studies. Most young men were exclusively same sex attracted but half of the young women were attracted to both sexes and less than one third exclusively to the same sex. More than a third of young people realized their sexual difference before puberty and there were few gender differences in age of first realization. More young people felt positive about their same sex attraction than in 2004. As in 2004, young people who felt bad about their sexuality used homophobic beliefs to describe their reasons whereas those who felt good used resistant, affirming explanations. Sexual identity Most young men identified as gay/homosexual. Young women were more likely to identify as bisexual. Young women chose a greater range of identity terms to describe their sexuality

Introduction To Research Methods In The Social Sciences (SOCI 016B) Syllabus

Introduction To Research Methods In The Social Sciences course description:An overview of research methods in the social science, with an emphasis on practicing a variety of techniques/methodologies, and thinking about designing good research questions and assessing answers

Feminisms and activisms: reflections on the politics of writing and the editorial process

This article addresses the questions and dilemmas that each of us has brought to the project. It traces their modulation, refinement and manifestation as they became part of a shared creative dynamic and thus subject to our personal experience and reflection thereon. The initial idea was to produce one text with multiple voices, yet considering our theoretical diversity, the geographical distance between us and the short time at hand we realized this, for the moment, was a too ambitious project. Hence as a tribute to the diversity of our perspectives and reflecting the actual dilemma of seeking to "speak in one powerful voice" while allowing heterogeneity, this article presents itself as a tentative pastiche of our four distinct yet overlapping and intersecting contributions

Introduction To Film And Media Studies (FMST 01) Syllabus

Introduction To Film And Media Studies course description: The invention of cinema at the end of the 19th century and the rapid developments of digital technologies most noticeable in our increased use of social networking tools on mini-screens mark a period in which communications technology shaped and shape our world and moving images evolved from the photographic to the digital. This course explores the specificity, history, and function of media forms, focusing on the language of cinema and the critical repertoire of film/media theories. As an art, a text, a technology, a commercial product, a psychological experience, and a social practice, cinema presents fascinating contradictions for study. This lecture/discussion course, intended as a general introduction and as the first credit towards a minor or a major in Film and Media Studies, has two basic goals. First, it will develop skills in film analysis. You will become fluent in the vocabulary of film form and learn to construct an argument about what a film\u27s sounds and images mean and how it structures and achieves its meanings. Second, it will provide an introduction to the theories, methods, and concerns of film and media studies as a discipline, preparing you for further work in the field. The course will emphasize specific aspects of film style and narrative form through analysis of scenes from the films screened each week and from a range of outside examples. Each week will introduce historical, cultural and theoretical topics relevant to the films shown while focusing on the films\u27 self-reflexivity of their medium, and considering the politics of image-making from the postwar period to today

Resources for the study of nineteenth-century American poetry : a selective guide

This survey essay provides an overview of print and electronic resources for the study of nineteenth-century American poetry. As does the volume as a whole, it focuses on (currently) less-studied poets such as the sentimental-domestic tradition (Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Frances Sargent Osgood) and the schoolroom/fireside poets (Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, William Cullen Bryant)