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“And We’Re Happy, So Happy, To Be Modern Women”: Dissociative Feminism On Screen And In Literature, Michaela Elizabeth Flaherty

Honors Scholar Theses

On-screen and literary works have increasingly represented a new, digital-age wave of postfeminism: dissociative feminism, which rejects happy-go-lucky, sex-positive fourth-wave feminism, instead embracing nihilism. Fleabag, the titular character of the hit BBC miniseries Fleabag (2016–9), embodies dissociative feminism, though she ultimately comes to reject this darkly relatable perspective. However, social media largely ignores this latter, essential aspect of her character arc and has taken to romanticizing Fleabag’s feminist ideology, effectively constructing a harmful and dangerous virtual echo chamber of dissociative feminism. Participants in this online discourse should instead turn to the HBO limited series I May Destroy You (2020) for …

Huérfanos: A Memoir, Mauricio Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

If you look hard enough, there are stories of children in foster care. Tales of their plight, longing for love, the love of their parents, love from the foster care system, or a foster care family. However, despite their existence, so much is left in the unknown. The story of how this child’s life came into the world, what outcomes transpired for a parent to give up a child, and the journey the child may have to take for closure. Answers to the why. Why was I given up, why was I not sought out, why did my family …

Corrido Of A Returning Angel: A Collection Of Stories, Ricardo Marez Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

As a Chicano (Mexican-American), person of color with a lower-middle class, American, South Texas upbringing, the world of authors and literature has always felt out of reach and not particularly inviting towards people like me—let alone representative or celebratory. In spite of this, or perhaps owing to it, I have decided to shoot my literary shot, unremittently holding onto my unique voice and unconventional styles in this first collection of short stories. I discuss in depth my inspirations and role models in writing, including Henry Miller and Whitman, with discussion of literary style and genre that include: surrealism, absurdism, allegory, …

Cyberspace Vs Green Space: Nature’S Psychological Influence In Neuromancer, Blade Runner 2049, And The Stone Gods, Zackery Castle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cyberpunk science fiction is often set in dystopian futures where capitalism and rapid technological growth have rendered the planet ecologically devastated. The people of these worlds are host to numerous mental illnesses that many attempt to cure with drugs, entertainment, or other aspects of their fast-paced existences, but these solutions are rarely successful. When characters come to embrace the remnants of the natural world, however, they typically show signs of mental healing as the result of exposure to nature. This thesis analyzes William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, and Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods alongside research …

Accepting Or Opposing The Status Quo: A Look At The Women Characters In Mariama Bâ’S So Long A Letter (1981) And Chimamanda Adichie’S Purple Hibiscus (2003), Omolola Giwa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What exactly is the status quo of women in Africa? Women’s selfhood has been systematically subordinated or outright denied by law, customary practices, and cultural stereotypes. Scholars like Judith Bennet suggest that religious practices and colonial rule subjugate African women. Patriarchal ideologies guide the society’s discrimination against women and this has influenced the status of women, especially married women and the way they respond in times of affliction.

Authors like Chimamanda Adichie and Mariama Ba in their fictional novels The Purple Hibiscus and So Long a Letter focus on capturing the struggles and conditions of women in the Western African …

Home, Work, Land, Gregory Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses his Master of Fine Arts exhibition, entitled Family, Work, Land. The exhibit was mounted in Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City, TN, from February 22nd to March 11th, 2022. A public reception was held on the evening of March 4th . The exhibition consisted principally of four multimedia installations. Smith’s body of work is an interpretation of how stories that he often heard growing up are related to the Western North Carolina community in which his grandparents were living in the first quarter of the twentieth century. These works explore the interactions between people, how they support …

Furthering Philosophy For The Future: An Exploration Of The Benefits Of High School Philosophy Education And The Barriers It Faces, Alexander Spencer '22

Honor Scholar Theses

In this paper, I will present a picture of how philosophy education should be integrated into American high schools, I will build a case for the benefits of this integration, and I will respond to some challenges to the process of bringing philosophy into the classroom. I hope to show that expanding philosophy education and encouraging critical thinking is important. American high schools are in need of new methods of instruction in this era of misinformation and fruitless political discourse. I hope to show that philosophy education is one tool in the project of improving education, and thus society in …

'As Vivid As Blood In A Sink': (Re)Reading Queerness And Repression In Teju Cole's Open City, Jack Hoda

