April 23 and 24, 2020
More information and registration coming soon!
Originally planned as a two-day conference on the Seattle U campus, we moved CurveCon2020 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.
Natalie Castillo
Undergraduate: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies & Criminal Justice; minor in Psychology
Research Paper: “A Case Study on the Green River Killer’s First Five Victims”
Reconstruction of five individual women who were victims of a serial killer, their narratives, why they’re dead, and why don't we pay attention or care.
Leah Dooley
Undergraduate, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies & English Literature
Research Paper: "The Roaring Girl," Moll Cutpurse, and Early Modern Sexuality
“The Roaring Girl,” a 1611 English comedy, features an extremely likable protagonist. Dekker and Middleton fashioned their fictional heroine after a real woman. The cross-dressing, swashbuckling Moll Cutpurse, is described as mirthful. Cultural notions of women in public create a gendered association between mirth and prostitution, shorthand for female impropriety. In the play, Moll advocates for mirth beyond stereotype; irresistible mirth that represents a thorough enjoyment of life and living.
Alex Howerton
Undergraduate: International Studies; minors in Spanish and Environmental Studies
Creative Writing: “Sexuality and Christianity”
Reflections on coming of age in the church as a queer person
Kelly Curtis
Undergraduate: Political Science; minors in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Non-Profit Leadership and Public Administration
Research Paper: “Abstinence based Sex-education and Queer youth”
This paper explores options for improving the state of sex-education in America specifically focusing on how to close the gap in sex-ed for queer teenagers and youth so they can be safe and have their identities affirmed in the classroom.
Flora Lloyd
Undergraduate: Political Science; minors in International Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Research Paper: “Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War”
This paper identifies how transnational feminism surrounding sexual violence as a weapon of war fights against the patriarchal system that has allowed for violent sexual actions against women. This analysis uses Nadia Murad’s outreach towards preventing rape and human trafficking as a war tactic to ultimately show that although this tactic is illegal on paper, the world has not done enough to stop it, and requires transnational feminist organizing to deteriorate systematic gender-based violence
Kate Rowe
Graduate: Non-Profit Leadership
Research paper: “LGBT Inclusivity and Healthcare Education"
Utilizing LGBT community-sourced, inclusive healthcare recommendations, I will teach healthcare providers to improve their interactions with their patients to increase access and create positive health change.
Cole Janssen
Undergraduate: English, Creative Writing
Creative Writing: “The Demon in John"
The topic of my story is a man grappling with his sexuality, coming into his identity. It’s called, which sounds a lot darker than the story really is. I wrote this story during a fiction class I was in. It’s lightly inspired by my own coming out process, and is analogous to many lived experiences of coming out I’ve heard within the queer community. Coming out is funny in a way, but is also very heavy; I think my piece has these qualities too! It’s unconventional, written with hybridity in mind—not quite poetry nor prose. This piece means a lot to me, and I hope it can mean something to you, too.
Dev McCauley
Undergraduate: Design, Studio Art
Visual Art: “Queering the Bathroom: Architectures of Gender Normativity”
The bathroom is a somewhat unique site of human intimacy and necessity. It is both utterly private and universally familiar. But these spaces, like all other gendered spaces, are difficult to navigate as a queer/trans person. Somewhat recently, and frustratingly, bathrooms have become a central part of the national conversation around trans rights. I want to disrupt expectations of this space—to neutralize its implicit normativity by placing it in an art gallery. want to queer the bathroom.
Grace Kohler
Undergraduate: English Literature and Interdisciplinary Arts with a focus in Visual Design
Research Paper: “Female Virginity for Holy Lives in the Middle Ages According to Aelfric's Lives of Saints”
I am writing about the stories of Saints Eugenia and Eufrasia written by Aelfric and their lives as holy women in the middle ages and the vulnerability of their bodies in terms of their virginities. I am exploring the fact that these two women had to disguise themselves as men in order to escape the violence and pressure that was commonly put on women in the time in relation to sex and their sexuality. With this, I also respond to and challenge other texts who have also discussed these ideas.
Aryon Shahidzadeh
Undergraduate: Political Science; minors in Business Administration and Global African Studies
Research paper: “Cuban Women’s labor during the sanction-led Special Period”
This paper discusses the shift in Cuban women’s household labor and workforce participation during the Special Period (1991-2001). It applies gender economics theory to understand Cuban social policy in regard to theoretical models of gendered labor allocation. It discusses how US-led sanctions pushed Cuban women—and especially Black women— toward work in sex tourism and the illicit economy. The paper overall highlights the harm liberal economic policies have brought on Cuban gender justice.
BreeAnn Cayaban
Undergraduate: Sports and Exercise Science
Research Paper: "Genetic Engineering in the Sports Industry”
My research paper argued if female athletes should consider genetic engineering to gain gender equality in sports. Throughout the essay, I analyzed readings that discussed about the sex segregation of sports, how the biological differences between men and women influenced this division, and the type of culture created in the sports industry based on gender stereotypes.
Taylor McKenzie
Undergraduate: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Environmental Studies with a specialization in Urban Sustainability
Research paper: “The Socioeconomic Impact of Title IX”
The passing of Title IX of the Education Amendments to the 1964 Civil Rights Act in 1972 radically changed the lives of women in the United States. To many, this achievement was the end of a long battle to ensure the equality of women in government-funded school athletics. To others, this legislation marks the beginning of an era of growing opportunities for women. This paper will focus on the third outcome of Title IX: economic advancement for women in the U.S.
