Turner Prize Winners
The James R. Turner Prize in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies was established in 1986 in memory of Professor Turner, Chair of the Department of History, a foundational supporter of the Women's Studies program. Each year, the Turner Prize is awarded to a student with an exceptional Independent Study project related to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
2026 — Ana Hodges, “Retroactive Anxiety in Abortion Outcomes: Exploring the Impact of Psychosocial Burden and Marianismo in Latinas”
Psychology, WGSS minor; Advisor: Alyssa Clarke
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion restrictions have intensified in the United States and are disproportionately impacting women of color, including Latinas, heightening psychological burdens (Abrams, 2023; Mulvihill, 2024). This study uses a Latina Critical Theory lens to understand the intersecting challenges Latinas navigate and apply them to their abortion seeking experiences. This mixed-method study examines how psychosocial burden in seeking abortion care influences retroactive anxiety among U.S. Latinas. Additionally, this study evaluates the relationship between abortion outcomes (received vs. denied) and retroactive anxiety and if this relationship is moderated by marianismo — a cultural construct emphasizing familismo (interdependence with family), respeto (respect for hierarchical roles), and simpatia (maintaining harmonious relationships; Castillo et al., 2010). Of this study’s 120 participants, 45.80% were denied an abortion and 54.20% had received an abortion (N=55, N=65). Results suggest that higher psychosocial burden accessing an abortion is associated with retroactive anxiety. Further results indicate that receiving or being denied an abortion does not play a role in retroactive anxiety, and that marianismo does not contribute any further to the relationship between abortion outcome and retroactive anxiety. Participant narratives highlighted that Latina women encounter challenges when seeking their abortion like family, cultural and religious pressures as well as structural barriers. Additionally, participant qualitative reflections highlight the role marianismo plays in cultivating internalized and external expectations to behave in ‘Latina’ ways that are incompatible with abortion seeking. Results illuminate the need for accessible care, reducing burden, and addressing cultural norms to mitigate any long-term mental health impacts of abortion experiences.
2026 — Grace Pryor, “The Best Location in the Nation?: Queer Community in 1970s Deindustrializing Cleveland”
History; Advisor: Jordan Biro-Walters
In 1970, Cleveland, Ohio, was the tenth largest city in the nation — with 35,000 more residents than San Francisco. Unlike San Francisco, historians have paid little attention to Cleveland’s LGBTQ+ community — and the queer scenes in much of the Midwest other than Chicago. Cleveland’s queer subculture in the decade after the famous Stonewall Uprising in New York City deserves greater attention. The growth of Cleveland’s queer subculture in the post-Stonewall world took place simultaneously with the city’s precipitous urban decline as the city’s industrializing economy faltered and its population declined. This Independent Study documents some of the specific organizations, gathering spots, and the milieu of queer Cleveland residents, primarily white gay men, during the 1970s as they navigated Cleveland’s deindustrializing landscape. I use queer publications, especially the local newspaper High Gear, and oral histories to reveal a community centered around a new wave of gay bars and nightclubs opening in the second half of the 1970s. Many of these bars and clubs took advantage of falling rental prices to concentrate in the emptied and deteriorating downtown thereby changing the city’s geography and its future. White gay Clevelanders also shaped the city through their residential patterns, including participating in the gentrification of Ohio City. This study includes maps of the geography of queer businesses in Cleveland, created in ArcGIS Online to show how and where predominantly white queer Clevelanders changed the shape of their city in the 1970s. This project hopes to bring more attention to some of the queer people who lived and loved in Cleveland, contributing a critical Midwestern lens to the study of post-Stonewall gay life.
2025 - Caroline Ward - “The White Woman Imagination: Defining and Apprehending the Dissociative Impulses of White Womanhood in Young Adult Literature”
English; Advisor: Daimys Garcia
[no abstract available]
2024 - Kaylee Hickman - “POSIDAEJA”
Classical Studies; Advisor: Monica Florence
This novel reimagines the trauma experienced by women in Greek mythology, traditionally overshadowed by male-centric narratives, by using trauma theory to explore how these experiences may have been created, endured, and overcome. Through a creative retelling from a female version of Poseidon’s perspective, Hickman connects ancient myths to contemporary experiences, emphasizing shared emotions and recovery.
2023 - Noah Leonard - “Is it Femicide, Travesticidio, or Just a Hate Crime? An Analysis of the Creation and Legal Impact of New Terminology to Refer to Gendered Violence”
Political Science; Advisor: Michele Leiby and Spanish; Advisor: Hernán Medina Jiménez
Leonard examined how social actors in Mexico and Argentina developed terminology like femi(ni)cidio and travesticidio to address gendered violence and its influence on legal responses for women and transgender individuals. Findings suggest that while new terminology can shape discourse and legislation, its effectiveness in driving legal action depends on factors like domestic movements, international pressure, and state willingness, prompting further questions on enhancing terminology's societal and legal impact.