Master's Theses

Teju Cole’s Open City (2011) is an exemplar work of contemporary fiction. For its complex representation of subjectivity, hypnotic narrative tone, and global political scope, the novel has been praised by readers and critics alike. Julius, the text’s first-person narrator, guides us along seemingly innocent wanderings throughout New York City, ruminating on history, art, and politics while presenting himself as the enlightened, cosmopolitan ideal. However, the shocking penultimate revelation that Julius raped a young woman from his past alters our encounter with the text and its narrator. We come to realize that this meandering novel is, in reality, a carefully …

Islamic Bioethics: National Regulations And Guidelines Of Human Stem Cell Research In The Muslim World, Azza Mahmoud

International Studies (MA) Theses

The utilization of human stem cells emerged recently in the Muslim world as one of the essential valuable areas of medicine for their vital role in developing regenerative medicine and treating chronic and incurable diseases. Existing studies indicate that most human stem cell researchers rely on varying schools of thought in Islamic law or on an individual base to define legitimate practices. From a policy perspective, the different Islamic religious decrees do not constitute a unified legal framework to promote essential international collaborations. The existing literature exhibits a limitation in comprehensive studies on human stem cell research (HSCR) in the …

"Custome Is An Idiot": How Genre Bending Opens New Meanings For Hæc Vir, Or The Womanish Man, Stephen Montgomery-Anderson

All Theses

Hæc Vir, or the Womanish Man is often conceived of as a satirical pamphlet. Moreover, scholars such as Linda Woodbridge and Simone Chess read the pamphlet as ultimately and explicitly arguing for a normative rendering of gender. Such readings, while acknowledging the rhetorical power and feminist nature of the crossdressed female character Hic Mulier’s arguments, invariably discount them in favor of a supposed return to normalcy. I instead suggest that Hic Mulier’s arguments be read as genuine and potentially altering. I further argue that we should read Hæc Vir as a closet drama. Bending the genre of the …

Ecologies Of (Domestic) Trauma, Ecologies Of (Domestic) Violence: A Rhetorical Procession Toward Mourning, Charlotte E. Lucke

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, I posit that intimate partner violence is entrenched in an often-overlooked historical and rhetorical legacy of patriarchal cultural, structural, and direct violences. Many scholars in and outside of rhetorical studies have analyzed and critiqued public representations of trauma and violence, including intimate partner violence. Joining this conversation, I focus on the limitations in the ways influential rhetorical domains both represent and respond to people who abuse their intimate partners. Often, mass media represents people who abuse their intimate partners as individuals void of contexts. Similarly, the criminal justice system holds individuals responsible through law enforcement and incarceration. …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 21: Wallace & The Doorway To The Universe, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

An important yet largely unrecognized theme in the thought of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) was his insistence that all dependably-reported phenomena, even those of aberrant nature, were worthy of a respectful kind of attention: that is, a kind which did not automatically banish difficult subjects to the realm of myth or superstition. In this work, Wallace’s philosophy in this direction is documented, and linked to the world of post-Age-of-Enlightenment revisionism.

American Fears: H.P. Lovecraft And The Paranoid Style, Bailey Marvel

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Why is H.P. Lovecraft still relevant? That is the one the questions put forward by this thesis. Lovecraft is known for his creation of Lovecraftian horror, also known as cosmic horror. However, his bigoted view on race and class muddies this legacy. What this thesis seeks to explore is how Lovecraft’s work demonstrates the fears and anxieties central to the America psyche. The paranoid style can be found in American discourse throughout history but it can also be found in the works of Lovecraft himself. Lovecraft was a prejudiced and paranoid man, and his prejudices and paranoia are a major …

Coal, Land, And Ideology: Inventions Of Appalachia In The Mind Of The American Ruling Class, Zachary Harris

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Appalachia, itself a difficult to resolutely define region, has undergone the economic forces of colonialism and industrializing capitalism which allow for an excellent case study to apply Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony. No American region’s national conception is likely to have been as varied and often misrepresented as that of Appalachia. From the Revolutionary American State’s invention of early white settlers as the virtuous yeoman of the Republic to the modern perception of Appalachia as backwards, conservative, and drug-addled, shifting national economic conditions resulted in a constant invention of Appalachia in congruence. Whenever the people residing in Appalachia, whether Black, …

The Manchu Queue: A Complex Symbol In Chinese Identity, Alexander Jesus Serrano

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The queue hairstyle that was enforced on all Chinese men for over 260 years in China was, in fact, not a Chinese hairstyle. It can be traced to the Jurchen tribes north of the Great Wall and became a complex political and cultural symbol under the Manchu Qing dynasty (1644-1911). The queue signified many things to different people at different times from its 1645 widespread implementation to its sudden disappearance following the revolution of 1911. It is in this ambiguity that the queue provides a rich analytical window through which curious minds can observe sentiments of Ming loyalism, bodily modification, …