Neha Hazra
Undergraduate: Psychology (BS) and Philosophy; minor Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Research Paper: “Analyzing Fanfictions & ‘Fix-it Fics’: Queer & ‘reparative readings’"
I will be analyzing the trend of "fix-it fics" in response to straight washing/white washing/ableism in pop culture media to see similarities/differences from Sedgwick's reparative reading. I will argue that fix-it fics are a type of reparative reading but function in a fundamentally different way as fix-it fics function as both repairs/subversions to heteronormative narratives and personal.
V Espitia
Undergraduate: Cultural Anthropology; minor Environmental Studies
Research Paper: “Queer Latinx Healing: Traditional Practices, Spirituality & Identity"
This is an ongoing anthropological research project on queer Latinx folks who are reclaiming ancestral knowledge and spiritual healing practices. My focus is on how queer and cultural identity influence people's healing experience, and what that process has been like for various individuals. Ultimately, this seeks to illuminate how spirituality can be redefined by people with marginalized identities to serve as a source of resilience and self-acceptance.
Group: Alia Fukumoto, Joshua Gest, Shelby Kessler, Richie Merrell, and Masa Sawaf
Undergraduate: Sociology
Video/Film: “Asian-American Masculinity”
A short video analyzing how the intersectionalities of masculine expectations affect Asian-American men. These complexities are viewed through media depictions of patriarchal expectations and of racism against those of East Asian heritage.
Tyler Lakey
Undergraduate: Biochemistry
Research Paper: “Towards the Inclusion of Transgender and Intersex Athletes”
My paper discusses the ethics of inclusion of transgender and intersex athletes in the gender category that they identify with. I argue against the common rational for the exclusion of transgender and intersex women from women's sport, the idea that the 'sanctity of women's athletics' is inherently threatened by transgender and intersex women.
Sarah Salame
Undergraduate, English literature; minors in art and French
Visual Art: “Habits”
This piece displays a ritual held by many people, but most commonly women adhering to societal standards. The art of shaving is a habit, a necessity, and a source of confidence for many, yet the complete opposite for others. This piece is important to me because as a person of color, my family has always pushed this habit on to me, even making me wax my mustache, legs, underarms, and unibrow as a seven year old and onward, leading to years of internal conflict about my standards of beauty.
Sadiqua Iman
Graduate: Arts Leadership
Performance: “Before Her Womb (was colonized)”
I will perform a mix of dance, poetry, and monologue about the ancient roles of women in Africa and the strength they held in society before their culture was colonized by European misunderstanding and colonial destruction.
Emma Ming Wahl
Undergraduate: Art History and Philosophy
Research Paper: “Gender, Race, and Oppression in Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks”
In this paper, I focus on the representations of Black women in contrast to Black men found within Frantz Fanon’s philosophical work Black Skin, White Masks. Drawing on the theory of intersectionality written about by Kimberlé Crenshaw, I argue that Fanon does not recognize the different layers of oppression operating in Black women’s lives to the degree that he fails to include them within his framework of both liberation and resistance from racial oppression.
Megan Oakes
Undergraduate: Theology and Religious Studies; minors in English and Non-Profit and Public Administration
Research Paper: “David & Giovanni or David & Jonathan? Giovanni's Room and 1 Samuel”
I researched the ways in which the portrayal of David and Giovanni's relationship in Giovanni's Room mirrored the relationship between David and Jonathan in the bible.
Laurel Petrik
Undergraduate: Political Science; minors in English Literature and Sociology
Research Paper: “Faking It: Women’s Autonomous Acts Regarding Virginity”
I compare the female saints' lives: women who cherished virginity, not for its physical location in the body, but as an act of dedication to God; to the Trotula, a medieval gynecological text that provides remedies which allows women to fake virginity. In both cases, women hold autonomy regarding their virginity, and act according to their own wishes to preserve or falsify it.
Alexcia Straw
Undergraduate: Interdisciplinary Liberal Studies with a Specialization in Early Childhood Education; minor in Creative Writing
Research paper: “Violated Again: Sex Trafficking of Women & Children in Russia”
In Russia, women and children are constantly being trafficked in and out of the country. Their health and wellbeing are at risk with predators being so close to their doorsteps, and the government has so far implemented little progress to stopping it. This is due to Russia’s deep-rooted inequalities between men and women and the little support given to the victims of sex trafficking throughout the country.
Falen Wilkes
Undergraduate: majors in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, History, and Philosophy
Research paper: "Sex Work & Wage Labor; Potential for Liberation"
For centuries sex workers have been contained, victimized, criminalized, and marginalized, with discourse on the subject having little real impact. The sex industry is viewed as exploitative while forms of wage-labor fully incorporated into regulated capitalist markets is commonplace. However, Oppressive forces influence subjects differently and are held together in unique combinations—and are used to extract surplus value from workers—in all forms of wage-labor under capitalism, not just sex work. In pro-sex work discourse, few advocate for the incorporation of sex work into these markets, because they argue the necessity of certain rights—such as the ‘absolute right to say no’ for all sex workers employed by third parties—rights not typically given to employees of other industries. By focusing on class, oppression, and privilege under capitalism intersectional, I re-examine feminist understandings of sex-work, forms of liberation, freedom, and greater degrees of opportunity and choice become visible in sex workers navigation of the wage labor.