User:Mosterbur

Dr. Megan E. Osterbur is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at New England College. Her research focuses on social movements and public policy relevant to gender and sexuality movements. Her current research examines how social movements interact in Web 2.0 with varying impact in offline engagement. Her co-authored articles have appeared in Global Networks and the International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Education
= Course summaries as written by students: =

= Politics of Gender & Sexuality (Fall 2016 Xavier University of Louisiana) =

Politics of Gender & Sexuality focuses on the roles and different perspectives of sexual minorities, women, and members of the LGBT community. The political representation and involvement of sexual minorities is a subject that for most part has been debated. Courtroom victories and the rise of participation in the rally against barriers that hold the progress for the equality for LGBT citizens. Particularly, the legal, political, and historic content of different issues within the legal system stand out within the course.

Politics of Gender and Sexuality is a class to take if you want to learn more about how people identify themselves and how the government identify individuals based on their gender or sexuality when it comes to politics. The class covered topics about how women and the LGBTQ  community are represented in politics. It covered essential concepts about the politics involved in the Women’s Movement and the LGBTQ Movement. I learned how women and the LGBT community are under represented in government positions, how it affects them, and ways both minorities can increase their political participation. One particular important lecture was essential for understanding the LGB role in politics. It was the Lecture from week eight that discussed how their political participation factors differ from those of the general population. The readings covered the different forms of political participation that include elections, such as voting, campaigning, and donating. Other forms include attending meetings, writing to public offices, protests/demonstrations, lobbying, joining interest groups, boycotting/boycotting, political violence, and civil disobedience. A few ways that the LGB community can increase their political participation is by calling or contacting media, creating media, working for candidates, creating networks, and staying informed. Studies have shown that the LGB community is more active than the general population on average, and they are more informed and aware of viewpoints. The Standard Model of Participation(Voting) for General Population includes the best predictors of whether or not someone will vote. The predictors are education, income, age, region, ethnicity, and partisanship. Education is the most important, because the more education you have, the more likely you are to vote. During the lecture I learned that the Northeast region of the country has more LGB voters because they are more educated. The studies also showed that LGB voters are most likely to vote democrat. Even though the Republican Party does not support the LGB community as much as the Democrat Party, there are gay republicans that are known as Log Cabin Republicans.

Instructor Background
Politics of Gender & Sexuality is taught by Dr. Megan Osterbur (preferred pronouns: she, her, hers; ze, zim, zir; they, them, theirs). Osterbur received her Ph.D. at the University of New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana. She worked at Xavier University of Louisiana as a professor in the Department of Political Science for seven years.

Course Content Overview
The Politics of Gender & Sexuality course covers a wide array of different topics. Subjects may range from identity politics to the future of women's rights and gay rights. The movement of the course in regard to topics discussed can be described as follows: an understanding of identity politics, privilege and oppression, types of representation, early philosophers' beliefs about gender and sexuality, norms and self-policing, history of feminism and women's movements, LGBT and women's political participation, the gender gap, effects of minorities and LGBT holding offices, the law and pro/against LGBT/women legal decisions, and the future of women's and LGBT rights.

Representation
Substantive Representation: Descriptive Representation : Symbolic Representation: Formalistic Representation: These four types of representations are an example of some of the constructs that are discussed in Politics of Gender and Sexuality. Women's and sexual minorities rights that have been successfully gained, have some connection to these constructs, as they have have tended to be a unique characteristic of different successful court rulings.
 * Focuses on representing individuals in a manner responsive to them. The representatives function in their actions being taken on behalf of the represented. Essentially the interest of the represented is considered and they function as agents for the represented. The representer and the represented are on the "same page" essentially.
 * Focuses on representing individuals on the basis of resemblance. When a representer looks like those whom they represent, they tend to have common interest and are likely to have undergone some of the same treatments as those for whom they are representing.
 * Focuses on symbolic representation, in the sense of representing an individual having the came sense of concern and meaning for representing an individual.
 * Focuses on the traditional judicial proceedings in which a person is represented and all actions taking place work towards the best results for whomever is represented.

The Confidence Gap
The confidence gap is when women underestimate themselves when it comes to running for political offices. They do this by running for lower office position such as running for mayor or governor instead of House or Senate seats. Women generally wait till they are 100% qualified before they undertake a new political venture, while men typically hold their selves to a lower standard. Women may hold their selves to such impossible standards because "women and men experience and process failure differently." Women internalize their failures and externalize their success while men do the opposite. This means that women contribute their failures directly to their own attributes and skills while their successes are more because of the help they had getting their or the circumstances of their success.

LGBTQ Organizations and Primary Focus

 * GLAAD: Portrayals of LGBTQ in media
 * GLAD: Policy change through legal form using litigation-based strategy
 * Human Rights Campaign: Lobbying and campaigning
 * NGLTF: Coordination and training of activists
 * Victory Fund: Support for LGBT political candidates

Critical Mass Theory
In lecture the class discussed the idea of critical mass. The "critical mass" theory seeks to explain the amount of representation a minority identity will need in order to get policies passed that would benefit that minority identity. The critical mass theory encompass subcategories that affect the outcomes of critical mass.

Threshold Effect:
The threshold hold affect is depending on the identity and issue. This effect explains the percentage of representation you need to get a policy to be passed. Usually 22% is the percentage required to see change.

Backlash Effect:
The backlash effect is when the threshold is attempted, but not met. Instead of reaching 22% the population might reach 19% this percentage is critical enough to pose as a threat to parties against a certain policy. The backlash effect is when policies are put in place that work against initial policies or the lack of one.

Successful Token Theory:
The successful token theory is when a minority identity is present but the population is large enough to cause a threat. People in this group can stop negative policies and possibly influence others to side with policies that benefit that minority group. The representation percentage is usually around 1-5%.

Absence Effect:
The absence effect is when there is no representation of the minority population in power. This usually results in no policy being created, but in other cases policies are passes that work against a minority group due to ignorance and lack of input from that identity.

Field Trips

 * Sister Shake - Black Burlesques : This field hosted at the Joan Mitchell Center delve into the history of Black Burlesque. This movement of Black Burlesques in the 1950's empowered black women to be in control of their own sexuality and bodies while making money. A presentation on black women in burlesque history by Chicava Honeychild to take place on Thursday, September 15, 2016 from 7-9pm at the Joan Mitchell Foundation Center on Bayou Road.Politics_of_Gender_&_Sexuality1.jpgr Shake is a visual lecture through black burlesque heritage from the late 1800s through the present. Burlesque’s history in America reflects the segregation, discrimination, and exotification that women of color had to contend with in all walks of life. Sister Shake is a recovery of a heritage of the urgently glamorous sort - nestled in the history of America from Jim Crow to the present, seeping into every aspect of the arts in America - jazz, theater, film and literature. Chicava Honeychild narrates this presentation based on her cultivation through a nine-year journey of late nights of internet sleuthing, digging through the annals of Jet Magazine,and African-American newspapers from the late 1800s on and the piecing together of a lineage of renegade black women.  She has presented this lecture at Rutgers University, The New School University, Sarah Lawrence College and SisterSong’s bi-annual conference.Politics_of_Gender_&_Sexuality.jpgAbout the presenter: Chicava HoneyChild is a burlesque dancer, teacher, actor and producer.  She is the Creative Producer and Proprietress of New York City’s Brown Girls Burlesque and lead teacher of The Broad Squad Institute. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College.  Her areas of interest are performance art, women of color in burlesque heritage, and sacred sexuality and spirituality. She is an artist in residence at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater where she produces an immersive DJ based burlesque show called "Last Night A DJ Saved My Life" with varying themes and a live blues & jazz burlesque revue called "The Dirty Honey Shake". She is currently working on a documentary and companion book on the legacy of Women of Color in burlesque heritage.  For more background visit: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/ art/shimmying-beat-history- performers-color-burlesque/

Assignment Expectations
This course consists of a variety of different assignments to stimulate and challenge the abilities of students. This course also features some in-class projects/presentations and extra credit opportunities. = Black Politics (SP 17) =
 * Weekly readings, quizzes, and current event blogs
 * Wikipedia assignments

Racial Gerrymandering
This semester in Black politics, we covered the concept of racial gerrymandering and how it may affect political participation for black students.Racial gerrymandering or redistricting allows the government to create Congressional districts as they see fit. Many districts are created based on the demographics of an area, particularly race. The racial gerrymandering epidemic tends to get mixed reviews, as some or in favor of drawing districts based on race, while others are against it. Racial gerrymandering can happen three different ways. Congressmen can crate districts by either cracking, packing, or stacking the black vote. Cracking involves splitting the black vote among minority white districts. Packing the black votes involves creating a few districts in which the minority in the majority. Lastly, stacking involves placing the black population in a majority white district. Racial gerrymandering can lead to either substantive representation or descriptive representation. Substantive representation is when an official is voted into official, and has the ability to actually get something done. In this case, the official may be white or black. However, in the case of descriptive representation, the official is usually black--and it voted into office simply because voters want a black Congressman to represent them. This may lead to the congressman being the only black, therefore, the "token." It may be harder to accomplish the wish of his or her constituents. Evidenced by the different layers of racial gerrymandering, there does not seem to be a solution to the problem. What may seem like a solution (descriptive representation) can actually lead to more negative consequences. Congressional districts should not be drawn on the basis of race. Instead, voters should live where they want, without the fear of their voice being diluted. . Districts should be drawn how they were meant to be—on the basis of geography.