2022 - Deena Lynn Williams - “Stinette: Women Aesthetic And Decadent Writers in Fin De Siècle England and France”
History; Advisor: Christina Welsch and French and Francophone Studies; Advisor: Harry Gamble
This study examined how women writers in fin-de-siècle England and France's aesthetic and decadent movements used their literature for self-expression and societal impact, highlighting a rarely explored comparative perspective between the two movements. Williams’ research culminates in a bilingual historical novella that portrays fictional encounters between women writers, capturing their experiences, challenges, and aspirations for self-identification at the turn of the 19th century.
2022 - Grace Susan Robinson - “Dichotomous Logic and the Failings of Girlboss Feminism: Multiplicity Beyond Man’s Episteme”
Philosophy; Advisor: Lee A. McBride III
This study examined how colonial and gendered frameworks have historically constructed dichotomies that center white, bourgeois, heterosexual men while marginalizing others, impacting white women, colonized men, and intersectional identities. Robinson critiques mainstream "girlboss" feminism for perpetuating these hierarchies and proposes alternative feminist epistemic tools, like poetic knowledge and curdled logic, to dismantle oppressive structures and build inclusive, relational coalitions among women.
2021 - Annabelle Vosmeier - “The Bliss of Solitude: In Search of Fulfilled Single Characters in Seventeenth through Twentieth Century Anglophone and Francophone Literature”
English; Advisor: Claire Eager French and Francophone Studies; Advisor: Laura Burch
This study examined portrayals of single women in British and Francophone novels from the 17th to 20th centuries, focusing on characters who either embrace or are confined by stereotypes of singlehood. Vosmeier analyzes characters to explore marriage's cultural dominance and presents alternative views of fulfilled single lives, supporting these perspectives with Elizabeth Brake's concept of amatonormativity.
2020 - Eliana Kahn - “The Continuation of Violence: Analyzing the Retraumatization of Incarcerated Survivors of Domestic Violence and Evaluating the Potential of a “Trauma-Informed” Prison Model”
Sociology; Advisor: Thomas Tierney and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Advisor: Zareen Thomas
This study investigated the impact of incarceration on female survivors of domestic violence, highlighting how punitive prison systems often replicate abuse dynamics and retraumatize survivors. Through interviews and literature analysis, Kahn’s research reveals barriers and opportunities for trauma-informed prison models and concludes with a call for a restorative justice approach that promotes healing for survivors, abusers, and communities.
2019 - Marguerite J. Adams - “Insurrecting Purity: Creativity as Resistance in Somatic Ambiguity”
English; Advisor: Katharine Beutner and Philosophy; Advisor: Lee A. McBride III
This study explored the role of the "Other" in literature and philosophy, examining how ambiguous individuals are excluded from groups due to conflicting identities and challenging society’s hierarchical standards. By engaging with theorists like María Lugones and Edward Said, Adams advocates for an "insurrectionist ethics" that embraces diverse, othered identities, supported by creative narratives that humanize rather than exoticize the Other.
2018 - Danica Rae Genners - "You've Got a Friend in Me: The Effects of LGBTQIA+ Legislators on Same-Sex Partnership Rights in Latin America"
Political Science; Advisor: Alvaro Corral
This study explored how the election of LGBTQIA+ politicians can affect the public approval of LGBTQIA+ rights in a country, looking particularly at eleven Latin American countries. Genners found that the election of a LGBTQIA+ representative has a significant effect on the public viewing same-sex marriage positively.
2017 - Jessica Maria Waters - "'Learning to Live': A Critique of Misrepresentations of Black Women in Toni Morrison's Paradise and Through an Original Screenplay Entitled the Tenth"
English; Advisor: Leslie Wingard
This project consists of two parts; the first being an analysis of the the black women characters’ transcendence of normative boundaries in Toni Morrison’s novel Paradise. The second part is a feature-length screenplay by Waters called The Tenth. In it, Waters draws on themes from Paradise and reframes theme in a contemporary, sociopolitical context.
2016 - Elisia Ixchelle Campos - "Cruising The Borderlands: Queer Latinx Creating Space in Lowrider Culture"
Sociology; Advisor: Christa Craven
This project is an iBook in which Campos combines photographs from the “The Q Sides” exhibit which features queer Latinx lowriders combined with Campos’ own ethnographic and interview research. Campos applies theoretical and activist methods to document the experience of queer Latinx lowriders.
