Rhetoric Commons^™

Adolescent Spiritual Formation: Practical Theology As A Filter For Youth Ministry, Jeremy Smith

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

There seems to be a disconnect between the practice and scholars of youth ministry. Historically, the practice of youth ministry has been overly concerned with method, creating multiple approaches, each with its own inherent shortcomings. Responding to this overemphasis on method, scholars of youth ministry have argued for a more theological framework, assuming that the problem lies within a lack of theological education among youth ministry practitioners. In 2001 youth ministry scholarship made a case to place the field of youth ministry under the discipline of practical theology in hopes of grounding the practice of youth ministry in theology. Over …

Leveraging Maternal Rhetoric, Space, And Experience: La Leche League's Emergence As A Counterpublic, Jenny Lynn Moore

English Theses & Dissertations

For over six decades, the international, mother-to-mother breastfeeding support organization La Leche League (LLL) has been helping women breastfeed successfully. LLL was formed at a time when the dominant ideology of scientific motherhood framed mothers as obedient adherents to physicians’ strict guidelines, which encouraged bottle-feeding and discouraged close mother-child bonds. LLL has been credited with challenging scientific motherhood, transforming medical discourse and practices surrounding infant feeding, and prompting the medical professional to accept mothers’ active involvement in decision-making; yet, paradoxically, it has also constrained mothers by reducing women to their maternal biology, discouraging mothers from participating in the public sphere, …

9/11 Then And Now: How The Performance Of Memorial Rhetoric By Presidents Changes To Construct Heroes, Kristen M. Grafton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is concerned with American presidential rhetoric at the cross-section of hero rhetoric and memorial address. It analyzes presidential memorialization of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. 9/11 is arguably the most significant tragedy in recent American history. The purpose of this study is to identify the type of hero each president since 9/11 has attempted to construct of himself for the public and discuss the rationale behind that hero construction. To complete this objective, I analyze the second 9/11 memorial speech from the presidencies of Bush, Obama, and Trump for hero construction. A close reading examining the …

2020 Mlk Keynote Address: Michelle Alexander Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Michelle Alexander, Rosanne Somerson, Matthew Shenoda

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

2020 MLK Series Keynote Michelle Alexander brings audiences profoundly necessary and meaningful insights on the practice of mass incarceration that plagues the US justice system, as well as eye-opening conversation on how we can end racial caste in America. Lecture Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 5:30pm, RISD Auditorium, 17 Canal Walk, Providence, RI.

In her acclaimed bestseller The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander peels back the curtain on systemic racism in the US prison system in a work that the New York Review of Books describes as "striking in the intelligence of her …

Rhetoric And Race - Background And Assignment - Shu Mlk Symposium 2020, Jon Radwan

CHDCM Publications

Provides an overview of Rhetoric and describes the historical development of Race as a rhetorical construct. Offers two associated assignment options: a digital audio interview plus video debrief on contemporary racism, and/or an essay on 21st century abolitionist rhetoric. - Jon Radwan and Angela Kariotis

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.

Institutional Narrative As A Means For Evaluating Mission Alignment At Community Colleges, Paul Wesley Lundburg

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Community colleges have expanded their goals and their mission statements to accommodate more students, introduce new programs, and respond to community needs. One result of this expansion has been the perception of mission misalignment: the idea that community colleges are struggling to fulfill their missions. Recent literature has focused on causes and problems presumed to be associated with mission misalignment; however, there is a gap in the empirical research on whether mission misalignment occurs. The purpose of this study was to examine mission misalignment in community colleges, thereby helping to fill the gap in the literature. The research question was …

Graduate School Application Accessibility For International Students, Estefania Castillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The graduate school application is a time consuming, yet important, process that can often be complicated for students. However, this process is made even more complicated for international students who often face extra steps and other obstacles when applying to graduate programs in the US. Following my own experience of applying to a master's program as an international student, I set out to further explore how international students experienced and navigated this process. This research project explored the graduate school application process through the experiences of international students that were shared in testimonios through platicas, or open and friendly conversations. …

God Of War: Masculinity And Fatherhood Through Procedural Rhetoric, Andrew A. Morgan

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Video games and academia have a long history with one another. Academic researchers have continued to debate the extent to which video games can materialize real world effects. In this thesis, I employ procedural rhetoric and feminist scholarship to analyze the rhetorical power of God of War. I focus on the game’s immersive procedures and the performances of masculinity from Kratos, Atreus, and Baldur. These three characters all perform different masculinities, and their interactions with one another inform the game’s portrayal of masculinity and fatherhood. By engaging in violence and depicting nuanced performances of masculinity, God of War positions the …

Decolonizing American Democracy And The Problem Of Gerrymandering: Implications Of Border Designs From A Communication Ethics Perspective, Mark Gardner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project attempts to understand the powerful force of political borders from a historical and communicative perspective. Of particular importance to this research is the role that political borders play in shaping individuals’ relationship to structures and practices of democracy. Following insights of decolonial and communication ethics scholars, this work understands the importance of ethically framing deliberations surrounding physical, metaphorical, and categorical political borders. Five chapters make up this work in the culmination of analyzing political gerrymandering as a form of democratic competition grounded in the rhetoric of colonialism. Tracing the colonial history of borders throughout American democracy provides this …

Bureaucratic Modernity And The Erosion Of Practical Reason: A Rhetorical Education As An Antidote, David Impellizzeri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To what extent and in what ways does modernity reveal itself through the bureaucratic? This project aims at an interpretive understanding of bureaucratic modernity. The rationalization of society and action in the (late) modern world requires that an increasing number of human activities and domains be explained in allegedly neutral, ‘rational’ terms and without reference to morally substantive ends. Ultimately, this entails a form of epistemic reductionism that elevates instrumental rationality to the exclusion of practical reason and probabilistic ways of knowing. Bureaucratic modernity signifies a decrease in choices that can be legitimized in public on some basis other …

An Exploration Of Communication Ethics Scholarship And Economic Spheres, Andrew Tinker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines communication ethics scholarship to understand how economics is understood within the field and to establish coordinates for scholars to discuss economic spheres as phenomena that affect communication ethics. Scholars draw from the tradition of virtue ethics to mark communication ethics inquiry as that which explores the practices that protect and promote the “good.” Philosophers of communication and communication ethicists have developed paradigmatic metaphors for the field that allow us to understand the formation of ethical guidelines within communities both familial, corporate, and national, that promote and protect various goods. These metaphors include “hierarchy” and “sameness” from Charles …

A Power Man’S Theology: Marvel’S Luke Cage And Black Liberation Theology, Diarron B. Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Netflix released Marvel’s Luke Cage in 2016 to critical acclaim. Born from a 1970s comic book, the series features Luke Cage, an African-American superhero. Cage is a big, bald, bulletproof black man. Instead of tights and a cape, Cage wears a hoodie calling the audience to remember Trayvon Martin and other victims of white racism. Theologian James Cone created Black Liberation Theology in the 1970s. As a result of Cone’s work, Black Liberation Theology addresses the issue of white racism from a theological standpoint. In this thesis I present a close reading of Marvel’s Luke Cage using Black Liberation Theology …

Civilian And Veteran Perceptions Of Communicated Stigma About Veterans With Ptsd, Rikki Roscoe, Jenn Anderson

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Mental health problems are considered some of the most common and disabling medical conditions that affect military service members. Veterans with PTSD need mental health services but are often reluctant to seek them due to perceived stigma. In this study, we used Smith’s (2007) stigma communication framework to analyze veterans’ and civilians’ perceptions of combat-related PTSD. Findings from our study indicate that, although participants were exposed to stigma communication about veterans with PTSD, most stigmatizing labels were considered inaccurate. Further, participants perceived that discourse about veterans infrequently implied that veterans were personally responsible for developing and overcoming PTSD. These findings …

The Making And Silencing Of “Axé-Ocracy” In Brazil: Black Women Writers’ Spiritual, Political And Literary Movement In São Paulo, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In this article, I will focus on two influential writers from the south of Brazil, Cristiane Sobral who currently lives in Brasília, from Rio de Janeiro, and Conceição Evaristo who currently lives in Rio de Janeiro state, from Minas Gerais. I got to know them in São Paulo in 2015 at a public event: the “Afroétnica Flink! Sampa Festival of Black Thought, Literature and Culture.” I will include references to some of their younger contemporaries such as Raquel Almeida, Jenyffer Nascimento, and Elizandra Souza, all of whom reside in São Paulo, in order to illustrate the Black Brazilian women writers’ …

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 …

Rhetorical Agency In Algorithm-Centered Digital Activity: Methods For Tracing Agency In Online Research, Daniel L. Hocutt

English Theses & Dissertations

Contemporary scholars in rhetoric studies and technical communication have theorized rhetorical agency as engaging human and nonhuman actors in online spaces. One such space, where the work of scholarship, teaching, and technical communication practice intersect, is online research. In online research interfaces, scholars and students alike conduct research; scholars teach and students learn the online research process toward contributing knowledge; and technical communicators design and test meaningful user experiences in these interfaces.

