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Articles 5131 - 5160 of 8611

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Press Anywhere: Stories, Brendon Barnes Jan 2014

Press Anywhere: Stories, Brendon Barnes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Press Anywhere is a collection of short stories that depicts the various inadequacies of the third millennium male. Each story concerns a man, a boy, or a family on the cusp of change. These characters, burdened by their family tragedies, try to shake off their histories and renew themselves. But, in one way or another, home always finds them. Set in a shared universe, some characters appear in multiple stories, including one boy who dreams of an unlikely superhero to save him from an abusive sibling, and a man determined to outlive a family curse.

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On Copyright Law: What Technical Communicators Need To Know, Mariana Chao Jan 2014

On Copyright Law: What Technical Communicators Need To Know, Mariana Chao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Copyright law, in general, is a multi-faceted and sometimes difficult to understand process. Although it is law, it is often not straight-forward and cannot be applied universally. While the concepts of copyright infringement and plagiarism may sometimes overlap, many confuse one for the other or think they are the same offense. This thesis is intended to serve as a primer to some basic aspects of copyright law for technical communicators, including issues surrounding public domain works, the fair use doctrine, the copyright clearance process, as well as why we should be concerned about our current copyright laws. Over the past …

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The Great Mirror Of Fandom: Reflections Of (And On) Otaku And Fujoshi In Anime And Manga, Clarissa Graffeo Jan 2014

The Great Mirror Of Fandom: Reflections Of (And On) Otaku And Fujoshi In Anime And Manga, Clarissa Graffeo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this thesis is to examine representations of otaku and fujoshi (i.e., dedicated fans of pop culture) in Japanese anime and manga from 1991 until the present. I analyze how these fictional images of fans participate in larger mass media and academic discourses about otaku and fujoshi, and how even self-produced reflections of fan identity are defined by the combination of larger normative discourses and market demands. Although many scholars have addressed fan practices and identities through surveys and participant observation, many of these studies work with Western groups of fans whose identities may not be consistent with …

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In Double Exile: A Memoir, Deborah Beckwin Jan 2014

In Double Exile: A Memoir, Deborah Beckwin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Double Exile: A Memoir examines the life of a family of Ghanaian immigrants and their journeys of acculturation, and the impact of the father's spiraling mental health issues on his family. Through the eyes of their daughter, this thesis briefly explores their lives on the right side of the Atlantic, as medical professionals, and then focuses on the life of their daughter born in America on the left side of the Atlantic. As novelist Georges Simenon has said, "I am at home everywhere, and nowhere. I am never a stranger and I never quite belong." This memoir explores this …

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The Relevance Of Benjamin Franklin's And Thomas Jefferson's Technical Writing For Modern Communicators, Kristin Fecko Jan 2014

The Relevance Of Benjamin Franklin's And Thomas Jefferson's Technical Writing For Modern Communicators, Kristin Fecko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today's technical communicators enjoy an increasingly broader role and influence in the workplace, and are often given latitude to use engaging rhetoric and personal touches in many kinds of communications. Historical documents, particularly those that are substantially removed from our own era, can offer fresh approaches and insight into the enduring elements of successful communication. This study explores the technical writings of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and considers their usefulness to professionals today. Although the political writing of Franklin and Jefferson is more familiar, both men frequently wrote about scientific and technical subjects and were well-known in their day …

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We Are The Asteroid, Sloane Davis Jan 2014

We Are The Asteroid, Sloane Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We Are the Asteroid is a collection of personal essays concerned with the power of erasure and manipulation of chronology that comes with writing. It both acknowledges and participates in the fact that nonfiction writers become unstuck in time, whether they want to or not, traveling between ages, rearranging the order of events into the stories they tell. The collection centers on a few traumatic events in the narrator's life, and it explores the ways in which she deals with those events through her writing. The writer utilizes various structural techniques, such as the segmented form, to play with the …

