Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Inciting Peace From The Inside Out, Stephen G. Adubato, Ebere Bosco Amakwe, Katherine Hinic, Sarita Maldjian, Forrest Pritchett, Jon Radwan, Nicholas Sooy, Chad Thralls

Conferences

Violence and war can be incited, and so can peace. This volume shares select addresses and responses from Seton Hall University’s 2/7/23 conference “Inciting Peace From The Inside Out.” A multi-disciplinary range of scholars each addresses how reconciliation processes grow from spiritual dynamics. Multiple religious traditions teach contemplative praxes that prioritize and nurture personal reflection oriented toward peace. Social conflicts divide, so engaging them with a partisan orientation only serves to escalate harmful rifts. In contrast, bringing personal awareness and sensitivity, spiritual balance, and holistic integral perspective to conflict can transcend divisions and work toward unity. This volume is supported …

Ai And Advocacy: Maximizing Potential, Minimizing Risk, Matthew Salzano, Nicholas Fung, Ada Lin, Sofia Marchetta, Faith Colombo, Kaylah Davis, John Flynn, Carlos Fuentes, Fion Li, Malar Paavi Muthukumaran, Angelica Paramoshin, Chrisanne Pearce, Vianney Ramos, Charles St. Hilaire, Xi Zheng, Wei Zhuang

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

New Generative AI tools are revolutionizing writing and communication. This report focuses on AI and advocacy, the act of influencing public policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions. This report identifies three major opportunities and accompanying risks, plus one strong recommendation for advocates considering using AI. We argue that AI can be useful for advocates, but they must be careful to center human judgment and avoid risks that could distract from their important work or even contribute to societal harms.

“Pro-Woman, Pro-Life”: Framing Of The Anti-Abortion Movement, Olivia Rivet

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This project on the “Pro-Woman, Pro-Life" framing of the Anti-Abortion Movement uses James Paul Gee's theoretical lens on discourse analysis. My research corpus is comprised of historical, legislative, news, editorial, and film data. This project focuses on when the term "Pro-Woman" first appeared in the anti-abortion discourse and how it has been used to reinforce the Pro-Life stance. I argue that the phrase -- "Pro-Woman" -- is a discoursal strategy to appeal to women who are ideologically aligned with the Pro-Choice movement. According to the Pro-Woman, Pro-Life framework, no "feminist" would want to support a practice, such as abortion, that …

The Daring Muse Of Early Stuart Funeral Elegies, James Doelman

Brescia School of Humanities Publications

Funeral elegies of the early Stuart period are often marked by moments of “distraction” prompted by sorrow, and they venture into the realm of detraction as the poet turns against all that which lies beyond the dead figure who is at the heart of the elegy. While the funeral elegy in general was a copious and digressive form, exceptional deaths pressed elegists to stretch the usual rhetoric of grief and commemoration. This study offers a wide-ranging consideration of the period’s funeral elegies, in both manuscript and print, and by poets ranging from the canonical to the anonymous. It stands apart …

In-Class Debate On Chatgpt, Chris Gable

AI Assignment Library

Students are assigned into one of three debate teams, and will argue for, against, or a middle ground on the issue of using AI and ChatGPT in Higher Education. They present their positions in-class, cross-examine each other, and write a final reflection on the experience.

Editors’ Introduction, Aurora Matzke, Louis M. Maraj, Angela Clark-Oates, Anyssa Gonzalez, Sherry Rankins-Robertson

English Faculty Articles and Research

"When we proposed this special issue, we sought to illuminate the conceptual and embodied contact zones we discuss above. Tensions that, for us, were centered by scholars and attendees who participated in any of the three CCCC Feminist Workshop between 2021-2023 when the majority of the editors of this special issue co-chaired. During that time frame, CCCC’s shifted from in-person to fully online to hybrid due to COVID-19 and attempted to move toward more national and international attendance inclusivity. With this organizational backdrop, it was during the 2021 CCCC Feminist Workshop that we grappled with coalition as a commonplace."

