Using qualitative methods within post-structural theory, this paper questions how women make sense of their sexuality within the context of university life. I examine what relationship to sexuality women bring to college, how they negotiate their sexual agency within a university setting, and the emotional work they undertake. As the first opportunity where students live and learn independently of authoritative figures, the site provides space to explore women’s negotiation and resistance to different forms of authority. College is a particular discursive environment for regulating ideas of sex as it is a contested space of limitations and new freedoms. This cultural analysis uses data from open-ended, semi-structured interviews and focus groups with white women from multiple class positions at a small, public, doctoral-granting university in the Northeast. The participants ranged from sophomores to seniors; one identified as bi-sexual, and the remainder as heterosexual.

Analyzing the sexual discourse that women employ with each other in these conversations allows us to interrogate how women’s sexual experiences are regulated for them and by others in a patriarchal society. Women perform emotional labor when discerning how they “feel” about the situation compared to how others (e.g. parents, friends, partners) “feel” about their decisions. The paper theorizes the “emotional labor” embedded within their discourse and how it informs women’s sexual decisions. I argue that “emotional labor” takes precedence over women’s desires as they work to position themselves sexually in college. This paper exposes, engages and de-constructs the boundaries that hinder women’s sexual agency.

The popularization of concentrated solid-solution alloys has prompted a renewed search for atomic-scale chemical order among elements that appear randomly distributed within crystal lattices. However, confounding signals in electron diffraction experiments necessitate an immediate reliance on indirect measurements for detecting local order in compositionally complex alloys, as may be interpreted through computer simulations. For instance, both the structure and magnetization of the CrCoNi model system notably contradict ab initio theory for random alloys, but could be reconciled by the widespread presence of chemical short-range order. These simulations additionally find significant magnetic interactions in materials that are often assumed only paramagnetic, motivating further predictions of antiferromagnetism in binary Cr-Ni alloys, which are conventionally understood to have nonmagnetic ground states. This result indicates either the failure of standard theories or, as suggested by anomalous historical measurements, the existence of previously overlooked magnetic order that could persist well above ambient temperatures. In order to realistically model magnetic thermodynamics, a new Monte Carlo approach is developed and found to provide insight into the origin and prevalence of magnetic short-range order.

Prior to the 1990s, the term “arts integration” rarely—if ever—appeared in educational literature. The term may be new, but educators have been involving students in arts learning processes for centuries. In particular, teachers have long harnessed the power of drama to engage students in arts-integrated learning activities. Articles and books published between 1903 and 2018 reveal that student-written scripts comprised classroom learning activities in social studies, literature, and even science courses. Briefly contextualized in prevailing American educational ideologies, this research examines the history of the use of scriptwriting as an educational tool, sharing what teachers and students did, how they did it, how they described it, and why they endorse scriptwriting as a learning activity. The generations of teachers who authored the articles about their practices report academic and social benefits for their students as well as professional satisfaction for themselves. Their ideas, methods, topics, and insights may serve as validation and motivation for current educators. The goal of this research is to encourage today’s educators by familiarizing them with the significant history of this work and challenging them to continue to promote and implement artistic ways of learning.