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State: The Magazine Of Illinois State University, Fall 2026, Illinois State University, University Marketing And Communications

State: The Magazine of Illinois State University (1999-present)

Illinois State University alumni magazine

“Is This Really Funny?” Humor, Rape Myths, And Social Semiotics In Nigerian Comedy Skits, Grace Oluwatofunmi Adeyemo

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how rape myth narratives are normalized through humor in Nigerian comedy skits. While existing research has identified rape-supportive beliefs in digital entertainment, it has paid less attention to the processes through which these meanings become socially acceptable. Guided by social semiotics, the study analyzes how semiotic resources use humor to normalize rape myth narratives in Nigerian comedy skits. Using a qualitative design, twelve purposively selected Nigerian comedy skits on YouTube were analyzed. The findings reveal that refusal is constructed as temporary, persistence is portrayed as effort, men's refusal is framed as abnormal, and consent is shaped by …

Making Sense Of Cuba's National Literacy Campaign: A Reflexive Study Of Lra Delegates’ Engagement With The Museo De La Alfabetización, Erin Quast, Brooke Ward Taira, Deborah M. Sanchez, Grace Pigozzi, Marco Bravo, Dorothy Shapland Rodriguez, Crystal N. Wise

Faculty Publications - College of Education

In December 2024, as part of the Literacy Research Association (LRA) Advancing Reading and Literacy Education Delegation to Cuba, delegates visited the Museo de la Alfabetización in Havana, which documents the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign. This collaborative reflexive self-study examines how delegates—literacy scholars and educators—collectively interpreted and negotiated national literacy narratives through engagement with the museum. Data sources included a transcript of a post-visit critical conversation, individual reflexive memos, and artifacts gathered during the museum visit. Iterative thematic analysis identified four sensemaking processes: shifting from pedagogy to shared purpose; holding inspiration and discomfort together; questioning narrative ownership and erasure; and …

Teaching In Authentic Ways: Exhibit Work And Student Curators In Special Collections, Rebecca Fitzsimmons

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Engaging students in exhibit work offers them a chance to learn new skills and grow as scholars while producing a tangible and public-facing project outcome from their coursework. From learning to communicate complex ideas to making research connections between rare and primary sources, exhibit curation relies on building research skills, sharpening writing and communication techniques, and developing critical thinking skills. Pushing and refining ideas is an essential part of the iterative process of research, and exhibit curation invites students to learn this practice in a real-world, project-based way. More specifically, it requires students to read, review, compare, and analyze more …

Better Together: Collaborative Approaches To Teaching Primary Source & Information Literacy, Rebecca Fitzsimmons

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Special collections librarians and their research & instruction colleagues discuss collaborative approaches to primary source and information literacy instruction in the university classroom. Through presentations and panel discussion they cover the types of classes where they collaborate, including a representative example class; how they work with teaching faculty; their favorite learning objectives; and how their partnerships have made them better teachers.

Panelists represent public universities in Arkansas, Illinois, and Maine, and a private college in Ohio.

Agency, Bias, And Representation: Undergraduate Students' Understanding Of Critical Visual Literacy, Caitlin Stewart, Heather Koopmans

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Critical visual literacy (CVL) is the ability to evaluate and deconstruct the sociocultural contexts in which visuals are produced and viewed, and is a core skill for students to develop. This poster will present prominent definitions of CVL, compared against the results of a research study in which undergraduate students critically analyzed a children’s picture book and developed their own definition of CVL. Associated research and instructional methods will be discussed. Attendees will learn about CVL as an interdisciplinary concept and will be encouraged to adapt the authors’ methods to advance their own understanding of and teaching with CVL.