2015 - Laura Merrell - "Memsahibs at Work: British Women's Political Participation in the Raj, 1858-1914"
English; Advisor: Jennifer Hayward and History; Advisor: Hayden Schilling
Merrell examines the political participation of British women in India from 1858-1914 and argues that they were actively working for the Empire through the way that they managed their houses and raised children. This project discusses literature by novelists including Alice Perrin, Flora Annie Steel, and Rudyard Kipling.
2014 - Sara Lynn Tebeau - "Normalizing Abnormality: An Exploration of Social Forces Driving Gendered Disparity in Rates of Anxiety Disorder Diagnoses"
Sociology; Advisor: Thomas Tierney and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Advisor: Christa Craven
Tebeau’s project explores the claim that American women are much more likely than men to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. The project includes data from a survey and concludes that the American mental health justice movement needs to recognize that the neoliberal state rather than the individual primarily produces anxiety.
2013 - David Mallinson - "Seeds of Slavery: A Mainstream Economic Interpretation and Rhetorical Analysis of Vandana Shiva's Criticism of the Green Revolution and the Alienation of Rural Indian Women"
Communication Studies; Adivsor: Denise Bostdorff and Economics; Advisor: James Warner
This paper uses ecofeminist rhetorical criticism to analyze Vandana Shiva’s argument in the book Staying Alive: Women, Development, and Ecology that India’s Green Revolution oppressed women. Mallinson tests economic theory through empirical analysis.
2012 - Meredith Loken - "Body Wars: Nationalism, The State, and Wartime Sexual Violence in Guatemala and Sri Lanka"
Political Science; Advisor: Michele Leiby and Urban Studies; Advisor: Nancy Grace
Loken uses a feminist lens in this project to explore the sexual violence perpetuated by the state during wartime in Guatemala and Sri Lanka. This study is built from interviews, fieldwork, and primary and secondary sources and finds that there were far higher levels of sexual violence in Guatemala than Sri Lanka.
2012 - Muriel LaMois - "What Makes Her 'New?' Reexamening Weimar's New Woman in 'Das Künsteidene Mädchen,' 'Der Skorpion,' 'Pandora's Box,' and 'Girls in Uniform'"
German Studies; Advisor: Beth Muellner and History; Advisor: Monika Flaschka
This paper examines the role of sexuality in shaping the idea of the "New Woman" in the films Pandora's Box and Girls in Uniform and the books The Artificial Silk Girl and The Scorpion. LaMois compares the two heterosexual protagonists and two homosexual ones.
2011 - Laura Alexandra Stricklen - “Ain't I A True Woman?: A Foucauldian Exploration of Agency Within the True Woman Movement”
Religious Studies; Advisor: Jennifer Graber and Sociology; Advisor: Christa Craven
This study used a Foucauldian framework to analyze agency within the True Woman movement, showing how participants adopt submissive roles as a matter of free choice, despite external criticism. Through observations and interviews at the '10 True Woman Conference, Stricklen suggests that these women’s commitment to biblical womanhood reflects active agency, paving the way for further research into the movement’s social and cultural impacts.
2010 - Alison Grace Peters - "Re-Heading the Headless Fatty: A Look at Fat Positive Feminism in Blogs"
Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies; Advisor: Heather Fitz Gibbon
Peters' project is an examination of the relationship between fat acceptance and feminism in fat activist blogs. Peters incorporates her own experience as a fat postive blogger as well as both the historical context of fat positive feminism and analysis of current fat activist blogs.
2009 - Sarah Green Golan - "You...Only Better:" A Critique of the Culture of Cosmetic Surgery"
Sociology; Advisor: Thomas Tierney
This thesis explores the culture of cosmetic surgery among women, tracing its history and analyzing it through structural feminism and postmodern perspectives. Through interviews, observations, surveys, and website analyses, Golan identifies tensions around nature versus artificiality and the relationship between external changes and inner self-perception.
2008 - Natalie Hutchinson Friedman - "Naughty, Negative, and Nice: Women's Experiences with Pornography"
Sociology; Advisor: Christa Craven
This study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to research the women's experiences with pornography. The quantitative portion was drawn from questionaires given to women at The College of Wooster and the qualitative portion consisted of interviews with both Wooster students and attendees of Adult Video News's Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada. Friedman found a wide variation of women's opinions on pornography.
2007 - Elizabeth Sorice - “Business of Brides: The History of the White Wedding in America”
Women's Studies; Advisor: Linda Hults
This paper examines why weddings are becoming increasingly lavish in the United States through exploring historical and cultural conditions. Sorice went to a bridal show, visited bridal stores, and collected survey data from married and engaged women and ultimately argues that this increased lavishness is a regression for feminism.
