Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Queering Black Greek-Lettered Fraternities, Masculinity And Manhood : A Queer Of Color Critique Of Institutionality In Higher Education., Antron Demel Mahoney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Drawing heavily on Roderick Ferguson’s (2012) theory of institutionality, this dissertation constructs a counter-historical genealogy of racialized gender in higher education and U.S. society through the formation of black Greek-lettered fraternities. Ferguson argues that with the insurgence of minority resistance globally and domestically during the mid-twentieth century, hegemonic power took a new form. Instead of rejecting minority difference, power’s new network attempted to work through and with minority difference in an effort to absorb and restrict these radical formations within state, capital and academy frameworks—producing narrow or one-dimensional minority subjectivities. Established at the turn of the twentieth century, black Greek-lettered …

Sex, Labor, And Digital Spaces: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Gpguiadelas, A Brazilian Sex Worker Twitter Feed, Ailesha L. Ringer

Communication ETDs

This dissertation project is a critical discourse analysis of written and visual texts produced for GPGuiaDelas, a Brazilian sex worker Twitter feed. Drawing on digital labor studies, feminist studies on sex work, and Brazilian studies on race and gender, 176 Twitter conversations between sex workers and clients were analyzed in order to answer the following: (1) What are the dominant themes in the discourse about sex work constructed through microblogging on social media?; (2) What are the discursive practices of sex workers who use social media as a platform?; and (3) What theoretical insights emerge from the analysis of sex …

Hashtag Holocaust: Negotiating Memory In The Age Of Social Media, Erica Fagen

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the representation of Holocaust memory through photographs on the social media platforms of Flickr and Instagram. It looks at how visitors – armed with digital cameras and smartphones – depicted their experiences at the former concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Neuengamme. The study’s arguments are twofold: firstly, social media posts about visits to former concentration camps are a form of Holocaust memory, and secondly, social media allows people from all backgrounds the opportunity to share their memories online. Holocaust memory on social media introduces a new, digital kind of memory called “filtered memory.” This study …

Everything Feels Like The Future But Us: The Posthuman Master-Slave Dynamic In Japanese Science Fiction Anime, Ryan Daly

Masters Theses

This thesis is an exploration of the relationships between humans and mechanized beings in Japanese science fiction anime. In it I will be discussing the following texts: Ergo Proxy (2006), Chobits (2002), Gunslinger Girl (2003/2004), and Mahoromatic (2001/2002). I argue that these relationships in these anime series take the form of master/slave relationships, with the humans as the masters and the mechanized beings as the slaves. In virtually every case, the mechanized beings are young females and the masters are older human males. I will argue that this dynamic serves to reinforce traditional power structures and gender dynamics in a …

Little To Be Gained From Dth Without Prior Industry Regulations, Syeda Raza-E-Masooma

MSJ Capstone Projects

In absence of proper legislation prohibiting monopoly & vertical integration of satellite companies and TV channels, DTH TV will cause more harm than good to media in Pakistan. DTH might finally come to Pakistan – legally. It seems a possibility now, a far-fetched one but nevertheless a possibility. It might be noteworthy, that it is already on its way out in our neighboring India, being taken over by mobile apps.

Plasticity In Animated Children’S Cartoons: The Neoliberal Transforming Bodies And Static Worlds Of Ok Ko And Gumball, Rachel E. Cox

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through the study of OK KO! Let’s Be Heroes! and The Amazing World of Gumball, I argue that children’s cartoons represent and recreate anxieties toward money’s plasticity in the plasticity of the cartoon bodies and worlds. I closely examine the ambivalence towards abstraction’s plasticity in contemporary children’s cartoons to trace the neoliberal ambivalence towards money’s plasticity. While much scholarship has grappled with what can be understood as animatic plasticity, very little of it takes on the questions raised about neoliberal culture by televised children’s cartoons. Cartoons are important to study in this respect because their form allows for unbridled plasticity. …

Virtual Wastelands: Reframing Nuclear Representation In Video Games, Francesca Crocker

Global Honors Theses

This thesis utilizes a comparative textual analysis of two popular video games series that feature heavy nuclear themes and representation of nuclear weapons/war in combination with applied critical theory to build a framework of game design elements that lead towards more thoughtful and considerate representation of this particular real, active, and global threat. The analysis of these two series in particular -- Fallout and Metal Gear Solid -- provides a comparative look at how nuclear politics in popular media is represented and consumed in both the United States and Japan, with consideration of history, regulation, and audience interactivity.

