April 22 and 23, 2021
More information and Schedule coming soon!
Originally planned as a two-day conference on the Seattle U campus, we moved CurveCon2021 to a virtual webinar format hosted on Zoom. We welcomed the opportunity to connect with both the Seattle University community and a larger audience beyond our geographic limits.
Our students shared their research and received feedback from participants. Sessions included recorded presentations, videos, performances, and visual art.
Check out last year's CurveCon Presentations: CurveCon 2020
Session 1: Opening Remarks from Dr. Theresa Earenfight and WGST Student Executive Committee: Kelly Curtis, Ariana Siddiqui Dennis, Taylor McKenzi
Jensen Eggler [She/Her]
The Objectification of Marble
Major: Business & Economics Pre-Major
Mentor: Dr. Yancy Dominick
In my research paper, I examined and compared evidence from multiple papers pertaining to the nature and depiction of the female body and person in Greek sculpture. My research was framed by my interest in dissecting the implications of the Aphrodite of Knidos particularly in relation to the reality of the male gaze and gender roles which were imposed in Ancient Greece.
Grace Kohler [She/Her]
The Law and the Lady: Limits to Acceptance, Flaws of Surveillance
Major: English with Departmental Honors and Interdisciplinary Arts
Mentor: Dr. Molly Clark-Hillard
I analyze Wilkie Collins' s The Law and the Lady, specifically the two characters Valeria and Dexter and the socially constructed gender norms for men and women in Victorian Society. The fate of these two characters in the end of the novel comments on the Victorian society’s flaws within a surveillant society and limit to acceptance when Valeria is given a life of social reformation through marriage and domestic life while Dexter’s rejection of social convention is buried with his death.
Eleanor Golden [She/Her]
Bodycount
Major: English/Creative Writing
Mentor: Dr. June Bube
I'm working on a poetic memoir that revolves around my experiences with sexuality, love, body image, consent, and mental illness as a queer woman. It's a collection of prose and poetry that's working to untangle my relationship with my body, emphasizing the complexities and subtleties of my and others' placement within rape culture.
Gianna Emma [She/Her]
Imperialist Feminism & Muslim Women in Mohanty's Under Western Eye
Majors: Criminal Justice & Spanish
Mentor: Dr. Natalie Cisneros
Through the principles Chandra Talpade Mohanty's presents in her 1984 article, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” I analyzed the imposing of traditionally Western and colonial forms of feminism imposed on Muslim women following 9/11. I argue that in reinforcing a strict dichotomy of gender and power through these values, imperialistic forms of feminist liberation have created an incredibly exclusionary effect of alienating Muslim women.
Richie Merrell [He/Him]
The Kings Have Daddy Issues: Masculinity and Medieval Kingship
Major in History, minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Mentor: Dr. Theresa Earenfight
My project looks at the generational relationship and masculinities of three medieval kings. I will focus on King Edward III; Edward the Black Prince, and King Richard II to examine generational kingship and the impact of constructs of masculinity on portrayals of power during the 14th century in England. I will be attempting to decenter male figures as default subjects of historical narrative a
Taylor McKenzie [She/Her]
Ecofeminism and Environmental Advocacy of Indigenous Feminists
Majors: Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and Environmental Studies
Mentor: Dr. Natalie Cisneros
Ecofeminism directly addresses historic injustices by providing an intersectional path forward that acknowledges the autonomy of individuals. This perspective approaches previous theories from a multidisciplinary background that seeks to explain women’s connection to the natural world and how this can be used to address the dual forces of colonialism and ecological domination.
Audrey Akots [She/Her]
In Her Own Words: Four Historical Women Writing About Sexuality
Majors: International Studies; minors in Economics & Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Mentor: Dr. Theresa Earenfight
I am comparing writings by women across history and drawing comparisons around how they understood their sexuality and their bodies in empowered and liberated ways. The project originated from an interest in Audre Lorde's Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic As Power, and has grown to include works by Tullia D'Aragona (Italy, early 1500s) Anne Lister (England, early-mid 1800s) and Rebecca Primus and Addie Brown (America, late 1800s to early 1900s).
