Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Unruly Periods: Reproductive Futurities And The Rhetorics Of Menstruation, Hannah Taylor

All Dissertations

“Unruly Periods: Reproductive Temporalities and the Rhetorics of Menstruations” argues that dominant rhetorics of shame and regulation around menstruation work to maintain strict reproductive temporalities that uphold heteropatriarchal norms. Specifically, I draw upon scholarship in queer studies and disability rhetorics to assert that sexual health texts (such as puberty books), menstrual care products (pads and tampons), and technologies of menstruation (period-tracking apps) function as a form of chronobiolitics—a teleological force that seeks to reinforce bodily normalcy. In doing so, these rhetorics of menstruation deny or elide the embodied experiences of diverse, queer, and disabled menstruators, limiting reproductive possibilities. Reproductive justice …

Organizations Ensuring Resilience: A Case Study Of Cortez, Florida, Karla Ariel Maddox

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Resilience” has often been defined by examining case studies in resilience failures. In contrast, this case study utilizes the oldest, still functional fishing village in Cortez, Florida to rhetorically analyze how organizational communicative practices have worked to ensure its resilience. Situating this conversation within Rhetoric proves valuable since so many attempts to define and utilize “resilience” seek to capitalize on its positive connotation but distort resilience definitions and practice. This dissertation explores three research questions: 1. “What systems and/or structures made our continued existence possible and what ideologies or goals drove their creation?” 2. “What ideologies, perceptions, and/or goals inspired …

The Impacts Of Social Media On Social Movements, Gabriela Aguilar

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

As time passes by there is more representation of social movements due to their high exposure on social media. Technology has become a major part of our everyday lives and on average we spend many hours on social platforms. We are exposed to the injustices that occur every minute of every day through social media. Before, when technology was not accessible for everyone the news people received were from television, newspapers, or even magazines. Now, we have platforms such as Twitter and TikTok among others that provide us with news on any malpractice that occurs in our communities and society. …

Shopping For A Cause: Social Influencers, Performative Allyship, And The Commodification Of Activism, Emily Mckellar

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Since the early 2010s, social media has been a powerful tool for protestors and activists throughout the world. In times of crisis and political uprisings, users have pulled out their phones and taken to platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and, more recently, Instagram, to capture “the revolution” in real time. Although originally intended for networking purposes, social media has provided people with a digital space to share their stories, disseminate resources, and broadcast live, allowing them to share their efforts with millions.

While social media has helped assemble protests, amplify marginalized voices, and educate the public, it has also become a …

Voices Of The Say Her Name Campaign: Theorizing An Activist Rhetoric Of Blame, Alisa Davis

Theses and Dissertations

There is a lack of research in communication scholarship that analyzes how Black women employ blame from their unique standpoint. To combat this, this thesis analyzes the Say Her Name Campaign to demonstrate the ways Black women employ an activist rhetoric of blame that deconstructs their historical erasure in the discourse about antiblack police violence. Drawing upon Black feminist scholarship and epideictic rhetoric, I argue that an activist rhetoric of blame, used by Black women, dramatically puts on display the life of individuals who have experienced injustices and exposes blameworthy misogynoir attitudes in order to criticize the inherent flaws within …

The Remediation Of Paralinguistic Features For The Construction Of Epistemic Stance In Online Vegan Communities, James R. Shepard Iii

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I examine how members of online vegan communities construct and perform epistemic stance through exploiting the affordances of alphabetic computer-mediated communication (CMC) to remediate paralinguistic features. The data are taken from two exchanges across two different online platforms: Facebook and Reddit. Working within the constraints of alphabetic CMC and the affordances of their respective platforms, interactants discuss vegan activism in ways that mimic traditional oral communication. Utilizing unique linguistic constructions and features of CMC such as emoji and emoticons, interactants are able to clearly perform their affective and epistemic stances as well as demonstrate what McCulloch calls …

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 …

#Kancelkulture: An Analysis Of Cancel Culture And Social Media Activism Through The Lens Of Minority College Students, Korri E. Palmer

Senior Independent Study Theses

I am investigating how minority students of color find cancel culture (boycotting a brand or celebrity) to be a beneficial or harmful form of social media activism. I situate social media as a networked public and discuss how consumer activism meets social media activism, specifically on Twitter, to create cancel culture. My study includes results from a combination of a focus group and individual interviews that discuss topics of social media use, participation in cancel culture and activism involvement. This study provides a definition of cancel culture through the perspectives of generation Z social media users and discusses the duality …

Rhetorical “Slacktivism”: Activism In The Age Of Social Media, Katherine Mcconnell

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

I, Too, Am Harvard: A Black Higher Education Narrative, Tara Nicole Rayers

Masters Theses

On November 2nd, 2012 Sarah R. Siskind wrote an opinion editorial for Harvard’s student newspaper that initiated critical and frequently demeaning conversations on campus about the place of minorities in higher education. In this thesis, I examine a response to this editorial and the conversations that surrounded it, a response which began with 50 black students at Harvard, but expanded to include (as of November, 2014) students in at least 45 different universities in 9 different countries. I argue that this response, entitled the “I, Too” campaign, serves as an example of an empowering social justice movement. In particular, I …