Flora's Fourth Child: Race, Gender, And Botany In The British Colonial Caribbean, Brittany L. Mondragon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In 1824, an enslaved woman named Catalina (alias Susannah Mathison) induced an abortion by drinking an herbal mixture on the Castle Wemyss Estate in Jamaica. Consequently, the estate’s attorney denounced her as an African witchcraft practitioner. Many enslaved women faced similar convictions for their botanical knowledge as British colonists misinterpreted Obeah for witchcraft or superstition. This thesis sheds light on these women’s experiences and examines how the British Empire imposed imperial rule over enslaved women by reflecting on the intersectionality of race, gender, and botany. Focusing on the Greater Caribbean area and centering primarily around Jamaica, this research explores the …

Slow Violence, Cli-Fi, And Opportunities For Change How Bipoc Futurisms Promote Activism, Francisco Baeza

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The threat of anthropogenic climate change is discussed almost exclusively in terms of “scientific” data to the exclusion of the humanities. For some worlds, climate change has already destroyed their ways of life and forced them to adapt. Climate fiction – or cli-fi – written by BIPOC authors is one way we can begin to think of how the planet is not just one world but a plurality of worlds. This project centers authors and world-makers who come from communities that have been left at the margins of the science fiction and cli-fi genres. By looking at fictions from a …

A Single Woman’S Concerns And Struggles: Reversing The Perception Of Exclusion In The Church In The Twenty-First Century And Beyond, Bernadine C. Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The thesis research project seeks to offer the readers of the project solutions to changing perceptions while improving single women's experiences as critical community members and the local church in the twenty-first century and beyond. This study will employ mixed methods analysis using both qualitative and quantitative data. The project includes a survey by single individuals between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five or older via email. Participants will complete a thirty-two-question survey characterizing exclusionary practices in the church processes, leading to the perception of exclusion revolving around family relationships. The results of this study may allow for the positive …

Using Bible Reading In Moral Injury Therapy: A Mixed-Method Approach, John Ikenna Onuoha

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The debilitating effect of moral injury on members of the Sergeant Major Association of California in the Bay Area/Central Valley/Los Angeles area has deprived member veterans of a good and meaningful quality of life. This study aims to recognize the challenging impact of moral injury on adult Bay Area/Central Valley/LA veterans, address its symptoms using Bible reading therapy, and reassess their progress for an effective and lasting solution to veterans who are battling with war’s unseen wounds. The study used mixed research methods that incorporate the technical and social features of the combination of qualitative and quantitative means to help …

Rethinking Metaphor In The Rhetoric Of Alzheimer's Disease, Evelyn Saru Jimmy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the metaphors that early onset Alzheimer's blog authors use to make meaning of their experiences living with Alzheimer's disease (AD). To complicate the study, I also compare whether early onset Alzheimer's blog authors use the same metaphors with those who serve as caregiver to late-stage AD patients. This research project is situated within the overlap fields of Disability Studies (Dolmage, 2006; Lewiecki-Welson, 2003; Yergeau, 2014; Kerschbaum, 2014), Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (Segal, 1997: Price, 2011; Molloy, 2015) Rhetoric of Mental Health (Chrisman, 2008; Uttapha, 2017, Reynold, 2008), and Technical Communication (Meloncon, 2014). Following the principles of …

Race, Science, And The Language Of Drug Control In The Americas, 1870s - 1920s, Freddy Mauricio Jaimes Jaimes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the origins of the language of drug addiction and drug control in the American hemisphere during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by analyzing the intersection between the scientific study of race and eugenics and the cultural and political reaction to the Chinese global diaspora across the Pacific. I argue that Chinese immigrants perfectly embodied European "scientific" ideas of national or racial degeneration in the minds of scientific and medical elites while exemplifying the publicâ??s predominant stereotypes of addiction. Chinese immigrants became the first and perhaps most powerful symbol that intrinsically associated drug consumption with degeneracy. …

Family Disruptions And Maternal Health In Covid Times, Donna Maldonado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

AbstractPrenatal and postpartum women of the border region of El Paso-Ciudad Juarez have been experiencing multiple forms of family disruption due to the twenty-month border closure in an attempt to contain the COVID pandemic, partners having to find jobs far away from home because of economic concerns, and fear of familial disruption due to the threat of deportation of partners or family members. The purpose of the study is to explore the perceived effects of these types of family disruptions and how they are shaping maternal health in COVID times. This project included the analysis of fifteen interviews with pregnant …

Zapatista Maya Literacies And Decolonial Civic Pedagogies, Juan Moisés García-Rentería

