Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Theorizing #Girlboss Culture: Mediated Neoliberal Feminisms From Influencers To Multi-Level Marketing Schemes, Frankie Mastrangelo

Theses and Dissertations

I define girlboss feminism as emergent, mediated formations of neoliberal feminism that equate feminist empowerment with financial success, market competition, individualized work-life balance, and curated digital and physical presences driven by self-monetization. I look toward how the mediation of girlboss feminism utilizes branded and affective engagements with representational politics, discourses of authenticity and rebellion, as well as meritocratic aspiration to promote cultural interest in conceptualizing feminism in ways that are divorced from collective, intersectional struggle. I question the stakes involved in reducing feminist interrogations and commitments to discourses of representation, visibility, and meritocracy. I argue that while girlboss feminism may …

Game Manuals: A Genre Analysis, Geoffrey Kincaid Townsley

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the elements of printed game manuals so their genre can be seen for its historical value and connection to contemporary game documentation in its many forms. Six manuals are analyzed for their genre elements: contextual, structural, stylistic, and semantic. Each manual was selected based on its related game's popularity for that decade. The analysis found that the genre had a heavy focus on both instruction and immersion. The results of the thesis can be used to refine research on other types of game documentation, because several types either evolved from or replaced the video game manual. The …

Collaboration In The Technical Communication Classroom: Negotiating Team Contracts In A Pwi, Alyssa Herman

Theses and Dissertations

As TPC teacher-scholars, we must acknowledge the overwhelming Whiteness of our field and the racism, ableism, and sexism inherent in our institutions. We must actively work toward inclusivity and socially just collaborations in our classrooms by encouraging dominant-identified students to confront their privileges and implicit biases in order to better engage with historically marginalized students. With that said, this thesis examines how teacher-scholars might take up a cultural-rhetorical approach to teaching TPC and how we might negotiate team contracts in PWIs. Firmly situated within the social justice turn, Herman draws from both feminist disability theory and critical race theory to …

“When Two Elephants Fight, It’S The Ground That Suffers ”: A Neo- Marxist Rhetorical Deconstruction Of The United States’ Rhetoric Of Power In Resistance To United Nations Treaties, Divine Narkotey Aboagye

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I present a Gramscian rhetorical reading of American antagonism to the International Criminal Court, a crucial agency of the UN. I probed the rhetoric of power in resistance concerning the discourse of international treaties by showing how both the United States and the United Nations have become global hegemons. From the foregoing, I uncover American resistance to the constitutive force of United Nations treaties by paying attention to post-Cold War American presidents. By using a neo-Marxist lens and analyzing a key foreign policy accord – the International Criminal Court – that spans the presidencies of Clinton, Bush, …

Watch Me Make Her Dance: Stepping Out Of The Round Of Abuse, Sheila Speer

Theses and Dissertations

Memoir writers are usually survivors of some sort of ordeal, and they may have struggled to overcome race, class, or economic issues just to mention a few issues that may have prompted a memoir. The struggle they faced in the past and the success they have garnered keep them hovering above their pasts. In other words, memoir writers do not want to fully return to their pasts even though they are writing about the past. Instead, memoir writers want to show how far they have come from the past by writing in their grown-up, or educated, voices. The aim in …

Eliberative Democracy In The Writing Classroom And Beyond Author(S): Michael Reich, Michael Reich

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I explore the consequences of adopting a deliberative pedagogy, based on the study of one or two sample courses taught in 2018 at St. John’s University. The project as a whole argues that the university should be an idea place for students to develop a sense of personal and political agency, and First Year Writing courses organized around deliberation allow students to learn to listen and reason with each other as individuals and as citizens. My first chapter defends the methodology of a humanistic idea of deliberation (a pedagogy not based in classroom drills or Standard English) …

From Small Beginnings To Large-Scale Harm: On Demagoguery And Misogyny In The Classroom And Writing Center, Shannon Roberson

Theses and Dissertations

My project is grounded in the rhetorical concept of aretê—excellence or virtue—as it relates to education and educational spaces within demagogic and misogynist cultural forces. The problems of demagoguery and misogyny stem from small-scale perpetuation of agonistic norms that go unaddressed in U.S. culture, a culture that is deeply identity-driven. These forces persist on social media platforms and within patriarchal systems of education.