“Do You Think This Is Not Happening?”: Rhetorical Laundering And The Federal Hearings Over Planned Parenthood, Calvin R. Coker

Faculty Scholarship

This essay offers a rhetorical reading of Congressional hearings investigating the Center for Medical Progress’s (CMP’s) videos falsely accusing Planned Parenthood of selling fetal tissue. Despite the suspect nature of the allegation at the time it was levied, and subsequent investigations rejecting the CMP’s claims, the notion that Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of fetal tissue has persisted alongside accelerated antiabortion jurisprudence and vitriolic rhetoric. This acceleration and persistence may be the result of what I term “rhetorical laundering” wherein suspect evidence is justified as worthy of study in a credible public forum, only to have its treatment in …

Syllabus For Writing For The Social Sciences, Brenna E. Crowe

Open Educational Resources

A writing class designed for students pursuing degrees in the social sciences—the major assignments are a "career builder" where student practice rhetoric with professional writing on job searches, a literature review, a public awareness campaign, an informational interview, and a portfolio.

Bibliography, Jane Fife

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Jane Fife.

The Crossroad Of Hamsters, Robots & Electropop, Olivia Crimivaroli

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Kia Corporation is an automobile manufacturer based in South Korea, who produces and sells vehicles with one of the most well known of their models being the Kia Soul. There are a number of factors that contribute to the Soul being a well known car but one of the biggest reasons is because of the infamous and out-of-the-box commercials that have been crafted in order to promote this style of car. This critique will encompass the contents of one commercial released in 2012 in an attempt to stimulate sales for this specific model of the Kia Soul. This advertisement is …

Ronald Reagan And War Rhetoric In The 20th Century, Allister Dias

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper contributes to a deeper understanding about the nature of Cold War-era rhetoric and how President Ronald Reagan was able to utilize it to bring about the end of the Soviet era. To analyze this particular topic, I compared various academic explorations into what rhetoric devices defined the Cold War era and how President Reagan was able to craft a unique way to appeal to the people of both West and East Germany. Additionally, I consulted historians in the field of presidential speech to identify any rhetorical constructs employed through the speech. My research points to a positive correlation …

“Why You Always So Political?”: A Counterstory About Educational-Environmental Racism At A Predominantly White University, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using critical race counterstorytelling, I tell a story about the experiences of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx (MMAX) undergraduate students at private, historically and predominantly white university in the Northeast. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observations, pláticas, document analyses, and literature on race and space and racism in higher education, I argue that the racially hostile campus environment experienced by MMAX students at their respective university manifests itself as a form of educational-environmental racism. Through narrated dialogue, Aurora (a composite character) and I delve into a critical conversation about how educational-environmental racism is experienced by MMAX students through a racialized landscape in the …

Conceptual Metaphor Usage In Glenn Youngkin’S 2021 Gubernatorial Campaign, Sara Rose Hotaling

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

In “Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday Language,” Lakoff and Johnson suggest that conceptual metaphors pervade everyday language and produce the reality of our world. Conceptual metaphors act similarly within the occupational register of political campaigns in that they both support and construct a set of beliefs that become the reality of politicians, political parties, and constituents. In this language research, the conceptual metaphors employed by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin during his 2021 gubernatorial campaign were identified, analyzed, and categorized. The corpus of this research consists of two gubernatorial debates, three campaign speeches, and one television interview. An example of conceptual metaphor …

From Self-Help To Self-Harm: Rhetoric In The Self-Help Industry, Grace S. Royle

Non-Thesis Student Work

Over the past several years, the self-help industry has become increasingly more successful and sought out; especially in the United States, whose modern society celebrates individualism and self-improvement. However, within this new and unregulated field lie several unknowns and invisible dangers. Multiple instances involving popular and beloved gurus have ended in tragedy, twisting cases of self-help into self-harm. This paper chases after just how this is possible and discovers that weaponized communication is largely to blame.

