Between Authenticity And Exploitation: Rethinking The Intended Audience Of Sean Baker's Tangerine,
2026
Chapman University
Between Authenticity And Exploitation: Rethinking The Intended Audience Of Sean Baker's Tangerine, Ava Brandt
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
Sean Baker's Tangerine (2015) has generated genuinely divided responses among trans critics, and for good reason. This paper takes that division seriously, using two reviews published on Autostraddle within six weeks of each other to frame a central question: who is Tangerine actually for? Existing scholarship on trans cinema has tended to evaluate films on a spectrum from exploitative to affirming, but this paper argues that framework is insufficient for a film like Tangerine, which operates as both simultaneously. Through close reading of the film alongside its production history, paratexts, and reception, and drawing on Paige Macintosh's scholarship on trans …
Co-Active Therapeutic Filmmaking: A Methodology Pilot Project,
2026
Lesley University
Co-Active Therapeutic Filmmaking: A Methodology Pilot Project, Blair Webber
Expressive Therapies Theses
This pilot project examined the intersection of drama therapy and filmmaking. Drawing on the Co-Active Therapeutic Theater model from drama therapy and digital storytelling and participatory video methods from social work research, this methodology designed and delivered a co-created filmmaking intervention at a residential treatment center for adult men with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder. Four participants made a seven-minute-long short fictional film based on their definition of active recovery and a theme of recovery they wished to share with an audience. It was screened at the treatment center for staff and their fellow residents. Data collection was …
'Here's What Bali Can Do For You': Social Media's Impact On Travel Writing,
2026
Liberty University
'Here's What Bali Can Do For You': Social Media's Impact On Travel Writing, Carlisle Avalon Jarnigan
Senior Honors Theses
This thesis examines how social media has initiated a shift in the genre of travel writing from educational cultural observation to a form of engagement-driven, monetized travel content creation. Historically, the genre has functioned as a descriptive genre dedicated to educating readers who would never get to see the destinations they read about modern travel writing and content creation use emotional persuasion to market travel experience as a product, redefining the genre. Using methods like geotagging, user-generated content (UGC), and emotionally charged storytelling approaches, travel creators no longer just describe locations but instead promise readers that if they visit, they …
Red, White, And Quahog: An Analysis Of Political Satire In Family Guy,
2026
University of Mary Washington
Red, White, And Quahog: An Analysis Of Political Satire In Family Guy, Kendall Swaim
Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects
This study examines how fictional television shows use satire to portray politics. Specifically, it analyzes irony, exaggeration, and humor styles identified by Martin et al. (2003) in the television show Family Guy. Additionally, this study explores how references to real political figures and events contribute to the show’s satirical framing of politics. The qualitative content analysis of 10 politically centered Family Guy episodes to address the question: "How does the fictional television show Family Guy use satire (humor, irony, and exaggeration) to portray politics?" The analysis revealed three key themes: the portrayal of politics as idiotic, the use of timely …
Sexual Violence, Rape Culture, And The Ethics Of Care In Promising Young Woman (2020), Blink Twice (2024), And Women Talking (2022),
2026
Chapman University
Sexual Violence, Rape Culture, And The Ethics Of Care In Promising Young Woman (2020), Blink Twice (2024), And Women Talking (2022), Naomi H. Fredgant
Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses
Evolving public discourse on rape and rape culture is reflected in contemporary cinema. This thesis analyzes Promising Young Woman (2020), Blink Twice (2024), and Women Talking (2022)—all directed by women—through the theoretical framework of the ethics of care, highlighting how these films expose the persistence of rape culture and the systemic failure of institutions to support victims of sexual violence. Drawing on scholarship about rape culture, this analysis shows how the rape myths and institutional gaslighting depicted in these films function to dismiss victims’ testimonies, mirroring broader patterns of invalidation. The films explore both individual and collective responses to sexual …
Adaptability From Tv & Film Into Theatre | The Subversion Inspiration In Celia’S Identity Versatility Throughout William Shakespeare’S As You Like It,
2026
University of New Orleans
Adaptability From Tv & Film Into Theatre | The Subversion Inspiration In Celia’S Identity Versatility Throughout William Shakespeare’S As You Like It, Emani White
LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
This thesis explores the inspiration of adaptability skills, pivoting from television and film into theatre, and the potential of unconventional pathways as a catalyst for reconciling anti-traditionalism within the mediums. It offers insight into the obstacles, segues, and adversities faced during the journey of a former athlete turned television and film actor, and into a theatre actor. It illuminates agency as a subversive identity (the disguise), the sacrifice of status, and the need for an emotional anchor of resilience—acknowledging the systemic transitional barriers in performance, career, and education. The paper also discusses the understandings gained from my journey as an …
Pussy Protest! Protest Zines To Uplift Marginalized Voices,
2026
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Pussy Protest! Protest Zines To Uplift Marginalized Voices, Alekz Nelson
Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects
A publication of 4 separate zines made up of 12 pages each. The zines delve into the history of the Americans with Disabilities Act, trans women and their music artistry, lack of lesbian media, and inmate working conditions. These zines aim to not only raise awareness towards these issues, but spark action from readers by providing practical and doable options to pursue. With societal attitudes and political administrations becoming more conservative, spreading this information and awareness is vital to ensure that these alternatives ways of life are not forcibly erased.