For my project, I suggest rhetorical media literacy education of small-scale demagoguery moments on social media as a way to bring awareness to larger-scale events. On a micro-scale, social media influencers cultivate behaviors that mimic demagogic …

In Broken Places, Judith Katherine Spradling

Theses and Dissertations

Constructed from a series of oral histories, the story of Andrea and Grant Jacks allows the audience a unique insight into the struggle of fulfilling the desire to parent. Often painful, this project looks at the diagnosis from both male and female perspectives following a couple’s journey through diagnosis, surgery, and treatment along with the emotional turmoil of dealing with devastating news and loss. This project does not seek to create sympathy for infertile couples but to educate, bring awareness, and offer understanding. The intent of thesis seeks to provide insight and understanding as a basis of support for family, …

Best Communication Practices For Nontraditional Students In The Rn-Bsn Online Program, Belinda Kaye Nix

Theses and Dissertations

Research was conducted to determine the best communication practices for nontraditional students in the RN-BSN online program in hopes of building rapport and ultimately improving retention rates. Data for the research was obtained from an anonymous survey of recent University of Arkansas at Little Rock RN-BSN graduates, one individual interview, and an auto ethnographic approach. The auto ethnographic approach includes my personal accounts of practices in advising RN-BSN students. The results show rapport and connectedness can increase with the use of personalized videos, routine check-ins with students, positive communication, and more transparency.

Toward A Theory Of Procedural Rhetorical Systems: Demonstrations Of Player Agency In Uptake Of Rules In Video Games, Sydney A. Klem

Theses and Dissertations

This paper expands Ian Bogost’s (2007) procedural rhetoric by broadening the rhetorical view of games to encompass the arguments that they make not just about the material, but about themselves. The theory of procedural rhetorical systems (PRSes) views game systems as arguing toward how players should be following their rules, and like in any form of rhetoric, players possess agency in how they take up these arguments and how closely they follow rules. To demonstrate this, this paper analyzes a specific game, the 1996 platformer Super Mario 64, alongside various digital artifacts demonstrating how players have taken it up, including …

Gatekeeping Remix: Fandom Spaces And Identity Politics, Brittany Larsen

Theses and Dissertations

As people today spend more time online than ever, the question of how identities are constructed in different online spaces has become a critical question. One means of identity building is through remix, specifically when marginalized groups in particular insert themselves into exclusive spaces by reinterpreting existing work. One online space that engages in this work frequently is fandom, where fans excluded from larger narratives use fanfiction and fanart to create a space for themselves. Fandom provides an opportunity to see how an existing online culture navigates questions of conflicting identities through remix.

Discovering Cultural Identity Through Film: A Rhetorical Exploration Of Women In Persian Cinema, Sarah Annahita Sayyar

Theses and Dissertations

Informed by contemporary film theory, this thesis uses personal story-telling, modern rhetorical study, and historical research to analyze the social and political implications surrounding women within the following three Persian films: Ten, A Separation, and Under the Shadow.

Untitled Unknown, Taylor Simone Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

This article is the first of a series exploring domination culture through the ways narrative has been indoctrinated as reality and weaponized as a holding cell for captives. Within this exploration, the narrative of domination is placed in relation to higher dimensional realms of the unknown; this being the before and after of domination culture. This positioning will allow for the reality of a simultaneous existence within the labyrinth of domination and a higher dimensional unknown to be framed. Within this series of articles, I question the roll of the rogue characters shamanistic agents of resisting domination, the fear of …

True Believers: How An Unshakeable Faith Led To An Uncommon Future For Six Catholic Nuns, Susan Van Dusen

Theses and Dissertations

In 2007, six Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge in Hot Springs, Arkansas, were excommunicated from the Catholic Church due to their membership in a Canadian-based Marian devotional group called the Army of Mary. Using the style of literary journalism, this thesis tells the nuns’ life stories, from their childhoods and lifetimes of service to the Church through their willful decision to accept excommunication and the status of their lives more than a decade later. It also examines the Army of Mary, its controversial role within the Catholic Church, and the belief by its members that foundress Marie-Paule …

Developing A Framework For Writing Center Workshops, Emily Ann Bouza

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to fill the gap in writing center literature on the topic of group workshops. The researcher gathered 18 workshop agendas, 579 survey responses from workshop attendees, and 14 recordings of workshops to determine what practices workshop presenters were using and what attendees hoped to happen in future workshops. The researcher organized coded findings under the four-step scaffolding framework as described by Nordlof (2014). These findings showed that workshops could be adaptive, interactive, engaging, and applicable similarly to individual tutoring sessions. This thesis describes how the scaffolding framework can be adapted for group workshops, providing multiple methods for …

Surviving The Hells Of Loud Isolation - A Childhood To Forget: A Memoir, Janelli Cofey

