Intersections and Assemblages:
Genders and Sexualities Across Cultures
10th ACS Women’s / Gender Studies Conference
Furman University, April 4-5, 2014
Friday April 4
11:00 – 4:30 Registration in Hipp Hall
11:30 – 1:00 Lunch in Student Dining Hall
1:00 – 2:30 Session 1, Panels A to E
1A Hipp Hall 104
Ooh! La! La! French Women in American Self-Help Literature
Marianne Bessy (Furman University), Chair
Marianne Bessy (Furman University), “Self-help in the US: the ‘Frenchwomen
Know Best’ Genre”
Cook English (Furman University), “The Odd Couple: Marriage and Relationships in
France and America”
Jocelyn Boulware (Furman University), “Hand-Crafted to Convenience: A Transition in
French Eating Habits”
Nell Herring (Furman University), “Vrai or Faux: French Women Don’t Get Fat”
Lilla Keith (Furman University), “Disclaiming the Happiness Myth in France”
1B Trone Center 030
The Novel at the Borders of Identities
Lynne Shackelford (Furman University), Chair
Eric Touya (Clemson University), “Beyond Epistemic Violence: Véronique Tadjo and
the Rwanda Genocide”
Nicholas F. Radel (Furman University), “‘A Place I’ve Never Been’: Assemblages of
Race and Sex in James Baldwin and David Leavitt”
Sofia Kearns (Furman University), “Feminist Scrutiny of Masculinities in Two 1980s
Latin American Novels: Solitario de Amor and María la noche”
1C Johns Hall 201
Re-Valuing Female Characters in Canonical Texts: Hospitality, Loyalty, and Guest-Friendship
in Homer, Shakespeare, and Joyce
Anne MacMaster (Millsaps College), Chair
Hannah Saulters (Millsaps College), “Penelope, Aretê, and Xenia: Women and
Hospitality in Homer’s Odyssey”
Alex Morphew (Millsaps College), “Becoming Herself: Emilia in Shakespeare’s
Othello”
Anne MacMaster (Millsaps College), “Penelope and Xenia in Joyce’s
Ulysses”
1D Johns Hall 212
Women in Public Spheres and Private Spaces
Alisa Gaunder (Southwestern University), Chair
Alisa Gaunder, “Quota Non-Adoption in Japan: The Role of Party Competition and the
Women’s Movement”
Vasudha Ashutosh Gokhale (University of Pune, India), “Women’s Perception of
Safety and Security with Reference to Urban Public Leisure Spaces”
Jennifer Earles (University of South Florida), “Lesbian Communicative Resistance and
Counter Power: A Community Life Course Analysis of Feminist-Separatist
Activism”
1E Johns Hall 208
Poverty Alleviation and Women’s Empowerment: Examining the Non-Profit Sector
Veena Khandke (Furman University), Chair
Alice Williams (Furman University), “Do Economic Development and Women’s
Empowerment Mutually Reinforce One Another in Developing Countries?”
Jaclyn Olson (Furman University), and Christine Gwinn (Furman University), “The Role
of NGOs in Women’s Empowerment in Developing Countries”
3:00 – 4:30 Session 2: Panels A to F
2A Hipp Hall, 104
Black Women’s Movements and Feminism in Latin America
Dawn Duke (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Chair
Dawn Duke (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), “‘I have become a politician’:
Maria Damasa Jova, the First Black Female Delegate of Cuba”
Ana Cristina Conceição Santos (Federal University of Alagoas, Sertão Campus, Brazil),
“Memories of the Black Women’s Movement: Dynamics of Organizing in Bahia,
Brazil at the End of the 1980s”
Joselina da Silva (Federal University of Cariri, Ceará, Brazil), “Black Women in Brazil:
Leadership from the 1930s to Date within the Black Women’s Articulation or
AMNB (Articulação de Mulheres Negras Brasileiras)”
Kimberly Eison Simmons (University of South Carolina, Columbia), “Dominican
Women, Global Black Feminism, and Red De Mujeres: An Afro-Latin American
and Caribbean Women’s Network and Agenda”
2B Hipp Hall, 107
Assemblages of Gender in Culture
Diane Boyd (Furman University), Chair
Hailey Klabo (Davidson College), “Too Many Single Ladies in the Club:
Cosmopolitan’s ‘Working the Ratio’ and ‘Should You Sleep with a Co-worker?’
