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Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Moss, Rosalind Urbach. "Reinventing Spinsterhood: Competing Images of ‘Womanhood’ in American Culture, 1880-1960," University of Minnesota, December 1988. Advisor: Sara M. Evans (2, 14, 22)
A dialogic discourse analysis chiefly of popular periodicals and movies, this dissertation describes and analyzes the development of, responses to, and uses of conflicting representations of women (with spinsterhood and old maids as touchstones) during struggles to redefine a broader range of expression and activity for both mainstream American culture and female gender identity. New ideals of womanhood emerged—the New Woman and later the Flapper—offering comprehensive visions of women as, simultaneously, self-sufficient, competent, and attractive. Of prime importance were the contestations over the symbolic meanings of women’s appearance in the workplace, which produced the image of the Neurotic Career Woman, the 20th-century old maid, and the cultural melodrama of the “young” old maid.
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