From Self-Help to Self-Harm: Rhetoric in the Self-Help Industry discusses the cases of James Arthur Ray, Keith Raniere, and Isaac Hershkopf to uncover how …

Storying Reality: Preserving Counterstories Through Oral Histories Of Latinx Graduate Students, Melissa Texidor

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Storying Reality” aims to preserve counterstories told by Latinx graduate students in Florida International University’s English graduate program through the recordings of oral history interviews which have been compiled into a podcast of the same name. This thesis emphasizes enacting the methodology of counterstory through the method of oral history as a way to fill the gap in FIU’s archive regarding Latinx graduate students’ experiences. This thesis also serves as a way of engaging with counterstory through the underutilized modality of sound. The podcast features a close-reading of Gloria Anzaldúa’s use of counterstory in Borderlands, five oral history interviews, and …

The Dreams And Consequences Of Literary Geography: Or, Does Literature End At The Interstate?, Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

Looking at the idea of how writers are connected to space, place, and land, especially within the context of cities or states, this essay explores the notion of how boundaries are determined in describing writers and how useful this is.

Topical Analysis Of Nuclear Experts' Perceptions Of Publics, Nuclear Energy, And Sustainable Futures, Hannah K. Patenaude, Emma Frances Bloomfield

Communication Studies Faculty Research

Nuclear energy experts consider commercial power from fission to be a strong contender to help mitigate the increasing effects of climate change, in part due to its low-to-no carbon emissions. Nevertheless, nuclear energy’s history, including meltdowns such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, and dumping in sacred Indigenous land such as Yucca Mountain, raises important concerns in public deliberation over nuclear power. These communicative dynamics are crucial to study because they inform larger conversations in communication scholarship about the role of experts in scientific controversies and the complicated nature of public trust in and engagement with science. Thus, this …

Your Will Is Not My Will: Rhetoric, (De)Responsibilisation, And Argumentation In Olusegun Obasanjo’S Not My Will, Sunday A. Adegbenro

CRRAR Publications

Olusegun Obasanjo’s Not My Will (NMW) is an autobiographical representation of Nigeria’s socio-political history, and it has generated serious national political arguments. Despite the controversies, studies on NMW, particularly in Nigeria, are very scanty. The present study confronts the situation with a rhetorical examination of Olusegun Obasanjo’s NMW building its analysis on selected narrativized arguments in which the former Nigerian President deresponsibilises (takes reduced responsibility) or responsibilises (takes high responsibility) for national political decisions taken during his regime as Nigeria’s military Head of State. Deploying insights from argumentative and discourse analytic theories/models, the paper enwraps Olusegun Obasanjo’s de/responsibilisation of security, …

Origin Of The Term 'Dude', Gerald Leonard Cohen, Barry A. Popik, Peter J. Reitan

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

The book (261 pages, soft-covered) is intended as a scholarly study and therefore contains more detail than would appear in a book intended for a broad readership.

Rethinking Data: Algorithms, Black Boxes, And Bias Through The Data Atm, Joshua Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

For nearly all of history things, creatures, and people came and went; leaving little, if anything, behind in their wake. Life in the 21st century has changed this natural pattern of existence, blurring the lines of what it is (and what it means) to dwell within the world. Physical things and people are now existing simultaneously in the digital realms as doppelgängers composed of coded data. Now, things and people are both embodied and disembodied: simultaneously. Data, individual and collective, pours into the digital oceans; a tumultuous sea of [dis]embodied-being translated into the language of electricity and silicon. The forms …

Disabling Citizenship: Rhetorical Practices Of Disabled World-Making At The 1977 504 Sit-In, Ruth Osario

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

The article analyzes the importance of a citizenship approach to disability rights. Integrating disabled world-making in the writing classroom can transform thinking of people about the teaching of public writing. It is noted that disabled world-making can help English studies ensure professional organizations go beyond the legal requirements and ensure the full participation of disabled scholar-teachers.

God At Babel, Rose Postma

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"When we use words, we are functioning as image-bearers of God: we create sense out of the senseless, and we put form to the formless."

Posting about conveying meaning through words from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/god-at-babel/

Approaching Protest With Affect: An Analysis Of The Images Spread By News Media During The George Floyd Protests, Kenneth L. Ward

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the characteristics of images that are most prevalent in news media coverage of the George Floyd Protests during 2020. To do so, I have examined gallery images from nine different news source which cover the gamut of the entire political spectrum.

