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"If This Stuff Matters, Why Isn't It Being Shared?" : Citations, Hyperlinks, And Potential Public Futures Of Online Writing In Rhetoric And Composition., Elizabeth Frances Bergeron Chamberlain Dec 2016

"If This Stuff Matters, Why Isn't It Being Shared?" : Citations, Hyperlinks, And Potential Public Futures Of Online Writing In Rhetoric And Composition., Elizabeth Frances Bergeron Chamberlain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses two deceptively discrete questions: (1) how academics might reach wider public audiences, and (2) how and why people cite the way they do. It takes citation practices as a telling though often tacit practice, one through which it is possible trace the contours of a larger story about how writing is changing as it moves online. That story: Writers increasingly reflect goals of provocation, of attracting a wider and potentially global audience, of spreading a message rapidly and virally, of responding to recent events and conversations, of sharing sources and resources. To explore these questions, this dissertation …


A Promising Candidate: An Exploration Of Graduate Matriculation Genres, Megan D. Bishop Gervais Aug 2016

A Promising Candidate: An Exploration Of Graduate Matriculation Genres, Megan D. Bishop Gervais

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study emerges from the author’s personal experience of interacting with unfamiliar genres as she prepared her application for a graduate program in English. In a liminal space between graduating from her undergraduate program and applying for admission to a graduate program, her interaction with graduate admission genres was fraught with tension and a lack of the assumed knowledge that would inform her on how to strategically interact with these genres. This lack of tacit knowledge and absence of scaffolding lead her to compose a “statement of purpose” that did not adequately demonstrate that she was a “promising” graduate student, …


The Available Means Of Imagination : Personal Narrative, Public Rhetoric, And Circulation., Stephanie D. Weaver Aug 2016

The Available Means Of Imagination : Personal Narrative, Public Rhetoric, And Circulation., Stephanie D. Weaver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the digital circulation of personal narratives by non-celebrity individuals that become part of larger public and political debates. I posit the “available means of imagination” to describe the ways that narratives – cultural, fictional, and personal – influence our ability to understand the many facets of a given public debate before tracing the interactions among narrative, emotion, and circulation in a series of case studies using new materialist methods. I argue that emotion plays a key role in structures of participation of social media and in how we subsequently engage with contemporary political issues, especially with regards …


"This Machine Kills Fascists" : The Public Pedagogy Of The American Folk Singer., Harley Ferris Aug 2016

"This Machine Kills Fascists" : The Public Pedagogy Of The American Folk Singer., Harley Ferris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the figure of the American folk singer as a public pedagogue engaged in rhetorical action for social change. Through four case studies—Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Ani DiFranco, and Tom Morello—the dissertation examines nearly a century of folk music as a form of activism through these four figures. Each folksinger occupies a unique role in a unique era, requiring each musician to revise the work of their musical forebears to accommodate new cultural and technological environments. Drawing on theories of public pedagogy, rhetorical framing, and media, I argue that an effective use of music in social change depends …


Amused Teachers And Public Readers : Empathy And Derision In "Student Blooper" Collections., Jessica Winck Aug 2016

Amused Teachers And Public Readers : Empathy And Derision In "Student Blooper" Collections., Jessica Winck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the long-standing tradition in education of sharing and publishing students’ unintentionally amusing mistakes. Often called “bloopers,” “boners,” and “howlers,” students’ writing mistakes have been published in print since at least the early 20th century and more recently online. Using theories of reading student writing, academic discourse, ethics, and humor, this project analyzes the misconceptions that teachers and public audiences have of students, re-reads student writing for its potential, and explores the ethical implications of sharing student work with public audiences. The first two chapters ground the reader in the historical, social, and cultural contexts in which …


Stories Of Single Mothers : Narrating The Sociomaterial Mechanisms Of Community Literacy., Kathryn Elizabeth Perry May 2016

Stories Of Single Mothers : Narrating The Sociomaterial Mechanisms Of Community Literacy., Kathryn Elizabeth Perry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In light of the increasing significance of community activist scholarship in Rhetoric and Composition and given the overwhelming nature of institutional educational inequity, this dissertation takes a close look at specific literacy practices and the corresponding networks that shape these literacy practices at a community literacy organization. Based on interviews with participants and staff at a local nonprofit called Family Scholar House (FSH), this project paints a complex picture of each stakeholder’s perspective on successful literacy. First, I employ Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to analyze three specific literacy moments at FSH: an application for government assistance, a financial aid appeal letter, …


To My Betas, Endless Chocolate Frogs! : Exploring The Intersections Of Emotion, The Body, And Literacy In Online Fanfiction., Brittany Kelley May 2016

To My Betas, Endless Chocolate Frogs! : Exploring The Intersections Of Emotion, The Body, And Literacy In Online Fanfiction., Brittany Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the complex intersections of identity, including gender, sexuality, and social class, in the literacy practices of online fanfiction. Previous scholarship has focused solely on the gender and/or pedagogical implications of fanfiction communities, and my project engages and extends these conversations by analyzing how fanfiction practices provide a distinctive space to explore how we understand identity, digital technologies, and fannish participation. I conducted textual analysis of stories, authors' notes, "how-to" guides, and questionnaires and interviews. A close inspection of fanfiction practices provide insight into how digital technologies and literacy practices interact within exchange economies. My dissertation is divided …