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Female Bias In Technical Communication And An Exploration Of Pedagogical Strategies For Reversing The Bias, Rebecca Beeson Jan 2014

Female Bias In Technical Communication And An Exploration Of Pedagogical Strategies For Reversing The Bias, Rebecca Beeson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores technical communication and seeks to establish that females outnumber males in the field while also holder more high-level positions. It further seeks to show why a field does not benefit from having one sex outnumber the other. The benefits of having an equal number of females and males contributing to the growth and expansion of the field are discussed. Finally, this thesis discusses potential pedagogical strategies which could be employed at the college level as a means of attracting more young men to the field and allowing for maximum growth of technical communication as a field of …

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Narrative In Technical Communication, James Fenn Jan 2014

Narrative In Technical Communication, James Fenn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research is on the involvement of narrative learning within technical communication and the benefits that such an involvement can bring to the field. I analyze literature from within technical communication to determine how narrative is perceived, as well as the traditions in technical communication that made the field resistant to the use of narrative in the past. These findings are considered with respect to the history and definition of narrative, as well as to how narrative can improve learning outcomes when compared to expository learning approaches commonly used in technical documentation. While narrative is not a …

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Stranger Species, Rachel Burns Jan 2014

Stranger Species, Rachel Burns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stranger Species is a collection of interconnected personal and lyrical essays that illustrate and dissect the biological and psychological forces that drive humans to act. While essays in the collection prove the narrator's need to believe that we are animals first and human beings second and that sex and persistence to survive are proof of our animalism, essays simultaneously counter-argue that humans-our emotions, weaknesses, and consciousness-are unique to our species, separating us from the animal world. Throughout the collection, fear resonates that we do not control our desires and ultimately our lives, that biology and our deep seeded psychological inadequacies …

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Technical Communicators And Writing Consultants: Identity And Expertise, Nichole Cepero Jan 2014

Technical Communicators And Writing Consultants: Identity And Expertise, Nichole Cepero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the roles of technical communicators and writing center consultants in regards to their identities and the expertise that they bring to what they do. Both fields have struggled with a lack of understanding surrounding what their positions entail and more importantly how they perform in their roles. With this in mind, the goal of this paper is to analyze how the growth of each field and the variations of each position contribute to the issue of identity. Furthermore, as a result of the identity problem that faces each position, I suggest using the theory of liminality, communication …

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Martin Cenquizqui, Christina Guillen Jan 2014

Martin Cenquizqui, Christina Guillen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The historical novel, Cortes Cenquizqui, set in sixteenth century Mexico and Spain, follows the conflicted lives and minds of several characters through an age of freshly crossing culture, language, and power. The narrator, Maria de Quesada of high ranking Spanish and Mexica parents, resents the white world for condemning her work as a female healer or curandera. Yet she acknowledges that she is ill-equipped to leave Mexico City to live in the outlying Indigenous villages. Maria recalls the tale of her three brothers who were caught in a web of pride and prejudices. Her interjections throughout shed light on questions …

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Kaleidoscopic Community History: Theories Of Databased Rhetorical History-Making, Amy Larner Giroux Jan 2014

Kaleidoscopic Community History: Theories Of Databased Rhetorical History-Making, Amy Larner Giroux

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To accurately describe the past, historians strive to learn the cultural ideologies of the time and place they study so their interpretations are situated in the context of that period and not in the present. This exploration of historical context becomes critical when researching marginalized groups, as evidence of their rhetorics and cultural logics are usually submerged within those of the dominant society. This project focuses on how factors, such as rhetor/audience perspective, influence cross-cultural historical interpretation, and how a community history database can be designed to illuminate and affect these factors. Theories of contact zones and rhetorical listening were …

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Tractors And Genres: Knowledge-Making And Identity Formation In An Agricultural Community, Marcy Galbreath Jan 2014

