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The Dangerous Effect Of Entitlement On White Nationalist Ideology, Kara Elizabeth Harris Nov 2023

The Dangerous Effect Of Entitlement On White Nationalist Ideology, Kara Elizabeth Harris

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Within the past few years, White nationalism has been on the rise due to societal changes and feelings of uncertainty for White Americans' perceptions of their racial group’s future. As a result, many have speculated what may be a factor in this rise. Previously it has been found that having a high White identity is associated with White nationalist ideologies. However, White identity may not be enough to drive White nationalist ideologies and the violence that can follow. Feelings of entitlement towards status, preferential treatment, and resources may contribute to White nationalist ideologies based on beliefs of superiority and deservedness …


Graduation Simulator: A Virtual Reality Conversation Experience For Second-Year College Students Living Through A Pandemic, Dylan Cohen Jun 2022

Graduation Simulator: A Virtual Reality Conversation Experience For Second-Year College Students Living Through A Pandemic, Dylan Cohen

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

Many second-year college students have struggled to socially transition back to in-person schooling. After a significant period of enforced isolation, there is a need to aggregate loose connections activated or maintained online. Through conducting UX/ethnographic research on current second-year students who have lost out on major life milestones between the years 2019-2021, synthesizing research from fields of media studies, interpersonal communication, and art/design that incites self-disclosure, and collaborating with a group of student designers, I responded to this issue by creating Graduation Simulator (2022) over a period of 8 months. Graduation Simulator facilitates emotionally vulnerable discussion through a VR scavenger …


Is The Identity Development Process Intersectional?: The Story Of 15 Gay White Male Chicagoans, Jacob Stone Jun 2020

Is The Identity Development Process Intersectional?: The Story Of 15 Gay White Male Chicagoans, Jacob Stone

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Research on multiple identities highlights intersectionality as key to understanding overlapping forms of oppression and power within a single individual. This structural understanding of the individual, however, misses how individuals understand this multiplicity and the process taken for them to develop it. This study combined my experience as a gay white man with 14 life history interview of gay white men between the ages of 21 and 42 living in Chicago. Gay identity development primarily occurs through the dissipation of barriers to self-acceptance, while white identity development takes constant conscious thought and action to build up understanding. The inverse nature …


Second-Generation Turkish Americans In Chicago: The Influences On The Preservation Of Ethnic Identity & Turkishness, Zerrin Bulut Mar 2020

Second-Generation Turkish Americans In Chicago: The Influences On The Preservation Of Ethnic Identity & Turkishness, Zerrin Bulut

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This project investigates the preservation of Turkishness and ethnic identity in second generation Turkish Americans in the Chicago area. Since the turn of the century Turkish Americans have been part of the fabric of major metropolitan cities such as Chicago, coming in three major migration waves, but are underrepresented in terms of research and scholarly analysis. I examine the role of migrant organizations, focusing on Turkish American migrant organizations in Chicago, and their effect on retention and maintenance of ethnicity. I am interested in the influences that preserve the Turkish connections within these migrant families and how the connections to …


Understanding Stem Identity Construction: An Ethnography Of An All-Girls Stem Club, Pasiewicz Marie Loyola Nov 2018

Understanding Stem Identity Construction: An Ethnography Of An All-Girls Stem Club, Pasiewicz Marie Loyola

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative ethnography follows 11 high-school girls through their experiences in an all-girls after-school STEM club in a privileged school setting. This study uses Gee’s concept of identity and a feminist poststrutural framework to understand their experiences and how they use the club to re/construct their gendered STEM identities. Through interviews, focus groups, observations, and document analysis, this study found that the after-school club offers girls a space to not only learn about STEM, but also provides a space for girls to understand the gendered nature of their interactions with peers and adults in STEM classrooms. Data shows that girls …


The Role Of Gender Identityand Stereotype Awareness On Sexual Negotiations Strategies For Women, Or'shaundra Tre'nay Benson Aug 2015

The Role Of Gender Identityand Stereotype Awareness On Sexual Negotiations Strategies For Women, Or'shaundra Tre'nay Benson