2006 - Emma Hayes - "'A Word of Hope and Good News and Comfort, as Well As Challenge:' Reconciling Justice and Care in Women's Ministry"
Women’s Studies; Advisor: Barbara Burnell
This project examines the way in which justice and care are manifested in women's ordained ministry. Hayes explores the hypothesis that these may converge or be integrated through women's experiences in ministry and seminary.
2005 - Amanda Lee Phillips - "Writing in the Margins: Formulations of Self in Three Autobiographical (Re)creations of American Girlhood"
English
2004 - Emily Elizabeth Davis - "Art as a Material Expression of Culture: The Example of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for Women, New Orleans, Louisiana 1885-1915"
Anthropology & Art History; Advisors: Pamela Frese & Stephen Lucey
This project is a case study of the art department and art pottery program of H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College for Women in New Orleans, Louisiana. The results determine that the college served as a middle ground between female domesticity and a progressive movement towards education and employment.
2004 - Angela Marie Manella - "Combatting Sex Slavery in Contemporary Europe: A Comparative Study of Anti-Trafficking Policies in Four Western European Countries"
Political Science; Advisor: Frieda Fuchs
In this paper, Manella compares the anti-trafficking policies of the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Spain with a particular focus on the effect of NGO anti-trafficking campaigns.
2003 - Arete Ann Moodey - "Un Quatuor De Voix: Brossard, Cixous, Wittig Et Moi"
French and Francophone Studies; Advisor: Caroyln Durham
This thesis explores Moodey’s journey to find her own voice in writing by engaging deeply with the works of Nicole Brossard, Hélène Cixous, and Monique Wittig. Through a reflective and exploratory process, the author seeks to understand the purpose and form of writing, challenging traditional literary structures and embracing a new, multifaceted approach inspired by these influential writers.
2002 - H. Casey Henderson - "A Silent Pen Is Wakened: Reviving the Voices of Women Humanists of Late Quattrocento Italy"
History; Advisor: Peter Pozefsky
In this paper, Henderson analyzes the works and lives of Laura Cereta of Brescia, Cassandra Fedele of Venice, and Allesandra Scala of Florence who were all women humanists at the end of the Quottrocento, or 15th-century Italy. This study particularly focuses on the challenges that women humanists faced including availability of education, obligation to marry, and the restrictions of being a widow.
2002 - Pieta Horvath - "Resisting the Gender Binary: Women Novelists Negotiate Their Social and Cultural Contexts"
English; Advisor: Joanne Frye
This project is interested in the essentialization of women and women's writing. Horvath asks what the category of "woman" refers to, whether we isolate the writing of women from the writing of men, and whether women-centered writing is necessarily feminist, writing in particular about Charlotte Bronte, Virginia Woolf, Zora Neale Hurston, and Toni Morrison.
2001- Mary Elizabeth Reynolds - "Rewriting Rosa Sandoval: An Exploration of the Education of Latina High School Students"
Women's Studies; Advisor: Barbara Burnell
This study examines the education and dropout rates of Latina students. Reynolds uses feminist methodology to call for educational reforms and supplemental programs that could help increase the graduation rate of Latina students and provide more support for them in education.
2000 - Jessica DuPlaga Deutsch - "Le Pygmalion De Cinema: Le Feminisme Et L'Image De La Femme Dans Les Films D'Agnes Varda"
French and Francophone Studies; Advisor: Carolyn Durham
DuPlaga explores how Agnès Varda, a feminist filmmaker, challenges traditional portrayals of women in cinema by using unique artistic techniques to create diverse and empowering images of women. Through an analysis of Varda’s films, feminist theories, and an interview with the filmmaker, this thesis examines her ability to critique dominant cinema and redefine women’s roles in both art and society.
2000 - Carmen Hotvedt - “Meat”
Religious Studies; Advisor: Charles L. Kammer III
This project explores the relationship of humans to animals and the natural world, particularly drawing on feminist and ecofeminist work on care, context, and relationships to think about vegetarianism.
1999 - Kari Martin - "Twelve Girls in Search of a Chocolate Cake: A Case Study for Devised Theatre"
Theatre; Advisor: Dale Seeds
This thesis examines how twelve women from diverse backgrounds collaboratively created an original theatre production on the theme of "women and race" using the devised theatre model. Through storytelling, scriptwriting, and choreography, Martin and her collaborators navigated shared experiences and perspectives, producing a unique performance that highlights the potential of devised theatre to foster connection and public dialogue on traditionally excluded topics.