Trauma, Creativity, And Bearing Witness Through Art: Marian Kołodziej's Labyrinth, Alyssa Logie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The mid-2000s brought rise to significant shifts in the field of trauma studies, most notably the suggestion that a survivor’s trauma can have meaning when it is shared with others through creative representation and storytelling. Despite these critical changes in the field, there is a dearth of research outside of clinical art therapy that examines the role of creativity in the processes of working through past traumas for survivors, and in the processes of bearing witness to the trauma of others.

In an effort to address these issues, I use a framework of relational psychoanalysis and feminist philosophy to explore …

Living On Heaven's Doorstep: A Multimedia Project With The Warm Beach Senior Community, Justina Grace Brown

Honors Projects

Having a website is no longer a luxury but a requirement. Nonprofits need to take advantage of the digital age to better reach their constituents yet, overall, they struggle to do this well. Because of lack of resources, their reliance on volunteers, and the inability to keep up with the evolving demands of a website, nonprofits (especially small ones) are not using the web to their full advantage. Taking the research and applying it to a nonprofit retirement community—Warm Beach Senior Community—the challenges are seen first-hand.

5 Or 6 Amphibians: An Animated Short Film, Nicholas Lockwood

Honors Theses

My art project, “5 or 6 Amphibians”, explores a feeling I have had at Union - that of being split between too many things. It is six minutes of rotoscoped animation, presented on an array of nine screens. It is the culmination of my interest in time-based art, especially film and animation, as well as construction and technical knowledge.

Barriers: An Exploration Of Architectural Structures As An Indication Of Wealth And Socioeconomic Status, Lisa Demoranville

Honors Theses

I decided to explore the barriers and limitations of wealth through an investigation of architectural structures, focusing on popular industries and institutions on which our society commonly depends. I have noticed that places such as hospitals, schools, grocery stores, and restaurants differ dramatically depending on the neighborhoods in which they were located. This topic sparked my interest after living in Lima, Peru for a month, as I was able to observe the developing economy and dramatic division of wealth among the population. Certain questions about the divides and differences within a society and its culture started crossing my mind; not …

Overstimulated - An Immersive, Multimedia Art Installation, Quinn Devlin

Honors Theses

This thesis provides the explanation, inspiration, research and progression of an immersive, multimedia art installation that emulates the idea of a “sexual dystopia.” It explores how our dichotomy of inadequate sex education and hypersexual, gender-based media is resulting in a dystopian sexual reality for women in particular. The work portrays a future world in which sexual and fertility technology is so advanced and accessible that real men and women no longer interact. As a result, women and objects become one in the same.

Female literary icons are over-sexualized to suggest that porn-culture is a by-product of a historical framework that …

La Nouvelle Vague Est-Elle Un Cinéma Existentialiste Français ?, Niuniu Zhang

Honors Theses

Throughout the world, Existentialism and New Wave Cinema are two defining pinnacles of French culture. As iconic of France as the baguette and cheese, the two subjects continue to retain their relevance in French and francophone cultural studies. My thesis explores the correlation between French existentialist philosophy and French New Wave cinema to argue for what can be called French Existentialist Cinema. In terms of French existentialist philosophy, I focus mainly on Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus. As for the French New Wave, I focus first on one of its most highly admired precursors, Jean Vigo and …

Imaging Exploitation, Complexity, And Paradox In Subaltern Labor Photography, Mahnure Janis

Theses and Dissertations

Imaging Exploitation, Complexity, and Paradox in Subaltern Labor Photography is an expanded cinema performance examining 'cheap' labor in the fast fashion industry through a self-reflexive diasporic lens. The images and narration explores the garment factories in Bangladesh and contains ‘a photographer’s cognitive meta-data’, including ethical dilemmas while taking the images.

