Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Symbolic Violence As Subtle Virulence: The Philosophy Of Terrorism, Jonathan Beever

Re-visioning Terrorism

Jean Baudrillard’s semiotic analysis of violence leads us to understand the form of violence as three-fold: aggressive, historical, and semiotically virulent. Violence of the third form is the violence endemic to terrorism. If violence has been typically understood as of the first two types, terrorism should be understood as the virulence of simulacra. The conflation of these types of violence explains the failure of militaristic responses to terrorism. This paper will explore Baudrillard’s conception of symbolic violence as the virulence of signs and help us come to terms with the semiotic foundation of terrorism.

Cinema, Systematic Terror, And The Aesthetics Of Passivity, Khatereh Sheibani

Re-visioning Terrorism

My presentation explores the aesthetics of passivity in in Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996) by the Palestinian director Elia Suleiman and Taste of Cherry (1997) by Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami. Both films employ non-actors, unconnected scenes, and disjointed narrative and discontinuous editing. They both employ similar cinematic and narrative techniques as by-products of wide-spread terror executed on social, political, and cultural levels. My presentation investigates the political and social restrictions in the late 1990s in Iran and the West Bank to show that similar forces under the reign of terror resulted in the aesthetics of passivity, muteness, and uncertainty in …

Marco Bellocchio's Buongiorno Notte And The Language Of Terrorists, Cosetta Gaudenzi

Re-visioning Terrorism

This essay investigates Marco Bellocchio’s Buongiorno, notte (2003), a movie which exploits language and soundtrack to fictionalize and revisit the historical 1978 kidnapping and murder of the Christian Democrat President Aldo Moro by the 1970s Italian left terrorist group Brigate Rosse. As I demonstrate, Bellocchio relies greatly on the language and soundtrack of Buongiorno, notte to convey his negative response to the BR’s kidnapping and murder of Moro, as well as to come to terms with his own political and cinematic past.

Arabs In Post- 9/11 Hollywood Films: A Move Towards A More Realistic Depiction?, Ouidyane Elouardaoui

Re-visioning Terrorism

This essay looks at the way a number of post-9/11 Hollywood films attempts to offer an image more reflective of the real Arabs. Contrary to a wide range of Hollywood films that have perpetuated a racially prejudiced image of Arabs, I argue that post-9/11 films, such as Babel (2006), represent Arabs as simple human beings with commonplace problems and identifiable worries. In my paper, I address these questions: how did the events of 9/11 help to change Hollywood’s portrayal of Arabs in contemporary Hollywood cinema? How do these contemporary films attempt to break free from the classical stereotypes about Arabs? …

Documenting Horror: The Use Of Sound In Non-Fiction 9/11 Films, Jesse Schlotterbeck

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Terrorism As Communication In Gregor Schnitzler’S Was Tun Wenn’S Brennt (2001) And Leander Scholz’S Rosenfest (2001), Sandra Dillon

Re-visioning Terrorism

This essay explores the connection of terrorism to communication, specifically to illocutionary and perlocutionary acts in Gregor Schnitzler’s Was tun wenn’s brennt and Leander Scholz’s novel Rosenfest. One cannot deny that violence plays an important role in German narratives about terrorism; however, the main focus of the works analyzed here is communication, which the narrative structure, the role of the spectator or reader and the main characters within the novel illustrate.

Forms Of (In)Visibility In Recent Spanish Films On Basque Terrorism, Jaume Martí-Olivella

Re-visioning Terrorism

This essay explores the omnipresence of the subject of (Basque) terrorism in Spanish political discourse and media representations in ways that construct the average citizen as both victim and voyeur of a terrorist subject always already rendered invisible either by its reduction to a legal “bare life”or by its figuration in terms of the unspeakable. My analysis centers on Jaime Rosales’ Bat Buruan/Tiro en la cabeza/Bullet In The Head,2008, arguably the most radical and unsettling of the Spanish cinematic figurations of the terrorist subject to date, where the spectator is forced to occupy such a paradoxical position as both …

