The Disney Channel hit show, Hannah Montana, constructs contemporary US girlhood and notions of femininity in relation to celebrity, such that its primary girl characters, Hannah Montana, Miley Stewart, and Lilly Truscott, as well as star Miley Cyrus, are positioned as particularly postfeminist subjects. In such a context, each of these girls can…[Read more]

This essay examines some of the curricular and pedagogical practices in place in English departments during the early years of the “Seven Sisters” — the women’s colleges of the late nineteenth century — to address contemporary issues in English studies. The experimental nature of the woman’s college allowed for pedagogical innovation, so that…[Read more]

While many have seen the equation between Macrina and Socrates drawn in the Treatise on the Soul and the Resurrection as Gregory of Nyssa’s attempt to honor his sister, a closer look at Gregory’s attitude about the relative power of Christianity at the end of the fourth century suggests the opposite: that the character of Macrina lends val…[Read more]

Three novels by Jane Austen are compared to three novels by Margaret Atwood in the context of reading and writing as feminist activities. Anna G. Jónasdóttir’s theoretical discussion of male authority supported by women’s alienated love elaborates the apparent truth of W.B. Yeats’ observation [borrowed from Mme de Stael] that “the desire of the w…[Read more]

This article explores the use of gender in the Religious History, demonstrating the multiple ways that Theodoret of Cyrrhus marked ostensibly male characters with traits associated in ancient medical literature with female bodies. Beyond simply depicting ascetics as extraordinary human beings, these complexly gendered portraits more importantly…[Read more]

Canadian feminists at the turn of the 20th century were interested in producing a collectivity that buttressed arguments for women’s social and political participation. In this process, the negotiation of class relations among women was of particular importance in giving this feminism political weight. Often Canadian writers who took a feminist…[Read more]