Being Scared In A Secondary Universe: Experiencing The Self Through The Horror Film,
2026
Macalester College
Being Scared In A Secondary Universe: Experiencing The Self Through The Horror Film, Emily C. Hueser
Media and Cultural Studies Honors Projects
This paper explores the horror film as a site of self-creation. Using Michel Foucault and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, I argue that the horror genre primes the viewer for an embodied, affective experience, and the resulting interaction between self and screen constitutes and redefines the self. By engaging with Jordan Peele’s Get Out, David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and The Fly, and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, I explore how horror films engage our physical bodies and rework our experience and understanding of race, disability, and collectivity. These interactive experiences of filmviewing allow us to conceptualize the cinema as a tangible site of identity creation, …
Eurydice | Tigers Be Still: Technical Direction Between Two Studio Sets,
2026
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Eurydice | Tigers Be Still: Technical Direction Between Two Studio Sets, Rory G. Galada Brownell
Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work
This thesis examines the technical direction processes for two studio productions, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl and Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock, produced during the 2025–2026 season at the Nebraska Repertory Theatre. Through comparative analysis, this document explores how differing design styles—metaphorical and installation-based versus grounded realism—impact the planning, communication, and execution responsibilities of a technical director within a constrained academic production environment. Both productions operated within similar parameters, including limited budgets, student-based labor, and a shared performance space, allowing for a focused evaluation of process rather than resources. The Eurydice production emphasized abstract scenic elements, including large-scale string installations …
Catalyst,
2026
CUNY Hunter College
Catalyst, David Steck
Theses and Dissertations
Catalyst is a short documentary that explores why Hip Hop happened much later in Chicago than in other cities. It focuses on the story of Duro Wicks, a young Black music lover who overcame the city’s segregation to launch the first weekly Hip Hop open mic night. At the weekly $3 Sunday Hip Hop Show held at the Lower Links, young people came together from across the divided city to create a community. Though more successful than anyone could have imagined, Wicks’ dream proved unsustainable. However, it forever transformed the lives of the people it touched and launched a sustainable …
The Knock That Never Leaves,
2026
CUNY Hunter College
The Knock That Never Leaves, Alvin Seenauth
Theses and Dissertations
Peter Asan, a father and small business owner in New York, faces uncertainty after immigration agents arrived at his home in 2021. A decades-old conviction resurfaced, threatening his family life. The Knock That Never Leaves follows his daily routine as he lives between stability and the ongoing fear of deportation.
The Storyteller: Concealment, Memory, And The Architecture Of Exile,
2026
CUNY Hunter College
The Storyteller: Concealment, Memory, And The Architecture Of Exile, Dylan Hirsh
Theses and Dissertations
The Storyteller is an expressive documentary investigating the life of Francis Kalnay (1899–1992). A Jewish-Hungarian intellectual, Kalnay lived as a socialist, an X-2 Counter-espionage chief for the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II, an architect in Mexico, and a celebrated children's book author. The film's central conflict lies in his hidden identities and exploring how, despite his position as a high-level spy, he failed to save his sister and mother from death at the hands of the Nazi-aligned Arrow Cross government. As a filmmaker investigating a lost part of my own Jewish-Hungarian heritage, I believe Kalnay …
The I Need More Time Machine,
2026
CUNY Hunter College
The I Need More Time Machine, Suzanne L. Schulz
Theses and Dissertations
The I Need More Time Machine imagines alternatives to gendered overwork and exhaustion. Incorporating animation and the interviews of twelve NYC-based female and nonbinary artists who are caretakers and full-time workers, the film dwells in spaces of fatigue and repetition — from the vantage point of commuting — then draws on forgotten feminist and utopian housing blueprints to create science fiction-inspired, fantasy-imbued sites for gendered flourishing. The animated fantasy segments imagine elastic time, deep rest, experiments in collaboration, and liberating feminist spatial possibilities
Public Art And Military Technology At The Mexico-U.S. Border: Disrupting Boundaries On Battlegrounds,
2026
CUNY Hunter College
Public Art And Military Technology At The Mexico-U.S. Border: Disrupting Boundaries On Battlegrounds, Anna Luise Kaunert
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis examines how contemporary artists Rubén Ortiz Torres, Chico MacMurtrie, rafa esparza, and Cassils transformed military technologies into powerful artworks that interrogate the Mexico-U.S. border as a battlefield. Together, their works illuminate militarization and surveillance technologies at the border and the violent enforcement of U.S. immigration policy.
