Charanya Rengarajan | Women and Gender
Charanya Rengarajan, Joanne Motino Bailey
INTRODUCTION: Elective labor induction has been a controversial topic among professionals in the field of women’s health for many years. In particular, the ARRIVE Trial (A Randomized Trial of Induction Versus Expectant Management) published in 2019 has led to a paradigm shift in the way midwives and physicians view elective labor induction and counsel their patients regarding potential options for giving birth. The ARRIVE Trial concluded that inducing nulliparous, low-risk women into labor at 39 weeks gestation reduced their risk of having a cesarean birth.
Cultural Cybernetics: Merging Artisanal Tradition with Digital Fabrication in the pandemic world
Ceciel Zhong | Women and Gender
Ceciel Zhong, Ron Eglash
This research examines how to design and improve human-machine collaboration that preserves the creative and hands-on aspects artisans love while enhancing artisanal skill sets, workflow and quality of production with the versatility of the tools that artisans can incorporate. Adinkra symbols are common in Ghanaian art, appearing in various forms of crafts. They are drawn from deep observance and understandings of nature as instruments for connections, and represent different proverbs and aphorisms. However, traditional approaches to produce these crafts are threatened by competition from the speed and mass production from factories that kept value alienated from each other, resulting in the loss of sustainability…
Impact of Maternal Mortality on Obstetric Providers at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ghana
Anna Stabnick | Women and Gender
Anna Stabnick, Michael Yeboah, Johnny Arthur-Komeh, Emma Lawrence
Background: Maternal mortality is decreasing globally, however remains high in developing countries, including Ghana. Existing literature focuses on the epidemiological and clinical aspects of maternal mortality. However, maternal mortality has far-ranging consequences often unexplored, including impacts on doctors and midwives.
Mask Politics: American Newspapers’ communication of facial mask usage during the COVID19 pandemic
Jakin Zhang | Women and Gender
Jakin Zhang, Young Rim Kim
At the year-end of 2019, a novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 emerged. The outbreak of the respiratory disease was traced back to a first case in China, on November 17th. In the following months, the respiratory disease spread across six continents and infected over 12 million individuals. To this day, more than half a million people have died due to COVID-19. In the early months of the outbreak and amidst global confusion, the American public received conflicting signaling from health professionals in regards to masking…
Molecular Characteristics of HPV-Caused OPSCC Tumors in Taiwanese Women
Sabrina Iqbal | Women and Gender
Sabrina Iqbal, Guadalupe Lorenzatti Hiles, Chun-I Wang, Christine M Goudsmit, Lila Peters, Mohammed Charara, Reem A Khatib, Devraj Som, George M Bloom, Hannah L Briggs, Macy A Afsari, Brianna L Moglianesi, Darcy D Huang, Kai-Ping Chang*, Thomas E Carey*, Heather M Walline*
*co-senior authors
Background: Oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) is commonly caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), a DNA virus transmitted through sexual contact that infects and transforms the cells of the epithelium. Besides HPV, other causes of OPC are heavy alcohol consumption and other risk behaviors such as smoking and betel quid chewing. To date, few studies have addressed the specific molecular characteristics and potential treatments for HPV-induced OPCs in women, especially in Taiwan, where OPC has been long considered a disease affecting solely men. However, we recently showed that both men and women suffer from OPC in Taiwan, but presumably due to different drivers as women are less likely to be drinkers and smokers and have a higher proportion of HPV-driven tumors. In general, HPV-positive tumors are characterized by the expression of wild-type p53 and respond better to therapy. HPV-negative tumors are frequently driven by mutant p53 and are more prone to fail treatment and must be treated more aggressively. The purpose of this project is to understand how OPC manifests itself differently in Taiwanese women and men at the molecular level by analyzing their driving agents, HPV or mutant p53, and their associations with patient outcome.
Social Dominance Orientation and Benevolent Sexism
Joyce Ho | Women and Gender
Joyce Ho, Tangier Davis, Isis Settles
Social dominance orientation (SDO) refers to one’s endorsement of relations amongst social groups to be hierarchical in nature, as opposed to egalitarian structure (Pratto et al., 1994). Due to SDO’s central purpose regarding various levels of power and equality amongst groups, it would be helpful to apply the concept to the issue of gender equality, which is the focus of the current study. We administered a survey to 567 undergraduate students from a large, Midwestern institution. Specifically, we were interested in examining how SDO would relate to attitudes of benevolent sexism…
The Dynamics of Grassroots Mobilizations to Defund the Police and End Police Brutality
Ataia Templeton | Women and Gender
Ataia Templeton, Olivia Grantham, and Michael T. Heaney
After two years of high-profile police killings such as Eric Garner (NY, 2014) and Korryn Gaines (MD, 2016), Millions March NYC organized a protest asking for three things: the resignation of the NYPD commissioner and defunding the police to use that money as reparations for survivors of “police terrorism.” Four years later, one day succeeding the death of George Floyd, the demand of defunding the police resurfaced as hundreds of protestors took to social media to express their frustrations. As of July 2020, organized protests, many associated with Black Lives Matter, are demanding local governments to cut the budgets of local police departments and reallocate the money into the predominantly black neighborhoods and communities…
The gendered health impacts of immigration worksite raids in Latinx communities
Eleanor Falahee | Women and Gender
Eleanor Falahee, Katherine Collins, Nicole Novak, William Lopez
Background: Research shows that immigration raids have health implications for detained immigrants, their families and their communities. Previous research has identified the role of gender in immigration enforcement, but there has been little examination of gendered impacts of large-scale immigration raids. We conducted a community-engaged study of six worksite raids to understand the health implications and strategize responses. A prior study analyzed data from the first three worksite raids, while this project focuses on the next two sites.
The Problem We Should All Face: Queer Intersectionality in Carceral Spaces
Chelsey Brutlag | Women and Gender
Chelsey Brutlag, Nora Krinitsky
Queer people are subjected to carceral state surveillance and violence in the free world and in prisons, jails, and detention centers. Queerness must be discussed in conversations surrounding policing, prison reform, and abolishment of these systems. This project aims to describe current and past context as they pertain to queer identities in prison. Using a focussed analysis of three art pieces from the Prison Creative Arts Project by an incarcerated queer man, it examines social and (un)lawful policing, power structures inside prison, and the intersectionality of queer identities. These pieces tell a story about one artist’s personal and artistic development. They also demonstrate how queerness exists in carceral spaces and how the larger systems of power play a part in expression and representation of these intersectional identities.
