2019

2019-2020 CSWS Research Awards

2019-20 Jane Grant Dissertation Fellowship

Celeste Reeb

Celeste Reeb, Department of English, “Closed Captioning: Reading Between the Lines.” Abstract: Closed Captioning (CC) is a series of rhetorical choices that are influenced by concepts of normalcy. Examining CC exposes the way language attempts to contain, mark, and categorize bodies based on gender, disability, sexuality, and race. Sound scholars have begun unpacking the ways that sound constructs views of these categories, therefore this project adds onto this work by examining how CC enforces these patterns in new ways since CC makes visible in text what is implied by sound. Most academic work done on CC focuses on its technological aspects, legislation, or scientific studies which have ignored the role CC plays in people’s daily lives. By doing so, film, television, and media studies have ignored communities who utilize CC. This dissertation brings together multiple fields, such as disability studies, ethnomusicology, queer theory, sound studies, and media studies to unpack the ideological work influencing closed captioning. In doing so, this dissertation works with those who utilize closed captioning to advocate for a better quality of CC. From using early film trade journals archives to outline societies views of captions and d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing film audiences, to participating in fan captioning communities online, to close analysis of film, television, and porn, to creating interactive online components showing captions role for horror and comedy films, this dissertation utilizes a wide array of methodologies showing how CC can be approached as a field of study. A highly interdisciplinary field of study that challenges conceptions of audiences, sonic participation, language, and normalcy.

2019-20 CSWS Graduate Student Research Grantees

  • Marc Carpenter, Department of History, “Worthy of All Honors Accorded to the Brave”: Women’s Rights and the Sanctification of Race War in Oregon, 1890 – 1919.”  Mazie Giustina Fund for Women in the Northwest   
  • Michelle Dreiling, School of Journalism and Communication, “Non-binary Gender and the Driver’s License: A Documentary Exploration of State Identification.” Mazie Giustina Fund for Women in the Northwest      
  • Daizi Hazarika, Department of Anthropology, “Witchcraft, Gender and Colonial Law in Assam, India: An Archival Analysis.”      
  • Amna Javed, Department of Economics, “An Exploratory Analysis of Honor Killings in Pakistan.”
  • Stephanie Mastrostefano, Department of English, “Manufacturing Race at 24 Frames per Second: Creative Voice at the Intersection of Disney Animation and Audience.”
  • Emily Masucci, Department of Anthropology, “The Politics of Seeking Shelter: Gender-based Violence and the Right to Safety among Low-Income Women in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.”
  • Holly Moulton, Department of Environmental Studies, “Complicating Vulnerability: Gendered Disaster Narratives, Ice Loss, and Resilience in  the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca.”        
  • Jane Nam, Department of Philosophy, “Radical Korean Feminism.”
  • Carmel Ohman, Department of English, “Beyond Binary Consent: Sex, Power, and Embodied Performance in U.S. Black Feminist Novels and T.V., 1975-2018.”

2019-20 CSWS Faculty Research Grantees

  • Diana Garvin, Assistant Professor, Department of Romance Languages (Mediterranean Studies), “Feeding Fascism: Tabletop Politics in Italy, 1922-1945.”   
  • Akiko Hatakeyama, Assistant Professor of Music Technology, School of Music & Dance, “Don’t Call Me a Female Composer—Gender Inbalance in Electronic/Electroacoustic Music.” 
  • Lamia Karim, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, “Raising Cain? Factory Workers and Socialization of Sons in the Garment Industry in Bangladesh.” 
  • Wendy Machalicek, Associate Professor, Special Education and Clinical Sciences (COE), “Meaning Making in Autism: A single-case evaluation of a psychoeducational curriculum for mothers of children with autism.”   Mazie Giustina Fund for Women in the Northwest
  • Senyo Ofori-Parku, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, “Women’s Leadership in Inter-Faith Dialogue for Peacebuilding in Patriarchal Ghanaian Society: A Mixed-Methods Approach.”
  • Xiaobo Su, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, “No place to call home: Burmese wives and the biopolitics of cross-border marriage in Yunnan, China.”
  • Kristin Yarris, Associate Professor, Department of International Studies, “Mid-Century American Psychiatry and State Formation: A Post-Colonial Analysis of Morningside Hospital and the Alaska Mental Health Act.” Mazie Giustina Fund for Women in the Northwest