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

The consequences of unsafe heterosexual sexual behaviors including unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections continue to create significant public health problems in the United States. Although research has demonstrated that young adults in general have higher rates of sexually transmitted infections compared to other age groups, young women are especially vulnerable to the ill-effects of unsafe sexual practices, as they must contend with the physicality of an unplanned pregnancy and larger incidences of asymptotic infection transmissions. However, missing from the research and discourse regarding what specific factors may be contributing to high rates of risky behaviors in heterosexual women is …


Gangstas, Thugs, Vikings, And Drivers: Cinematic Masculine Archetypes And The Demythologization Of Violence In The Films Of Nicolas Winding Refn, Christopher John Olson Sep 2014

Gangstas, Thugs, Vikings, And Drivers: Cinematic Masculine Archetypes And The Demythologization Of Violence In The Films Of Nicolas Winding Refn, Christopher John Olson

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

This thesis considers how the depictions of masculinity in the films of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn function as a critique of mainstream Hollywood cinema’s perpetuation of the notion that violent male behavior represents a heroic ideal for men to emulate. In films such as Pusher, Bronson, Valhalla Rising, and Drive, Refn constructs and presents his male characters by drawing upon recurring archetypal figures such as the gangster, the gangsta, the gunslinger, and the samurai. These figures recur throughout popular culture and across genres, and they perpetuate and reinforce a specific version of masculinity that emphasizes individualism, stoicism, and violence. …


Challenging Identity Hierarchies In Julie Taymor’S Tempest, Aaron W. Vinson Jun 2014

Challenging Identity Hierarchies In Julie Taymor’S Tempest, Aaron W. Vinson

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Julie Taymor’s The Tempest was released in 2010 and received mixed critical response though almost all critics lauded Helen Mirren’s performance as Prospera, the first female Prospero in a major film. In the spirit of the original, almost all of the dialogue is Shakespeare’s save for some voiceover where Prospera explains a modified origin story. Taymor’s film challenges stereotypical character identities in Shakespeare’s plays through casting, dialogue, and editing. Casting Helen Mirren as Prospera changes the dominant figure from a patriarchal tyrant to a matriarchal enlightened despot while casting Djimon Hounsou as Caliban forces an examination of colonial history in …


Literature For Girls And The Preadolescent Novel: A Historical Analysis And Recommendations For Challenging The Status Quo, Molly K. Pim Jun 2014

Literature For Girls And The Preadolescent Novel: A Historical Analysis And Recommendations For Challenging The Status Quo, Molly K. Pim

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Children’s literature has long been an influential historical, social and cultural discursive site of gender identity and gender appropriate behavior. Currently, there is great deal of research and analysis of children’s literature and young adult fiction, examining literature’s role in children’s and young adults’ process of identity formation, as well as their conceptualizations about gender identity and gender appropriate behavior. There is little research and interrogation, however, of the presence of traditional binary gender roles and representations of gender appropriate behavior in girls’ preadolescent novels, aimed at 8- through 12-year-olds. For much of the existing research, preadolescent novels are lumped …


Exploring Professional Identity, Scott G. Banghart Jun 2013

Exploring Professional Identity, Scott G. Banghart

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

This thesis examines the ways in which organizational members define what it means to communicate professionally, the extent to which enacting professional identity reflects organizational identification and individual identity, and the specific contexts in which professionalism is most encouraged. Data collected from participant interviews highlighted three intersectional components related to the enactment professional identity and perceptions of [un]professionalism—technical, behavioral, and social. Further, the results of this study suggest that professionalism as a communicative construct manifests itself in the midst of ongoing tension between individual agency and organizational constraint, conflating individual identities with norms, values, and expectations set forth by the …


Other And Self-Representation: A Pentadic Criticism Of Kosovar Muslim And Roma Identity As Represented In Photographs By James Nachtwey And Djordje Jovanovic, Melody S. Follweiler Nov 2012

Other And Self-Representation: A Pentadic Criticism Of Kosovar Muslim And Roma Identity As Represented In Photographs By James Nachtwey And Djordje Jovanovic, Melody S. Follweiler