Superhero Movies And Politics: The Moral Obligations Of Film Makers According To Virtue Ethics, Russell Hendrickson

Senior Theses

The theory of virtue ethics implies that filmmakers have a moral obligation to explore political themes within superhero films. My thesis is comprised of four main sections. I begin by discussing the general theory of virtue ethics and what moral obligations are placed upon someone who subscribes to this moral theory. From there, I establish my argument for why film can be used as a tool of moral education, and I outline a framework for how artists can work to cultivate virtue in themselves through the use of Arnold Berleant’s Artists and Morality: Toward an Ethics of Art as a …

Untitled Screenplay, Lora A. Herman

University Honors Theses

The following document is a working copy of an untitled fictional screenplay in which the story and characters are the original work of Lora A. Herman.

In 2082 North America, the United States no longer exists as a governing entity. The vast majority of the landscape that once comprised the USA is unlivable due to irreparable advances in climate change -- flood, fire, freeze, and drought.

The remaining society has restructured itself to focus less on controlling its population and their free will, and to instead focus on maintaining the integrity of and resources for the man-made contained communities that …

It's Me, Sarah, Fabiola Y. Andrade Chinchilla

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes the making of It’s Me, Sarah, a University of New Orleans thesis film. It explores the process of creating the film in three parts. Part one will examine the pre-production, including the writing and preparation for the shoot. Part two will detail the production, including the shooting affairs. Part three will cover the post-production process, which will include the editing. The document will then reference these three segments regarding the film’s theme and will conclude by evaluating whether the final film achieves its intended conception.

The Piñata, Stevie L. Cavalier

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I will discuss the making of the short film, The Piñata, from its inception to its path of being submitted to festivals. I will discuss the steps taken to complete the processes of development, pre-production, production, and post-production. In each section of this document I will relay the decisions I made during my experience being the producer, writer, director, editor, and casting director of The Piñata.

Timelocked: A Thesis, Emmett J. Crockett Iii

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to provide insight into the development and execution of the short film, Timelocked. I will focus on the complete process of the film’s creation, from the first inspiration of the idea through its planning, its production and, finally, its use beyond submission to my thesis committee for consideration. The most significant challenge for this project was remaining true to the story’s genre, tone, and theme throughout each iteration of its development. Therefore, the structure of the paper will serve to describe the entire process with respect to the preservation of these three …

When I Wake, Summer Pierce

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper sets out to detail the making of When I Wake with specific attention being paid to the mental processes of, the author, Summer Pierce throughout the undertaking. The paper, much like the filmmaking process, will discuss in succession the inspirations for the film, pre-production formulations, production of the film, post-production procedures, and analysis thereof.

Past The Darkness, Kathleen M. Vieira

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This paper will discuss the making of my thesis film, Past the Darkness. I will describe the entire process including story conception, film production, and post-production stages. I will also evaluate the merits, flaws, and outcome of this project.

Ghosts Of Derwyddon Research And Approach, Zoya Baker

Theses and Dissertations

This paper describes the theoretical and aesthetic approach to a 35-minute hybrid documentary called Ghosts of Derwyddon about my family’s multi-generational relationship with a small forest on the outskirts of Washington DC. The film combines a variety of elements that form a collage of memory, dreams, and visions of the future.

Between Time, Evan Remick

Theses and Dissertations

Between Time is an intimate conversation between transgender artists on their own terms. The film is a ritual in entering the past and writing the future from the present moment. Conversations weave through natural landscapes and present as both intensely personal and connected to a greater story about the vastness of trans experience.

