2019 Posters

Fourth Annual
4W Summit on Women, Gender and Well-being
and
42nd Wisconsin Women and Gender Studies Conference

April 11-13, 2019
Pyle Center, Madison, WI

Transformative Education: Then. When? Now!

Poster Sessions

The Feminine Reality
My concept for this proposal is the female anatomy. I want to connect the idea of natural beauty to vaginal images. I want to focus on the beautiful nature of the vagina, and all the experiences that come along with having one by capturing the diversity and reality of each individual in painting form. Vaginas are a taboo subject for paintings and photography, but I want to turn this taboo into something everyone isn’t afraid to look upon by transforming something society has deemed as ugly and repulsive into something beautiful. I want the viewer to feel uncomfortable when viewing my work, but I also want the viewer to become more comfortable the longer they look upon each image. My art focuses on feminism, and the female body: vaginal, hands, menstruation, and birth. I am taking images from women in my life that I know rather well, including myself. I have a variety of vaginal pictures that will follow the same pose, but the range reflects the diversity of women. These paintings will not be made to represent women as sexual objects, but, instead, they reflect the natural beauty that hides between our legs every day. As a feminist I think it is vital that our society acknowledges that being a woman is a powerful thing, and we (women) should not be ashamed of any part of our body, no matter the shape, size, or color.

• Margaret Baumgardt, Undergraduate Student, LAE, UW-Platteville

Engaging Community Partners in Policy Assessments of Maternal & Child Health Legislation
This presentation will focus on political advocacy and engagement work I have done with community partners as a Social Work graduate student with a field placement at Public Health Madison and Dane County. The main focus of this work centers broadly on maternal and child health to include policy change efforts that focus on making workplaces more breastfeeding friendly, improving rates of breastfeeding and decreasing infant mortality rates in communities of color, and improving access to healthcare for women before and after childbirth. This presentation will detail components of this work such as: conducting policy assessments/analysis; sharing political advocacy resources with community partners; information sharing and outreach to local, state, and national legislators; and aiding community partners in drafting a policy agenda/priorities for their work and building capacity within their agencies to move these agendas/priorities forward.

• Lauren Biro, Graduate Student, Policy, Planning, & Evaluation, Public Health Department of Madison & Dane County, UW-Madison
• Stephanie Lindsley, Public Health Planner, Public Health of Madison & Dane County and Women’s & Gender Studies, UW-Madison

Coping with Work-Related Transitions: Gender and Self-Compassion
Self-compassion is defined as awareness of one’s suffering, kindness towards oneself, and acknowledgment of suffering that occurs across humanity (Neff & Knox, 2017). Across studies and samples, research supports the idea that self-compassion serves as a buffer against psychological challenges (MacBeth & Gumley, 2012). Results of a recent meta-analysis suggested that men report higher levels of self-compassion than do women, with this gender gap decreasing with age (Yarnell et al, 2015). For many people, life transitions, including starting new jobs, moving, or ending college, can be psychologically challenging. Given that research has demonstrated wide-ranging positive effects of self-compassion, including a positive impact on students’ experience during the transition to college, we ask the question, “Does self-compassion serve as a buffer to the stress associated with broader work-related transitions?”  We investigate how men and women may differentially utilize personal resources to cope with work-related transitions. While our main variable of interest is self-compassion, we additionally examine the individual and interactive effects of variables such as self-efficacy, goal orientation, and adherence to masculine gender norms on transition experiences. Results will be discussed within the context of better understanding how to support individuals through important work-related transitions.

• Samantha Brown, Professor, Psychology, Coe College
• Sara Farrell, Professor, Coe College
• Griffin Clark, student, Coe College
• Jeremy Lewis, student, Coe College
• Keenan Lee, student, Coe College
• Nadine Qadoura, student, Coe College

Pop Feminism, #MeToo, & the Fashioning of Activism
As a rhetorician (M.A.) and artist (MFA) I have been observing the cultural patterns and effects of Pop Feminism & #MeToo in popular culture and the fashion world. I scrapbook and archive from a variety of popular source magazines. I intend to make art as criticism from the texts themselves. I frequently engage in the development of visual rhetoric through a simultaneous critical process of art and scholarship. This Pop Feminism & #MeToo series will address not only the rhetoric of the movement but also its dissemination through various modes of popular culture. The effectiveness and outcome of the movements and mediums will be the motive for inquiry, as well as the symbolic and aesthetic reaction. The artworks presented for display will be made specifically for this conference from the last year’s harvest of related cultural texts.

• Aaron Eckstein, Lecturer, Communication Studies, Global Languages, Performing Arts, UW-Stout

A Psychosociocultural Understanding of Well-being for Second-Generation Chinese American Female Undergraduates: Exploring their Internalization of the Model Minority Stereotype
The model minority stereotype persists for many Asian Pacific American (APA) students, making for unique challenges that influence their sense of psychological well-being (Ryff, 1989) and educational experience and academic persistence decisions (Gloria & Ho, 2003). In particular, students report stress due to social expectations and pressure not to disclose challenges from environmental pressure (Yeh & Wang, 2000). Implementing the psychosociocultural (PSC) framework (Gloria & Rodriguez, 2000), psychological (coping, self-esteem, self-pressure), social (parental expectations, family support, internalization of model minority), and cultural (university environment, cultural congruity, acculturation, enculturation) factors were examined for 133 second-generation Chinese American undergraduate females’ psychological well-being. Results from a hierarchical regression revealed that the three dimensions collectively accounted for 66.7% of the variance [F (14, 124) = 24.65, p ≤ .001]. Each dimension was individually predictive; however, the psychological dimension was most predictive (45.1%), with self-esteem emerging as the strongest positive predictor of well-being (β =.40, t = .58, p <.001). Additional mediation analyses are underway to determine how the internalization of model minority and cultural fit within the university environment inform the students’ sense of well-being. Implications for university personnel to address second-generation Chinese American undergraduate females will be provided.