Rebels Without A Cause: Youth And Terrorism In Contemporary Italian Film, Simona Bondavalli

Re-visioning Terrorism

This essay explores the representation of Italian terrorists in recent generational films set in the 1960s and 1970s. While they foreground the protagonists’ youth and celebrate it as a historically new condition, these coming-of-age narratives typically present radicalism either in terms of youthful idealism or youthful error, with corresponding nostalgic or revisionist approaches that obscure its ideological basis. An analysis of the selective generational appeal deployed by four recent films through narrative structure, style and casting highlights an alternative reading of the post-ideological approach to the representation of terrorism in the 21st century.

Knights Of Justice: Blockbuster Terrorism In Code Geass: Lelouch Of The Revolution, Aaron Choo, Wilson Koh

Re-visioning Terrorism

Vigilance, Vigilantism, And The Role Of The Citizen In Combating German Terror, 1967-1977, Todd Michael Goehle

Re-visioning Terrorism

By closely analyzing the Charles Bronson vehicle Death Wish -released to German speaking audiences as Ein Mann sieht rot- and the controversies that surrounded its West German debut in November 1974, the essay addresses broader debates about vigilance, Selbstjustiz (vigilante justice), and citizenship during the “Red Years” (1967-1977). Conceptualizing Selbstjustiz as a discursive site, I reveal how Ein Mann sieht rot’s representations of Selbstjustiz negotiated broader German anxieties about Americanization, masculinity, urban crime, the fascist past, state power, media effects and sensationalism, constructions of the citizen and the criminalized or terrorist “other,” and the responsibilities of the citizen in …

Interview With Brooke Jacobson, 2nd Interview (Audio), Heather Oriana Petrocelli

Center for the Moving Image Oral Histories

Heather Petrocelli interviewed Brooke Jacobson in her home in Portland, Oregon on her involvement with the Center for the Moving Image.

Brooke Jacobson is a retired PSU professor and the co-founder of the Northwest Film Center.

Interview With Jim Blashfield (Audio), Heather Oriana Petrocelli

Center for the Moving Image Oral Histories

Heather Petrocelli interviewed Jim Blashfield at his studio in Portland, Oregon on his involvement with the Center for the Moving Image.

Jim Blashfield is an award-winning filmmaker and media artist.

Media Services In North American Academic Libraries, Michael J. Miller

Publications and Research

Ongoing evolution of the Benjamin S. Rosenthal (BRL), Multimedia Commons was initially informed by a report from an internal task force and also by a four-year-long study of North American academic library media services units. A travel grant allowed for visits to the media service units of Barnard College, College of Staten Island - City University of New York, Columbia University, Georgetown University, New York University, University of Maryland - College Park, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, University of Texas – Austin. Visits have subsequently been made to the University of Washington – …

Interview With David Milholland, Part 1 (Audio), Heather Oriana Petrocelli

Center for the Moving Image Oral Histories

Heather Petrocelli interviewed David Milholland at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, Oregon on his involvement with the Center for the Moving Image.

David Milholland is a filmmaker, author, and co-founder of the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission.

Out Of True, Andrew David Bryan

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I will detail the process that went into the making of my thesis film, Out of True. The areas I will cover include Writing, Directing, Production Design, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, as well as Technology and Workflow. Special emphasis will be given to Directing and the new directing style I experimented with in an effort to create not only believable but engaging performances. I will then assess the success of this experiment through the use of audience questionnaires.

