Critical and Cultural Studies Commons^™

The Process Of Disaster: Environmental Justice Discourse And Spike Lee’S When The Levees Broke, Ali Brox

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[First Paragraph] One of the first images viewers see in Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) is high water lapping near the top of a street sign. The street name is Humanity, and flood waters dangerously threaten to overtake the green rectangular sign. Lee’s image succinctly portrays the theme for the next four hours of the documentary: the threat of losing a sense of humanity as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans. The Humanity Street sign becomes more nuanced when considered from an environmental justice perspective: the rising waters …

Notes On Contributors, Peter Schulman, Josh A. Weinstein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Notes on Contributors to volume 3, Green Humanities (2021).

A “Kind Of Impiety”: Deforestation, Sustainability, And Self In The Works Of Samuel Richardson And Yuan Mei, Samara Cahill

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

[From first paragraph] In line with scholarship by Timothy Clark, Erin Drew and John Sitter, David Fairer, and Tom Keymer, I argue that it is a distortion of eighteenth-century literature to identify the Romantic period as the origin of modern ecological consciousness. Indeed, according to Drew and Sitter, the dismissive characterization of the eighteenth century in current ecocritical scholarship is “puzzling” because much of the literature of that period “not only deals with the natural world but does so in ways arguably more ecocentric and less egocentric in orientation than much Romantic writing” (227).

Editors' Note, Peter Schulman, Josh Weinstein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Editors' note to the inaugural issue, volume 1 of Green Humanities (2015).

Cover: Green Humanities, Vol. 1, 2015

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Cover image for inaugural issue, volume 1 of Green Humanities (2015).

"What Is Wrong With You?": Culturally-Shaped Interpretations Of Professional Identity In International Organizations, Valentina Maria Isabella Rathmann

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study argues that globalization is an organizational communication process, which embodies the constant tension between homogenization and uniqueness of cultures in the global business context. The tension of globalization emerges through intercultural communication processes between professionals with different symbolic understandings and taken-for-granted assumptions of what it means to be a professional and act professionally. In order to navigate these different understandings, professionals need to negotiate “boundary tensions” or different assumptions about the “right way” to be a professional. Extending the conversation on identity, this study argues that all the different fragments of identities interact in the discursive mediation and …

Pumpkin Spice And Everything Nice? An Assessment Of Social Media Mentions Of Pumpkin Spice, Jin-A Choi, Bond Benton, Yi Luo, Harlan Cruz, Paulette Gando-Duenas, Jennnifer Russo, Therese Sheridan, Rayanne Yamout

School of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

Pumpkin spice may only be a mix of a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves, but it has become an enduring staple of the transition to autumn for both consumers and brands. Cumulatively, pumpkin spice has a unique cultural space enhanced by the emergence of specific demographics, supported by sensory aspects of the trend, driven by nostalgia, and fostered by the illusion of scarcity from its time-bound availability. With that in mind, evaluating pumpkin spice’s space in terms of activities in social media is an important area of investigation for researchers and consumer brands. To that end, this …

Mnemonicide: The Killing Of American Public Memory, Macie Morgan

Summer Community of Scholars Posters (RCEU and HCR Combined Programs)

No abstract provided.

Communicating Across Eternal Divides: Conceptualizing Communicated Acceptance During Parent-Child Religious Difference, Toni Morgan, Jody Koenig Kellas

Papers in Communication Studies

Significant religious difference in the family has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. While religious difference may be challenging for families to negotiate, the manner in which family members communicate about it seems to be helpful in promoting positive interactions between parents and children. The purpose of this study was to conceptualize a parental communicated (non) acceptance continuum in the context of significant parent-child religious difference. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 44 adults who identified a significant religious difference with their parent. The results suggested that communicated (non)acceptance occurred along a continuum with four ranges of behaviors: communicated nonacceptance, ambivalence, …

Searching For A Solution To Political Polarization In The U.S. Through A Feminist Ethics Of Care, Marissa Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

American politics have seen growing polarization in the past few years (Serrano-Contreras et al., 2020; Wojcieszak & Warner, 2020). Polarization is generally defined as “the distance between opposing political views” (Serrano-Contreras et al., 2020, p. 65). With focus on college students, this thesis considers ways to bridge the political divide in the United States and to promote generative engagement with differences across the political spectrum. The specific research questions this study explored were: 1) How do Ethics of Care principles and practices appear in and impact conversations on politically-charged topics among college students? and 2) How does participating in a …

Non:Wa: Navigating Indigenous Modernity Through Female Artists' Perspectives, Nicole Bussey

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This article examines the relationship between tradition and modern elements of Indigenous music through a cyclical perspective, and challenges colonial concepts of Indigenous modernity. Indigenous culture is often portrayed in mainstream culture as a relic of the past, which renders it incompatible with modernity. With a special focus on Indigenous female artists’ perspectives, I examine the ways in which women placed in this unique intersection challenge the binaries of past/present and tradition/modern.

