American Studies Commons^™

X-Men, Dragon Age, And Religion: Representations Of Religion And The Religious In Comic Books, Video Games, And Their Related Media, Lyndsey E. Shelton

Honors College Theses

It is a widely accepted notion that a child can only be called stupid for so long before they believe it, can only be treated in a particular way for so long before that is the only way that they know. Why is that notion never applied to how we treat, address, and present religion and the religious to children and young adults? In recent years, questions have been continuously brought up about how we portray violence, sexuality, gender, race, and many other issues in popular media directed towards young people, particularly video games. These issues rarely include religion, despite …

Back To The Future: Student Time Period Analyses, Jordan Barge, Sarah Ebert, Anna Gaskin, Renay Gladish, Quinn Hamilton, Morgan Hanson, Hannah Markham, Mark Mclean, Callie Smith, Bertha Vega, Shelby Watkins, Jamie Weihe, Jillian Whitney

Student Publications

This newsletter began with the Fall 2015 Honors English class. These students were challenged to initiate research over a topic they thought was interesting and show how it related to our campus, Stephen F. Austin State University. It is our hope that this cumulative research will help readers look at SFA a little differently.

The Legends Of Bigfoot: Or How I Regained My Manhood, Blaine Mccarty

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

Masculinity is a culturally defined identity that exists with no single way to express it. However, the cultural politics police masculinity to appear natural and non-changing, but masculinity changes over history influenced by events and the culture from which it gets its definition. Because of this twofold influence on the identity, there is a constant struggle of the appropriate ways to express masculinity in its attempt to normalize itself by defining what is and is not masculine. This work examines how Bigfoot, the hairy fabled monster, embodies conversations about masculinity during a shift in the masculine identity in a constantly …

Panic At The Drive-In: Affordance, Moral Panic, And Drive-In Theatres, Maria Chatzifilalithis

Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts

No abstract provided.

Happy Halloween Song For My Grandchildren, Charles Kay Smith

Charles Kay Smith

No abstract provided.

Mediating The Sacred: Popular Culture As Liturgical Icon In A Secular Age, Jason Lief

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This presentation explores how popular culture and the new forms of technology that mediate it function as a "cultural liturgy" within the immanent frame of secularity. Poetic and symbolic expressions that mediate the sacred within the lived experience of young people will be shared. Icons within the secular experience of young people in the West can be seen positively by Christians. This paper draws from research conducted for a forthcoming book on the relationship between Heavy Metal music and Theology.

The White Screen, Casey L. Trattner

SURGE

There was laughter all around me, and I couldn’t help but join in.

I was at the orphanage, playing ball with a bunch of kids in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Despite being a little homesick and barely knowing the language, I was having few problems living here. I loved this place, with its ancient roots and friendly people. I loved hearing the morning’s call to prayer when I woke up. [excerpt]

Joseph Mitchell And The City: A Conversation With Thomas Kunkel And Gay Talese, Thomas Kunkel

Joseph Mitchell and the City: A Conversation with Thomas Kunkel and Gay Talese

On Oct. 07, 2015, former President Thomas Kunkel, author of Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of the New Yorker (Random House, 2015) and President of St. Norbert College, joined Gay Talese, journalist at Columbia University for an event called “Joseph Mitchell and the City: A Conversation with Thomas Kunkel and Gay Talese.” The two, joined by Steve Coll, staff writer at The New Yorker and Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, discussed Joseph Mitchell and his status as an “icon of New York history”.

"Happily Ever After": The Tragic Queer And Delany's Comic Book Fairy Tale, Ann Matsuuchi

Publications and Research

Discusses the formulations of queer futurity and normativity in Samuel R. Delany’s autobiographical graphic novel Bread & Wine: An Erotic Tale of New York, drawn by artist Mia Wolff. This love story that is depicted via an interplay of text and imagery resists clichéd homonormative recasting of existing familial templates and questions how expectations queer happiness are bounded by a persistent set of social norms (race, class, education, and income) and their intersections. Also suggests how happy endings can function as a renegotiation of the utopian impulse into something more complex and realistic.

Sports Fandom: Worthless Idol And Wonderful Thing, Rolf A. Jacobson

Faculty Publications

When thinking about the spectacle of sports fandom in light of the Bible, two assertions immediately come to mind. First, sports have become—for much of North American or Western society—an idol. Second, sports have also co-opted many aspects of the life of faith. These two immediate perspectives are so obvious that one is left to wonder whether there is anything more to say about sports in light of the Bible. Maybe there is.

Who Can Afford To Improvise? James Baldwin And Black Music, The Lyric And The Listeners [Table Of Contents], Ed Pavlic

Literature

More than a quarter-century after his death, James Baldwin remains an unparalleled figure in American literature and African American cultural politics. In Who Can Afford to Improvise? Ed Pavlić offers an unconventional, lyrical, and accessible meditation on the life, writings, and legacy of James Baldwin and their relationship to the lyric tradition in black music, from gospel and blues to jazz and R&B. Based on unprecedented access to private correspondence, unpublished manuscripts and attuned to a musically inclined poet’s skill in close listening, Who Can Afford to Improvise? frames a new narrative of James Baldwin’s work and life.

