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Melanie L. Buffington Curriculum Vitae, Melanie L. Buffington

The Melanie Buffington Papers

The Curriculum Vitae (CV) of Dr. Melanie Buffington, 2020.

The Influence Of Observational Experience And Metaconceptual Teaching Activities On Secondary Science Teacher Candidates’ Conceptual Understandings Of The Practices Of Science, Jillian L. Wendt, Brandy Huderson

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

Research supports that the use of intentional, metaconceptual teaching practices enhances teacher candidates’ conceptual change, thus affecting teacher candidates’ accumulation of new knowledge and understanding. With the increased focus on and need to accommodate the calls for enhanced science teacher education of the Next Generation Science Standards and the related practices of science, it is important to consider how teacher preparation programs enact conceptual change among teacher candidates that align with the current calls. This study examines intentional, metaconceptual teaching activities coupled with observational field experiences with mentor scientists to determine whether engagement in these activities affects teacher candidates’ understandings …

Don’T Call This World Adorable & Other Salvaged Stories, Brooke A. Hofsess

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

In this contribution to the special issue on Precarity, the author builds salvaged stories that touch ecological precarities related to place-based discourses within art education. Tsing’s (2015) attentiveness to precarity and Alaimo’s (2012; 2016) suspicion of sustainability cascade upon the author’s thinking/living/writing with Ecologies of Girlhood, an interdisciplinary, intersectional, intergenerational arts program considering living feminist lives co-creatively with place (Ahmed, 2017). New material feminism moves alongside an Indigenous ontology of land-based pedagogies creating “inter-theoretic conversations” (Rosiek, Snyder, & Pratt, 2019) about sustainability and place. These accounts are simply told and cultivated from everyday practices that explore a craftsmanship of attention …

An Investigation Of Elementary School Teachers’ Culturally Relevant Teaching Practices In Two Cultures: A Comparative Study In China And The United States, Alicia R. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Effective teaching is one of the most important factors in student achievement. Throughout the world, there are high expectations for teacher and student performance. Teachers and students need to navigate the demographic and cultural shifts occurring around the world. Teachers’ cultural awareness and knowledge base of culturally relevant teaching practices is critical to their effectiveness. Based on the need to better understand the cultural responsiveness of teachers, this comparative study investigated elementary school teachers’ culturally relevant teaching practices in China and the U.S. through the use of video-cued ethnography. The following findings were revealed from the study: (a) differences in …

Western Representation On Twitter In Relation To Orientalism And Framing: A Content Analysis Of #Saudi Arabia And #Saudis, Wedyan A. Kattan

Theses and Dissertations

Based on framing theory, Said’s Orientalism, and Hall’s theory of representation, this dissertation explores how the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is represented on the social media platform Twitter. Specifically, the study aims to identify how Saudi Arabia and Saudis are represented in English-language tweets by Western media in the years after several political incidents in the region, such as the Yemen war, and new political leadership in Saudi Arabia that has introduced many economic and social reforms. Thus, the overarching research question in this study is, how have Saudi Arabia and Saudis been presented on Twitter recently? This study sheds …

College Students’ Perceptions Of Popular Diets And Orthorexia Nervosa, Madison W. Weinstock

Theses and Dissertations

Data suggest that individuals’ purported dietary patterns influence others’ perceptions of them. However, few studies have investigated how adherence to specific popular diets might influence these perceptions. This study investigated female undergraduates’ (n = 463) perceptions of vignette characters described as adhering to specific dietary practices perceptions of a vignette character in a sample of 463 female undergraduates. Characters described as adhering to a Clean Eating diet were viewed most positively, followed by individuals on the Ketogenic diet or nondieters. Characters following an Intermittent Fasting diet, and those with Orthorexia Nervosa were viewed most negatively. These findings support the …

Failing In My Own Class, Bryan Castro

Theses and Dissertations

This research statement summarizes how my artwork has shifted from my performance-lecture Say It After Me to the painting-installation Becoming Dysfluent. To understand that shift in my practice, an account of my performance-lecture Say It After Me is explained in order to understand how it’s similar and different to Joseph Beuys’s performances with blackboards. Next, the relationship between the American educational system and my identity is explained in order to understand how my experiences as an instructor in higher education informed the creation of my performance persona Professor Castro. After discussing my identity as a Puerto Rican-American, my decision …