Tractors And Genres: Knowledge-Making And Identity Formation In An Agricultural Community, Marcy Galbreath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the history of a small Florida agricultural community over the course of the twentieth century from a rhetorical perspective in order to understand the technological and communicative transitions that governed the development of American agricultural production. By examining archival and oral histories, this research will add to our understandings of how written and oral communications temper the relationships and social situations of an agricultural community, including the knowledge-making and technological adaptation resulting from communications within the community and with outside institutions and entities. Agricultural villages are not isolated entities, but rather sites of multiple rhetorical situations, and …

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Need: Stories, Megan Ellis Jan 2014

Need: Stories, Megan Ellis

HIM 1990-2015

The intent of this thesis is to create a literary fiction collection centered on diverse adolescent girls. In recent years, women writers have moved away from the domestic sphere of authors whose writing focused solely on the daily lives of women, and have begun penning epic stories and novels whose themes were previously tackled by men alone. Authors show that the craft of expansive and immersive literary fiction transcends gender, allowing women more freedom with the types of stories they choose to write. That's not to say that domestic fiction is unimportant or "less than" other types of literary fiction, …

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Arrangement Of Google Search Results And Imperial Ideology: Searching For Benghazi, Libya, Jacob Stewart Jan 2014

Arrangement Of Google Search Results And Imperial Ideology: Searching For Benghazi, Libya, Jacob Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project responds to an ongoing discussion in scholarship that identifies and analyzes the ideological functions of computer interfaces. In 1994, Cynthia Selfe and Richard Selfe claimed that interfaces are maps of cultural information and are therefore ideological (485). For Selfe and Selfe and other scholars, these interfaces carried a colonial ideology that resulted in Western dominance over other cultures. Since this early scholarship, our perspectives on interface have shifted with changing technology; interfaces can no longer be treated as having persistent and predictable characteristics like texts. I argue that interfaces are interactions among dynamic information that is constantly being …

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Let Me Tell You About Homestuck: The Online Production Of Place, Jennifer Short Jan 2014

Let Me Tell You About Homestuck: The Online Production Of Place, Jennifer Short

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the potential for the online production of place, specifically as it applies to the host site for the Homestuck web comic, MS Paint Adventures, and its attendant fandom. The proliferation of digital environments such as video games, web sites, and chat rooms has led to numerous opportunities for the study of online spaces and the numerous practices that take place within them. The lack of physical location in online spaces can, however, make it difficult to conceptualize of a web site as real, a problem that has often led researchers to develop new theories of space that …

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Interior: A Micro-Budget Horror Feature, Zachary Beckler Jan 2014

Interior: A Micro-Budget Horror Feature, Zachary Beckler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

INTERIOR is a feature-length film written, directed, and produced by Zachary Beckler as part of the requirements for earning a Master of Fine Arts in Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema from the University of Central Florida. The project aims to challenge existing conventions of the horror film on multiple levels - aesthetic, narrative, technical, and industrial - while also examining growing importance of workflow throughout all aspects of production. These challenges were both facilitated and necessitated by the limited resources available to the production team and the academic context of the production. This thesis is a record of the film, from concept …

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Examining The Narcissism Trend In Generation Y Through Digital Narrative Film, Joshua Ingle Jan 2014

Examining The Narcissism Trend In Generation Y Through Digital Narrative Film, Joshua Ingle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an account of the making of 15 Minutes of Faye, a microbudget feature-length film created in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Media at the University of Central Florida. It chronicles the motivation behind the creation of the film, the entire creation process, plans for its distribution, and reflections on lessons learned during the creation process. The film itself was designed to challenge its viewers with the gross self-absorption of its fame-seeking protagonist, in order to promote public discourse about Generation Y's sense of entitlement, which …

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Invisible In Plain Sight: The Troubling Connections Between The National Hockey League And The Russian Mafia, Kayla Ennion Jan 2014

Invisible In Plain Sight: The Troubling Connections Between The National Hockey League And The Russian Mafia, Kayla Ennion