However, the field offers few comprehensive methodologies for studying the emergence of rhetorical agency in online search environments, where the activities of technologies, humans, corporations, and environments coalesce. …

Unspoken Rules: Using The Game Of Mao To Teach Sensemaking And Cultural Approaches To Communication, Nina O'Brien, Cynthia Wang

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This interactive classroom activity invites students to interrogate their common sense and taken-for-granted communication practices and assumptions. In the course of playing a “concealed rules” game, students enact the ritual view of communication and the process of sensemaking. The activity provides an experiential model for clarifying complex themes as well as for actively constructing student understanding of the theories. The activity directly challenges norms of classroom communication and interaction and promotes thoughtful and engaged classroom discussion and reflection. Instructors are provided clear instructions, recommended student readings and sample discussion questions. The activity and debrief usually require about one hour of …

Immigration Encounter: Relevance Of Emotions In Communication, Chrystal Helmcke, Renee Bourdeaux, William Mari

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief among these in our world today are the multifaceted issues and exceptionally complex discourses involved in immigration. The guided visualization in this G.I.F.T. may be used to demonstrate emotions, the five cannons of rhetoric, intercultural communication, proofs of persuasion, or theories within the critical or phenomenological traditions. This guided visualization also adapts well to a blended classroom (with students onsite and offsite) since the instructor leads students through the visualization. Through this activity, students will describe the emotions that underpin communication about immigration, interpret how emotions influence …

Travel Analysis Portfolio: Applying Theories Of Cross-Cultural Communication To The Task Of Personal Travel Planning, Kelly L. Mckay-Semmler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Intercultural encounters are increasingly common occurrences in our professional and personal lives, thus an awareness and working knowledge of cultural differences is important to competent communication. In this semester-long activity, students learn and apply theories and concepts about cross-cultural variation to an in-depth case analysis of a specific culture of their choosing. Individual components of the assignment progressively parallel course content, providing students multiple opportunities to actively apply their growing knowledge base to a specific cultural context. This lesson plan provides instructors with an overview of the semester-long activity from beginning to end, sample project components, reference information for up-to-date …

Exploring Expectancy Violations Theory And Proxemics With The Impractical Jokers, Andie Malterud, Ashley Phillips, Kaitlyn Voges

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Proxemics and expectancy violations theory (EVT) are the groundwork for understanding interpersonal and nonverbal communication. Previous research has indicated students retain information long-term when humor and videos that form memorable messages are incorporated into the classroom. The activity discussed in this GIFT uses the popular comedy show, Impractical Jokers, to help students apply abstract concepts to real-life examples. Several discussion questions are suggested to help students critically analyze the videos and recognize proxemics and EVT. The second set of discussion questions asks students to consider their expectations, how their expectations are formed, why some individuals have different expectations, and why …

An Analysis Of Unvaccinated College Students’ Hpv And Hpv Vaccine Knowledge And Preferred Information Source, Keith Richards, Hannah Priest Catalano, Katherine Hyatt Hawkins

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Receiving accurate human papillomavirus (HPV)/HPV vaccination information from a trusted source coupled with adequate HPV/HPV vaccination knowledge may increase college students’ likelihood to be vaccinated. This elicitation study, grounded in the information construct of the information–motivation–behavioral skills model, used a nonexperimental design with a convenience sample of 114 unvaccinated college students to assess HPV and HPV vaccine knowledge, desire for more information, and preferred source of HPV vaccine information. The sample answered slightly over half (58%) of questions related to knowledge of HPV correctly, 63% of the questions related to HPV vaccine knowledge correctly, and one-third (36%) wanted more information …

Adorno In The Digital Age: Consumerism, Ideology, And Participation In The Beatles: Rock Band, Scott Haden Church

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This essay presents an analysis of the ideologies in the online trailer to the virtual musical performance video game The Beatles: Rock Band. This analysis presents a contribution to the scholarly conversation by using Theodor W. Adorno’s theories, a novel and underutilized heuristic for analyzing video games. The trailer to The Beatles: Rock Band (Harmonix, 2009) promotes the ideology of consumerism through its mythologized depiction of the Beatles. The interactivity of video games may combat Adorno’s condemnation of the culture industry, allowing resistance to its hegemony via the performed de(con)struction of the text.

Camoface: Performances Of Ruralism In Duck Dynasty, Jason Jordan

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

In recent years, portrayals of the supposedly “real” exploits of rural persons in the United States have proliferated across the mediasphere. This paper examines the first season of the television show Duck Dynasty as an exemplar of this genre of entertainment. Using the concepts of ruralism, rurality, and rusticity the particular performances of rural life evidenced within the show are traced out. Ultimately, I argue that these performances of the rural constitute a strategic rhetoric that seeks to control what counts as authentic rurality. I term these sorts of strategic performances of rural authenticity as “camoface.”

Event Planning As A Means Of Applying Transferable Skills: The Planning Of The 2019 Communication Studies Banquet, Kylie E. Clark

Communication Studies

Though an annual event, The Communication Studies Banquet has had low attendance in the past and was seen as formal and expensive. This year’s event was revamped in order to make the banquet more fun, accessible, and affordable. The planning and enhancement of this event required several transferable skills which can be applied not only to event planning, but also to many other careers. These skills include organization, communication, negotiation, creativity, financial management, and resourcefulness. This paper examines the utility of transferable skills, including how they are acquired and why they are valuable, and explains how these skills were applied …

The Ethics Of Occultic Communication: An Invocation Of Joshua Gunn And Sissela Bok, James Thomas Begley Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Occultic rhetoric, according to Joshua Gunn, is a genre of discourse concerned with the study and practice of secret communications. The strategic sharing of secret messages involves a host of methods and conventions designed for the selective disclosure of hidden knowledge, thus controlling the boundaries of (and accessibility to power between) insider and outsider groups. Occultic rhetoric has its uses in everyday encounters, but the abuse of such manipulative strategies, especially by those in the academy and other positions of power and trust, calls for an ethical response. This dissertation submits occultic rhetoric to moral investigation by incorporating the works …

Black Body Memory: A Philosophy Of The Talk, Autumn Redcross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project offers the term Black body memory to point toward the threatened existential disposition of Black people in society today. Moreover, Black body memory points to the narrative paradigm of a shared experience. While popular conceptions theorize race as a social construction, the lived reality of Black people is frequently imbued by racialization and racism. Black body memory emerges from the intersection of the Black body articulated by Franz Fanon, Charles Johnson, and George Yancy, among others, and body memory, as described by Edward Casey and Thomas Fuchs. Black body memory is a culturally-laden and sedimented lived reality. The …

When Humanity Meets Technology: Contemplating Neil Postman's Critique Of Advertising, Yingwen Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to contemplate Postman’s critique of advertising and offer insights to understand Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) in today’s mediated environment. As an essential component of IMC, the history of advertising demonstrates and documents that the medium of communication has an extensive influence on IMC practices. The concern about how communication media affect human perception, understanding, and behavior, resides within the central claim of the study of media ecology. Thus, this project investigates IMC through the lens of Postman’s media ecology perspectives, and argues that Postman’s prescient ideas provide both hope and constructive insights. Moreover, Postman’s thermostatic perspective, rooted …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Opening Statements In Trial: Reconsidering The Classical Canon Of Invention, Andrew Chandler

Undergraduate Theses

This analysis of 21 opening statements probes at current persuasive practices employed by trial attorneys through the lens of mainstream legal advice and an expanded definition of rhetorical invention – one which includes both discovery and creation. An evaluation of such practice reveals the utility, and furthermore the duty of the advocate, to draw upon an expanded realm of available arguments.

Queering Utopia: Act Up And The Disruption Of Heteronormativity, Nicholas Lepp

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The existing literature on queer utopianism tends to analyze static aesthetic artifacts as opposed to diachronic social movements designed to create material policy changes. This opens room for various criticisms of queer utopianism regarding it being too wishful and devolving into political and social forms of queer dystopia. In order to remedy this concern, this thesis seeks to investigate how queer utopic thought can be used to create long-lasting change. To answer this question, this thesis is broadly divided into two sections—one theoretical and one practical. My theoretical section delves into an analysis of the after-effects of queer utopic cuts …