Critical Picture Book Literacy, Caitlin Stewart, Heather Koopmans

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This study sought to revisit established definitions of critical visual literacy and determine how this concept could be re-envisioned specifically for picture books when informed by the approaches of teacher education students who had received limited prior formal instruction on critiquing visual texts. Seventeen sophomore elementary education students engaged in written self-discourse around the visual narrative of Milo Imagines the World written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson where they generated questions and answers critically engaging with the visuals. These participants’ responses underwent thematic analysis informed by grounded theory which uncovered a collective definition for critical …

Investigation Of The Human Temporal Styloid Process As A Bony Indicator Of Speech, Sommer A. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The temporal styloid process in humans serves as an attachment point for the styloglossus, stylohyoid, and stylopharyngeus, which are involved in tongue movement and deglutition. I hypothesized that the length of the ossified styloid process in humans is the result of selection for increased musculature that would support tongue movements involved in speech. This hypothesis assumes that the relative length of the ossified temporal styloid process is unique to humans. A comparative analysis of the presence or absence of the temporal styloid process was conducted on ten genera of Old-World primates, and it was found that the length of this …

“So Much Happens Between Those Two Spaces ”: Focalization And Parent-Child Relationships In The Moth Keeper And The Magic Fish, Sarah Delmaramo

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis identifies and examines how parent-child relationships are established within contexts of power and visually depicted in graphic novels. Establishing parent-child relationships through mutually reciprocal care is significant as a phenomenon because of the difference between the way parent-child relationships operate between the beginnings and ends of texts. The relationship change implies a problem with the relationship in the beginning which is rectified through reciprocal care. Amy Mullin describes the change as an acknowledgment that the other person in the relationship is a whole and unique individual separate from an assumption of unconditional love. Rather than viewing parent-child relationships …

Burning Torches, Eyes, And Empires: A Visual Rhetorical Analysis Of The Modern American Fascist Aesthetic, Caleb Lawler

Theses and Dissertations

Allegiance to the ideology of fascism is growing in the United States. Racist, misogynist, and xenophobic sentiments are prevalent throughout far-right groups in America. Despite fighting fascism worldwide in World War I and World War II, powerful American figures have and still hold strong ties to fascism. To consolidate control, fascists construct an aesthetic of themselves and their ideological opponents. Using visual rhetorical theory and Marxist theory, I will conduct three visual rhetorical analyses on three images from modern American political events to examine how the fascist aesthetic expresses itself in different situations.

Occentatia: Community And Escapism Through Queer World-Building, Ian Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

55 PagesOccentatia is an investigation into queer world-building, inspired by fantasy games, electronic media, and the culture of the ‘90s and early 2000’s. Built by a diverse creative team of 22 artists, audiences and readers are invited to explore the medieval-Gothic world of Occentatia through drawing and illustration, video and audio, sculpture, and installation This supportive statement guides readers through inspirations, socially engaged art, insight into characters, and the development of fantastical narratives. I hope to provide clarity to my practice, displaying the need for more research on the role fantasy and gaming play in understanding queer identities, aesthetics, and …

No Such Thing As Nappy, Alan Roosevelt Atkins

Theses and Dissertations

This supportive statement examines how my upbringings influenced my cultural and societal perspectives and how I strive to challenge perceptions of race, history, and culture through my artwork. I include representations of people from various diasporas in drawings, prints, and animations to speak to the global reach of colorism and Eurocentrism. Influenced by the DIY nature of punk art and the urgency of protest art, I utilize materials such as Sharpies, fabric markers, collage, and cardboard. Use of cardboard suggests commercial exchange and the physical movement of goods from one place to another, as well as modern throw-away culture. Parallels …

With Love & Rage: A Self Portrait Of Borderline Personality Disorder, Sarah Eckstine

Theses and Dissertations

With Love & Rage: A Self Portrait of Borderline Personality Disorder analyses how I use the act of taking self portraits to materialize emotions through photographic means. When I experience intense emotions symptomatic of borderline personality disorder, positive or negative, their onset is routinely sudden and overwhelming; what follows is an impulsive desire to photograph myself to archive the present before the emotions shift or return to stable levels.The Rage images document the emotional aftermath of a sexual assault and rape; anger and depression, by using a red-scale film to emphasize both confrontational and dissociated body language. The Love images …

Illuminating How Nestling Mouth Color And Body Size Shape Parental Care In A Cavity-Nesting Species, Shana Border

Theses and Dissertations

Young animals often solicit care from their parents using behaviors and morphologies collectively termed begging, and for many nestling birds these begging displays include presenting their parents with vividly colored mouthparts. Mouth color is a complex trait that varies both across and within species, and different aspects of color may be under independent selection and serve different functions; the two primary proposed explanations for the evolution of mouth color are to increase nestling conspicuousness to parents and to provide parents with information about nestling quality. In addition to signals like mouth color, parents could also directly assess traits like nestling …

