3B3: WWI Propaganda Poster Fluidity

This paper will reUect a summer's work with Dr. Jessy Ohl at the University of Alabama, digitizing, analyzing, and dissecting a newly discovered collection of 130 World War I propaganda posters in the University of Alabama special collections This summer, we will be developing an immersive, multi-media platform in order to illustrate the full historical context and consciousness surrounding these images. For this paper, we will focus on the narrative of androgyny created through the representations within these posters, looking specifically at the fluidity of gender created by the shifting of professions, and the depictions of men and women within war zones. In our presentation, we hope to share our tentative research findings related to the evolution of gender rules as women begin to embody male dominated spaces and expressions.