as Antifeminist”
Zooey Pook (Schoolcraft College), “To Twerk or Not to Twerk: A Rhetorical
Analysis of Miley Cyrus’s 2013 VMA Performance”
Diane Boyd, “From The Wanderer to Working Girl: Representations of Women’s Work
in Popular Culture”
2C Hipp Hall 106
New Feminist Theorizing
Kevin DeLapp (Converse College), Chair
Martin Caver (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), “After MacKinnon and Butler:
towards an Intersectional Feminist Theory of Resistance”
Melissa Peters (North Carolina State University), “Managing Feminism: The
Need for Gender Solidarity in the Pursuit of Gender Equity”
Kevin DeLapp (Converse College), “The Role of the Knower: Confucian Resources for
Feminist Standpoint Theory”
2D Hipp Hall, 204
Gender and Place: Creative Writing and Gender Politics in Ireland and the
American South
Ed Madden (University of South Carolina, Columbia), Chair
Richard Boada (Millsaps College), “Canon Bones and Other Poems”
Laney Lenox (Millsaps College), “Excerpts from ‘Meditations in Belfast’”
Ed Madden (University of South Carolina), Excerpts from Nest
2E Hipp Hall, 202
Race and Gender: Other Histories in the US
Marian Strobel (Furman University), Chair
Diane Vecchio, (Furman University), “Been Down So Long: Black Women, Work
and Community Development in Reconstruction South Carolina”
Marian Strobel (Furman University), “Alice Roosevelt Longworth: The Other
Washington Monument”
2F Hipp Hall, 209
Telling Tales: Narrating Sexual Maturity
Sachi Schmidt-Hori (Furman University), Chair
Scott Henderson (Furman University), “Gender and Sexuality in Young Adult
Gay Literature: The Emergence of Gay Teen Fiction as a Genre”
Emily Taylor (Presbyterian College), “Queer Creoles: Narrative Form and Heteroglossia
in R. Zamora Linmark’s Rolling the R’s”
Sachi Schmidt-Hori (Furman University), “Tangled in Ambiguity: Gender and Sexuality
of a Buddhist Acolyte in a Medieval Japanese Tale, Ashibiki”
4:30 – 5:45 Refreshment Break, Hipp Hall. Music courtesy of the Foothills Philharmonic Wind Quintet
6:00 – 7:45 Keynote Address, Watkins Conference Room, Trone Student Center
6:00 – 6:15 Welcome by Dean John Beckford, Furman University
6:15 – 7:45 Dr. Michael Kimmel, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Stony Brook University, “Angry White Men: An Intersectional Analysis of Gender on the Extreme Right.”
7:45 – 9:30 Conference Dinner, Hartness Pavilion, Dining Hall
Saturday April 5
8:30 – 9:00 Coffee, Tea, Muffins, Fruit
8:30 – 10:30 Registration
9:00 – 10:30 Session 3: Panels A to F
3A Hipp Hall, 104
Intersections of Culture and Sex/Gender Identities
Holly Blake (University of Richmond), Chair
Angela Kate Impson (Centenary College), “Examining Heteronormative Gender
Enactment among Gay Men”
Mary Guerrant (North Carolina State University), “Embracing Intersectional Identities:
The Impact of Acculturation on the Psychological Well-Being of LGBTQ
Immigrants to the United States”
Mary R. Adkins Cartee (University of British Columbia), “Public High School
Teachers’ (Cis-Gendered?) Subjectivities in the Upstate of South Carolina”
3B Hipp Hall, 106
Re-Visioning the Bible
Jessica Scott (West Virginia Wesleyan College), Chair
Micah Spiece (West Virginia Wesleyan College), “Short Shrift: The Overlooked
Importance of Eunuchs to Contemporary Christians”
Allison Reid (University of Richmond), “Good, Evil, and the Garden: Gendered
Ecological Sovereignty in Genesis”
3C Hipp Hall, 107
Gender, Identity, and Media
Dongming Zhang (Furman University), Chair
Dana McLachlin (University of Richmond), “‘For All the Women You Are’: National
Identity, Gender, and Tradition/Modernity in Indian Women’s Magazines”
Christin Munsch (Furman University) and Mary Catherine Wilder (Furman University),
“The Presentation of Transgender People and Issues of Identity in the New York
Times, 1991-2010”
Dongming Zhang (Furman University), “Gendered Bodies and Spaces in Modern
Chinese Posters”
3D Hipp Hall, 202
Transnational Perspectives on Gender, Geography, and Cultural Spaces
Ericka H. Parra (Valdosta State University), Chair
Kerry Boland (University of Richmond), “Animal Allure: Sexuality and the Problem of
Humanity in Animal’s People and Disgrace.”
