Digital Commons Network^™

Deadly Viper Character Assassins: Cyber Discourse On Asian American Marginalization And Identity, Eileen Wang

Communication Theses

This study examines how Asian Americans articulate their marginalization and identity, as well as other issues related to race, through the use of blogs. Specifically, I look at discourse surrounding the Deadly Viper Character Assassins publication controversy on three different blogs. I draw upon critical discourse analysis (CDA) to compile patterns, themes, and anomalies from the online discussions. This paper highlights key findings, given the scarceness of Asian American voices in public culture, that prompt ongoing discussions about identity and the use of blogs as a platform to speak and conceptualize Asian American identity.

Òyötùnjí Village: Making Africans In America, Antionette B. Brown-Waithe

Anthropology Theses

Òyötùnjí: The Making of Africans in America examines the impact of self-identification with African culture and the impact it has on African identity within social and Black Nationalist movements. More so than the Civil Rights movement, the Black Nationalist movement has influenced the ways in which African Americans self identified as a group and as individuals. Comprised primarily of African nationalists, Òyötùnjí Village was considered the vanguard in re- introducing the African ideology into Santeria, and giving birth to what is now considered the Ifa/Yoruba tradition. As the intentional community of Òyötùnjí grew, the Ifa tradition spread as well because …

Representations Of Haiti In Western News Media: Coverage Of The January 2010 Earthquake In Haiti, Hillary L. Brown

Communication Theses

On January 12, 2010, the Caribbean nation of Haiti suffered from one of the most devastating earthquake in recent history. The purpose of this study is to explore representations of Haiti in Western news media coverage of the disaster. The researcher utilized Jiwani’s (2006) theoretical framework of common sense stock knowledge to explore the relationship between the Western news media and Haiti, with an emphasis on media framing. Additionally, the method of journalistic discourse analysis was employed as a means of analyzing the 90 article sample. The researcher found that there were several frames that dominated coverage of the disaster …

"Doing It For The Dudes": A Comparative Ethnographic Study Of Performative Masculinity In Heavy Metal And Hardcore Subcultures, John Ike Sewell Jr.

Communication Dissertations

Abstract: This ethnographic study compares and contrasts performative masculinities of the overwhelmingly male heavy metal (HM) and hardcore (HC) subcultures. Conclusions derived from this research indicate the following: identities associated with HM and HC conflate masculinity with working-classness, HM and HC identities (and thus masculinities) are merging at present; participation in HM and HC enclaves can serve to symbolically marginalize constituents, and this symbolic marginalization can result in repercussions in the lived world outside of subculture; the hegemonic masculinity of HM and HC subcultures is subsidiary hegemonic masculinity, meaning that it supports the male-dominated structure of mainstream culture without …

Konstruiertheit, Inszeniertheit Und ,,Verstehbarkeit" Von Identitäten In Aimée Und Jaguar, Fremde Haut Und Auf Der Anderen Seite, Simone Pfleger

World Languages and Cultures Theses

What makes identity readable? To answer this question, I examine the constructions of queer, non-German women in three contemporary transnational German films, Aimée und Jaguar, Fremde Haut and Auf der anderen Seite. To become readable, and thus to survive within the socio-political realm of German culture, these protagonists must construct and perform interconnected dimensions of identity— sex, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, language, clothing, and name—that can be located along a hegemonic-defined continuum. But when the characters cannot be read within this framework, they trouble dominant readings and understandings of their positions in this system and disrupt normative conceptions of …

The Performance Of Femininity In The Works Of Yinka Shonibare Mbe, Rhonda L. Dano

Art and Design Theses

Current scholarship on contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare MBE focuses on analyzing his deconstruction of identities through ready-made cultural paradigms epitomized by the use of Dutch wax textiles as an expression of “African-ness.” Through subversive tactics, Shonibare creates disoriented views of power that unveil the masquerade of identity. What is often unstated within this critique, however, is the role of the feminine performance. From the swinging maiden to the ballerina sur les pointes, women and femininity maintain an indelible role in Shonibare’s production. Thus, by evaluating gender with greater precision, I will highlight Shonibare’s dependency on stereotypes of femininity and …

Political Theatre In Public Spaces: Manifesting Identity In Venice, Italy, Ivey R. Tapp

Anthropology Theses

The combination of poorly managed mass tourism, rapidly increasing international migration, and a declining economy facilitated a permanent exodus of natives out of the Venetian lagoon. This thesis examines how the community activism group and social network Venessia.com attempts to reclaim a place-­based and place-­manifested Venetian identity (venezianità) through theatrical public protests. While members are sensitive to an ethic of intercultural awareness, the discourse accompanying their concerns reveals nostalgia for the power and grandeur of Venice’s past that is threatened by a perceived invasion by suspicious outsiders. The theoretical framework I employ to illuminate Venessia.com's efforts includes the socio-­cultural and …

Articulations Of Liberation And Agency In Yanagi Miwa's "Elevator Girls", Rachel P. Chamberlain

Art and Design Theses

Miwa Yanagi’s Elevator Girls series, a collection of glossy photographs featuring groups of similarly clad women lingering in expansive, empty arcades, made its international debut in 1996. While the pieces garnered positive reactions, Yanagi found that most Western viewers read her work as predominantly “Oriental”—confirming stereotypes of a highly polished techno-topic Japan that was still negotiating gender equality.

In this thesis, I explore alternative ways of reading Yanagi’s Elevator Girls series, which, I argue, call attention to myopic views of commercialism and identity in order to provide an alternative reading of these women as agents of transgression and ideological …

On Coming Home, James D. Vanderpool

Art and Design Theses

In today’s society, more of the population is finding itself with multiple points of reference to what they consider as home. Anyone who finds they have more than one place that they feel tied to for one reason or another, considers the impact of these places on their identity. The scale of experience with the places where we live, visit and grow up influences the scale of impact upon our identity. Even a vacation or a visit to a certain place influences us, and thus also changes the place because we interact with it. I am showing, through sculptural and …

(Unrelated), Bethany Collins

Art and Design Theses

(Unrelated), a series of language-based works made up of chalkboard drawings, dictionary erasures and accumulations of text, highlights the inability of language to fully capture notions of modern racial identity. Rather, in (Unrelated), definitions are hidden, revealed, allowed and humored, but rarely settled. It is natural to seek delineation between oneself and all else, but it is a particularly persistent urge for those who engage in the pursuit of racial clarity. In To Be Real, an essay which heavily influenced this body of work, Danzy Senna writes: “Growing up mixed in the racial battlefield of Boston, I yearned for …

Negotiating Beauty Ideals: Perceptions Of Beauty Among Black Female University Students, Fiana O. Swain

Anthropology Theses

This thesis explores the college lives of Black women who attend or recently attended majority white colleges and universities in the United States. Emphasis is placed on how Black women’s college experience is influenced by the way they define beauty, as well as how they perceive their White peers to define beauty. Through the collection of ten in-depth interviews, I examine how Black women’s perceptions of beauty compare with those of mainstream United States standards and those of the dominant culture of their schools. I explored how the Black women I interviewed responded when confronted with these mainstream beauty standards …