Rhetoric Commons^™

Critical Veganism: A Posthuman Understanding Of ‘Becoming With’ Others, Kensey Dressler

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis lays the groundwork for a critical vegan orientation to posthuman communication research. Critical veganism attempts to do the least amount of harm to nonhuman beings, a shift that decenters the human in scholarship and focuses on the material realities of nonhuman beings. This orientation helps create a praxis for posthuman research that is in line with a new materialist approach to ontology, is anti-capitalist, and strives to do the least harm. Previous research methods tend to be anthropocentric in nature, thus leaving out nonhuman experiences from communication research. Using both autoethnography and multi-species ethnography as my methods, I …

The Borders Between Us: Analyzing The United States’ Border Policies & Repercussions, Louise De Oliveira

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

This poster addresses the United States’ current southern border situation. It begins by analyzing the historical precedent for discrimination against immigrants to provide a background of understanding for the current situation. It then explains how this aided in President Trump’s election and his resolution to curb illegal immigration by reinforcing the southern border. It also analyzes the Trump Administration's zero-tolerance policy that led to family separation and the personal and political effects of the policy. Furthermore, the poster analyzes the executive order that attempted to end family separations. Finally, the poster examines the current state of border conditions and immigration …

Emotional Appeals In Nonprofit Advertising: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Print Ads By The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation And The American Cancer Society, Dominique N. A. Harrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emotional appeals are frequently employed in strategic messaging by nonprofit organizations. In this study, I identify instances of emotional appeals in select print adverts of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society, and use rhetorical analysis to explore how each organization’s tactics are strategic in their appeal to target audiences’ emotions. In doing so, I identify several reoccurring emotional themes—including hope, love, and unity—that engage their target audiences and persuade them to respond to diverse calls-to-action. In order to make these appeals to audience emotion, the adverts employ rhetorical devices such as personification, metaphor, repetition, …

Sustainable Hope: An Analysis Of The Rhetorical Process Of The Forward Through Ferguson Commission Report, Nicole Ramer

Theses

This project focuses on the Forward through Ferguson Report, a commission report written by appointed commissioners after the protests of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. While the first chapter of my thesis focuses on the report itself and commission reports as a genre, the second chapter analyzes the most recent report, the State of Police Reform, from an ecological lens. Throughout the project, I kept returning to the question Susan Wells posed in a recent interview with Composition Forum, revisiting one she first asked in her oft-cited 1996 essay: what do we want from public rhetoric …

Engl 400: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Song, "We Are The World": A Call To Change -- Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow (And A Potential Rhetorical Framework For Covid-19 Relief Efforts), Cammy Toddy

Virtual 2020 Spring Student Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

On the night of January 28, 1985, the charity single song, “We Are The World,” written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, was produced in A&M Studios in Los Angeles. At the recording studio, there was a sign that said, “Check your egos at the door,” which acted as a visual reminder for why these artists were there. This idea was put in place by producer Quincy Jones, who knew he had one night to bring over 40 of the country’s biggest stars together for a cause much bigger than themselves. A rhetorical analysis of “We Are The World” reveals …

The Voice Of Honor: Centering An Indigenous Ethic Of Protocol In U.S. Rhetorical Studies, Dakota Sandras

LSU Master's Theses

This project takes seriously the pressing rhetorical questions facing the field of communication studies which illuminate opportunity for radical disciplinary transformation and demand action beyond heightened racial and cultural awareness. In response, I seek to demonstrate that centering Indigenous epistemologies might inform and advance decolonial strategies for change. More specifically, I examine the theory and practice of First Nations customs of protocol and develop what I deem an ethic of protocol consisting of honor, humility, and action. After observing how these core tenets function synergistically in the protocol of elders, rites of passage, and entering another’s land, I argue that …

Rhetoric And International Human Rights: The Case Of The Senegalese Talibés, Christopher Parisella

Senior Honors Projects

CHRISTOPHER PARISELLA

(Political Science, Writing & Rhetoric, French)