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Professional sports leagues in North America have seen scandals, controversies, and tragedies. There is, however, a forgotten scandal that happened in the 1990s: the Russian Mafia came dangerously close to the National Hockey League. This thesis explores the alleged Mafia connections by examining newspaper and magazine articles and documentaries focused on the issue. The limited public response to allegations of Russian Mafia involvement is contrasted with other professional sports controversies that were met with an immediate response by the leagues and fans. How North Americans viewed Russians during the post-Soviet era is also explored in this paper. This thesis examines …

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Minnie And Ivy: Minnie Moore-Willson, Ivy Stranahan, And Seminole Reform In Early Twentieth Century Florida, Sarika Joshi Jan 2014

Minnie And Ivy: Minnie Moore-Willson, Ivy Stranahan, And Seminole Reform In Early Twentieth Century Florida, Sarika Joshi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During an era when the Seminoles were little regarded in Florida, despite mass Indian reform nationwide, Minnie Moore-Willson of Kissimmee and Ivy Stranahan of Fort Lauderdale attempted to bring reform to the state. Living amongst members of the tribe, both women used their familiarity with Seminole life and practices, as well as their political and social connections, to enact change for the tribe. This was done, respectively, through the creation of reservations and attempting to increase educational and vocational opportunities for tribe members. This thesis examines the lives and activism of Minnie Moore-Willson and Ivy Stranahan over the first two …

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Projected Surfaces, Jason Flynn Jan 2014

Projected Surfaces, Jason Flynn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper I will address the philosophies of Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and Thomas Ruff by considering the object, materials and processes of photography as my primary motivator to create art. I will examine the contrast between photographic imagery, as an illusion of the past, and sculpture, as a physical manifestation of the present, when creating works that ask, "What else can photography be?"

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What Killed Interactive Tv? An Exploration Of Why Interactive Television Has Not Been Successful, Reuben Rogak Jan 2014

What Killed Interactive Tv? An Exploration Of Why Interactive Television Has Not Been Successful, Reuben Rogak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the history of interactive videos and examine some possible reasons as to why they have never been successful. Because the method of interactivity is often disrupting to the narrative, I wanted to make something that was much more fluid. To this end, I produced Man Alone Interactive, a branching story that allows users to choose their path without stopping the narrative. The purpose for creating it was to see if a different interactive mechanic would aid in the user immersion. In order to fully test this, two versions of the movie were …

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The Best And Worst Of All That God And Man Can Do": Paternalistic Perceptions On The Intellectually Disabled At Florida's Sunland Institutions., Bethany Dickens Jan 2014

The Best And Worst Of All That God And Man Can Do": Paternalistic Perceptions On The Intellectually Disabled At Florida's Sunland Institutions., Bethany Dickens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historians have studied mental institutions in the mid-20th century; however, few have discussed them within the context of the period's paternalistic social movements and perceptions. Florida's Sunland program provides a lens for studying the parental role the institutions and general public took toward the intellectually disabled. Specifically, administrators saw residents of the Sunland Training Centers and Hospitals as perpetual children, trapped in an "eternal childhood." The institution was presented as a family unit, abiding by 1950s ideals of the companionate household. When the Sunlands proved generally unsuccessful, Florida's communities began to supplement their efforts. The social movements of the 1960s …

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The Spatial Relationship Between Labor, Cultural Migration, And The Development Of Folk Music In The American South: A Digital Visualization Project, Robert Clarke Jan 2014

The Spatial Relationship Between Labor, Cultural Migration, And The Development Of Folk Music In The American South: A Digital Visualization Project, Robert Clarke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Digital/Public History visualization thesis project explores how three factors-Atlantic migration patterns, demographics, and socioeconomic systems-influenced the development of folk music in the southern United States from the 18th century through the 20th century. A large body of written scholarship exists addressing plantation economies, the slave trade, and folk music. Digital technology, however, creates new opportunities for analyzing the geo-temporal aspects contained within the numerous archival resources such as census and migration records, field recordings, economic data, diaries, and other personal records. The written portion of the thesis addresses the historiography, research findings, and the process of creating the visualization …