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Zapatista Maya Literacies and Decolonial Civic Pedagogies evaluates an educational outreach project led by an Indigenous grass roots mobilization in the high plateau of central México, the Zapatista movement. Using retrospective narrative inquiry and theoretically informed perspectives, this dissertation shows that the program of the Zapatista escuelita, Spanish for “little school,” is rooted in the Maya educational paradigm of nojptesel-p’ijubtasel, a cultural and political process of socialization at the heart of contemporary Maya peasant families. The research focus of this study offers rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies two interrelated points of insight tied to the overall Maya conception of the …

Hannah Arendt And The Recreation Of The Public Space At The El Paso-Ciudad Juarez Border, Maximiliano Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Arendt's philosophy is essentially phenomenological, especially her concept of the world of appearances in which everything manifests itself to human begins with those who share this space. Her phenomenological approach to philosophy enables us to shed light on the realm of public affairs, namely, being born, plurality, and specifically I argue, immigration. In this case I am referring to immigration in its most general meaning, that is, to the act of moving into another country and, thereby, leaving one's own private space in their former country. In order to best understand this phenomenological approach, it is necessary to understand Arendt's …

The Shaping Of Ethnic Mexican Identity In The Segregated Schools Of Presidio, County, Texas, 1867-1947, Aurelio Saldana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The work conducts a sociological analysis of the historical record documenting segregated school settings in a rural area from 1867 to 1947 using socialization theory. The sociological theory of schemas will provide a lens from the Americanization process students in the U.S., specifically ethnic Mexican students, underwent to shape "American" identity. The analysis ventures into the intersectionality created by the social constructs of gender, sex, race, and class and how these factors combined as part of the Americanized socialization of ethnic Mexican students. Gender inequality, or patriarchy, was a leading factor in shaping the contested U.S.-Mexico borderlands and U.S. society. …

Gender Perceptions And Female Students' Academic Engagement And Success In Stem Fields, Rheanna Morgan

School of Social Work Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite an increase of females in higher education and the workforce, fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continue to be male-dominated. One explanation for this trend is the lack of gender representation and counterstereotypical role models to encourage female engagement in these fields at the university level. Previous research has looked at instructor gender, classroom gender composition, and involvement in extracurricular activities as possible factors influencing students' engagement and success in the classroom. However, few studies have investigated how gender perceptions influence female students in STEM fields. This study uses self-report data from a voluntary survey to …

Making Meaning Of The Shared Experience Of Participants In An Undergraduate Lgbtq+ Mentorship Program, Brendan Corbett Csaposs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the ways in which LGBTQ+ students at the University of Miami make meaning of their shared experiences in the LGBTQ+ Mentorship Program that the university offers, in order to explore ways in which higher education institutions might consider better supporting this key group of students. This study draws upon a variety of theories of sexual identity development, building on the work of Rosario et al. (2011) in looking at the ways that students make meaning of their sexual identity based on self-identification, association with the larger community, and engagement in a …

Ghosts And Ethics In The Early Works Of James Joyce, Michael Menase

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last 20 years, critics have contributed new insights into the character development, overall messages, themes, and other literary aspects of James Joyce’s works by focusing on their ethical implications. By following an intertextual method and by performing close readings of Joyce’s texts, I try to fill a gap in the scholarly literature by adding a related focus on ghosts to the conversation about Joyce’s ethics and those of his characters. Focusing on Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I hope to show that the ghosts in Joyce’s corpus motivate characters and readers to …

Science Teachers' Perceptions Of Culturally Responsive Teaching In Majority Native American Schools In Oklahoma, Michelle Childress

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Native American students have consistently scored less than their white peers on high school academic achievement tests, have the lowest high school graduation rates, and have the lowest college enrollment rates. Research has evidenced challenges and struggles Native American children are faced with that negatively effects their success in the classroom. Native American students often encounter a disconnect between their home and school life resulting in difficulties of navigating two opposing worlds. When Native American students are associated with negative stereotype’s indicative of Native American culture as opposed to the dominant culture, this creates a conflict between their cultural identity …

Cognitive Tribalism: A Social Doxastic Model, Robert Ragsdale

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How are facemasks – seemingly innocuous artifacts of the biomedical industry – currently embroiled in cultural wars? What motivates popular rejections of scientific consensus and messaging about the reality and consequences of anthropogenic climate change or the COVID-19 virus and vaccine? The puzzle is that (a) despite its being in everyone’s rational interests to have a well-informed public and body politic about collective threats, and (b) despite the public availability of accurate and reliable information, scientific messaging and public discourse surrounding climate change, COVID-19, and vaccine hesitancy, nevertheless, tend to be hijacked by political interest. Yet, if belief is essentially …