Kelly Curtis [She/Her]
What Can Tunisia Tell Us About Birth Control?
Major in Political Science; minors in Non-Profit and Public Administration, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Mentor: Dr. Nova Robinson
It is a policy proposal going into the historical background in the Interwar and Cold War period on reproductive health programs and policies in the United States and Middle East more broadly and then diving into Tunisia's reproductive and family planning programs with a recommendation for the United States to model federal programs after Tunisia's programs.
Hayley Beaver [She/Her]
Sara through Valeria: Necropolitics in The Law and the Lady
Majors in English & Theology and Religious Studies; minor in LGBTQ Studies
Mentor: Dr. Molly Clark-Hillard
I look at Wilkie Collins's novel, The Law and the Lady, through a necropolitical lens. By doing this, the readers can begin to understand the deceased character of Sara Macallan. By understanding Sara Macallan and the reasoning for how she dies and why she is a haunting presence throughout the novel allows us to understand the beauty standards of the Victorian Era and how those beauty standards shape Sara Macallan's life and death and how they shape the investigation of Sara's murder.
Emma Ming Wahl [She/Her]
Social Reputation and Patronage in Isabella d’Este’s Studiolo
Majors in Philosophy and Art History
Mentor: Dr. Monica Bowen
Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, became somewhat of an anomaly, not just in regard to her being an aristocratic female patron but also because of how elaborate and famous her studiolo became from her intensive collecting efforts. I will argue that Isabella d’Este’s collecting and commissioning artworks for her studiolo in Mantua was an integral factor in her development of personal power in addition to the construction of her public moral character as one full of intellectual virtues.
Ariana Siddiqui Dennis [She/Her]
Gender Roles & Muslim Women's Activism in Indonesia
Majors in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and International Studies
Mentor: Dr. Hazel Hahn
The purpose of this project is to provide a historical overview of how colonialism, the state, and religious powers shape current gender norms and law regarding women in the public and private sphere, from the Suharto era to the present in Indonesia primarily Java. This work will focus on Muslim women activists and reformists and their relationship with post-colonial national and religious powers.
Yasmine Jaberansari [She/Her]
Female Bodies & Reproductive Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran
Majors in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and International Studies
Mentor: Dr. Nova Robinson
As a genealogy of women's reproductive rights in post-revolutionary Iran, my project looks at the origins of the family planning program in Iran and investigates the transformation of reproductive policies and practices from 1979 to the present to reveal the importance of policing the female body for the stability and continuity of the Islamic Republic.
Ttesfaye Kelmua [They/She]
US Black Maternal Mortality
Major in Applied Mathematics
Mentor: Dr. Elise Murowchick
My research contextualizes the racial disparity in the US Black maternal mortality rate by grounding itself in the role & orientation of physicians towards enslaved African mothers. Stereotypes of Black women developed during chattel slavery to justify the control & exploitation of their bodies for profit & power persist today in the collective social consciousness & manifests in maternal care malpractice. I also identify community led interventions that cultivate positive birth outcomes.
Natalie Rahn [She/Her]
Religious Arguments against Abortion and the Line of Complicity
Majors in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Political Science
Mentor: Dr. Dan Dombrowski
My project investigates how have religious-based claimants’ philosophical definition of complicity in abortion and contraceptive services evolved and expanded under U.S. Supreme Court rulings since Roe v. Wade in 1973?
CurveCon features work by SU students on topics of women, gender, and sexualities. Students from all colleges and majors presented poetry, videos, policy proposals, academic research papers, visual art, and performance pieces.
All zoom files for each session will be posted here soon!
Meanwhile, check out Ari Moore and Kimberly Le's "Promo for A Love Letter to the Queer Community" here, and the descriptions for each presentation below!