The Risk Factors Of Alcohol Abuse Among College Athletes, Jacob Jones

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-concept theory was used as a theoretical basis to investigate the utility of social norms alcohol prevention programs designed for college athletes. The predictive relationship among alcohol use and athletic identity, competitiveness, drinking game participation, and level of sport participation was investigated. It was discovered that drinking game participation is a significant predictor of total weekly alcohol use above and beyond the other predictors. In addition, drinking game participation and organized recreational sport participation were significant predictors of total binge drinking episodes. While controlling for drinking game participation and competitiveness, no significant differences were found in the amount of alcohol …

Still Hungover: Todd Phillips And Rape Culture, Terri Carney

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

As a textual critic who came of age in the '90s, it is difficult for me to talk about authorial intention. Indeed, most academics today tell their students to avoid declaring "The message" of a text, encouraging them instead to respect the multivalence of meaning, the slipperiness of poetic discourse, and the freedom of the author to engage discursive play without being pinned down by an absolute interpretation. But I confess that, despite my training, after having watched The Hangover and read all over the Internet about it, I can't help but wonder if director Todd Phillips is a misogynistic …

Perception Of Social Presence In Asynchronous And Synchronous Online Discussion From The Perspective Of Native And Non-Native Speaker, Abdullah A. Alruhaimi

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The technology innovation of telecommunication gave confidence to educational institutions to substitute some of their courses from traditional courses into virtual ones. This switch in education inspired globalization. The learners use either synchronous or asynchronous communication tools to interact with each other. Most previous studies in this field show that social presence is correlated with learner achievement satisfaction and interaction. So the researcher measured the level of social presence for both groups of learners, native and non-native speakers, across both types of online communication, synchronous and asynchronous communication. The researcher conducted a 2x2 split-plot ANOVA design with repeated measure for …

Using Growth Rate Of Reading Fluency To Predict Performance On Statewide Achievement Tests, Rachelle Whittaker Hinkle

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Federal legislation has prescribed the increased use of statewide achievement tests as the culmination of a student’s knowledge and ability at the end of a grade level; however, schools need to be able to predict those who are at-risk of performing poorly on these high-stakes tests. Three studies served to identify a means of predicting statewide achievement test scores in either third or eighth grade based on CBM reading scores and rates of improvement at first, second, and third grades or third, fourth, and fifth grades using readily available statistical procedures. One-half of the third-grade data was used in Study …

Assessing Environmental Conditions At The Friar Tuck Mining Complex, Dugger, Indiana, Windy Jo Mcbride

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many abandoned mine lands (AML) continue to present significant environmental concerns. The abandoned Friar Tuck Mining Complex in Greene and Sullivan counties, Indiana, continues to impair local water quality despite closing in 1952 for operations and multiple remediation attempts. Most areas within the Friar Tuck Mining Complex have been successfully remediated; however, the area of research interest requires additional treatment and continues to be impacted by runoff from gob piles. Subsequently, areas characterized by a loss of vegetation where mine seeps occur behave unpredictably and are characterized by the exposure of bare soil. These mine seep areas are of particular …

Assessment And Impact Of Gentrified Public Housing Neighborhoods In The United States: A Case Study Of Chicago, Todd W. Sink

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social-mix housing policies play a unique role in shaping the geography of gentrification in cities throughout the U.S. and Europe. The HOPE VI program in the U.S. is one popular example. Since its inception in 1992, HOPE VI has simultaneously displaced thousands of urban poor from their homes and neighborhoods, reduced their housing opportunities, and created and encouraged housing development for a more affluent population. Yet over the years, very few empirical studies have emerged that examine the place-based outcomes of HOPE VI within the context of gentrification. As such, important empirical questions remain unanswered. This study focuses on the …

Self-Expansion And Couple Possessions: The Representation Of The Self And Other In Valued Possessions, Lindsey Paniccia

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study seeks to understand the influence of romantic relationships on identity symbolism, specifically the use of personal possessions as a means of achieving social validation. According to self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986), engaging in a romantic relationship alters one’s sense of self; romantic partners take on the qualities and characteristics of a partner and integrate them into the self. To understand the process of identity symbolism due to one’s newly expanded sense of self, this study investigated the link between the amount of reported self-expansion and couple representativeness as well as the function of one’s possessions (other-direct …

Novel Phytol-Derived Immunostimulants (Phis-01) For Enhancement Of Vaccine Efficacy: A Comparative Study, Youssef Aachoui