Maps As Rhetorical Tools Of Colonial Power And Alternative Cartographies: The Americas’ Cartographic Invention, Eda Özyeşilpınar

Faculty Publications – English

This essay focuses on two historical maps as rhetorical artifacts: The Piri Reis Map of 1513 produced by the Turkish admiral Piri Reis in 1513, the Reis map, and the Map of the Island of Cuba and Surrounding Territories produced by the Cuban geographer, historian, and educator José María de la Torre y de la Torre in 1841, the de la Torre map. The Reis map demonstrates the colonial logic of Americas’ cartographic invention while the de la Torre Map is an alternative cartographic artifact disrupting the Reis map’s celebratory discourse and the settler-colonial legacy of the world heritage memory.

The Relationships Among Locus Of Control, The Impostor Phenomenon, And Math Anxiety In Business Majors, Tiffany L. S. Tovey, Stephanie Kelly, Wiley Brown

International Journal for Business Education

The importance of quantitative literacy in business education cannot be overstated. A barrier to enhancing quantitative skills for many business majors is their math anxiety, an angst some individuals experience when working with numbers. This study explored the relationship between math anxiety, locus of control, and impostor phenomenon in business students. 220 business students (undergraduate and graduate) from a two moderately sized southeastern universities in the United States participated in an online survey that assessed these three phenomena. A linear regression was run to understand the relationships among the variables. The results indicated that more than one fifth of math …

Envisioning Telehealth Beyond The Pandemic: A Federally Qualified Health Center’S Inquiry Toward Sustainable Telehealth Programs, Krista Zampacorta

Capstone Projects – Politics and Government

There has been a growing interest in telehealth, as the practice has shown to alleviate barriers and improve healthcare access. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, organizations have deployed prompt integration of telehealth services to slow the spread of the virus. This spurred widespread adoption of telehealth. In addition, the pandemic evoked stable interest in telehealth among patients, healthcare professionals, and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Chestnut Health Systems, an FQHC operating in the Midwest, deployed an Illinois State University Stevenson Center Fellow to investigate how the organization may deploy larger-scale efforts and contingency plans into the care of patients during …

Promoting Employer Desired Competencies Through A Multiphased "Workgroup" Project, Ashly Smith

International Journal for Business Education

Employers and business leaders have long been advocating for the importance of career readiness skills like critical thinking/problem solving, information literacy, teamwork/collaboration, professionalism/work ethic, and oral/written communication (NACE, 2019; Partnership, 2008). While faculty and students see value in projects that develop these skills, such projects can be some of the most challenging to incorporate effectively into business courses (Chapman et al., 2010; Detmering & Johnson, 2012; Lee et al., 2016; Marks & O’Connor, 2013). This article reports on a multi-phase group project that aims to strengthen a selection of these employer-desired skills while ameliorating student concerns about the research process …

Gathering Online: Leveraging Tools For Instruction And Group Work In The Classroom And Beyond, Rebecca Fitzsimmons

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This talk focused on the librarian-led activities for the course Community Engagement Seminar, highlighting collaboration, teaching and learning, outcomes, and other uses of Scalar. This course focused on ways that K-12 school personnel create successful learning environments. Incorporating mapping, data visualization, and digital publishing, we taught students how to use several online tools and create a Scalar book that presented their research. Through a mixture of Zoom instructional sessions and personalized consultations, we helped students use Scalar to collaborate with their group members and build skills to successfully communicate goals, strategies, and outcomes to a broader community.

