Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
Project Type
individual
Campus
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Alexander Kilian, Junior Amaya Baker
Lead Presenter's Name
Alexander Kilian
Lead Presenter's College
DB College of Engineering
Faculty Mentor Name
Dr. Cassandra Branham
Abstract
This research project, Intersectionality and Institutional Power in Dystopian Cinema: Gender, Race, and Social Order in Sinners, examines how Sinners construct and represent women through intersecting systems of gender, race, and institutional power within a dystopian framework. Situated within broader discussions of equity, embodiment, and access, the project addresses how speculative media reflect and shape contemporary social hierarchies, particularly in modeling institutional authority, social organization, and identity formation. The primary objective is to analyze how these intersecting systems influence perceptions of identity, hierarchy, and social cohesion. Employing an interdisciplinary humanities approach, the project integrates film analysis, feminist theory, and critical race studies, utilizing qualitative and comparative methods to examine Sinners, selected dystopian media, and key theoretical texts, supported by scholarly articles and documentary sources. Preliminary findings indicate that Sinners both reproduces and critiques gendered and racialized power structures, depicting systems of institutional authority and social hierarchy through metaphorical devices, including vampirism, ritualized social hierarchies, musical motifs as conduits of cultural memory, and the structuring of narrative time, while subtly positioning women as foundational to the narrative, shaping events and meaning even as the story foregrounds male characters and reflecting the persistent invisibility of women’s influence within patriarchal contexts. Ongoing analysis is expected to further clarify how these narrative strategies shape understandings of authority, solidarity, and social order. The scope of the project encompasses the development of a co-authored scholarly manuscript and a transferable analytical framework for examining identity, institutional dynamics, and representation in media. By providing conceptual and methodological tools, this research contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship on media, power, and structural inequality and offers adaptable approaches for future studies across contexts.
Did this research project receive funding support (Spark, SURF, Research Abroad, Student Internal Grants, Collaborative, Climbing, or Ignite Grants) from the Office of Undergraduate Research?
No
Included in
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons
Intersectionality and Institutional Power in Dystopian Cinema: Gender, Race, and Social Order in Sinners
This research project, Intersectionality and Institutional Power in Dystopian Cinema: Gender, Race, and Social Order in Sinners, examines how Sinners construct and represent women through intersecting systems of gender, race, and institutional power within a dystopian framework. Situated within broader discussions of equity, embodiment, and access, the project addresses how speculative media reflect and shape contemporary social hierarchies, particularly in modeling institutional authority, social organization, and identity formation. The primary objective is to analyze how these intersecting systems influence perceptions of identity, hierarchy, and social cohesion. Employing an interdisciplinary humanities approach, the project integrates film analysis, feminist theory, and critical race studies, utilizing qualitative and comparative methods to examine Sinners, selected dystopian media, and key theoretical texts, supported by scholarly articles and documentary sources. Preliminary findings indicate that Sinners both reproduces and critiques gendered and racialized power structures, depicting systems of institutional authority and social hierarchy through metaphorical devices, including vampirism, ritualized social hierarchies, musical motifs as conduits of cultural memory, and the structuring of narrative time, while subtly positioning women as foundational to the narrative, shaping events and meaning even as the story foregrounds male characters and reflecting the persistent invisibility of women’s influence within patriarchal contexts. Ongoing analysis is expected to further clarify how these narrative strategies shape understandings of authority, solidarity, and social order. The scope of the project encompasses the development of a co-authored scholarly manuscript and a transferable analytical framework for examining identity, institutional dynamics, and representation in media. By providing conceptual and methodological tools, this research contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship on media, power, and structural inequality and offers adaptable approaches for future studies across contexts.