Rhetoric and International Human Rights: The Case of the Senegalese Talibés

Sponsor: Lynne Derbyshire (Communication Studies, Honors Program)

While in Senegal, I witnessed the hurdles faced by proponents of international human rights standards. Thousands of Muslim boys, called talibés, undertake their Koranic education in Senegal. Many are forced to beg in the streets by their educators, and abuse in the schools is common. Still, this education is considered a valuable part of the boys’ spiritual development. Despite the multitude of countries that have openly supported and ratified international human rights compacts, many …

Global Language Variation In Online Writing Instructional Spaces: English As A Lingua Franca Among Global Participants In A Massive Open Online Course, Angela May Dadak

English Theses & Dissertations

Two vectors of the internationalization of US higher education—online courses and student diversity—intersect at a point where a broad mix of culturally and linguistically diverse students enroll in online courses, including writing courses. This study applies an English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) lens to examine language in an online writing environment in order to understand how the participants use their linguistic resources to communicate in English across varieties and around the world. This study employs discourse analysis to two discussion forums from a US-based composition MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). More than three quarters of the MOOC participants came …

Students At A Crossroads: Ta Development Across Pedagogical And Curricular Contexts, Cassandra Ann Book

English Theses & Dissertations

A longstanding question in rhetoric and composition has been how to best educate composition graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs). Although many assume that writing centers are useful spaces for TAs to practice pedagogy and learn about writing processes in preparation for classroom teaching, recent scholarship complicates the claim that transfer from writing centers and/or practicums into composition classrooms is straightforward. Moreover, no study fully considers how the role of the writing center and teaching writing in English MA programs intersects with students’ development as teachers, writers, and scholars. This project brings together several strands of scholarship—the transferability of writing center experience …

Socrates As A Philosophical Exemplar, Aria Mia Loberti

Senior Honors Projects

In Plato’s dialogues, Socrates famously denied being a teacher. Nonetheless, others took him to be a teacher, and there is no doubt that his attempts to encourage people to philosophy are pedagogical. So, we are presented with a puzzle—one that is still with interpreters today, despite important work on the issues (e.g., Nehamas 1985, 1992). In this project, I approach these issues from a different angle, asking not whether Socrates is a teacher (or whether philosophy can be taught) but considering Socrates as a philosophical exemplar. I contend that this question will help us to understand not only Socrates but …

Leveraging Maternal Rhetoric, Space, And Experience: La Leche League's Emergence As A Counterpublic, Jenny Lynn Moore

English Theses & Dissertations

For over six decades, the international, mother-to-mother breastfeeding support organization La Leche League (LLL) has been helping women breastfeed successfully. LLL was formed at a time when the dominant ideology of scientific motherhood framed mothers as obedient adherents to physicians’ strict guidelines, which encouraged bottle-feeding and discouraged close mother-child bonds. LLL has been credited with challenging scientific motherhood, transforming medical discourse and practices surrounding infant feeding, and prompting the medical professional to accept mothers’ active involvement in decision-making; yet, paradoxically, it has also constrained mothers by reducing women to their maternal biology, discouraging mothers from participating in the public sphere, …

A Rhetorical Frame Analysis Of Palestinian-Led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (Bds) Movement Discourse, Jennifer Megan Hitchcock

English Theses & Dissertations

This rhetorical frame analysis uses a combination of rhetorical theory and frame analysis to examine the rhetorical framing strategies of the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. This project investigates how both official and vernacular BDS activist-rhetors frame the movement and their goals, how they frame their responses to evolving rhetorical situations and challenges, how they tailor these frames for different audiences, and how resonant these frames are likely to be for targeted audiences. The results of this study suggest that BDS activist-rhetors typically frame the BDS movement as a nonviolent movement to achieve Palestinian rights and hold Israel …

Genesis: A False Start, Tate Kollar

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Genesis is the first book of the Bible. As the starting block for humanity and creation, Genesis holds incredible weight. Genesis is the beginning of God’s foundational text for his people. Intuitively, one would expect the content of the narratives in Genesis to reflect this weight. One would expect models for human behavior. One would think it would be the first step on the path to redemption from the Fall in the garden. One would expect God to help his people in creating safe, efficient, supportive, functional communities and families. Contrary to these expectations, a majority of the Genesis narrative …