Dungeons & Dragons 5e En El Aula De Comunicación Audiovisual: Propuesta De Adaptación Pedagógica,
2026
Universidad de Sevilla / Centro Universitario EUSA
Dungeons & Dragons 5e En El Aula De Comunicación Audiovisual: Propuesta De Adaptación Pedagógica, Antonio Roda Martínez
Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM
Este artículo explora el proceso de adaptar Dungeons & Dragons Quinta edición versión 2024 a un contexto educativo dentro de sesiones únicas de menos de dos horas. Pese a que D&D es ampliamente reconocido como referente cultural y uno de los juegos de rol más influyentes, su complejo sistema de reglas y diseño para campañas de larga duración dificultan su implementación en contextos educativos formales con limitaciones temporales. Para abordar este desafío, se rediseñó la sesión para condensar las experiencias fundamentales del juego de rol de mesa—creación de personajes, interpretación, combate, construcción de mundo e investigación—en un formato breve y …
New Clubs: Taking Roots,
2026
University of North Alabama
New Clubs: Taking Roots, Diorama, 1981
Documents
Article with photographs describing the 1981 introduction of four new campus organizations: Delta Sigma Theta, Ascending Voices, Fashion Forum, and the University of North Alabama Film Society. The article is derived from the Diorama, the student yearbook.
Rooted Transformations,
2026
California State University - San Bernardino
Rooted Transformations, Ricardo D. Moctezuma
Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations
In my ventures through art I realized that I underwent an experience that was tailored to my process of release. As I struggled to share my emotions, I became distant and dissociated, I felt detached from others and even from myself. This process was something I visualized in my art from, the Tears, to Self Destruction, to the Release and onto the Garden. I’ve always felt myself in a state of Release, partly healed and partly damaged. All I knew was that the garden represented a new beginning for me, I just never knew what that Garden was. Time passes …
Towards The Publisher-Function Of The Independent Press: Authorship And Experimentation In The Semiotext(E) Oeuvre,
2026
California State University - San Bernardino
Towards The Publisher-Function Of The Independent Press: Authorship And Experimentation In The Semiotext(E) Oeuvre, Gilbert Aguirre
Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations
This project is a contribution to debates on authorship, expanding Foucault’s theorization of the author as a function of discourse into the field of creative production by proposing my theory of the publisher-function. Here, I highlight the role of the publisher in shaping literary discourse using avant-garde publishing house Semiotext(e). I analyze two experimental publications to illustrate how this publisher’s role in editing and curating their booklist—or, as I propose we call it, their oeuvre—compounds with the fact of publication to create a new kind of authorial role. This is done through emphasizing the paratexts, elements of design, and literary …
The Everlasting Bite Of The Colonizer In Contemporary Vampire Narratives,
2026
Clemson University
The Everlasting Bite Of The Colonizer In Contemporary Vampire Narratives, Emily Hatchett
All Theses
In the 1897 novel Dracula, Bram Stoker opens the vampire's coffin, unleashing the monstrous figure meant to terrify and control the inhabitants of late Victorian England. Following the vampire's journey from Transylvania to England, Stoker traces its desire to gain entrance into society through the British country house. Nevertheless, the vampire transforms as it makes its next journey to America. Leaving behind its haunting presence and adopting a loving, romantic personality that has rooted itself in our contemporary literature. It's also through this journey that the vampire is drawn to the lingering effects of colonization and is led to …
Between Chronicle And Legend: A Two-Scene Environment And Visual Effects Examination Of Physical Accuracy And Emotional Exaggeration On The Honey Creek Bridge Collapse,
2026
Clemson University
Between Chronicle And Legend: A Two-Scene Environment And Visual Effects Examination Of Physical Accuracy And Emotional Exaggeration On The Honey Creek Bridge Collapse, Alison R. Gaddy
All Theses
This thesis explores how truth and dramatization intersect in digital storytelling by comparing realistic and stylized simulations of the Honey Creek bridge collapse within the context of the Kate Shelley animated short. At the core of storytelling lies a tension between factual accuracy and dramatic stylization. We investigate that tension by examining how narrative truth is conveyed, distorted, or enhanced through visual dramatization by focusing on the psychology of audience perception and the motivations behind creative embellishment. The practical contribution of this research is the development of two distinct digital scene setups depicting the same Honey Creek bridge collapse event. …
