Tight Coils: Black Transfemininity, Transhegemony, and Identity Formation in The U.S. South

Often without question, we are tasked with understanding gender as inherently predicated on the assumption of whiteness and understanding that Black trans women and other transfeminine people belong at the bottom of a silent “hierarchy” of sorts. How then do Southern Black transfeminine people form their genders under such tightly coiled restraints? To elucidate these questions’ answers, I interviewed 5 Southern Black trans women and/or Southern Black transfeminine people to discuss the issues facing those that find themselves often spoken about but rarely spoken to. After these interviews, I utilized both my own understanding of Southern Black gender theory as well as the works of Black gender and Africana studies theorists to parse out how hegemonies within Southern trans communities are leading to Black trans women’s alienation and brutalization through narrative analysis. I aim to let these interviewees’ stories act as a catalyzing force for further Black transgender theorization

Experiences of Transgender Men Who Joined National Pan-Hellenic Council Sororities Pre-Transition

The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) - affectionately known as The Divine Nine - are places of support and leadership development for students. However, these groups espouse traditional gender role themes that align with sexual orientation and gender rigidity. This paper explores how four NPHC members negotiate their identity as both nonbinary or transgender, and Greek. Using the narrative inquiry approach, the researcher will explore how sorority members who no longer identify as cisgender women are treated post-gender transition by other sorority members

Managing and Monitoring the Menopausal Body

This Essay explores how menopausal bodies are managed and monitored through both menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) and the burgeoning market for technology-driven menopause products and services. While each of these allegedly improves the menopause experience, a closer investigation reveals a more complex interaction of profit motives and traditional notions of gender identity. The Essay identifies problems with—and suggests some solutions for reforming—current practices of monitoring and managing the menopausal body. Careful consideration of menopause brings this Essay into ongoing conversations about theorizing beyond the gender binary and stereotypical notions of femininity. Purveyors of both MHT and menopause-related digital products and services appeal to mostly cisgender women by emphasizing ideas of youthfulness, attractiveness, and sexual desirability. We locate these profit seekers within “menopause capitalism,” the marketing and selling of menopause-related products through messages that celebrate autonomy, community, or femininity from entities that are, at their core, commercial enterprises

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: EVALUATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) has been working decades towards reaching Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to create peace and prosperity for people and the planet. The 2030 Agenda was created as an urgent call to action, a global partnership, and a comprehensive plan to work towards the 17 SDGs. For this study, the focus is on Goal 4- quality education and the impact of leadership on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Leadership on ESD has been a more recent topic and under researched. By making advancements in leadership on ESD there will be positive global impacts on the urgent need to achieve all 17 goals by 2030. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have been implementing ESD programs in effort towards achieving SDG goals. The purpose of this mixed methods integrated analysis is to evaluate the leadership development of 40 higher education students across four different ESD programs at Coastal Carolina University. Leadership development is investigated through multiple measures, involving a critical analysis of formal and informal learning experiences. The case study evaluation is significant and demonstrates overall growth in leadership as a result of participating in the sustainability programs. In addition, the findings provide a holistic view of the growth that occurred throughout the semester. By understanding that both leadership and learning is transformational, we can further our research and better understand the impact of leadership on ESD, which is necessary to create a more sustainable future

CYBER SECURITY @ HOME: The Effect of Home User Perceptions of Personal Security Performance on Household IoT Security Intentions

This study explored potential human factors predictors of home user security intentions through the lens of past performance, perceived self-efficacy, and locus of control. While perceived self-efficacy and locus of control are elements in several organizational and individual security models, past performance has been less frequently studied. The variable, past performance, which has been referred to in other studies as prior experience, knowledge, and information security awareness, is usually a single question self-assessment of familiarity or comfort with technology. This study explores user technical prowess in further depth, using formal technical education, informal technical education, employment in an IT/CS field, and self-reported email and internet security measures as a measurement of technical ability. Security intentions were determined by best practices in hardware security, network security, and IoT device protection. Studying IoT security in home users is important because there are 26.6 billion devices connected to the Internet already, with 127 devices are being added to the network every second, which creates a very large attack surface if left unsecured. Unlike organizations, with dedicated IT departments, home users must provide their own security within their network. Instead of building security around the user, this research attempts to determine what human factors variables effect intentions to use existing security technologies. Through an online survey, home users provided information on their background, device usage, perceived ability to perform security behaviors, level of control over their environment, current security intentions, and future security intentions. Hierarchical linear regression, path modeling, and structural equation modeling determined that past performance was consistently the strongest predictor of security intentions for home users. Self-efficacy and locus of control had varying results among the disparate methods. Additionally, exposure to security concepts through the survey had an effect on user security intentions, as measured at the end of the survey. This research contributed an initial model for the effects of past performance, self-efficacy, and locus of control on security intentions. It provided verification for existing self-efficacy and locus of control measurements, as well as comprehensive, modular security intentions survey questions. Additionally, this study provided insight into the effect of demographics on security intentions

Montana Kaimin, February 13, 2019

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/studentnewspaper/8043/thumbnail.jp

Limiting the Boundaries of Assisted Reproductive Technology and Physiological Autonomy

This essay examines, critically, the wide successes of assisted reproductive technology (ART). With these successes have come concerns regarding its potential advancement of the boundaries of fecundity and of new levels of physiological freedom. One particular advancement involves efforts to utilize a phenomenon of nature termed parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction. The potential for adapting this occurrence as a form of assisted reproduction is of particular interest for members of the LGBTQ community, holding great promise for embryo research and regenerative medicine. Parthenogenetic embryos could be derived from unfertilized human eggs and, thus, blunt--if not resolve--ethical concerns over experimentation on human embryos. These research embryos would, in turn, be a valuable source for producing stem cells which could then facilitate the growth of tissues for organ transplants. As a tool for expanding human fecundity, however, human use of parthenogenesis would be little more than a vain, glorious, and dangerous, scientific achievement. Having new avenues of reproduction for members of the transgender and lesbian communities is noble indeed. However, because there are other more practical and safer assisted reproductive technologies available to establish a family unit, this is an insufficient reason for experimentation in human parthenogenesis

Transhumanism and transhuman body in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2018)

Just like at the beginning of the 19th century, in the 20th and 21st century the advancements in technology have led to the increase of science fiction that deals with the ethical concerns related to humanity and human life. Mary Shelley Frankenstein in 1818 questioned who is able to create life and how. Jeanette Winterson rewrites these topics in her novel Frankissstein and puts the question of human life and the human body into dialogue with transhumanist philosophy and transgender embodiment. Because of this, the thesis aims to find out how transhumanism and different transhuman bodies are portrayed in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2018)https://www.ester.ee/record=b5461941*es