...And Yet The Devil Exists, John Hee Taek Chae

Theses and Dissertations

...And Yet the Devil Exists is a project that explores the ways in which ideology determines reality. It is an installation that plots and connects the historical and personal narratives that have defined my sense of identity–narratives in which perceptions of reality shatter, mutate, or hybridize when confronted with power, opportunity, or coercion. The installation component of the project consists of three parts. The first is an infrastructure made of wooden beams upon which paintings and images are installed; I call this the lantern. In the center of this is a round table on top of which is a nonsensical …

It’S Funny Because It’S True: The Transmission Of Explicit And Implicit Racism In Internet Memes, Tabitha Fairchild

Theses and Dissertations

Video games are traditionally seen as the domain of heteronormative white males. The purpose of this study is to explore how racism is transmitted and reproduced within digital communities, and how humor is being used to frame racist discourse in virtual spaces. Digitally, internet memes are widely used rhetorical vehicles, reaching large and broad audiences. The roles these artifacts play in the reproduction and transmission of racist ideology is often obfuscated by the perception that internet memes are "just jokes." This study analyzes internet memes collected from 16 months of communication between members of Discord servers that self-identify as communities …

Internalizing Data Collection: Personal Analytics As An Investigation Of The Self, Neal R. Swisher

Theses and Dissertations

Personal analytics, aka self-tracking, is the practice of using a digital device to track aspects of behavior, such as exercise habits, heart rate, sleep patterns, location, diet, and a host of other data points. This dissertation is an exploration of “self” in self-tracking, informed by theories of subjectivity, autonomy, power and knowledge. As a technological intervention, self-tracking devices change how we experience our own body and behavior. They also serve as methods to digitize human behavior. This data is combined with other data and processed using computational methods. Self-tracking devices are both personal and bureaucratic. They are devices used for …

“I Got The Mics On, My People Speak”: On The Rise Of Aboriginal Australian Hip Hop, Rhyan Clapham, Benjamin Kelly

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

In this paper, an Aboriginal rapper and settler-Australian Indigenous Studies lecturer collaborate to provide an overview of the Aboriginal Australian Hip Hop scene. We contextualize the development of Aboriginal Hip Hop as part of a long postcolonial tradition of Aboriginal engagement with Black transnationalism. By analysing rap lyrics, Hip Hop videos, and related commentary, we demonstrate the ways in which Aboriginal hip hoppers have adapted elements of Hip Hop culture to suit their own cultures, histories, and structural position as a colonized minority under the rule of a modern settler-colonial state. We conclude by considering Aboriginal engagement with Hip Hop …

(Global) Hip Hop Studies Bibliography, Travis T. Harris, Travis Terrell Harris

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

This bibliography documents Hip Hop scholarship outside of America, including scholarly works that may be US centric, yet expands its analysis to other parts of the world. Hip Hop Studies outside the boundaries of the United States stretches as far and wide as Hip Hop itself. This scholarship started in 1984, and the amount of scholarship beyond American boundaries has continued to grow up through present day. The first wave, before Mitchell's Global Noise (2001), includes a wider range of scholarly works such as conference presentations and books written by journalists, in addition to traditional academic sources such as books …

If I Ruled The World: Putting Hip Hop On The Atlas, Travis T. Harris, Simran Singh, Daniel White Hodge

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

“If I Ruled the World: Putting Hip Hop on the Atlas” contends for a third wave of Global Hip Hop Studies that builds on the work of the first two waves, identifies Hip Hop as an African diasporic phenomenon, and aligns with Hip Hop where there are no boundaries between Hip Hop inside and outside of the United States. Joanna Daguirane Da Sylva adds to the cipha with her examination of Didier Awadi. Da Sylva's excellent work reveals the ways in which Hip Hoppa Didier Awadi elevates Pan-Africanism and uses Hip Hop as a tool to decolonize the minds of …

Can It Be Bigger Than Hip Hop?: From Global Hip Hop Studies To Hip Hop, Travis T. Harris

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Global Hip Hop Studies has grown tremendously since it started in 1984. Scholars from a number of disciplines have published numerous journal articles, books, dissertations and theses. They have also presented at multiple academic conferences and taught classes on global Hip Hop. “Can It Be Bigger Than Hip Hop?: From Global Hip Hop Studies to Hip Hop Studies” traces this history and examines the key authors, intellectual interventions, methods, and theories of this field. I used an interdisciplinary methodology entailing participant observations of local Hip Hoppas and the examination of more than five hundred scholarly texts that I assembled into …

Losting + Founding Poetry: Sub/Versive Academic Love Letters, Mindi J. Rhoades, Vittoria S. Daiello

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

No abstract provided.