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adjuvants are used widely in vaccine formulations. However for humans, choices are very limited. Since they are selected empirically, it is not expected that any two adjuvants would influence immune mechanisms the same way. However they all influence host microenvironment, antigen presentation, and retention of immunological memory. This study focuses on new terpenoid adjuvants based on phytol derivatives. We previously observed that phytol and one of its derivatives PHIS-01 (a phytol-based immunostimulant, phytanol) are excellent adjuvants. To gain an understanding of the structural features important for adjuvanticity, we further studied compounds derived from a diterpene Phytol. We designed two new …

An Examination Of The Influence Of Religion On The Forgiveness Process, Gregory J. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine the religion-forgiveness hypothesis in the context of the forgiveness process in an attempt to better understand the basis of the relationship. Data was collected from 140 participants in an online survey that contained measures of religious behaviors, religious beliefs, religious fundamentalism, empathy, emotional intelligence, forgiveness, and social desirability. A hypothesized model specified that religious variables of religious belief, behavioral religiosity, religious fundamentalism would be predictive of forgiveness when mediated by emotional intelligence and fully mediated by empathy. Using structural equation modeling, it was found that religiosity was predictive of greater levels forgiveness when mediated by …

Relationship Between Foot Pressures And Alterations Of Horizontal Velocities Of The Center Of Mass While Hurdling, Braden Cole

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the landing phase of hurdle clearance to investigate how the vertical displacement in the hurdler’s center of mass and foot pressures at ground contact lead to a change in the hurdler’s overall horizontal velocity of the center of mass. This study examined four male collegiate high hurdlers as they performed three trials of clearing one 42 inch high hurdle. The subjects were filmed during the three trials using three Panasonic cameras (60 Hz) and one JVC video camera (60 Hz), which was later used to provide video images in order to digitize each frame using the APAS …

Disclosure Involving A Third-Party: Reciprocity And Liking Outcomes, Keith Cotterell

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This investigation examines the function of third-party disclosures on reciprocal self-disclosures and liking. Sixty-eight college students engaged in a social interaction with one or two computers. In the experiment, one computer would “disclose” information either about itself or about another computer (third-party). Each disclosure was followed by a question to the participant. Questions were asked either by the discloser or by third-party to assess reciprocation of disclosures. Afterwards, participants rated liking for the two computers-as-social-actors. Participants showed a tendency to disclose more (i.e., give longer responses) to an actor who disclosed to them, regardless of whether the disclosure was about …

Looking At Mathematics Blogs, Joanne Growney

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A mathematician, poet, and poetry-math blogger offers a personal selection of links to a few of the blogs and other websites she has found wandering the Internet.

"Out Of The Box" Heartbeat Retreat Lecture Ii, Landon Brady Saunders

Landon Saunders Documents

Speech by Landon Saunders for the "Out of the Box" Heartbeat retreat held on July 22-24, 2011. Title indicates that this is lecture #2. Speech centers around the need to avoid church "insiderism" and have relationships with those outside church walls. Handwritten notes begin on the back of the last page and continue on subsequent pages.

A Hell House Divided: Performing Identity Politics Through Christian Mediums Of Proselytization, Allan N. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Every year, during the month of October, hundreds of Christian churches throughout the United States open the doors of their Hell House to surrounding communities. Hell Houses are Christian haunted houses designed to literally scare the Hell out of visitors so they will accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. In the place of vampires or zombies, Hell Houses portray the sins Satan is mostly likely to tempt teenagers to commit. Scenes include young girls receiving abortions, young men believing lies that they were born gay, and careless individuals drinking and driving. As para-theatrical performances, Hell Houses lead …

Virtual Worlds And The Collapse Of Metaphor, John Lester

SWITCH

This article explores how virtual worlds merge humanity’s ancient desire for tools and frameworks with the possibilities of new media. The author examines how immersive digital environments allow us to perceive and experience them as real, and how, as technology advances, the boundary between virtual and physical worlds will blur.