Harnessing Your Feminist Rage: A Multimedia Assignment For Upper-Level Courses, Caitlin E. Lawson

Feminist Pedagogy

"Harnessing Your Feminist Rage" introduces a three-part multimedia assignment that encourages students to think critically about feminist anger, particularly as refracted through social media. First, students introduce and analyze a media text or phenomenon that made them angry and reflect upon that anger. Then, using whichever online medium they choose, students call out the offender and express their anger to the audience of their choice in order to meet a specific goal. Finally, students reflect on their expression of anger and their experience creating their response. Overall, the goal is for students to combine their knowledge of feminist theories and …

Multivocality As Practice Of Critical Inquiry For Social Justice, Cesar Cisneros

The Qualitative Report

Multivocality has been clearly and in detail present in social science reflection since the impact of the so-called linguistic turn and nowadays it has also presence in the qualitative inquiry current discussion. To explore how multivocality can be a practice of qualitative inquiry for social justice is the goal of this contribution. It is a global picture of epistemic violence that has subjugated knowledge and practices along with executing genocides and exterminations of otherness to build societies without social, epistemic, and cognitive justice that my goal is to unveil the horizon of modern social sciences to get a better understanding …

The Arts Of The Street: Sense Perception, Creativity And Resistance In Everyday Urban Life, Nicholas Wees

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this dissertation, I examine questions concerning space, perception, everyday creativity, and the social ordering of the senses, and go on to describe a class of creative urban practices that I name the arts of the street. These include, but are not necessarily limited to, street performance (busking), street art in the usual sense (graffiti, murals, postering, etc.), punk, hip hop culture, and skateboarding (street skating). As disparate as they seem, all of these practices share certain key characteristics: they are forms of everyday creativity that claim space according to their own intentions, in opposition to the dominant socio-political …

“It's So Normal, And … Meaningful.” Playing With Narrative, Artifacts, And Cultural Difference In Florence, Dheepa Sundaram, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article considers how player interactions with religious and ethnic markers, create

a globalized game space in the mobile game Florence (2018). Florence is a multiaward-

winning interactive novella game with story-integrated minigames that weave

play experiences into the narrative. The game, in part, explores love, loss, and

rejuvenation as relatable experiences. Simultaneously, the game produces a unique

experience for each player, as they can refract the game narrative through their own

cultural, identitarian lens. The game assumes the shared cultural space of the player,

the player-character (PC), and the non-player-character (NPC) while blurring the

boundaries between each of these …

Alt-Right Of The_Donald And Authoritarian Communists On Reddit: Internet Memes To Build Community, Joshua Hendricks

Master's Theses

This project infuses Lacanian psychoanalysis further into the rhetorical study by exploring authoritarian discourses on Reddit. I analyze the alt-right community that found a home on the subreddit r/The_Donald and chart their discourse as it shaped from the quarantine to the establishment of an independent forum called TheDonald.win. I selected memes and the comments around them to build the analysis. The second aspect of this thesis examines authoritarian communist discourse on Reddit. The leftist community splintered when r/socialism banned a community member because the person made catgirl art. The ban sent shockwaves through the leftist community on Reddit and generated …

Exploring Memorable Message About Law Enforcement, Max Ray A. Davenport Jr

Masters Theses

Research demonstrates that Black Americans are placed at a higher risk for having negative interactions with law enforcement. As a result, Black American families may engage in racial ethnic socialization (RES) practices aimed at preparing Black youth for racialized experiences, reducing the psychological effects of racism, and perserving the lives of Black American citizens. Guided by the memorable messages framework, the present study examines memorable messages about law enforcement as recalled by Black American young adults. More specifically, this study examines the specific type(s) of memorable messages Black American young adults recall receiving about law enforcement from sources such as …

Environmental Communication: Changing The Attitude-Behavioral Gap In Science Communication Utilizing Strategic Messaging, Carrie Helgeson Nelms

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

National Polls in the United States consistently find the public’s beliefs and attitudes about climate change and other environmental issues significantly diverge from those held by the science community. A communication gap between the findings on the causes and effects of environmental issues and the public’s inability to interpret or refuse to accept these findings are possible causes of this divergence. This communication gap constitutes a threat to society because of inaction to environmental problems and points to needed changes in scientific messaging that better informs and motivates behavioral change. The present research employed a strategic message design to affect …

"Advancing Pride": How New Turkish Historical Dramas Challenged Western Media's Stereotypical Images Of Muslims, Naim Aburaddi

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

After the phenomenal success of Resurrection: Ertugrul that started airing on the governmental Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) in 2014, a new wave of Turkish historical dramas started getting global popularity. These shows captivated Arabs’ and Muslims’ attention around the world and exceeded viewers’ expectations. Therefore, I examined in my study why Arab viewers watch those dramas, how they perceive and react to historical facts presented in those dramas, and whether and how those dramas confront the misrepresentations of Muslims by Western media and cinema. Utilizing Said’s conceptual framework of Orientalism and other research studies that focused on the …

Unapologetically Her: A Nomadic-Intersectional Case Study Analysis On Lizzo And Jillian Michaels, Alexia Berlynn Martinez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

With various iterations of the meaning and representation of a feminist woman, feuds arise, especially amongst public figures who capture the media’s attention. This paper analyzes the discourse amongst two communities with opposing views about feminist representations: the body-positive community and the fitness community. Utilizing an intersectional theoretical framework allows us to understand the levels of oppression and marginalization members of the body-positive community, specifically plus-size Black women, endure while also running up against the fitness community. There is no better illustration of this phenomenon than the public skirmish between Lizzo and Jillian Michaels. The goal of this case study …