Its name taken from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), this project's hope is that one day the Star Wars fanbase will not need this project or others like it to challenge sexist and misogynist interpretations of the franchise and that women, gender-nonconforming, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals will not need safe spaces within the fanbase. As Hera Syndulla says, we have hope that things in the franchise will get better. Until then, however, we, like the heroines of this transmedia franchise, must build our rebellion (and this site) on that hope of creating a more inclusive reality.

This is an academic, non-profit, and unlicensed digital humanities (DH) project  in no way affiliated with Disney, LucasFilm, or any official Star Wars property.  All rights belong to Disney, LucasFilm, and their other properties. I do not claim any copyright over the images included in this project and am using them through 17 U.S.C. § 107 on fair use as found in U.S. Copyright Law. If there are concerns about credit, use, or citation on this site, please use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of each page so I can make the appropriate adjustments and provide due ownership and copyright.

Part of the Undergraduate Summer Fellowship in Digital Humanities at the University of California, Irvine, Built on Hope is a database of feminist viewing and reading guides for various elements of the Star Wars franchise. Looking to make the feminist perspective of Star Wars  a bit more mainstream, this somewhat comprehensive database seeks to identify the feminist perspective and subversions of the hero's journey in Disney canon-Star Wars, Star Wars Legends, video games, movies, animated TV shows, social media and online fandom, and live-action shows.  This project seeks to take an interdisciplinary and intersectional feminist perspective of the Star Wars transmedia franchise that specifically considers George Lucas's use of Joseph Campbell's hero's  journey (and the heroine's journey developed by Maureen Murdock). I intend to use this project to create and share feminist viewing,  interacting, and reading guides to various media within the franchise. While criticism of the franchise and its creators and participants is inevitable in a project such as this, Built on Hope aims to highlight the successes and deficiencies of the Star Wars franchise as it stands. By no means a comprehensive analysis of the franchise and every piece of media within it, this project seeks to analyze and cover current mainstream elements of the franchise, as these will be the most accessible to users.