The route …

Three Great Phonographers: Warhol, Nixon & Kaufman, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Journalists record in order to produce an article and substantiate factual assertions, but phonographers record in order to produce an audio recording. In other words, for a journalist, phonography is a means to an end, but for a phonographer, it is an end in itself.

Warhol, Nixon, and Kaufman exemplify three modes of phonography: anthropological, historical, and psychological. Warhol documented the language and self-perception of a subculture that was ignored or pathologized by mass culture. Nixon created the most comprehensive record of a presidential administration that will ever exist. And Kaufman captured moments in which ordinary people responded to violations …

Grids And Gestures: A Comics Making Exercise, Nick Sousanis

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Grids and Gestures is an exercise intended to offer participants insight into a comics maker’s decision-making process for composing the entire page through the hands-on activity of making an abstract comic. It requires no prior drawing experience and serves to help reexamine what it means to draw. In addition to a description of how to proceed with the exercise, this piece also includes conceptual grounding in the form of a brief theoretical discussion of the ways comics convey meaning as well as personal notes on the development of the exercise and how it has been used.

The Role Of Critical Thinking In Reader Perceptions Of Leadership In Comic Books, Renee Krusemark Edd

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

This study qualitatively explored how readers use critical thinking to perceive leadership in The Walking Dead comic books. Sixty-nine participants gave responses regarding their thoughts about leadership in the comic via an online survey. A majority of the participants indicated a wide range of values for comics as a learning experience. Most participants perceived leadership in the comic books as an individual who protects others and makes decisions. After completing the online survey, 22 participants gave acceptable and relevant responses about their perceptions of leadership and how they form these perceptions. Information was collected through email interviewing. The study concluded …

Revision In The Multiversity: What Composition Can Learn From The Superhero, David Hyman

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Constant and ongoing revision is the compositional tactic through which many contemporary superhero narratives negotiate the powerful struggle between reiteration of the genre’s past, and creative expression of its future. Instead of a gradual succession of improved renditions of a text, each one effacing and superseding the imperfections of its predecessors, revision is revealed as the production of multiple versions whose differences and diversities are “capable of being in uncertainties”, as Keats describes the creative attitude which he terms Negative Capability: ontologically equal textual variations that wear their inconsistencies openly, and reject the pressure to resolve their multiplicities into the …

Pim Pedagogy: Toward A Loosely Unified Model For Teaching And Studying Comics And Graphic Novels, James B. Carter

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

The article debuts and explains "PIM" pedagogy, a construct for teaching comics at the secondary- and post-secondary levels and for deep reading/studying comics. The PIM model for considering comics is actually based in major precepts of education studies, namely constructivist foundations of learning, and loosely unifies constructs inherent therein with other available frames and frameworks for studying comics. As such, the article fills a dire need in the scholarly literature on comics pedagogy and paves a way for those who seek to teach comics courses in the future but who need direction and for those who seek to study/read comics …

Mallory Makes Meaning: How One 8th-Grader Made Meaning With A Graphic Novel, Aimee A. Rogers

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

This article presents how one 8^th-grader, Mallory, made meaning with Amulet: The Stonekeeper’s Curse by Kazu Kibuishi. Data was collected via a think-aloud procedure, a retrospective think-aloud, questions specific to the book and an interview. The data analysis indicates that Mallory was able to use a breadth of reading strategies, applied to both the visual and textual modalities, in order to make meaning with the graphic novel text.

The Big Data Debate Today, Bridget Fahey

Pop Culture Intersections

"...Big data refers to things one can do at a large scale that cannot be done at a smaller one, to extract new insights or create new forms of value, in ways that change markets, organizations, the relationship between citizens and governments, and more."1 Today, technology is more a part of our lives than ever before. With more and more people all over the world gravitating towards social media and using sites such as Twitter and Facebook, more of our private lives is available to others than ever before. In his article "Big Data and Privacy" Tom Price explores the …

The Impact Of Social Media On Society, Jacob Amedie

Pop Culture Intersections

It is the objective of this article to present evidence from several researches that were done by many scholars in different environment that distinctly demonstrates the negative impact of social media in three main categories. First, social media fosters a false sense of online "connections" and superficial friendships leading to emotional and psychological problems. The Second harm of social media is that it can become easily addictive taking away family and personal time as well as diminish interpersonal skills, leading to antisocial behavior. Lastly, social media has become a tool for criminals, predators and terrorists enabling them to commit illegal …

Corporate Standardized Takeover And Wasted Tax Dollars: The Misappropriation Of Technology In Public Schools And The Unfair Burden Placed On Teachers, Rachel Jepsen

Pop Culture Intersections

Throughout this article, I will be discussing the technological integration of computer programs, iPad infrastructure, and online testing into common public school state curriculums, grades kindergarten through twelfth. I will first explain how technology does not always have a negative presence, and how when used appropriately, can provide limitless new opportunities for both students and teachers. Then I will assess what the current common method of integrating technology is and explain why it isn't working in an effective way. Following my discussion of why the current system isn't working, I will discuss how the integration of technology in the public …