1998 - Ann-Catherine Browne - "Viking Women: An Exploration of Female Roles and Activities in Late Iron Age Scandinavian Society"
History and Archaeology
This paper explores the roles of Scandinavian women in the Viking Age which is traditionally seen as dominated by men. It raises the significant roles that women had and were part of expanding.
1998 - Mieke Vandersall - "A Qualitative Study of Gender Constructions Among Female Free Trade Zone Workers in the Dominican Republic"
Anthropology; Advisor: Pamela Frese
Vandersall interviewed 33 women workers in the free trade zone in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, reviewed theory and literature, and analyzed free trade promotional brochures to explore gender construction.
1997 - Margaret Toth - "Feminist Speculative Fiction: Reshaping Patterns of Motherhood Rooted in Myth"
English; Advisor: Joanne Frye and Classical Studies; Advisor: Lynn Sawlivich
This thesis examines how feminist speculative fiction reshapes archetypal patterns of motherhood rooted in classical myth and literature, countering negative portrayals of women and mothers. By engaging in modern mythmaking, Toth challenges enduring stereotypes and offer innovative perspectives on motherhood and its representation.
1997 - Caroline Guyer Gray - "Feminist Imperialism: Alice Walker and Female Circumcision"
Women's Studies; Advisor: Mary Young
This project explores Alice Walker's campaign against female circumcision.
1996 - Kathleen Doyle
1995 - Matthew Christopher Burress - "Feminism and Conceptions of Sex Equality: An Inquiry into the Sameness/Difference Debate"
Political Science; Advisor: Jim Wiley
This paper examines the feminist sameness/difference debate and asks what the conceptions of equality between men and women are in the debate. Burress draws on Zillah Eisenstein, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Susan Moller Okin's ideas on sameness and difference.
1995 - Jennifer Lynn Ligas - "La Femme, Le Feminisme, et L'Ecriture Feminine: Une Traduction d'Une Vie Pour Deux de Marie Cardinal"
French and Francophone Studies; Advisor: Caroyln Durham
Ligas explores Cardinal's feminist perspectives and the concept of "feminine writing." Through an analysis and translation of Une Vie pour Deux, the study investigates how writing serves as a subversive tool for women to reclaim their voices and challenge dominant cultural narratives.
1994 - Jana Freed
Studio Art; Advisor: Thalia Gouma-Peterson
1994 - Laurie Gail Peterson - “A Closer Examination of Occupational Segregation - Do Spatial Constraints Exist and Affect Occupational Segregation?”
Economics; Advisor: Barbara Burnell
1993 - Cara Gilgenbach - "Catalogue and Reference Guide to 'The Josephine Long Wishart Collection: Mother, Home, and Heaven'"
Women's Studies; Advisor: Susan G. Figge
This project is a listing and bibliographic citation of Josephine Long Wishart's "Mother, Home, and Heaven Collection" which consists of popular advice literature to women and books about American life published from 1804 to 1989.
1992 - Karen Diane Hodges - "The Fabulous Josephine Baker: Finding History between Bananas and Biography"
History
1992 - Mary Lucal - "Rolled into Many: Toward Cross-Cultural and Feminist Understandings of African-American Women's Experiences in the Novels of Gloria Naylor"
Women's Studies; Advisor: Joanne Frye
This paper is an exploration of how Gloria Naylor's novels can provide information for feminists who are trying to understand the differences between themselves. More generally, Lucal sets out to suggest how novels can be tools of cross-cultural understanding.
1991 - Kathryn Ann McCullough - "Pieces of Perfection: A Survey of Utopian Literature"
Comparative Literature; Advisor: Richard Figge
This project examines the patterns and problems in eleven examples of utopian literature, including multiple works by women.
1990 - Maggie Redic - "Constructing Reader-Response Theory: Gender, Ideology, and Context"
Women's Studies; Advisor: Carolyn Durham
This project examines the effects of reading of reading on self-image and asks in particular whether there is a connection between interpretation and gender.
1989 - Betsy Hughes - "Les Rythmes de trois écrivaines sénégalaises et leurs rôles dans la danse pour la libération de la femme"
Comparative Literature; Advisor: Carolyn Durham
1988 - Mary K. Hueske - "A Woman-Centered Care Reclaimed"
Women's Studies; Advisor: Joanne Frye
Hueske conducted interviews with a variety of midwives to explore the ethics and organization of the medical establishment in which they practice and discussed the options for alteratnive childbirth systems.
1987 - Jennifer Lynn Allison - "Clear Hearts and Dirty Minds: A Feminist Looks at the Pornography Debate"
Women's Studies; Advisor: Karen Beckwith