Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Critical and Cultural Studies

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Doctoral Dissertations

Theses/Dissertations

Cultural studies

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Framing Fanart, E J. Nielsen Mar 2024

Framing Fanart, E J. Nielsen

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation, “Framing Fanart,” broadly theorizes media fanart, a form of transformative work that is enormously popular, transnational and transcultural, and at its heart an engaged response to a piece of media. Through physical and digital archival research, discourse analysis, and qualitative research methods, I consider specific examples of how fanart functions within these different framings. This work is some of the first to consider fanart broadly as both a lens through which to view patterns of cultural production and a discrete artefact which merits serious consideration as artwork in its own right.


Women, Convergent Film Criticism, And The Cinephilia Of Feminist Interruptions, Rachel L. Thibault Nov 2016

Women, Convergent Film Criticism, And The Cinephilia Of Feminist Interruptions, Rachel L. Thibault

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the ways in which female film critics practice film criticism in the convergent age. In original research drawn from ethnographic interviews with eight female film critics and bloggers as well as textual, historical, and reception analyses of criticism, this dissertation argues that women who write film criticism in the convergent era are not only writing from a space of marginalization based on the patriarchal dominance of the film industry, but also face a series of obstacles through gendered and discursive conflicts that are unique to writing online and which do not exert the same impact on male …


Confessions In The Courtroom: An Audience Research On Court Shows, Silvina Beatriz Berti Mar 2016

Confessions In The Courtroom: An Audience Research On Court Shows, Silvina Beatriz Berti

Doctoral Dissertations

Since the mid to late nineteen eighties, the television world has been showing an increasing number of programs that are presented as “reality programs,” or “reality shows.” Court Shows, which are also known as Judge Shows, or Syndi-Courts, can be considered to be part of such a mega-genre. These programs (Court Shows) are offered as an alternative way for people to find a quick solution to some legal problem they may have. Meanwhile, millions of people tune in and watch those shows on a daily basis. Working within the Cultural Studies tradition, this research analyzes, on one hand, Judge Judy …


Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent Aug 2014

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …