Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Critical Veganism: A Posthuman Understanding Of ‘Becoming With’ Others, Kensey Dressler

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis lays the groundwork for a critical vegan orientation to posthuman communication research. Critical veganism attempts to do the least amount of harm to nonhuman beings, a shift that decenters the human in scholarship and focuses on the material realities of nonhuman beings. This orientation helps create a praxis for posthuman research that is in line with a new materialist approach to ontology, is anti-capitalist, and strives to do the least harm. Previous research methods tend to be anthropocentric in nature, thus leaving out nonhuman experiences from communication research. Using both autoethnography and multi-species ethnography as my methods, I …

The Borders Between Us: Analyzing The United States’ Border Policies & Repercussions, Louise De Oliveira

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

This poster addresses the United States’ current southern border situation. It begins by analyzing the historical precedent for discrimination against immigrants to provide a background of understanding for the current situation. It then explains how this aided in President Trump’s election and his resolution to curb illegal immigration by reinforcing the southern border. It also analyzes the Trump Administration's zero-tolerance policy that led to family separation and the personal and political effects of the policy. Furthermore, the poster analyzes the executive order that attempted to end family separations. Finally, the poster examines the current state of border conditions and immigration …

Metaphors And Emotions In Advertising: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Audi’S Online Video Commercials, Richard Opoku Amoako

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advertising often employs metaphor because of its rhetorical utility. By drawing on analogous imagery and language, metaphor has the potential to elicit emotional responses. As the digital age is increasingly saturated with commercial messaging, advertising experts leverage the persuasive power of metaphor and emotion to produce creative, compelling, and memorable commercials. German automobile company Audi employs metaphorical language and imagery in their video advertisements to arouse consumer emotions. In this study, I conduct rhetorical analyses of Audi’s online video commercials in order to: identify instances in their ads that employ metaphorical language and imagery; investigate how those metaphors function rhetorically; …

Emotional Appeals In Nonprofit Advertising: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Print Ads By The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation And The American Cancer Society, Dominique N. A. Harrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emotional appeals are frequently employed in strategic messaging by nonprofit organizations. In this study, I identify instances of emotional appeals in select print adverts of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society, and use rhetorical analysis to explore how each organization’s tactics are strategic in their appeal to target audiences’ emotions. In doing so, I identify several reoccurring emotional themes—including hope, love, and unity—that engage their target audiences and persuade them to respond to diverse calls-to-action. In order to make these appeals to audience emotion, the adverts employ rhetorical devices such as personification, metaphor, repetition, …

A Poetic Ethnodrama: Discussing The Impact Of The Pressure To Publish On Creative Writers' Production, Abby N. Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the presence of the pressure to publish while in college as an undergraduate or graduate student, and the impact that pressure has on students’ ability to produce creative work. After interviewing participants, the researcher created an ethnodrama to best represent participants’ emotions and unique experiences with publishing while in school. An examination of the literature reveals that master’s-level students are often overlooked in scholarly research on the subject of publishing. This study uses a qualitative research method to identify key emotional experiences from students at the master’s and undergraduate level in the hopes of providing a platform …

Curating Digital Pedagogy In The Humanities, Katherine Harris, Matthew Gold, Rebecca Frost Davis

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This is the published introduction to the born-digital, open-access, peer-reviewed *Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities*. More a rationale and scholarly study of both Digital Pedagogy and DPiH in general, this introduces articulates the uses, theory, rationale about digital pedagogy as it has been shaped in U.S. institutions since the explosion of Digital Humanities in 2009. As a separate field now, Digital Pedagogy is built on the generosity of its practitioners, but saving the *stuff* of teaching and pedagogy is difficult. The introduction historicizes this now-published project, its open peer review process, and its development in the early years (starting in …

Sustainable Hope: An Analysis Of The Rhetorical Process Of The Forward Through Ferguson Commission Report, Nicole Ramer

Theses

This project focuses on the Forward through Ferguson Report, a commission report written by appointed commissioners after the protests of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. While the first chapter of my thesis focuses on the report itself and commission reports as a genre, the second chapter analyzes the most recent report, the State of Police Reform, from an ecological lens. Throughout the project, I kept returning to the question Susan Wells posed in a recent interview with Composition Forum, revisiting one she first asked in her oft-cited 1996 essay: what do we want from public rhetoric …

Basketballs Bounce Back But I Didn't, Kelli Shivers

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

Why I Write In Yiddish, Karen Alkalay-Gut

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

“The Poem Is What Lies Between A Between”: Mahmoud Darwish And The Prosody Of Displacement, Ayelet Even-Nur

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish grew up in Israel as an internal refugee living under Israeli military rule, legally classified as a “present-absentee alien.” This article focuses on his 1995 volume of poetry, Limādhā tarakta al-ḥiṣān waḥīdan? (Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone?), to study the manner in which Darwish’s cultivation of the musical and aural aspects of poetry serves as a means of poetically attending to the effects of dispossession and displacement. Through a discussion of the poems in the collection’s fourth section, Ghurfa l’il kalām maʿ al-nafs (A Room to Talk to Oneself …

Poetry In Response To The “Disengagement Plan”: Identity, Poetics And Politics, Tamar Wolf-Monzon

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article will examine the corpus of poems written in the years 2004-2005, in response to the Israeli government’s Disengagement plan that unilaterally evacuated all Israeli communities from Gush Katif in the southern Gaza Strip. These poems are explored as a political speech act, whose purpose is to bring about an extra-linguistic outcome: to impact upon the feelings and thoughts of the addressees, as well as to influence them in relation to issues of identity and social affiliation. Indeed, these poems are part of a long and complex tradition of Hebrew political poetry, characterized not only by a response to …

Estrangement Of War In Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Sophia L. Tornay

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

An application of Victor Shklovsky's Theory of Prose to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.

My Teacher-Writer Identity, Kayla R. Ehlinger

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

My project is my teacher-writer identity project, which started in my Teaching Writing Classroom. The goal of this project was to create a piece of media which gave an understanding of our identity as teachers and writers. My project took the form of a handout that would be used as a teaching material to help my students get to know me while also becoming comfortable with their own writing process. Using my own examples for how to interact with writing, my teacher-writer identity ultimately hopes to help my students become comfortable with themselves and their different approaches to writing.

The Dark Truth About Steve Jobs, Mike Dent

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Presentation of a paper on Steve Jobs and his role in the success of Apple Computer.

Using Online Tools For Learning, Not Copying, Noah Cox

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This project is showing that using online websites for homework answers is not always a bad thing. If these websites are used correctly, they can actually be a really good tool for learning.

Adhd: A Personal Struggle, Julianna Vanvalin

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This paper attempts to show my struggles with ADHD and how not receiving proper care can hinder someone.

Foster Youth In College, Brandi Lindenmuth

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Foster youth in higher education struggle with unique challenges that need attention in order for them to succeed. Programs such as the ones talked about in this paper focus on these unique challenges and proceed to support these students for their potential of success.

Community Engagement In Writing Programs: Preparing Students For Success In Professional Settings, Courtney Bradford

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This practicum focused on looking into the history of the foster care system, its development, and its modern iteration and on working with a nonprofit that supports the foster care system. The internship with Advocates for Children in Cartersville, Georgia, provided primary research into (1) how work on community-based engagement projects prepared me to explore careers in the nonprofit sector, (2) what kinds of writing, research, and other deliverables are needed by nonprofits supporting the foster care system and how the MAPW program prepared me to produce those deliverables, and (3) how having a strong understanding of the history and …

Chum By Earl Sweatshirt: An Analysis, Oryah Brown

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This paper is an analysis of Earl Sweatshirt's song "Chum". The record contains complex rhyming, dark themes, clever metaphors and looming instrumental. Additionally, the paper attempts to detail the rapper's unique background, career and personal struggles. Earl's impact and importance is highlighted and examined to provide further context to the song's sinister subject matter and aesthetic.

Genetically Modified Organisms: Are They Really So Bad?, Erika Johnson

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), are a highly debated topic among society today. The argument as to whether they should be used for consumption appears to lie in the crossfire of safe vs. non-safe. On one side, lie those who appear to shrivel up when the word is only mentioned. On the other, lie those who believe in the good that can come from genetically modifying foods, merely hoping to keep up with the demand of an ever-growing world. While GMOs will not feed the entirety of those hungry in the world, it is a small step towards a greater cause. …

Honor And The Code Of Silence, Michaela Sallade

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This work is about law enforcement and the code of silence some officers that take part in it. There are three reasons behind officers following this code is due to the influence of the police academy, their fellow police officers, and the police union. Then going over how honor influences these officers becoming a part of the code of silence as well. The code of silence is a problem in the United States that is leading to officers getting away with crimes.

Fast Fashion, Honor, And The Value Of Overconsumption, Samuel J. Shoaff

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

An analysis of the implications of fast fashion in a post-industrial society, with a focus on the environmental and human costs.

Dual Lives Assimilation Literacy, Shiloh Garcia

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

In recent years, the field of literacy studies has not given enough attention to exploring the English literacy journeys of immigrants and in particular, Latin immigrants. Furthermore, there has been little dialogue that has encouraged plans to help fix this issue.

We, in the academy, have a unique opportunity to not only tell the stories of the world but also help create avenues for those stories in order to create change. For this reason, this study focuses on important topics such as the effects of the dominant language on Latin immigrants, if it is possible to have a grounded native …

Breaking The Code In The Imitation Game, Taylor Zovko

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This paper compares the ideas discussed in Derrida's paper Signature Event Context regarding the idea of the iterability of language with Alan Turing's work on decoding the Enigma as presented in the movie The Imitation Game.

Death Is Alive In Letter Writing, Rebekah L. Smith

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Language, according to Derrida, is a complex machine that is not just understood between two people, but between everyone.

I'M With Her. And Her. And Her., Jessica M. Garrison

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This paper describes my experience at the Women's March on Washington in 2017 and how it has given me a new perspective.

Engl 400: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Song, "We Are The World": A Call To Change -- Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow (And A Potential Rhetorical Framework For Covid-19 Relief Efforts), Cammy Toddy

Virtual 2020 Spring Student Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

On the night of January 28, 1985, the charity single song, “We Are The World,” written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, was produced in A&M Studios in Los Angeles. At the recording studio, there was a sign that said, “Check your egos at the door,” which acted as a visual reminder for why these artists were there. This idea was put in place by producer Quincy Jones, who knew he had one night to bring over 40 of the country’s biggest stars together for a cause much bigger than themselves. A rhetorical analysis of “We Are The World” reveals …

El Quijote En Alcalá De Henares: Graffiti, Arte Urbano Y Autorrepresentación, Juan Fernandez Cantero

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

En el presente trabajo se realizará un estudio de los procesos culturales existentes en la ciudad de Alcalá de Henares en la actualidad a través del arte urbano. Concretamente, se analizarán las representaciones del Quijote, personaje universal de Miguel de Cervantes, en el casco antiguo y en los barrios periféricos de la urbe. Se demostrará cómo la figura del Quijote es un medio para la autorrepresentación de la ciudad. Más allá de las decisiones políticas sobre el arte urbano en el centro histórico de la ciudad, se verá cómo la iconografía del Quijote se consolida como un elemento cohesivo para …

The Voice Of Honor: Centering An Indigenous Ethic Of Protocol In U.S. Rhetorical Studies, Dakota Sandras

LSU Master's Theses

This project takes seriously the pressing rhetorical questions facing the field of communication studies which illuminate opportunity for radical disciplinary transformation and demand action beyond heightened racial and cultural awareness. In response, I seek to demonstrate that centering Indigenous epistemologies might inform and advance decolonial strategies for change. More specifically, I examine the theory and practice of First Nations customs of protocol and develop what I deem an ethic of protocol consisting of honor, humility, and action. After observing how these core tenets function synergistically in the protocol of elders, rites of passage, and entering another’s land, I argue that …

Goddamn Tidewater, Morgan Parker

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Abstract

This paper was originally an assignment for my CMP 100: Effective Composition with Dr. Clemens. After I turned it in, she suggested, after some cleaning up, that I should submit it to the Composition Conference on campus. My paper is a short story about a personal life experience I had relating to my father. My father passed away in 2012 when I was 11 years old, and ever since then I have been thinking about ways I can commemorate him. When I was 16, I came up with the idea of getting a tattoo so that it would be …