Theses and Dissertations

This memoir is a collection of essays that look at the childhood of Janelle Cofey. Each essay revolves around her experiences with parental figures at various stages in childhood. She takes you on a narrative journey as a foster child coping with the aftermath of her father’s death, mother’s addiction and other subsequent parental figures abuse and addictions. She explains how she endured her circumstances with reading, writing, and the love for her siblings. Janelle details how watching her parental figures has shaped her own life and parenting style and has provided her with the knowledge of knowing the importance …

#Digitalactivism: Examining #Yesallwomen And Teaching Social Media Activism In Technical Communication, Karishma Verma

Theses and Dissertations

In May 2014, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others near

the University of California campus in Santa Barbara. A “hatred of women” was cited as the

reason for his crimes. This incident inspired the hashtag movement #YesAllWomen on social

media. Users shared examples of how although “not all men” engage in violent behaviors that

Rodger exhibited, all women go through their lives fearing. This thesis uses a technofeminist

framework to examine how the #YesAllWomen movement functioned as an online social

movement on Twitter to encourage conversation as well as promote change. I also discuss how

technical …

Trauma And The Credibility Economy: An Analysis Of Epistemic Violence And Its Traumatic Functions, Gina Stinnett

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that the work done in philosophy on epistemic injustice can put pressure on the assumptions driving the work of both trauma theory and rhetorical theory. In addition to arguing how epistemic injustice can reinforce trauma, I argue that epistemic injustice has its own power to traumatize. I refer to this as “epistemic trauma,” or a trauma to one’s ability to know their experience and to make a claim based on this knowledge. Research on epistemic injustice states that when one encounters repeated epistemic injustice, they become less likely to share their experiences at all—they fall …

The Tropes We Tutor By: Names And Labels As Tropes In Writing Center Work, Scott R. Sands

Theses and Dissertations

The following study explores the way names and labels function as tropes in writing center work. Building on Lakoff and Johnson’s work on metaphors, and using Kenneth Burke’s concept of the trope, this study analyzes the way names and labels for writing center spaces, people, activity, and preparation function metaphorically, synecdochically, metonymically, and ironically to shape the way people understand and value writing centers. This study demonstrates the ways in which names and labels used in writing center work both focus attention on particular aspects of that work and also minimize or hide other important aspects of that work. Ultimately, …

“Black Is Powerful ”: A Gramscian Rhetorical Analysis Of Post-Racialism At The University Of Missouri, Taylor Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

The election of Barack Obama brought an uptick in discourse surrounding the notion of a “post-racial” America. This thesis will investigate post-racialism and the backlash surrounding its assumptions about the United States in the context of an act of resistance that took place at the University of Missouri in 2015. Black football players on the Missouri football team joined students in the #ConcernedStudent1950 activist group in calling for the resignation of university president Tim Wolfe. Threatening to abstain from athletic activity, Wolfe stepped down, signaling a victory for the minority student body. By utilizing Gramscian rhetorical theories and concepts, the …

Unpacking Students’ Writer Identity In The Transition From High School To College: A Mixed Methods Study, Marcie J. Walsh

Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1975 publication of Newsweek’s article asserting that “Johnny” can’t write, many have continued to support the claim that students graduating from American high schools and universities can’t write. This criticism has led many students to believe the problem lies exclusively with them. Efforts to improve students’ writing have had little effect, as reflected in continually concerning scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Recently, researchers have begun to suggest that the problem should be addressed by working to change students’ identification as a bad writer. Two constructs have emerged from these efforts: writer and authorial identity. Research …

Danse Macabre: Origins, Evolution, And Execution, Steven A. Bardon

Theses and Dissertations

The Danse Macabre is an allegory in which all living things -grand and otherwise -are equally escorted to death’s embrace. Most cultures, from ancient to contemporary, have a belief in an afterlife and interpreted death through funerary practices and religious artwork. Such spirituality associated with Danse Macabre is especially influential within the arts, such as visual storytelling. Two series in particular, FaustFall and Cardinal Junction, incorporate the Danse Macabre allegory through its implementation into accompanying concepts: like the Faustian archetype, the Gothic narrative, and the Byronic hero. Through exploring the Danse Macabre within their dystopian narratives, the notion of …

Exploring Gender In First-Year Composition, Ross Alan Bradley

Theses and Dissertations

Recently scholars in Creative Writing have begun researching gender and how gender relates to student success composition classes. This thesis uses critical discourse analysis and linguistic markers associated with different genders to examine student interaction with emphasis on gender domination and power inequalities between students of different genders. Data was collected from both face-to-face and online first-year composition classes. The first chapter gives a brief overview of relevant literature and outlines the other chapters, the second chapter describes literature that was researched for the study, and the third chapter lays critical discourse analysis, which was used to analyze the data. …