At The Intersection Of Feminism And Fast Capitalism: A Study Of Women's Literacies During A Time Of Change, Melanie Gauss Jan 2016

At The Intersection Of Feminism And Fast Capitalism: A Study Of Women's Literacies During A Time Of Change, Melanie Gauss

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in socio-historical studies of literacy have focused on the social and historical aspects of literacy. While these prior studies have illuminated how we think about the social and historical context surrounding literacy, we have not studied women's literacies in relation to the economy as much. In response, this study focuses particularly on women's literacies during a specific time period, that of the 1960s to the 1990s, which ushered in second wave feminism's fight for equality in the workplace and the change from traditional capitalism to "fast" or "new" capitalism. To develop this inquiry, and find out about women's literacies …


Can Best Practices In Writing Instruction And Standardized Testing Coexist?, Karen Cannavino Jan 2016

Can Best Practices In Writing Instruction And Standardized Testing Coexist?, Karen Cannavino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the high school level, teachers are tasked with a twofold agenda: they must prepare their students for college level and other post-secondary writing, and they must also make sure they perform well on the standardized writing tests that are required by the state. The stakes in standardized testing continue to rise, especially in Florida. Since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 (NCLB) and the implementation of the Race to the Top Assessment Program (RTTT) in 2009, teachers across the nation have experienced intense pressures related to standardized testing. Many schools' efforts to conform to …


Alien Affects: Movement, Migration, And Landscapes Of Citizenship, Michael Andrew Lechuga Jan 2016

Alien Affects: Movement, Migration, And Landscapes Of Citizenship, Michael Andrew Lechuga

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alien Affects is a materialist examination of the ways citizenship landscapes are shaped by three mechanisms of control - extraterrestrial film, border security, and the legal apparatuses of the State - that accelerate flows of dominant national citizenship and hinder the movements of migrants. As bodies move through borders and through communities in the US, they are subjected to techniques of citizenship control that divide citizens from aliens. This political division maximizes the State's capacity to benefit from the mobility of its preferred citizen groups while subjugating its alien groups - those who might be characterized as such because they …


The Impact Of Philanthropy, Jonathan F. Denzler Jan 2016

The Impact Of Philanthropy, Jonathan F. Denzler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forwarding a narrative framework of philanthropic impact this thesis problematizes the evaluation methods used by social engagement organizations to measure the impact or change that they are contributing to in a community. By focusing on the example of food access, and the corresponding language of the "food desert", this project locates the power to control the framing of social issues in the hands of funders as opposed to those who experience the real life effects of living in poverty or resource-poor communities. This process then lets the philanthropists set a goal and meet that goal without ever truly communicating or …


It's A Whole New Ball Game: The Mitchell Report, Performance Enhancing Drugs, And Professional Sports, Brian J. Schrader Jan 2016

It's A Whole New Ball Game: The Mitchell Report, Performance Enhancing Drugs, And Professional Sports, Brian J. Schrader

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the findings of a congressional investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in Major League Baseball, known as the Mitchell Report. It analyzes the primary arguments presented in the report, the argument for integrity, role-models, and apology specifically, through the lens of governmentality and moral regulation. It argues that the report represents a distinct mode of governance that seeks to condemn PED use in a moralizing way. This mode of governance is characterized by its emergence from a variety of locations as opposed to the relatively simple use of the state and its legal apparatus. …


Thresholds Of Invisibility: A Perspective On Moments Of Transition In Scholarly Rhetorics, Robert D. Gilmor Jan 2016

Thresholds Of Invisibility: A Perspective On Moments Of Transition In Scholarly Rhetorics, Robert D. Gilmor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation suggests that certain historical moments of transition generate identifiable schisms in scholarly discourse that leave contemporary scholars unable to communicate with one another. At these moments of Augustinian "unlikeness," established scholarly commitments, such as logocentrism, are rendered invisible to the critics that rely on them as new forms and technologies become the (ostensible) talking points of discourse. The confusion at these moments contribute to a complex of discursive practices that can be called "thresholds of invisibility," or moments of transition and division, when scholars are captivated by new forms and less attentive to the continuing influence of already …


Dining With The Cyborgs: Disembodied Consumption And The Rhetoric Of Food Media In The Digital Age, Maggie Cotto Jan 2016

Dining With The Cyborgs: Disembodied Consumption And The Rhetoric Of Food Media In The Digital Age, Maggie Cotto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores digital media productions based specifically on food and cooking in order to demonstrate that new communication technologies are increasingly incorporating all five of the bodily senses. In doing so, they contribute significantly to the emergence of new ideological apparatuses appropriate for a global community. These apparatuses – including the formation of a posthumanist subject, the use of technology to support embodied cognition, and the establishment of entertainment as an ideological institution – have become the harbingers of a rhetorical evolution. Based on the work of Gregory Ulmer, along with Jacques Derrida, N. Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, and …