Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Stick With Me: Essays, Clay Shields

Theses and Dissertations--English

A small-town Appalachian deviant confronts the frequent, recurrent grief of the opioid crisis and its mortal, psychological, and communal consequences. This collection endeavors to explore substance use, addiction, geopolitical exploitation of Kentucky, central Appalachia, and surrounding areas, while also celebrating the lives of individual loved ones lost to deaths by suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism. Here, the common narrative of depravity surrounding addiction is challenged through the rendering of full characters capable of love, trust, friendship, humor, mental health management, and personal growth. Time and place factor fundamentally into the stories told here—whether based in central Kentucky or central Appalachia, …

An Education In Democracy: Understanding And Subverting Censorship In The English Classroom, Hannah R. Woolsey

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The politicization of education has presented a challenge to offering students diverse English Language Arts instruction. Across the county, lawmakers have proposed legislation that limits discussion about race and sex or allows parents to restrict their child’s exposure to materials that violate their moral or religious beliefs. In this tug-of-war, teachers will be forced to decide between avoiding controversial topics or risking dismissal. Increasing censorship, now codified by law in many states, is rooted in our polarized political landscape, divided along cultural and geographic lines. The challenge facing educators, then, is how to create space for inclusive, social justice-oriented instruction …

Right Turn At Reality: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Right Wing Negotiations On Race And Masculinity In Online Spaces, Andrew R.J. Hart

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The effects of right wing politically charged violence are more visible now than at any other point in recent American history. The Internet, and social media more specifically, has become a crucial nexus point in the dissemination of decentralized Alt-Right propaganda. The visual nature of social media has increased the importance of images a means of communication. Through this thesis, I analyze artifacts coming out of these spaces representing a conversation between creators and audiences, and how they work dialogically to introduce and reify symbols of white masculine supremacy within this subgroup. Through this process, I find multiple recurring patterns …

The Rhetorical Use Of The Other: An Analysis Of Symbolic Disability In Contemporary Horror Films, Seth Hadley

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In this research, I examine the concept of the Other in horror films. I use Kenneth Burke’s identification, Jean-Francois Lyotard’s metanarrative concept, and Lennard Davis’s bell curve of normalcy to describe the Other and how otherness relates to disability. First, I discuss how horror films have portrayed the Other historically in a negative context and slowly transition to the virtuous Other, the final girl. Next, I discuss the trend of portraying disability or otherness as an asset or tool in contemporary films like A Quiet Place, Birdbox, and Don’t Breathe. Then, I examine how current horror films explore the implications …

The Revolution Will Be Memed: Digital Memes As Sites For Hegemonic And Counter-Hegemonic Practices, Kimberly Sisu

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Internet memes have become a part of everyday life as a way to participate in digital and online culture. The study of memes, known as memetics, have analyzed memes in many ways: for their political and social participation, for their multimodal presence, and their influence on online discourse. What has not yet been deeply studied are the ways memes participate in hegemonic and counter-hegemonic practices. This project aims to address this gap by investigating how hegemonic and counter-hegemonic practices show up in memes on feminism, and how those practices uphold or disrupt dominant narratives. Fifteen memes on feminism are analyzed …

Nothing About Us: Three Models Of Disability In Three Works Of Literary Fiction, Mary Lipiec

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project explores how the three umbrella models of disability (medical, functional, and social) are shown in several disabled characters from three novels published after the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and Good Kings, Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum. Through the utilization of literary analysis from a cultural studies perspective, this project shows that the models of disability, despite the various flaws in their respective designs, prove to be useful lenses to see disability through, both in these novels and in real life, …

Doing The Work -- Collectively Pursuing Anti-Racist And Equitable Teaching: One High School English Department’S Journey, Sharon Murchie, Anthony Andrus, Pat Brennan, Gina Farnelli, Shelby Fletcher, Dawn Reed, Emily Solomon, Benjamin K. Woodcock

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Our district has long been heralded as a beacon school, one that delivers exceptional education in an exceptional community. Peeling back the layers, however, revealed a district that lurched towards the traditional, even with the hiring of DEI faculty and the step away from an historical indigenous mascot. In a time where teachers are exhausted and afraid of community backlash, our

English department dared to tear off the scabs of old wounds and united to push toward what is best for our changing community and students. Hard conversations, difficult topics, and months of legwork at last successfully provided the impetus …

Building Sustainable Antiracist Coalition: Developing A Research Team For Studying Diverse Language And Literacy Practices At The University, Nicole L.G. Varty, Adrienne Jankens, Linda Jimenez, Anna Lindner, Mariel Krupansky

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

In the face of so many current challenges, teachers may feel overwhelmed at the thought of engaging in antiracist work, or they may be discouraged by seemingly slow progress. This article presents present a narrative of building and maintaining an antiracist research coalition across departments at our university. By grounding our work in the important work of key black scholars, we describe our process of naming whiteness, inviting collaboration, grappling with definitions, and even identifying a few small victories along the way. Members of our group contribute their voices and perspectives from across the past two years of developing our …

Bouncing Back: Resilience And Its Limits In Late-Age Composing, Louise Wetherbee Phelps

English Faculty Publications

This essay is one of a series on my mother’s late-age composing, studying a writing project she started at age 70 and worked on for more than 25 years. Her intention was to integrate extensive reading, personal experience, and cultural observations to explain changes in parenting (and, by extension, education and enculturation of the next generation) from her childhood in the 1920s through the 2000s. When she died at 97, she left behind a 75-page draft, but was unable to complete her plans for revisions and an ending. I focus here on identifying the multiple factors in the ecology of …

Information Literacy, Media Literacy, And The Attitudinal Positioning Of Wpas Combatting Mis/Disinformation, Joshua Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

Informational flow is paramount to the success of interpersonal communication as well as macro communication that allows for people to engage with the overarching sociopolitical apparatuses as a citizen. Chief among hindering informational flow are the obstacles of mis/disinformation. This research project is an exploratory study into the attitudinal positioning of a wide range of WPAs across R1 research institutions. Results found that WPA's perceptions are positively aligned in agreement with the value of IL and ML. Furthermore, WPAs are utilizing IL and ML within their programs both knowingly and serendipitously. Despite the positive attitudes toward interdisciplinary approaches to combating …

Beyond The Two-Tiered System: Contingency As A Tool For Academic Upward Mobility, Wonderful Faison, Tatiana Glushko

The Writing Center Journal

This article explores the scholarly endeavors upon which writing center directors and coordinators must embark to effectively run their centers. Additionally, the authors explore ways to use their contingent statuses as leverage for either tenure or promotion by linking their scholarly work to departmental and university tenure/promotion requirements.

Severe Constraints, Radical Possibilities: Reimagining Critical Pedagogy In The First-Year Writing Class, Elia Benjamin Newsom

Wayne State University Dissertations

Critical pedagogues often bring political questions into the classroom and seek to disassemble the very paternalistic, repressive nature of education itself. However, while these scholars and the texts they write are well-intentioned, the possibility of achieving political goals in a first-year writing class are severely constrained by forces within and outside an instructor's control: committees, composition directors, university administration, state & federal governments, economic & social conditions, etc. That said, looking at the material history of writing studies, there have been moments of radical possibility, opportunities to fundamentally change the status quo for the better. In this dissertation, I argue …

Comfort, Contingency, And Writing Center Work: An Essay In Three Illusions, Loren Maria Guay

The Writing Center Journal

In this hybrid essay, I engage creatively with the illusory nature of contingent work, presenting three episodes from my personal experiences as a contingent writing program administrator (WPA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, I interrogate these experiences by building on past critiques of “comfortable” writing centers, applying Sara Ahmed’s work on the affectiveness of (dis)comfort in order to examine comfort and its uneasy relationship with labor. For whom is the writing center expected to labor to provide comfort? Whose comfort, and moreover whose safety, is jeopardized or made invisible in the process? In answering these questions, this …

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 …

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 …

The Undergraduate Spectrum 2023, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.

The Flight Attendants Of Academia: Liminality, Emotional Labor, And Feminization In Graduate Student Writing Program Administrators, Laura Vidal Chiesa

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Writing Program Administration (WPA) is an interdisciplinary field that addresses the management and development of writing programs in educational institutions. WPA entails writing instruction pedagogy, curriculum design, assessment, and faculty development pertaining to the teaching of writing. Graduate students in Humanities and English-based programs typically fill this position which can offer a career trajectory. However, the position is often experienced as demanding, unrewarding and does not deliver on the career-enhancing experience it seems to promise. Historically, this is unsurprising given that the position has been a subordinated role occupied by women in composition. And yet, the troubles besetting contemporary graduate …

The Association Of Vitamin D, Bone Mineral Density, And Injuries Among Acrobatics And Tumbling Athletes, K Lee, A Gallucci, J Forsse, L Cherpe De Souza, L Irvin, E Boyer, L Funderburk

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Introduction: Acrobatics and Tumbling (A&T) is an emerging sport incorporating various elements of gymnastics and competitive cheerleading. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the sport presents with high injury rates potentially due to the high impact nature of the activity. Due to the potential aesthetic sport related concerns, bone mineral density and risk of injury presents a concern for patients, athletic trainers and stakeholders. Increased understanding of the relationship between bone mineral density, serum vitamin D status, and injury incidence in A&T may be useful to athletic trainers, registered dietitians, and others working with these athletes. The objective of this study was …

Bibliography, Jane Fife

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by Jane Fife.

In Whitman's Wake, Kacie Megan Fodness

Dissertations and Theses

In Whitman’s Wake argues that nineteenth-century American writing includes a living invitation for its future readers. The kind of invitational writing prioritized in this work has not yet been fully accounted for in literary criticism. What’s more, even when we as readers have experienced such an invitation (one we feel is for us) we have not followed the feeling far enough. As a result, scholarship has largely neglected, and perhaps has consciously rejected, the intentional action of a writer that creates an encounter with their future reader. My project contributes to the ongoing critical conversation around the relationship of readers …