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Secondary World: The Limits Of Ludonarrative, David Dannelly Jan 2014

Secondary World: The Limits Of Ludonarrative, David Dannelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Secondary World: The Limits of Ludonarrative is a series of short narrative animations that are a theoretical treatise on the limitations of western storytelling in video games. The series covers specific topics relating to film theory, game design and art theory: specifically those associated with Gilles Deleuze, Jean Baudrillard, Jay Bolter, Richard Grusin and Andy Clark. The use of imagery, editing and presentation is intended to physically represent an extension of myself and my thinking process and which are united through the common thread of my personal feelings, thoughts and experiences in the digital age.

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Recollections: An Internal Analysis Of Memory And Perception, Samuel Jimenez Jan 2014

Recollections: An Internal Analysis Of Memory And Perception, Samuel Jimenez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I investigate the depths of memory, the entanglement of personal recollections with communal knowledge (learned semantic information from media and society such as facts and social norms) and the changing perceptions of environments over time. Memories define us. Throughout life we are exposed to vast quantities of imagery through a variety of media and personal experiences. Over time our firsthand experiences and what we witness in film, print, photography, and the internet become indistinguishable in our memory. My work recreates consequential scenes from my past through technical drawings and blended imagery while exploring the possibilities provided by the interaction of …

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Composing The Classroom, Constructing Hybridity: Writing Technology In(To) First-Year Composition Course Design, Christopher Friend Jan 2014

Composing The Classroom, Constructing Hybridity: Writing Technology In(To) First-Year Composition Course Design, Christopher Friend

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Online education has received excessive attention in recent decades as its characteristics and potential have undergone intense debate and scrutiny. Similar debate and scrutiny surround the content of first-year composition (FYC) courses. As we continue to define what composition studies entails, we redefine what we study in FYC. Yet discussions of blended delivery mode---using both online and on-ground teaching methods---get lost amid these debates. This dissertation addresses the dearth of research on blended online writing instruction by asserting the essential nature of connections between the content and the delivery of FYC courses. Through case studies of two experienced instructors teaching …

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Concrete Painting, Stephanie Cafcules Jan 2014

Concrete Painting, Stephanie Cafcules

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the evolution of my artwork with synthetic materials through influences of the Minimalist and Process Artists of the 1960's and 1970's, inspiration from natural forms, and my exploration of concrete painting. Each work reveals discoveries of different processes and materials, accelerating the creation of new works. It is my hope this thesis will inform viewers about the process and concepts that my work embodies.

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Keren, Shelly Bradon Jan 2014

Keren, Shelly Bradon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this thesis is to recognize the everyday victories of a child living with physical disabilities. This complicated subject matter has forced the exploration of a variety of media to successfully communicate the story; drawing, painting, china painting, altered books and sculpture have all become part of the process. At the age of 8 months the subject, Keren Hernandez, was diagnosed with Bilateral Closed- lip Schizencephaly, a rare disorder that inhibits development. Since the diagnosis seven years ago her family has struggled to overcome these challenges, committing to avail themselves to every resource possible. I began painting and …

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Byzantine Foreign Policy During The Reign Of Constans Ii, Joseph Morris Jan 2014

Byzantine Foreign Policy During The Reign Of Constans Ii, Joseph Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the foreign policy of Constans II as the first Byzantine Emperor to rule after the initial Arab conquests in Syria-Palestine. His reign, 641-668, was the first reign of a Byzantine Emperor where the entire reign was subject to Arab raids and invasions. Constans II also had to contend with the Slavs in Thessalonica and Greece and the Lombards in Italy. To complicate matters more, Constans II was forced to cope with the religious division between the eastern and western churches due to Monothelitism in the East. Beset on every frontier and inheriting a much reduced empire after …

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