Searching Infinity For Authentic Form: The Problem Of Memoir, Annmarie Lynn Dill

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of the genre of memoir specifically examining the language used to define, describe, and critique the genre, focusing on the ways the language undermines memoir’s generic value. Since the 1990’s memoir has become increasingly popular, but lacks much academic investigation or critique into the conventions of the genre, though it has amassed much criticism. The genre’s rhetorical situation is at odds with general academic standards because inquiry must come before conclusive evaluations. To bridge this gap in scholarship, I have used methods of rhetorical criticism to analyze the definitions of memoir produced by five …

Theresienstadt - The "Show Camp," A Burkean Analysis, Suzanne Homsley Homsley

Theses and Dissertations

For this thesis, a rhetorical analysis of Theresienstadt, the Jewish hybrid camp and ghetto, was completed by using Kenneth Burke’s pentad. Terministic screens were identified and Burke’s definition of man was examined in relation to the inmates and others involved in key events of Theresienstadt. This analysis was done to determine if Theresienstadt was a tool of propaganda the Nazis used to convince the world mass exterminations of Jews were not being done. An interdisciplinary approach was taken, by using the works of Kenneth Burke to complete a rhetorical analysis combined with the use of historical primary and secondary sources. …

Beyond Narratives: An Oral History Of The Writing Center At The University Of Arkansas-Monticello, Franz Zeppelin Holthoff

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses oral histories to detail the history of the Center for Writing and Communication [CWAC] at the University of Arkansas- Monticello [UAM], which has gone undocumented since its assumed establishment in the 1980s. While an initial sampling of interview sources conducted in 2013 suggests that the center primarily served as an open computer lab and skills center for much of its lifespan, a more in-depth study suggests that this center evokes the same complexity and uniqueness that surrounds the historical narrative of other writing labs, centers, and clinics across the United States. The Center for Writing and Communication …

Enabling Pain, Enabling Insight: Opening Up Possibilities For Chronic Pain In Disability Rhetoric And Rhetoric And Composition, Hilary Selznick

Theses and Dissertations

In the dissertation “Enabling Pain, Enabling Insight: Opening up Possibilities for Chronic Pain in Disability Rhetoric and Rhetoric and Composition,” Hilary Selznick argues that pain is rhetorical, accessible, and communicable to those without the lived experience of chronic pain. Additionally, she argues for the necessity of considering chronic pain as a disability and not merely as a symptom of a disability. In order to make these arguments possible, Selznick crafts a political-relational-rhetorical methodology that challenges restrictive models of disability and theoretical and commonplace assumptions that pain is resistant to language. Specifically, Selznick’s methodology, which combines disability scholar and activist Alison …

Believing Mary Karr, Stephanie Rae Guedet

Theses and Dissertations

Believing Mary Karr examines how belief, represented in the memoirs of Mary Karr, works in our contemporary moment. This examination is supported by the argument that our identities and the stories we tell about them are always constructions of belief, and that these beliefs are ultimately relational, enacted in the intersubjective relationship between writers and readers of autobiography. This dissertation provides the fields of both rhetoric and life writing studies not only an awareness of how ideas about belief—how beliefs about belief—have already shaped our scholarly imagination but also the possibilities a rhetoric of belief can offer to future conversations …

Traveling To Different Worlds: Toward A Rhetorical “Linds”, Lindsay Taylor Hastings

Theses and Dissertations

This project explores memories of special places and happenings, including visiting and living on the family’s farm, vacationing in NYC, cruising to the Mexican Riviera for my 16th birthday, traveling to the Bahamas for my 21st birthday, coming out as bisexual at an International Writing Centers Association conference, hiking and kayaking, and working in the University Writing Center. This thesis is a collage of memoirs, which explore the important topics of home, media perception, femininity, unity/solidarity, writing centers as queer discourse communities, teaching English as a foreign language, being an outdoors woman, and my academic journey.

The Conservative Rhetoric Of The Lutheran Confessions, Stephen Burns Burns

Theses and Dissertations

Although the Lutheran Reformation introduced a radical shift from the traditions of the Catholic Church, the Lutheran reformers had not initially sought to instigate a radical theological or institutional revolution. Especially in comparison with more radical groups within the Protestant movement, Martin Luther and his followers were cautious and slow to cast aside Catholic traditions and generally sought to maintain as much of the Catholic theology and practices as possible. The Lutheran reformers were conservative in their mindset, sharing medieval Catholic notions about the unitary nature of truth and the authority of God’s Word over and against the will of …