There exists a gendered difference in how sports films portray female protagonist athletes. This creative project closely examines scenes from four films, Bend It Like Beckham, Million Dollar Baby, Girlfight and Whip It, that collectively represent four gendered themes that are present within the female protagonist sport film subgenre. Each film provides representative examples for themes of exceptionalism, the explicit presence of gender or sexuality, paternal or romantic relationships with male characters, and the punishment or containment of the female athlete. These themes are then analyzed for their presence and meaning in the film genre, including how existing heteronormative film structures are present in female protagonist sport films and how such ideas are reflections of wider societal values. This exposes how the continued use of such heteronormative themes perpetuates stereotypes of female athleticism. After understanding how these themes take shape and what they mean for the genre, this paper then highlights examples of an emergent more feminist genre, promotes alternative filmmaking methods and progressive change to the portrayal of female athletes in sport film.

Whispers from Above is a creative project that aims to normalize the conversation and validate the emotional experience of grief, through the use of art therapies. Art therapy can be expressive in which someone creates their own work, such as visual art, poetry, performance, music, movement, etc. Art therapy can also be receptive in which someone analyzes and understands someone else's artwork. This project was released on SoundCloud in order to make grief resources more accessible to all and to build an online community.<br/><br/>Whispers from Above worked with twelve poets, fifteen artists, six different interviewees, and multiple musicians to create a month of grief support. The finale piece of Whispers from Above was devised from the twenty-nine poems used within this month-long healing journey. All the individual poems were woven into a single devised poem to be presented as the final piece symbolizing that no one is alone in grief.<br/><br/>Whispers from Above is creative community exploration of grief, loss, and death in which we hope contributors, and listeners find solace and support. This series will exist on SoundCloud after March 27th, 2021 with a monthly release of a poem or interview accompanied by art, and music.