Ericka H. Parra (Valdosta State University), “Cuban Women Writers: Feminists from
the Island?”
3E Hipp Hall, 204
Postmodern Identifications
Britta Spann (Georgia Institute of Technology), Chair
Gray Fisher (University of Southern California), “Passing, Passed, Past: Rethinking
Intersectional Identity through Trans Narrative”
Britta Spann (Georgia Institute of Technology), “What Difference Did Geryon Make?
‘Unshelving’ Gender and Genre in Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red”
Eva Peskin (Brooklyn College), “FAR OUT: Oswald’s Sun Ra and the Meeting Place for
a Queer Future”
3F Hipp Hall, 209
Feminist Interpretations of Fiction: Intersections between Literature and History
Anne MacMaster (Millsaps College), Chair
Anne MacMaster (Millsaps College), “Louisa’s Blues in Jean Toomer’s Cane:
Dissociation and Aesthetic Distance”
Liz Allen (Millsaps College), “Rebelling against the Burden of Southern Womanhood:
Faulkner’s Fallen Women”
Sami Thomason (Millsaps College), “Feminism in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice”
10:45 – 12:15 Session 4: Panels A to E
4A Hipp Hall, 106
Envisioning Gender Equality in South Carolina: Lessons from the Developing World
Elizabeth Adams (Clemson University), Chair
Undergraduate Research Group, Poverty Ends with a Girl (Clemson University),
Whitney Garland, Melissa Moore, Savannah Mozingo, Ellison Taylor
4B Hipp Hall, 104
Culture, Gender, and Transgender in Latin American Cinema: Redefining the Boundaries
Graciela Tissera (Clemson University), Chair
Mavash Husain, “Relations between Transgender and Female Persecution in Arturo
Ripstein’s The Place without Limits (1977)”
Emily Winburn, “Transgender and Trans-reality: The Imagery of Repression in Héctor
Babenco’s Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)”
Katie Lovett, “Gender and Power in The House of the Spirits by Billie August (1993)”
Graciela Tissera (Clemson University), “Gender Perceptions in XXY by Lucía Puenzo”
4C Hipp Hall, 202
Adolescent Sexuality: Problems and Empowerment
Scott Henderson (Furman University), Chair
Hannah Clark (University of North Carolina, Asheville), “Definitions of Sexual Behavior
among Young Adults”
Jhewel Fernandez (University of Richmond), “Youth Empowerment: Effects of
Empowerment Education on Sexual Behavior among Youth in Salvador, Brazil”
4D Hipp Hall, 107
Gender, Community, and Identity in the University
Lucretia McCulley (University of Richmond), Chair
Hilary Rampey (North Carolina State University), “Leadership, Gender, and Community
in the University: A Literature Review and Research Proposal”
Lucretia McCulley (University of Richmond), “Gender and Scholarly Publishing: What
Do Students Need to Know?”
