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1. Simha Ravven '98, with Assistant Professor Shoshana Keller, History: "Ethnicity, Gender and Nationality in Israeli Labor, Pre 1967."
In this project, I explore the role women played in the Israeli labor movement and in the founding of the state. I also examine the effect of competition for work between Zionist immigrants and the Palestinian Arab population on the Israeli Labor Organization (the Histadrut) and its ideology.
In addition, I investigate the complexities of the Israeli founders' ideological commitment to socialism while maintaining their ethno-nationalist goal of founding a Jewish state--a conflict between socialism and ethno-nationalism that has remained prominent since statehood in 1948.
2. Meghan Hallock '98, with Associate Professor Carol Drogus, Government: "Gender and Nationalism: An Irish Case Study."
Academic discourse about nationalism and nationist movements has avoided topics dealing with feminism and women. In examining the role of women in the Irish Nationalist Movement, 1890-1937, I plan to concentrate largely on the theoretical implications of gender and nationalism, how class divided the nationalist and feminist movements and how literary revival enforced or questioned the secondary role of women.
The Irish patriarchal catholic community stifled many aspects of the women's movement. I argue that the class divisions between the elite Anglo-Irish women and the peasant and urban women also contributed greatly to the subversion of feminist goals to nationalist ones. I will examine female participation in the nationalist movements and political parties as well as the use of women in the creation of a national image and in myth-making for the nationalist cause.
3. Leah Bridges '98, with Assistant Lydia Hamessley, Music: "Trouser Roles and Castrati in Opera: Consequences for Modern Performance.
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like as a woman to perform in an opera as a man? What would it mean to sing love songs to other women? Would you feel like a man singing these songs, like a woman or like neither? Would the audience perceive you as a man or a woman? How does this change their interpretations of your character? In my project, I explore these questions as well as the history of the castrati and trouser roles in opera. I will create a performance of several arias from Le Nozze de Figaro and Der Rosenkavalier that will attempt to focus audience attention on the complexity of gender and sexuality in these scenes.
4. Karin D. Wimbley '98, with Carol Bellini-Sharpe, the Marjorie and Robert W. McEwen Professor of Theatre: "An Investigation of the African-American Woman as Seen and Represented in American Dramatic Traditions."
Ntozake Shange's play "Spell #7" highlights the evolution of Black performers in American theatre, beginning with the minstrel show, and addresses the socioeconomic and political influences on black theatrical performances as an artform.
My study focuses similar concerns with particular attention to the depiction of African-American women as reflected within non-literary theatre performance and within the dramatic texts of Susan Lori-Parks, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Childress, and Lorraine Hansberry. The goal of this investigation is to initiate a discourse concerning the African-American female's identity in theatre and drama.