We also focused …

Curators And Active Participants: Archives, Exhibits, Engagement, And Outreach Through Teaching, Rebecca Fitzsimmons

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This presentation focuses on how a set of digital humanities workshops offered to university faculty helped them incorporate new resources and methods into their teaching. The first workshop was an overview of digital tools that focused on getting started without feeling overwhelmed, ways to incorporate art and archival resources into projects, and approaches to facilitating meaningful experiences in the classroom. The second workshop refined this material by focusing on how the same idea and content could be used to create three different digital humanities projects—a collection database and map, an online exhibit, and a digital publication. The exhibitions and digital …

Closing The Loop: Development Of A Dashboard For Quality Improvement Of Business Education Programs, Alicia Iriberri, Donald N. Stengel

International Journal for Business Education

Business schools continuously improve their processes and program assessment activities, but fall short in achieving faculty's awareness of process steps and disseminating results to inform and trigger continuous improvement actions. The assessment process of the Craig School of Business at California State University, Fresno had worked well. It evaluated student learning of core competencies of its Business Administration degree programs. The assessment process had a sound set of program goals and student learning outcomes and metrics. Learning outcomes were measured semiannually, and reports were written annually. Assessment results consistently surpassed benchmarks. Still, the assessment process did not effectively disseminate results …

Toward A Theory Of Procedural Rhetorical Systems: Demonstrations Of Player Agency In Uptake Of Rules In Video Games, Sydney A. Klem

Theses and Dissertations

This paper expands Ian Bogost’s (2007) procedural rhetoric by broadening the rhetorical view of games to encompass the arguments that they make not just about the material, but about themselves. The theory of procedural rhetorical systems (PRSes) views game systems as arguing toward how players should be following their rules, and like in any form of rhetoric, players possess agency in how they take up these arguments and how closely they follow rules. To demonstrate this, this paper analyzes a specific game, the 1996 platformer Super Mario 64, alongside various digital artifacts demonstrating how players have taken it up, including …

Enrollment Report, Summer 2019, Planning, Research, And Policy Analysis

Enrollment Reports (2004-2019)

Enrollment Report for Summer 2019 for Illinois State University

Enrollment Report, Spring 2019, Planning, Research, And Policy Analysis

Enrollment Reports (2004-2019)

Enrollment Report for Spring 2019 for Illinois State University

Developing An Assessment Framework: Measuring Digital Literacy Of Interior Design Students In A Digital Drawing Course, Somang Yang

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study provides a foundation to measure students’ level of learning based on education theory for digital technology and meaningful technology theory for digital literacy. There has yet to exist an effective assessment tool that can evaluate students’ digital literacy. To provide initial insight into the digital technology integrated course development, Wacom pen-tablet and Autodesk Sketchbook were utilized to create an interior design curriculum for undergraduate college students. The findings of this study shed light on the necessity of assessing new technology for integration into coursework in higher education. There are five themes that an instructor must examine when …

Research And Graduate Studies Annual Report, 2019, Office Of Research And Graduate Studies, Illinois State University

Research and Graduate Studies Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Enrollment Report, Fall 2018, Planning, Research, And Policy Analysis

Enrollment Reports (2004-2019)

Enrollment Report for Fall 2018 for Illinois State University

Enrollment Report, Summer 2018, Planning, Research, And Policy Analysis

Enrollment Reports (2004-2019)

Enrollment Report for Summer 2018 for Illinois State University

Deaf / Hard Of Hearing Preschool Students’ Acquisition Of Language Through Dyadic And Triadic Communication Contexts, Molly S. Herman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of using dyadic communication with a teacher of the deaf (ToD) and a Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) student compared to a triadic communication with a general education teacher, sign language interpreter, and D/HH student. Four participants in a self-contained D/HH early childhood classroom participated in both comparison groups using dyadic and triadic communication to acquire vocabulary language skills for communication while playing a preschool game. An adapted alternating treatment design (AATD) for single case research was used to rapidly alternate comparison groups using equivalent games and counterbalanced across …

Communication In Live Sports Broadcasts: Attributions Of Task Performance Errors, Benjamin J. Lynn

Theses and Dissertations

A single study was conducted exploring perceptions of causal attributions communicated through a task performance error during a live sports broadcast. Participants were recruited from within the live broadcast sports community and causal attributions of a camera operator’s performance were measured using a Multidimensional Observer Attributions for Performance Scale (MOAPS) developed by Rutherford, Harari, and Rudolph (2013). Additional scales were created to measure perceptions of importance, frequency, and future hiring recommendations. Results found that following a camera mistake in a live sports broadcast, the camera operator’s relationship with the director significantly influenced future hiring recommendations and attributions of ability in …