• Tracy Guan, Graduate Student, Department of Counseling Psychology and School of Education, UW-Madison
• Alberta M. Gloria, Professor, Department of Counseling Psychology, UW-Madison

The Handmaid’s Tale in Trump’s America
This presentation evaluates the extreme patriarchal ideologies of Margaret Atwood’s fictional society run by Commanders in The Handmaid’s Tale while exploring its similarities to an America with Donald Trump as Commander in Chief. Ultimately, this piece argues that the novel paints a picture and mirrors present-day American society, highlighting its own oppressive patriarchy. In The Handmaid’s Tale, women’s restricted freedoms throw into relief an oppressive nature that clearly aligns this fictitious society with reality. Atwood renders her story through a fictional character, Offred – a woman who is stripped of her identity and assigned the role of a woman belonging to the privileged men of her society. Offred’s social status is decided by what her body can do for others without any respect for her status as a human being. Despite this there is always resistance: In the novel, it’s “Mayday” – in today’s America, it’s organizing women’s protest marches across the globe. In this way, I demonstrate how both Atwood’s characters and women in America have something else in common as they both fight against oppression and patriarchal values.

• Darian Kaderabek, Student, UW-Green Bay

Representation of LGBTQ People in High School English Curriculums
This poster examines the treatment and presence of LGBTQ people in the novels and other stories commonly taught in high school English classrooms and how this representation has changed over time. This poster will be based on interviews and a survey of current and former teachers, as well as former students. It will also include a literary analysis of the novels and other works that come up with frequency (or are of particular interest) in high school classrooms.

• Torin McCaw, Student, UW-Platteville

Plurisexual Identity Attitudes, Discrimination & Narratives in Higher Education
Our research examines identity and discrimination amongst plurisexual college students in the U.S. and Canada. Plurisexual is a term used to describe being attracted to more than one sex or gender and includes those who identify as pansexual or sexually fluid. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect one’s partner’s gender has on plurisexual individuals’ sexual identity and experiences of discrimination. Being attracted to more than one gender can be a source of discrimination from heterosexual individuals as well as people within the LGBTQ community (Balsam & Mohr, 2007). University students from the United States and Canada (N = 173) were asked to fill out an online survey about their sexual identity and experiences of discrimination based on their sexuality. They were also asked to describe an experience in academia that they believed to be the result of their sexuality. Contrary to our expectations, we found no significant difference between the identity or experiences of discrimination for plurisexual individuals with same-gender partners compared to those with different-gender partners. Preliminary analysis of the qualitative data suggests that sexual orientation may lead to experiences of discrimination at school, both inside and outside of the classroom.

• Rachael Miller, Undergraduate Student, Psychology, UW-River Falls

The Appropriation of Black Women’s Culture
In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Morrison states “You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question”(Morrison, 28). Drawing on Morrison for inspiration, this presentation will examine notions of racism and the construction of identity that affects African American women. I will examine the ironic act of cultural appropriation that black women are now facing as outlets such as social media, advertising and marketing, and fashion trends utilize images of appropriation that continue to keep them invisible. This presentation will also highlight several examples of white women who have found success in imitating the black woman’s identity. I will also explore how the acceptance of black women’s culture but the denial of the black woman leads to different forms of neglect. The neglect, in appropriating black women’s identity, is often centered on psychological and physical abuse.

• Vontique Jackson, Undergraduate Student, Women and Gender Studies and President of the Black Student Union, UW-Platteville

Banning books: The Impact of Censorship on Youth’s Education
Many authors have had their freedom of expression limited because others, particularly parents, do not feel the topics they write about are appropriate. The act of banning books has been going on for centuries and creates issues throughout the United States’ educational system. This research examines young adult novels that have been banned or challenged for topics of gender and sexuality and how this has impacted the educational system. I specifically examine books that have been banned or challenged in the Midwest region, determining where and why they were banned and what lessons and themes they have to offer readers. The main claim throughout this research is that language suppression in literature does not benefit students because it limits their exposure to topics they may not otherwise experience, making situations potentially more difficult in the future. Young adults should read about controversial circumstances so they can prepare for real-life situations.

• Abbey Pignatari, Undergraduate, Humanities Department, UW-Platteville

Community-based Education in Milwaukee and Beyond: Medical Students and Stakeholders Collaborate to Address Rising STI Rates
The city of Milwaukee, with baseline high rates of sexually transmitted infections, has seen incidence increase recently. These infections disproportionately affect people aged 15-29, African Americans, and socioeconomically disadvantaged zip codes. STIs impact people of all genders but the question of who can access treatment, where, and why underlines the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, victimization, consent, identity, autonomy, and control. Milwaukee has high-quality resources for STI testing and treatment, but it is unclear what this young, sexually active population currently accesses. Thus, a group of UW medical students completed a survey of STI clinics and partners, conducting a multiparty intuitive analysis of qualitative interviews with these organizations. Our partners identified education as an area with which health profession students could be of particular assistance, so we continue to develop interventions, including an interactive map and a student-run website, to engage these populations in discussion and STI prevention. Our poster describes current STI testing and treatment in Milwaukee and interventions identified by community partners; by joining the 4W discussion, we hope to explore opportunities to partner with at-risk populations, empowering young women and those of all genders to access STI care and prevention.

• Taryn Valley, MD/PhD Candidate, Anthropology, School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Madison
• Tess Battiola, Year 3 MD Candidate, School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Madison