4E Hipp Hall, 204
Geography and Gender Performance in Film and Literature
Richard Letteri (Furman University), Chair
Kusumita Rakshit (Berkeley Art Studio, California), “At the Intersection of Partition and
Patriarchy: Dynamics of (De)sexualization through the Filmic Lens of Ritwik
Ghatak”
Anne Emswiler (Southwestern University), “Conocimiento in Postmodern Feminist
Literature: Grafting and Re-Membering Feminist Mythologies as Social
Activism”
Richard Letteri (Furman University) and Angélica Lozano-Alonso (Furman
University), “On the Pleasures of Devouring Marriage and ‘Gorditas Pellizcadas
con Manteca’ in Italo Calvino’s Empire of the Jaguar Sun”
12:30 – 1:30 Lunch at the Hartness Pavilion, Dining Hall
1:45 – 3:15 Session 5: Panels A to F
5A Hipp Hall, 104
Exploring Transgender Identities in Pedro Almodóvar’s Films
Dolores Martín Armas, (Clemson University), Chair
Dolores Martín Armas, (Clemson University), “Transgression of Gender in All
About my Mother (1999)”
Hannah Haire (Clemson University), “Bad Education (2004): The Conflicting Persona
and Self-expression in Art”
Courtney Dunnigan (Clemson University), “Creation and Transgenesis in The Skin I Live
In (2011)”
5B Hipp Hall, 106
Talk Back: Feminists Question Feminism
Karni Bhati (Furman University), Chair
Zahira Sarwar (Carleton University, Canada), “Exploring Muslim Feminisms:
Challenging Western Feminist Discourses in Academia”
Briana Shockey (West Virginia Wesleyan College), “Deconstructing Dichotomies and
Evaluating Modern Day Oppression”
5C Hipp Hall, 202
Assembling New Identities: Recent Writing in the American South
Joni Tevis (Furman University), Chair
Jillian Weise (Clemson University), “Cyborg Poetics”
Joni Tevis (Furman University), “The Feminist Muse: Odes and Apocalypses”
Lori Horvitz (University of North Carolina, Asheville), “Into the Arms of Strangers:
A Modern Day Civil Union/Civil War Romance”
Mindy Friddle (Greenville, SC), “Uncivil Union”
5D Hipp Hall, 204
Performativity in Film, and on the Internet
Vincent Hausmann (Furman University), Chair
Vincent Hausmann (Furman University), “About Face: Women, War, and Disability”
Maria F. Fackler (Davidson College), “Flatness, Assemblage Theory, and ‘Leaving
Britney Alone’”
5E Hipp Hall, 209
Nation, Race, Identity
Teresa Cosby (Furman University), Chair
Teresa Cosby (Furman University), “Yellow, Green, and Black: The Treatment of
Venus and Serena Williams in Professional Tennis”
Julia Meszaros (Florida International University), “Desiring the ‘Exotic Light’: Race,
Color, and Beauty in the Transnational Romance Tour Industry”
Anu Radha Verma (York University, on Mississaugas of New Credit Territories,
Canada), “(Un)easy Relations: Settler Colonialism and Queer ‘South Asian’
Diasporic Subjects”
5F Hipp Hall, 107
Researching Gender in Asia: Ethnographies and Histories
Tami Blumenfield (Furman University), Chair
Shunyuan Zhang (Emory University), “Searching for Transgendered Subjects in
Southwest China: Rethinking Identity Categories in Ethnographic Encounters”
Lisa Knight (Furman University), “‘I Will Not Keep Her Book in My Home:’ When
Informants Critique Representations of Their Religious Lives”
Wendy Matsumura (Furman University), “Kawakami Hajime’s ‘Discovery’ of Okinawa:
The ‘Extreme Individualism’ of Itoman’s Family Economies”
Pamela Runestad (Elon University), “Managing Bodies: ‘Japanese Food,’ Maternal
Health, and Auto-Ethnography”
Tami Blumenfield (Furman University), “Researching the Researchers: Producing
Knowledge in an Over-scrutinized Community”
3:30 – 5:00 McEachern Auditorium, Furman Hall, Room 214
Bodies, Borders, Citizenships
Plenary addresses to mark the formal inauguration of Furman University’s
WGS and LGBTIQ Resource Room
Dr. Sujata Moorti (Middlebury College), “Mothers Inc.: Transnational Surrogacy
and Questions of Citizenship”
Dr. William J. Spurlin (Brunel University London), “Borders, Nations, Genders,
and Sexualities: (Queer) Identity and (National) Belonging
in a Transnational World”
5:00 – 6:00 Haynesworth Room, Furman Hall, Room 217
Conference Closing and Reception