The Journal Of Social Theory In Art Education (2019) Full Issue, Jstae Editor

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

No abstract provided.

Troubling The “We” In Art Education: Slam Poetry As Subversive Duoethnography, Gloria J. Wilson, Sara Scott Shields

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Scholarly dialogues are filled with discussions of teacher’s personal perspectives, experiences, and challenges - but rarely do these dialogues include the narratives that lie beneath the surface. The subversive tales confronting stories of microagressions, alternate histories, and institutionalized norms that shape the educational landscape we navigate daily. This paper is focused on bringing to the surface a call and response lament of two social justice-oriented art educators--one Black, the other White. Using the dialogic methodology of duoethnography and the performative aspects of slam poetry, we share our racialized-teaching accounts as a multisensory experience, where text and performative orality share a …

I Gotta Testify: Kanye West, Hip Hop, And The Church, Joshua K. Wright, Adria Y. Goldman, Vanatta S. Ford

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

The goal of this project, “I Gotta Testify: Kanye West, Hip Hop, and the Church,” is to add a new perspective to the scholarly discourse on Hip Hop and Christianity within classrooms, religious institutions, and popular culture by focusing on Kanye. We chose to focus on Kanye because he has been one of Hip Hop’s most influential artists in the past decade. Furthermore, Kanye is one of the most polarizing celebrities in America and across the globe. His music, fashion, political views, and family (which includes the Kardashians) dominate discourse on social media, blogs, television, and other forms of mass …

Introduction - Enigma Embodied: The Curious Complexity Of Kanye West, Daniel White Hodge

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

“There’s no way Hip Hop and religion work. No way!” “I just can’t see anything coming out of religion and Hip Hop. It’s like the two don’t even go together.” “Rap music is of the devil. To say there is any God in it is blasphemous!” These were direct quotes I received when I began my journey into the field of Religion and Hip Hop. I was met with firm opposition and the very notion of combining Hip Hop and religion left many angered, bewildered, confused, but definitely not speechless. It was a trifling time and the very thought of …

Turning Gender Inside-Out: Delivering Higher Education In Women’S Carceral Spaces, Giulia Federica Zampini, Linnéa Anna Margareta Österman, Camille May Stengel, Morwenna Bennallick

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This article is a critical reflection of the role of gender in the delivery of a higher education course based on the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Programme. Related concepts such as hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and intersectionality are discussed within the prison education setting. This reflection primarily draws on critical incidents from the experiences of the first three authors facilitating a higher education course in a women’s prison in England. One major reflection is that learning in a group of ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ students, all self-identified women, who vary along the dimensions of age, class, ethnicity, nationality and sexual expression, presented unique …

The Compass, Summer 2019

The Compass, 2018-

The Compass is an annual orientation guide for VCU students produced by the Student Media Collective in the VCU Student Media Centered. The guide is distributed physically during summer orientation sessions for new and transfer students. The publication includes short articles, illustrations, letters of welcome from students and administrators, comics, and advertisements from VCU and Richmond organizations.

Cultivating A Democratic Community In The Elementary Art Classroom, Kelly Fergus

Theses and Dissertations

Cultivating a more socially just, democratic classroom community is a best pedagogical practices qualitative case study. This study is designed to explore how three Virginia elementary art teachers define and create a democratic classroom community, inside their art rooms, through the implementation of various instructional strategies within the physical, social-cultural, and pedagogical spaces of their classrooms. Such instructional strategies may include a shift in power dynamics, student-centered art, choice-based art, and a big idea/real-world issue-orientated curriculum (ex: visual culture, social justice, democratic pedagogies). Each of the three selected participants were interviewed and asked to describe their classroom practices as well …

Out Of The Margins: Evolving Narrative Representation Of Women In Video Games, Rowan Lucas

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines narrative representation of female characters in video games and how game narratives and representations contribute to socio-cultural discourse. First, this thesis explores and defines the cultural background for female representation in video games. It then defines video games as a type of text and describes the features that are unique to games, such as the use of avatars, and what impacts these features have on game narratives. The thesis attempts to establish evidence of an evolutionary arc of comprehensive female representation in video games by first exploring historical female narrative tropes, and then comparing them to narrative …