9/11 Then And Now: How The Performance Of Memorial Rhetoric By Presidents Changes To Construct Heroes, Kristen M. Grafton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is concerned with American presidential rhetoric at the cross-section of hero rhetoric and memorial address. It analyzes presidential memorialization of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. 9/11 is arguably the most significant tragedy in recent American history. The purpose of this study is to identify the type of hero each president since 9/11 has attempted to construct of himself for the public and discuss the rationale behind that hero construction. To complete this objective, I analyze the second 9/11 memorial speech from the presidencies of Bush, Obama, and Trump for hero construction. A close reading examining the …

Instrumentalization Theory: An Analytical Heuristic For A Heightened Social Awareness Of Machine Learning Algorithms In Social Media, Andrew R. Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New innovations in information management and communication technologies have produced technological assemblages which have radically altered the way people socialize and interact with the world. The most significant and ubiquitous of these technologies is what is colloquially referred to as ‘machine learning.’ Like most, if not all, technologies, machine learning models are neither wholly good nor bad. Their functional ethics are largely determined by the context in which they are employed. However, their ubiquity demands that we develop a heightened social consciousness of the way machine learning simultaneous constrains, manipulates and democratizes social processes. In order to develop better social …

"The Fiery Furnaces Of Hell": Rhetorical Dynamism In Youngstown, Oh, Joshua M. Rea

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to define the theory of rhetorical dynamism and illustrate how this theory can be applied to studies of rhetoric and place. The study builds on current rhetorical scholarship and adds to it with the four characteristics of rhetorical dynamism: that places are rhetorically invented, that they hold rhetorical tensions, that they are fluid and constantly evolving, and that they are active participants in a reciprocal rhetorical process. Rhetorical dynamism is illustrated in two places, Westlake Terrace and Idora Park, each in Youngstown, OH. By building a rhetorical history of each site, the study shows how each place …

Charles Mckendree Neal Papers, 1933, Charles M. Neal

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

Finding aid for the Charles McKendree Neal Papers, 1933.

Through The Scholastic Looking Glass: The Pedagogical Potential Of Textual Deformation For Poetic Studies, Taylor Dietrich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the pedagogical usefulness of the antithetical reading model of textual deformation for the study of poetic works. No formal pedagogical plan exists for the education of students in poetic studies through textual deformance. This thesis does not go as far as structuring one in its entirety. Rather, it surveys the digital humanities landscape, showing a collective affinity within a number of textual studies approaches that advocate for textual deformance as useful for interrogating texts, and aligns the overlapping symmetries within those working methodologies with pedagogical imperatives like those embedded in Ryan Cordell’s Kaleidoscopic Pedagogy Laboratory—the intent being …

American Novels Amidst The Rise Of New Media: Emergent Publics And Forms, Sarah Ruth Jacobs

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines long-term shifts in the quantities and demographics (namely the race and educational attainment) of twentieth-century American literary readers alongside the rise and popular consumption of new media (namely television and the internet). The twentieth and twenty-first centuries are testament to a great expansion in the numbers and demographics of literary readers, and in turn an increase in the variety and intended audiences of literary publications. Examples include the rise of “middlebrow” readers and books in the 1940s and the rise of African-American, feminist, and countercultural small presses in the 1960s and 1970s. However, even as the variety …

2020 Mlk Keynote Address: Michelle Alexander Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Michelle Alexander, Rosanne Somerson, Matthew Shenoda

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

2020 MLK Series Keynote Michelle Alexander brings audiences profoundly necessary and meaningful insights on the practice of mass incarceration that plagues the US justice system, as well as eye-opening conversation on how we can end racial caste in America. Lecture Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 5:30pm, RISD Auditorium, 17 Canal Walk, Providence, RI.

In her acclaimed bestseller The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander peels back the curtain on systemic racism in the US prison system in a work that the New York Review of Books describes as "striking in the intelligence of her …