Past fellows

 2023-2024 Humanities Center Doctoral Dissertation Fellow

Erika Carbonara, Doctoral Candidate, English

Dissertation Advisor: Simone Chess

Title: 'It's a Bawdy Planet': Conceptualizing Early Modern Kink Identities and Practices

Abstract: My dissertation situates early modern British literature alongside the emerging field of kink studies. Although the origin of kink is often cited as the 1791 publication of the Marquis de Sade’s Justine, I suggest that there is an expansive history of kink dating back to the early modern period. My dissertation focuses specifically on kinky communities in early modern England to argue that communities, rather than sex acts or practices alone, are an integral aspect of early modern kinky practices. The first chapter analyzes representations of cuckold communities in early modern ballads. Early modern cuckolds are typically derided figures in the literature, but I suggest that many of these representations can be interpreted as celebratory and kinky. In the second chapter I argue that theater audiences often constitute a temporary community of voyeurs through a reading of metatheatrical commentary, antitheatrical pamphlets, and sermons. In the third and fourth chapters, I turn from my focus on fixed, tangible communities to an exploration of the more abstract and nebulous through an analysis of the merchant economy and the origins of kinky props in the third chapter, and, finally, I suggest that nature itself is a form of eroticized community in the final chapter. This project seeks to legitimize kink not only as a literary and cultural lens, but also, and more importantly, it aims to securely situate kink identities within a queer framework in order to destigmatize the practice of kink.

2022-2023 Humanities Center Doctoral Dissertation Fellows

Erik Noren, Doctoral Candidate, History

Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Eric Ash

Title: "Antiguan Elite Culture: Planter Identity Formation from 1750-1840"

Abstract: My dissertation, Antiguan Elite Culture: Planter Identity Formation from 1750-1840, explores one of the most transformative eras of Antigua's colonial history through a close examination of the dominating planter class, relying on a variety of interdisciplinary methodologies in addition to the traditional documentary evidence gathered and utilized by historians. This project provides an analysis of Antiguan Creole planter culture during a formative period that interprets planter identity and society in terms of race, gender, and class to explore how this singular group of people came to be and how they fit within the British Empire. The first chapter begins with an assessment of the geopolitical environment of Antigua and explores how the island colony was a crucial hub within the British imperial maritime economy and naval sphere of influence in the West Indies. In subsequent chapters the dissertation explores key subjects such as the roles that elite planters held in managing plantation economies while also being owners and managers of enslaved people. This leads to further study of the nuances of race-based hierarchies imbedded within plantation society and the overtly masculinized practices of the colonial elite in their interactions with indigenous peoples. The dissertation's final chapter examines how the planter class responded to the slavery debate and how they wrestled with the major challenges present to their way of life in the last decades leading up to abolition. 

Caitlin Cassady, Doctoral Candidate, Social Work and Anthropology

Dissertation Advisors: Dr. Andrea Sankar and Dr. Faith Hopp

Title: "Medical Aid in Dying: Physician Beliefs, Practices, and Respect for Autonomy"

Abstract: Medical aid in dying (MAiD), where people with a terminal prognosis receive a legal, lethal dose of medication from a physician with the purpose of ending their life, is now legal in ten states and Washington, D.C. Little known about how MAiD is practiced, the ethical issues physicians face, and the contexts in which they develop ideas and beliefs about practice. The goal of this project is to develop empirical knowledge of debates, practices, physician beliefs, ethical stances and manifestations of respect for autonomy in the practice of MAID and the contexts in which these form. Using serial interviews and participant observation, this study will contribute new insights into medical practice at the end of life and death experiences that can b

2021-2022

Silviya Gancheva

"Achieving equality: women and men in local government in Bulgaria"

Dissertation Advisor: Sharon F. Lean

Abstract: My dissertation "Achieving equality: women and men in local government in Bulgaria" is about the lived experiences of local women leaders in a post-communist setting. From a feminist stance, I use a multifaceted approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, including extended interviews to study the gendered nature of local executive office in Bulgarian municipalities. I ask: (1) Whether (and how) gender and gendered characteristics affect local executive officials' road to power; (2) how does gender influence the way in which local executives experience and perceive of their day-to-day work and responsibilities; and (3) whether (and how) gender and gendered characteristics affect local executive representatives' preferences, attitudes, and behavior in office. I draw on research on gendered personalities, exploring whether femininity and masculinity (rather than, or in addition to sex) explain substantive representation in local government.

John Bulat

"The Impact of Municipal and Police Jurisdictional Fragmentation on Traffic Stops and Traffic Stop Disparities"

Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Brady Baybeck

Abstract: There are thousands of local law enforcement agencies throughout the country providing a needed and valuable service. As the past few years have highlighted, however, the way in which certain law enforcement agents or agencies enforce the law is not always equitable or just. My dissertation examines whether municipal and police jurisdictional fragmentation has an impact on the number of traffic stops in a metropolitan area and whether this fragmentation has any bearing on racial disparities in said traffic stops. By looking into the traffic stop patterns and disparities, my research will help paint a fuller picture of the everyday experiences of metropolitan area residents in the United States, experiences that shape how they view the world and how they interact with it. It will also provide a unique view of fragmentation's effect on equity in public services.