Representative Biodiversity: The Ecosystem Of Cartoon Network, Carl Suby

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

As a capitalist organism the television program, as explained by Todd Gitlin, uses its slant to sell itself to advertisers with similar leanings on contemporary social issues to maintain its flow of revenue. However, this concept of slant does not account for the broader network, which, like the singular program, cultivates a catalog of programming into a singular slanted message becoming an ecosystem of shows relying on each other to maintain viewership. The successful televised ecosystem will then be home to programs who enjoy long runs and display an easily recognized shared slant. As an example of the televised ecosystem, …

A Cauldron Of Chaos And Cultivation: Rediscovering Disney Animation Of The 1980s, Thomas Price

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

This thesis examines the four transitional Disney animated features of the 1980s The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Black Cauldron (1985), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and Oliver and Company (1988)— in order to reassess the significance of this period in Disney history. The Walt Disney Studio is internationally hailed for its animated features produced over the last eight decades, however, the animated films released in the 1980s have been ignored and neglected due to the negative evaluations of scholars and historians who favor Walt’s era and the 1990s renaissance period. A closer examination of the films reveals that …

Inflicted Viewing: Examining Moral Masochism, Empathy, And The Frustration Of Trauma Cinema, Kira Smith

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

The contemporary turn of psychoanalytic film analysis has opened a new mode of understanding cinematic language. However, rejecting classical psychoanalysis would be premature. This thesis will place the two in conjunction, specifically through Sigmund Freud’s conceptualization of moral masochism and Wilfred Bion’s theory of thinking. Through four films: Una, The Tale, The Tribe, and Son of Saul I explore the affective nature of films that depict trauma and why one would gravitate towards such upsetting material. The spectator who seeks to be frustrated is not looking to harm oneself but to process this frustration in order to expand their …

Bending Family Friendly Into Fear: Nostalgia, Minstrelsy And Horror In Bendy And The Ink Machine, Isabelle Williams

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

When one thinks of Disney’s Mickey Mouse, fear and horror are not terms normally associated with this iconic American cartoon character; however, the video game Bendy and the Ink Machine turns animated bodies (cartoons) into bodies the player fears. In this game family friendly cartoon characters are transformed into figures of fear. Furthermore, Bendy and the Ink Machine does this by making the bending of Black bodies visible through what I call the gameic gaze. The transformation from family friendly into fear happens through the resistive gaze, the gameic gaze, which lingers on the bending of the diegetic cartoons. Bendy …

Seeking Mirrors: Representation And Identity At Asian Pacific Islander Film Festivals, Yang Jiang

Dissertations

Media representation plays an important role in shaping how we perceive ourselves. For ethnic and racial minorities, studies have confirmed that exposure to stereotypical and negative representations can harm the development of ethnic and racial identity. Currently, however, there is little understanding of how representation can support the development of ethnic and racial identity. Essentially, what might visibility, rather than invisibility, in media representation look like, and what is the relationship between visibility and ethnic and racial identity?

This dissertation sought to address these questions by looking at the experience of Asian Pacific Islander (API) attendees at API film festivals. …

Mom's Money: A Dark Comedy, Buddy Ketelle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will recount the making of the feature film Mom’s Money which I produced, edited, wrote and directed. My influences on the story and visual style of the film will be discussed as well as my prior work and the way those combined forces drew me to make this film. Breaking this into the three stages of filmmaking- Production, Pre-Production and Post Production- I will explore the film from its conception to its completion. The collaborative nature of filmmaking and the way the particular collaborators I had on this film gave me an advantage (while still providing an occasional …

"The Chinese Animation Industry: From The Mao Era To The Digital Age", Stephanie Jones

Master's Projects and Capstones

Since the 1950’s the Chinese Animation industry has been trying to create a unique national style for China. The national style of the 1950’s and early 1960’s was one of freedom, fantasy, and creativity. With the success of “Heroic Little Sisters of the Grassland”/草原英雄小姐妹(1965), the government administration, namely Jiang Qing of the “Gang of Four”, demanded that all animation should follow specific guidelines based on Social Realism guidelines. This in turn, ushered in a new national style of animation during the Cultural Revolution(1966-1976). During this ten-year period government policies imposed strict restrictions on animators and cause a drain of creative …