Graphic Intimacies: Identity, Humor, And Trauma In Autobiographical Comics By Women Of Color, Francesca Lyn

Theses and Dissertations

Graphic Intimacies: Identity, Humor, and Trauma in Autobiographical Comics by Women of Color examines works of comics art about the lived experience of the comics’ creator. These graphic narratives address racialized difference and the construction of identity while also using humor to negotiate their narrations of traumatic events. I argue that these creators employ the structure of comics to replicate the fragmentary nature of memory. Comics allow for the representation of trauma as being intimately linked to corporeality. The comics medium allows creators to make visible and present fractured versions of the self, a product of traumatic fragmentation. Drawing traumatic …

Toward Liveness: The Polytemporality Of Performance Objects, Tracy Stonestreet

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine the temporal and material connections between component parts of hybrid artworks, specifically between live events / acts of performance and the long-lasting sculptural elements that those events / performances produce. I propose a re-orientation of the temporal gaze of performance art history, from one oriented to the past to one focused on the continually unfolding present. Such a re-orientation requires a nonlinear approach to art making that complicates set boundaries of past and present, liveness and record, and presence and absence, and disrupts in potentially corrective ways our historically normative systems of looking, categorizing, and …

Adaptive Acts: Queer Voices And Radical Adaptation In Multi-Ethnic American Literary And Visual Culture, Michael M. Means

Theses and Dissertations

Adaptation Studies suffers from a deficiency in the study of black, brown, yellow, and red adaptive texts, adaptive actors, and their practices. Adaptive Acts intervenes in this Eurocentric discourse as a study of adaptation with a (queer) POC perspective. My dissertation reveals that artists of color (re)create texts via dynamic modes of adaptation such as hyper-literary allusion, the use of meta-narratives as framing devices, and on-site collaborative re-writes that speak to/from specific cultural discourses that Eurocentric models alone cannot account for. I examine multi-ethnic American adaptations to delineate the role of adaptation in the continuance of stories that contest dominant …

At The Table; An Investigation Of How Growing, Cooking, And Sharing Food Together Can Bring A Wealth Of Benefits, Angeline M. Troilo

Theses and Dissertations

MOTIVATION: The value of family mealtime has been well documented by decades of academic research. Children from families, (regardless of race, class or income), that routinely sit down to a meal together, suffer less depression, obesity and substance abuse. They also stay healthier and do better in school (Benefits 2018). There are nutrition, health, social, and mental benefits to eating with others. Research has shown that people eat more fruits and vegetables and other nutrient-rich foods when they share a meal with others. They also drink less soda and eat less fried foods (Benefits 2018). Eating meals together teaches children …

Weaving Theory/Practice For Art As Knowing In Early Childhood Education, Corinna E. Peterken

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Early childhood education has a tradition of arts based pedagogy. Current emphasis on high stakes testing and test scores as evidence of learning, even for young children, has educators moving away from the arts as academic learning. This visual essay is an a/r/tographic inquiry with woven threads of theory/practice from this moving fault zone that support the arts as a way of knowing for the early years. Making and writing with woolen fibers and feathers form a mat as a surface that is thinking with encounters from teaching pre-service early childhood educators with art. The weaving is an opening to …

Earthquakes + Tsunamis (A Poetic Diptych), Mindi Rhoades

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

What follows is pair of found poems created by the practice of mining the writings of other authors to form a new work, a piece of language art. This process shares similarities with postmodern artistic practices including collage, appropriation, sampling, remixing, and repurposing. Source materials for found poems can include other poems, novels, newspaper articles, magazine stories, obituaries, letters—almost anything.

For these particular poems, the source materials are academic educational research articles about geological fault zones and earthquakes. The majority of the text in these poems is taken ver- batim from their original articles and used in the order of …

Reception Claims In Supernatural Horror In Literature And The Course Of Weird Fiction, John Glover

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This chapter explores H. P. Lovecraft's essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature," considering the ways in which Lovecraft attempted to construct favorable conditions for the reception of his own work. The writing of the essay was a pivotal moment in Lovecraft's career and authorial self-fashioning. Both it and he went on to influence the development of weird fiction in Lovecraft's lifetime and subsequently, lasting well into the current period of reevaluation of the author's legacy and person.