Through my research, it was determined that the characteristics found in the images correlated greatly with the political leanings of the publication, with right-wing publications far more likely to depict scenes of meaningless violence, and left-wing publications far more likely to show linguistic messaging and images of group solidarity.

In conclusion, …

The Role Of The Reader Is To Fallow: Responding To The Negative Reception Of Paul Verhoeven’S Film Adaptation Of Starship Troopers, Julian Meyerstrom

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Robert A. Keinlein’s science fiction novel Starship Troopers (1959), and its film adaption of the same title directed by Paul Verhoeven (1997), received mixed critical reactions. Both pieces came across as supporting fascistic ideals to most critics upon release, despite the two creators opposing political and moral beliefs. Using Louise Rosenblatt's reader response theory as a framework for analyzing both the novel and film adaptation, this paper postulates the film adaptation fails to deliver an accurate critique of the novel by placing the burden of moral knowledge on the audience. Keinlein’s novel guides the reader into his moral sensibilities, whereas …

A Woman’S Optics: Margaret Cavendish, Sensory Mimesis, And Early Modern Rhetorics Of Science, Megan Poole

Faculty Scholarship

Accounts of the rhetorical tradition in early modern England often focus on the Royal Society of London and the scientific epistemologies and visual pedagogies surrounding technologies like the microscope. One critic of the Royal Society, Margaret Cavendish, theorized her own optics to counter the increasing exclusivity of the scientific community. An analysis of this woman’s optics reveals how the rhetorical concept of mimesis brought a theory of embodied, material sight to a historical moment in which objectivity was emerging. This critically imaginative analysis thus brings forth an early rhetorics of science in which alternative epistemologies may critique mechanical, experimental processes …

Women's Self Perceptions And Fashion Industry Rhetoric, Grace Cody

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Inventing A Space To Speak: Ethos, Agency And United States’ Woman Suffrage Cookbooks (1886-1916), Danielle Nielsen

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

During the last forty years of the United States’ fight for woman suffrage, a handful of suffragists wrote cookbooks sponsored by suffrage organisations. These cookbooks created a rhetorical space and ethos within and through the kitchen. Because their activism was grounded in expected feminine actions, this home-bound ethos allowed the primarily white, middle-class suffragists to simultaneously advocate for women’s suffrage in public and maintain their adherence to the Cult of True Womanhood. The arguments put forth in the cookbooks illustrate an ethos that is influenced by both personal agency and the rhetor’s gendered, physical location in the kitchen. From this …

The Presidential Function: An American Public Performed Through The Rhetoric Of Catastrophe, Maxwell Whisnant

English Honors Papers

In this thesis, I explore the ways in which rhetoric is used as a tool within the American presidency. I also study how the concept of the heroic president and gender affect how US presidents communicate with the American people. I then examine the very story of the United States and how words can build publics and counterpublics while remaining distant from platitudes. Finally, I define the presidential function and the ways in which US presidents are able to use the power of definition to shift focus away from massive tragedies.

Internet Memes: Leaflet Propaganda Of The Digital Age, Joshua Troy Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

Internet memes are one of the latest evolutions of “leaflet” propaganda and an effective tool in the arsenal of digital persuasion. In the past such items were dropped from planes, now they find their way into social media across multiple platforms and their territory is global. Internet memes can be used to target specific groups to help build and solidify tribal bonds. Due to the ease of creation, and their ability to constantly reaffirm axiomatic tribal ideas, they have become an adroit tool allowing for mass influence across international borders. This text explores the link between internet memes and their …

The Digital Gaze: Anthropomorphic Reflections Of Future Posthuman Reality, Joshua Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

The human world continues to be ever more entangled with the nebulous realms of the digital. The digital lives of humans are constantly viewed, analyzed, and organized by the use of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as tools of governments, institutions, and corporations. Digital-machines are able to harvest massive swaths of data from users the world over including discursive elements and biometrics; accumulating the essences of what it means to dwell in a digital world. Although such digital-machines, and the algorithms on which they operate, are becoming more and more complex, they are still viewed as a tool …