About the Authors
About the Authors
As students of George Mason University's HNRS 353: Technology in the Contemporary World, the majority of the semester was dedicated to researching and developing our project. From the formation of our topic to the methods of presenting our findings, this course provided us with an abundant amount of resources to put this website together. Visit the course website here.
Author: Sammie Alexander
Year, Major: 1st year, Environmental Science
Role in Project: Presentation
Favorite Disney Movies:
Before 2003- The Nightmare Before Christmas
After 2003- Brave
I’m very proud of the research we have compiled and the ways we have utilized our digital tools to present our analysis. Connecting the evolutions of the presentation of female characters to the times and places of their emergence has proved to be an effective approach in understanding the origins of the many variations of folklore. While
researching, I found it challenging to find one definition of the boundaries between the waves of feminism. Some scholars suggest that there are two waves of feminism followed by post feminism while others argue that there are three waves- today being the third wave. Overall, this research project has been an relatively enjoyable experience and has provided me with a new exposure to cultures and ideas I had never thought to explore.
Author: Helen Laraia
Year, Major: 2nd year, Psychology
Role in Project: Research
Favorite Disney Movies:
Before 2003- Lilo & Stitch
After 2003- Big Hero 6
Year, Major: 2nd year, Psychology
Role in Project: Research
Favorite Disney Movies:
Before 2003- Lilo & Stitch
After 2003- Big Hero 6
Our research evolved from looking at the changes in representation of female characters in old fairytales and their modern reinterpretations to a reflection of how societal change influences entertainment media.
Before this project, I had not considered how the Disney movie I researched, Mulan, was connected to third wave feminist ideals that became popular in the 1990s. It was very interesting to examine a movie I loved as a child through a scholarly perspective as an adult. One of the most difficult challenges I faced in my research was pinpointing a single time period or important collector of the original Mulan legend. Many sources I found had different ideas about when the Mulan legend first began circulating and who was the first important collector to record it.
Before this project, I had not considered how the Disney movie I researched, Mulan, was connected to third wave feminist ideals that became popular in the 1990s. It was very interesting to examine a movie I loved as a child through a scholarly perspective as an adult. One of the most difficult challenges I faced in my research was pinpointing a single time period or important collector of the original Mulan legend. Many sources I found had different ideas about when the Mulan legend first began circulating and who was the first important collector to record it.
Author: Eli Musih
Year, Major: 1st year,
Role in Project: Research
Favorite Disney Movies:
Before 2003- Bambi
After 2003- Finding Nemo
I am a freshman Honors student studying Biology and Forensic Science at George Mason University. This website was part of a research project of my Honor 353 class, through which I was able to become a junior historian and deluge into the world of digital history. This project was a great experience for researching and creating our own website. The area I was assigned was Arabian Nights and Disney’s Aladdin. Growing up Aladdin was one of my favorite Disney films so choosing it for my research was easy. Where as I was not as familiar with Arabian Nights so this project was a great way for me to learn more about it. The most challenging aspect was definitely condensing the mass amounts of information I was able to find. Overall I was able to learn so much about folklore, feminism, digital and spatial history though this project.
Author: Elaine Poulakos
Year, Major: 3rd year, Integrative Studies with a concentration in Elementary Education
Role in Project: Research
Favorite Disney Movies:
Before 2003- Sleeping Beauty
After 2003- Tangled
Year, Major: 3rd year, Integrative Studies with a concentration in Elementary Education
Role in Project: Research
Favorite Disney Movies:
Before 2003- Sleeping Beauty
After 2003- Tangled
Disney and feminism are two topics that I am very interested in and passionate about, being able to bring them together in this research project really excited me. The films we chose to examine were films I grew up with and that had had a huge influence on my childhood, being able to take on a more adult reading of them was a fascinating experience. There were connections between Andersen’s Little Mermaid, Disney’s version,
and feminism that I would have never realized without this research project. Because all of the elements fit together so well, I did not experience too much difficulty in conducting my research. There were certain points where it felt as if I was putting together the pieces of apuzzle and all the details were fitting into place. If anything was difficult about this project, it was being forced to alter my perspective of these tales. For so long I had thought of Disney’s The Little Mermaid as an innocent children’s story, but in this project I had to confront the ways society had impacted it and the ways it impacted society.
and feminism that I would have never realized without this research project. Because all of the elements fit together so well, I did not experience too much difficulty in conducting my research. There were certain points where it felt as if I was putting together the pieces of apuzzle and all the details were fitting into place. If anything was difficult about this project, it was being forced to alter my perspective of these tales. For so long I had thought of Disney’s The Little Mermaid as an innocent children’s story, but in this project I had to confront the ways society had impacted it and the ways it impacted society.
Author: Amy Yi
Year, Major: 2nd year, Accounting and ISOM
Role in Project: Digital Components
Favorite Disney Movies:
Before 2003- Atlantis
After 2003- Wreck-It-Ralph
Through this project, I learned about the various ways one could look at history. I never thought about how influences from the feminist movement
would impact our society's portrayal of stories and characters. Looking at our research question with this new perspective helped me further my understanding of the effect that historical events have on culture in various aspects. The site was organized in hopes to make it both easily-accessible and usable for readers. Separating the site into sections by story and resources allows users to navigate in quick and simple steps. All of our research is laid out in the pages, so readers will not have a difficulty locating information. The design of the website is inspired by a modern fairy tale theme.
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