Gender Essentialism on the Global Level
Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?
Undergraduate
Project Type
individual
Campus
Daytona Beach
Authors' Class Standing
Junior
Lead Presenter's Name
Keelie Hanley
Lead Presenter's College
DB College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty Mentor Name
Elisabeth Murray
Abstract
The 2020 World Expo in 2022 was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Many pavilions were constructed in order to represent all 192 countries that participated, including ones to represent innovations and global concepts/ideals. The pavilion that will be analyzed is the Women’s pavilion. The research conducted was documentation and photography of the different exhibits and speakers, each of which represent or speak to women’s role throughout history and the problems they face today. This was the first time a World Expo had been held in a Middle Eastern State, other than Israel. This was an opportunity to gage how the United Arab Emirate’s efforts to become more global has impacted the view on woman and what type of stereotypes and gender barriers are still prevalent in society. The research being conducted is the analysis of gender essentialism represented within the Women’s pavilion of the Dubai World Expo. In order to conduct this research, the following questions are to be explored: How is the female gender represented throughout the course of the day? Are the representations/exhibits a celebration of femininity or an ode to stereotypes of biology? How does the United Arab Emirates represent women? The methodology being implemented is an ethnographic study of the exhibits and speakers. The exhibits of the pavilion were documented and photographed, in addition to notes of other’s reactions to them. The subjects that were being spoken on and what connotations they were spoken in were also documented. Additional documentation includes how the representation of women changes throughout the day, as how they were represented in the morning may have differed from how they were represented at night, due to perspective. The data collected was analyzed to determine to what degree gender essentialism was involved in the development and implementation of the pavilion
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?
Yes, Spark Grant
Gender Essentialism on the Global Level
The 2020 World Expo in 2022 was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Many pavilions were constructed in order to represent all 192 countries that participated, including ones to represent innovations and global concepts/ideals. The pavilion that will be analyzed is the Women’s pavilion. The research conducted was documentation and photography of the different exhibits and speakers, each of which represent or speak to women’s role throughout history and the problems they face today. This was the first time a World Expo had been held in a Middle Eastern State, other than Israel. This was an opportunity to gage how the United Arab Emirate’s efforts to become more global has impacted the view on woman and what type of stereotypes and gender barriers are still prevalent in society. The research being conducted is the analysis of gender essentialism represented within the Women’s pavilion of the Dubai World Expo. In order to conduct this research, the following questions are to be explored: How is the female gender represented throughout the course of the day? Are the representations/exhibits a celebration of femininity or an ode to stereotypes of biology? How does the United Arab Emirates represent women? The methodology being implemented is an ethnographic study of the exhibits and speakers. The exhibits of the pavilion were documented and photographed, in addition to notes of other’s reactions to them. The subjects that were being spoken on and what connotations they were spoken in were also documented. Additional documentation includes how the representation of women changes throughout the day, as how they were represented in the morning may have differed from how they were represented at night, due to perspective. The data collected was analyzed to determine to what degree gender essentialism was involved in the development and implementation of the pavilion