Finding Common Ground: Abortion, Television, And The Changing American Culture, Meghan Shain

Pop Culture Intersections

As Oscar Wilde once said, "life imitates art far more than art imitates life", but there is a reciprocal relationship between the two. The more society talks about an issue, the more we are going to see that issue present in television, which then spurs even more discussion on that topic. Today, we use the media to understand what is important and popular in our society. Conversely, the media uses society to capture polarizing topics, such as abortion, to attract viewers. Media critics often argue that television has too large of an impact on developing societies perspectives. However, the viewpoint …

Instagram: The Real Stranger Danger, Sarina Kong

Pop Culture Intersections

A stranger, in simple terms, is best defined as a person with whom one has no personal acquaintance. Society constantly warns children from a young age to not accept candy from, get in a car with, and most importantly talk to strangers. Even after growing up, adults are still warned against going places alone, meeting people online, and putting their trust in people they have never met. The underlying message is this: strangers equal danger. Despite these frequent warnings, social media has found a way to glamorize strangers and make it socially acceptable to interact with them. Disguised under the …

Online Dating Technology Effects On Interpersonal Relationships, Anabel Homnack

Pop Culture Intersections

The trend of online dating has been around since the emergence of the Internet. In the generation before the online era, people would meet face-to-face in cafes, on streets or at bars or even on airplanes. People make initial contact based on a number of cues and preferences, getting to know one another in person. Today these coincidental or so to say "meant to be" moments seem to be non-existent. Why have they become such a rarity? Is it because we know that there is an easy way out? What will it take for people to be as straightforward and …

Morality Of Pirating Media, Matthew Holbrook

Pop Culture Intersections

This paper will explore the evolution and morality of pirating media not through accusation but by giving data and facts to decide not only the future of media but whether these pirates are actually moral versions of Robin Hood. I will explore this topic through the lens of the pirate starting with a background on the beginning of piracy; explain the illegality of copyright infringement, inform the reader about what happens to caught assailants, and the psychology of why more and more of the US population are illegally downloading media. I am investigating this topic not to point a finger …

Mapping Memory In Tran’S Vietnamerica, Mary A. Goodwin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Mapping Memory in Tran's Vietnamerica" Mary Goodwin explores the use of maps, landscape paintings, and other topographic images in Gia-Bao Tran's graphic memoir chronicling the "postmemory" of the US-American son of wartime refugees. Tran's family immigrated to the United States in 1975 following the fall of Saigon. Tran knew nothing of his parents' hardships and struggle to escape Vietnam until he returned for relatives' funerals in his 20s. Similar to Spiegelman's Maus, Vietnamerica is a mixed-media memoir containing photographs, maps, and comics in various styles. Following Hirsch's lead in demonstrating the special historical value of photographs …

The Akron Offering: A Ladies' Literary Magazine, 1849-1850, Jon Miller

Jon Miller

FREE FULL-TEXT PDF DOWNLOAD From 1849 to 1850, Calista Cummings edited and published Akron's first literary magazine, The Akron Offering. At the time, Akron was a booming canal town on the verge of even greater prosperity. By turns religious, comic, romantic, and political, this extraordinary collection of early midwestern creative literature expresses a wide range of sometimes contradictory opinions on both the important questions of its day and the important questions of today: historical events such as the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the 1848 revolutions in Europe are considered alongside more timeless contemplations on truth, justice, and beauty. …

Review Of Pioneer Girl, By Bich Minh Nguyen, Quan-Manh Ha

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

DNA

From Raw To Cooked: Amy Tan’S “Fish Cheeks” Through A Lévi-Straussian Lens, Susan K. Kevra

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

In "Fish Cheeks" a scant 500 words short story, Amy Tan serves up a coming of age story about an Asian American teenage girl. Tan’s setting of Christmas for a traditional Chinese dinner, shared with the American boy on whom the protagonist, Amy, has a crush, emphasizes the girl’s dual identity as an Asian American, a reality she is confronting head on. Forced to see her family traditions through the eyes of a white, Christian boy, she finds those traditions distasteful. Rather than delighting in the dishes her mother has lovingly prepared, she is revolted by them, fixated instead on …

The Illegible Pan: Racial Formation, Hybridity, And Chinatown In Sui Sin Far’S “‘Its Wavering Image’”, Caroline Porter

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

Drawing upon Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, this article offers an interpretation of “‘Its Wavering Image’” that explains the biracial main character, Pan’s, process of racialization. The argument is two fold: first, the paper contends that in this story, Sui Sin Far theorizes that race is performative rather than biological. Race does not come from characters’ bodies, but is rather an incorporated performance of codes. Pan’s race, then, depends not on her parentage or her biology, but on the “codes” she internalizes and embodies, codes that are fleshed out throughout the article through historical contextualization of San Francisco and Chinatown. …

A “Monstress” Undertaking: An Interview With Lysley Tenorio, Noelle Brada-Williams

Asian American Literature: Discourses & Pedagogies

No abstract provided.