Digital Commons Network^™

Restoration, Shannon M. Slaight-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The marks I make in clay have different characteristics, and the physical mark of one’s fingertips or visual record of the hand is personal and intimate. This visible activity is the evidence of my constant presence and control within each object. Its repetitive meditation produces a private relief from my persistent anxieties. This exploration for me is not only visual, but also physical. This is the start of my infatuation with the idea of pattern. It has its own discrete visual language and modes of communication; and through my research I am developing a method of intercommunication.

Women Self Actualization: A Narrative Of A Performative Gender Constitution, Hala A. Gabr

Theses and Dissertations

In a traditional Middle Eastern society, men and women have been confined within society’s gender definitions. Those imposed social constructs condition men differently from women by dictating expected behaviors, establishing a hierarchy of gender positioning and enforcing definitions that limit abilities and potential.

Based on postmodernist philosopher, feminist and social theorist, Simone de Beauvoir and postmodernist American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler, gender is not an inborn role, but rather created through stylized repetition of acts informed by society, named performative acts. For de Beauvoir and Butler, gender can never be a stable identity (Butler 1988).

Informed by Butler’s …

Trace, Naomi Katy Louise Clement

LSU Master's Theses

The pots in the exhibition Trace speak both to my desire to belong, to connect to my beginnings, and yet to still trace my own path forward; they are about making connections and missing connections. Through these pots I ask questions of myself and the world around me in an attempt to negotiate the edges of my life. How do I feel connected and present in my own life and relationships? How do I feel connected to my family and my roots, while still finding my own path? What does it mean to belong in a family that is divided …

A "Dying Breed"? Exploring Logger Identity After The Decline In The Timber Industry In Hayfork, Ca, Sheri L. Harrison

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The rapid decline of timber operations in the late twentieth century had an immense impact on rural communities whose economy was dependent on logging and lumber mills. The voices and concerns of timber-dependent communities and timber workers have been marginalized by broader forces that focused on political, economic, and environmental issues throughout the Pacific Northwest timber conflict and the subsequent deindustrialization of the timber industry. This study examines the social impacts on loggers, their families, and the broader community in Hayfork, California, through the framework of identity theory. The formation of logger identity and the broader processes that have impacted …

The Emergence Of The Feminist Fatale In American Film Noir, Anne Dennon

All Master's Theses

The femme fatale, a quasi-eternal figure of female transgression and retributory violence, has gradually entered popular culture’s symbolic lexicon as representative of mainstream feminism and postmodern femininity. Tracing the development of the femme fatale into a feminist pop culture icon necessitates establishing her sociopolitical status in the late modern era through her presence in Victorian sensational literature. The femme’s translation from the Victorian context to the American mediascape presages her evolving presence in three cinematic eras: classic film noir, neo-conservative retro noir, and millennial neo-noir. Feminist film criticism tends to identify the femme fatale as a protofeminist, a productive transgressor …

Carrying The Seeds: Adaptations And Transitions Of Hmong American Food Producers In Missoula County, Montana, Rachel Cramer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Forty years after the initial resettlement of Hmong refugees in Missoula County, Montana, the Hmong American community has undergone significant agricultural and cultural adaptations. Today, there are about 200 Hmong Americans in the county, less than 2% of the population (US Census Bureau 2010), but they make up around 40% of the farmers’ market produce vendors. The thesis demonstrates that, while agriculture has played a central role in helping Hmong refugees adapt, its role is becoming more symbolic as the second generation develops an identity less connected to growing and selling food. Through a qualitative research approach using 19 in-depth …

Designing Inclusivity: Reconstructing The Meaning Of The Seven Pointed Star Symbol In The Jordanian Flag Through Design Thinking, Fadwa Barakat

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

This thesis is an attempt to explore the Jordanian community of today with its multi-ethnic fusion and its social practices that often appear rooted in the past. It is an examination of what possible series of symbols could be formed from a collective view of the diverse ethnicity in Jordan and that could be culturally relevant to the seven-pointed star of the Jordanian flag. This has been an investigation structured around Design Thinking processes using a mixture of qualitative methods integrated with a social science methodology. The qualitative data collection methods involved close contact between the research participants and the …

Reflections On Leaking Men And Abject Masculinities: Challenging Representations Of Male Identity In And Through Body-Based Performance Art, Mark Andrew Flisher

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Towards the end of the last century discussions on the representation of masculinity in male body-based performance art placed emphasis on the deconstruction of normative masculine identities. The focus of these investigations tended to position the image of masculinity within Lacan’s sexuation matrix, and as such, these representations were usually referred to as being phallic. That is, they reinscribed the behaviours, traits and characteristics of normative masculinity into the performance space. The central thrust of this practice-as-research thesis is that while some male artists deconstruct the performance of phallic masculinity, to challenge normative masculine ideologies, they often first reinscribe normativity …

Thoreau's Melancholia, Walden's Friendship, And Queer Agency, Julia Morgan Leslie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Walden queers its readers. While many have investigated Thoreau’s queerness, there has been little notice of Walden’s queerness. This project begins with a situational analysis that identifies the melancholic antecedents of Walden in Thoreau’s life and his choices that led to the illumination of his melancholia. Thoreau had already been experimenting with what Branka Arsić identified as “literalization.” Nevertheless, a period of crisis, detailed by Robert Milder, made him aware of what Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok have referred to as the melancholic’s blind skill of “demetaphorization.” I suggest that Thoreau exploited this skill to produce Walden’s unique …

Monsters: Australian Mythology, National Identity And The Design Of Australian Material Culture, Trent Jansen

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+

This studio-based thesis develops a speculative theoretical framework to assist in the design of quintessentially Australian objects. Through both project-driven and academic research, the thesis has sought to identify several core signifiers in the discourse of Australian national identity and material culture. The aim was to design furniture pieces inspired by those components of uniquely Australian culture that might resonate with a large percentage of Australians.

Using material culture theory as a foundation, this body of research surveys a broad selection of pre- and post-colonial Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian artefacts, concluding that the most geographically unique examples of material culture …

Privilege And Marginalisation In Australia's National Imaginary: Constructions Of Mining And Sex Worker Identities Through Technologies Of Power, Nicholas Skilton

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+

The national imaginary is the lens through which we interpret our experience as citizens of a nation state. It is the vehicle for expressions of belonging, identity and community. Yet, and because of this, the national imaginary also embodies and perpetuates axes of social marginalisation. The national imaginary is shaped by perceptions of economy – iconic industries and accompanying forms of labour – but also by normative moral positionings attached to the economic. In certain ways, morality and economy intertwine in the national imaginary; for instance, in how certain industries and forms of labour are imbued with special status as …

The Narrative Construction Of Emergent Professioinal Identites Of Skilled Immigrants In Australia, Ekaterina Alferova

University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 2017+

This study addresses the issues of changing identities of highly skilled immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds, recently arrived in Australia under the “General Skilled Migrant” Program. Taking into account the importance of skilled immigration for the current and future economic development of Australia, the study focusses on aspects of skilled immigration that go beyond its economic constituent, shifting attention to issues of skilled immigrants’ social identities and their sense of self. It is argued that professional participation of skilled immigrants is strongly tied to their social identities and changing self-perceptions.

This study provides an examination and analysis of processes of …