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

This is an interdisciplinary study that integrates the fields of visual rhetoric, media, and identity. This study seeks to gain a better understanding of photojournalism as the medium of rhetorical messages and communicative power in terms of representing the identity, experience, and perspective of Kosovar Muslims and Roma in Other and self-representations. By applying Kenneth Burke’s theory of dramatism and pentadic criticism, I seek to illustrate and analyze how an outsider, James Nachtwey, uses rhetorical appeals to represent Kosovar Muslims during the Kosovo War of 1999 and how an insider, Djordje Jovanovic, uses rhetorical appeals to represent Kosovar Roma during …


The Post-Black Aesthetic And Meanings Of Blackness Through The Collage Narratives Of Kara Walker And Fred Wilson, William Hill Apr 2012

The Post-Black Aesthetic And Meanings Of Blackness Through The Collage Narratives Of Kara Walker And Fred Wilson, William Hill

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

The 1990s spawned a new generation of African-American artists who worked to understand and deconstruct meanings of blackness within the context of the post-black aesthetic. Their conceptualized installations resulted in various discourses on the nature of race, culture and identity within the framework of exhibition and collection. Considered 'post-black' by critics, these artists sought to reexamine black aesthetics through the dialects of disenfranchisement, desire and hegemonic forms of representation in American culture. From this perspective, I will investigate the installation art of Kara Walker and Fred Wilson, illustrating how these practices inform and challenge racial stereotypes prevalent in visual culture. …


Trauma And Identity: Action As A Response To State Violence In Colombia, Alison J. Paul Apr 2012

Trauma And Identity: Action As A Response To State Violence In Colombia, Alison J. Paul

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Colombia’s ongoing armed conflict has produced a myriad of types of violence as well as individual and social trauma. In the early 2000s, the proliferation of extrajudicial killings of non-combatant citizens by the Colombian armed forces left behind thousands of families to deal with the aftermath of their loss of a loved at the hands of the state. This phenomological research specifically looks in depth at the narratives of seven Colombian victims of state crimes that have been transformed through their experience of political violence and the actions they have taken in response to state crimes. Both individual and collective …


The Disclosure Process Of An Invisible Stigmatized Identity, Jessica Hudson Aug 2011

The Disclosure Process Of An Invisible Stigmatized Identity, Jessica Hudson

College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations

This study tested a model of the antecedents to disclosure of an invisible stigmatized identity. The antecedents to disclosure included characteristics of the specific stigma, individual level factors, environmental factors, and perceived consequences of disclosure. Four invisible stigmatized identity types were selected: mental health problems, learning disability, low social class background, and lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB). A total of 254 undergraduate college students completed an on-line survey including questions about the disclosure of their identities and the various proposed predictors to disclosure. The best fitting models included the identity combined model, the mental illness only model, and the LGB …


Beyond The Language Program Model: The Importance Of Student Identity For The English Language Learner, Arthi Rao Jun 2011

Beyond The Language Program Model: The Importance Of Student Identity For The English Language Learner, Arthi Rao

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic dissertation study focuses on life in fourth grade classrooms, examining how sociocultural experiences and influences in the local learning environment impact native Spanish-speaking English language learners’ (ELL) identities, and subsequently how students perceive their schooling experience and language practices. Connections are made between their learning and experiences that occur in their classrooms and schools at large, specifically through language of instruction and schooling practices, and how ELLs identify themselves as individuals and members of society. This qualitative research looks at ELLs in transitional bilingual and dual language classroom contexts through the frameworks of sociocultural theory and language as …


What's All That Noise?: A Study Of Constructed Gender Meanings In News Publications For High School Students, Laura M. Moran Jul 2010

What's All That Noise?: A Study Of Constructed Gender Meanings In News Publications For High School Students, Laura M. Moran

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

It is nearly impossible to escape from the influence of media in today’s world, between newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the internet. School settings are no exception to this rule and even allow the in-school distribution of publications produced by major media companies. These publications can be used for entertainment purposes or as supplements to classroom lessons, but they can also contribute to the replication of unbalanced and highly stereotypical representations of gender at a time when their readers are typically struggling to create their own identities. Four issues of two different in-school news publications were studied to gain a …