Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Digital Engagement: Personality Is The Context Of The Text, Diane C. Spencer-Scarr

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper examines digital-technology as a tool and an environment with the individuals’ personality at the intersection of the two: Its impact on social memory and the unbound document. With the ubiquitous embedding of digital networked technology in society and the emergence of the unbounded document, humans increasingly obtain information by grasping snippets of decontextualized text sourced through non-human entities from globally dispersed databases that have stripped out context. Then in a Kafkian way humans’ have to build from the middle to make sense of the information snippets. The paper explores how the inherent nature of the individual can be …

Documenting Spatial And Temporal Information For Heritage Preservation: A Case Study Of Sri Lanka, Chiranthi Wijesundara, Shigeo Sugimoto, Bhuva Narayan

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Cultural Heritage Properties (CHPs) around the world have been altered or destroyed due to various unforeseen factors, both natural and human-made. Consequently, as a preparedness approach around such disasters, documenting the CHPs are crucial to any efforts to repair, rebuild or relocate them. With advancements in digital technologies, integrating them into our documentation to improve heritage preservation has become a common approach. Here the main concern is on Spatial and Temporal (ST) information and the paper proposes that with recent developments in the field of Geospatial technologies, heritage preservation can be enhanced and improved by documenting ST information parallel to …

Using Heider’S Epistemology Of Thing And Medium For Unpacking The Conception Of Documents: Gantt Charts And Boundary Objects, Sebastian K. Boell, Florian Hoof

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Documents play a central role for many organizational processes. Current conceptualizations of documents predominantly engage with documents in two different ways. One sees documents as things with specific properties, and a second sees documents as medium enabling communication across different groups of actors. What is currently not well understood is how documents are perceived either as thing or as medium. This chapter engages with this issue by drawing from Fritz Heider’s epistemology of thing and medium, a concept stemming from social and media theory. According to Heider things are uniform and medium are multiform. Applying this concept to documents we …

Wikia: Between Documentary Simulacra And Documented Fictions, Caroline Courbières, Sabine Roux

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Wikis are digital community spaces that have attracted high traffic but virtually no study as socio-communicational platforms. These platforms offer individuals the possibility of engaging in unique writing activities by defining a distinct material configuration and imposing a protocol of enunciation. Wikis are platforms developed through the contributions of anyone, and constitute collaborative encyclopedias dedicated to a cultural topic. This article more specifically examines the Harry Potter Wiki, which is devoted to the literary universe of J.K. Rowling. Our semio-communicational analysis concerns the structure, the authors and the contents of the French and Anglo-Saxon versions of this wiki. First we …

Work It: A Study In Fashion Photography Portraiture, Dominic J. Iudiciani

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Fashion is a device with which the perception of one’s appearance is manipulated. It is a device that is used across all cultures to identify, symbolize, isolate, and appropriate. It is figuratively and literally woven into the fabric of humankind as a whole. Fashion has the ability to reinforce gender or create dissonance within it through androgynous silhouettes. It can express strength and confidence or emphasize vulnerability.

Through this study, the use of specific studio lighting techniques accentuates design elements of a highly curated collection of avant-garde, 21^st century garments. Drape, texture, form, and luster are but a few …

Culture, Rhetoric, And Voting: The Presidential Election Of 2012, Douglas M. Brattebo, Tom Lansford, Jack Covarrubias, Robert J. Pauly Jr.

University of Akron Press Publications

The presidential election of 2012, one of the most important in American history, was the product of complex and fast-moving changes—demographic, technological, and economic—surfacing in American society. Particularly prominent in the scholarly analyses in this volume (a companion volume to A Transformation in American National Politics: The Presidential Election of 2012) are: the psychology behind Barack Obama’s presidential leadership; the role of religious and cultural divisions in contemporary American politics; the rhetorical approaches of the two nominees; and trends in voting.

A Transformation In American National Politics: The 2012 Presidential Election, Douglas Brattebo, Tom Lansford, Jack Covarrubias

University of Akron Press Publications

The presidential election of 2012, one of the most important in American history, was the product of complex and fast-moving changes—demographic, technological, and economic—surfacing in American society. Particularly prominent in the scholarly analyses in this volume (a companion volume to Culture, Rhetoric, and Voting: The Presidential Election of 2012) are: the status of the two main political parties and their core constituencies; demographic forces and geographic trends; the strategies and tactics of the two campaigns; and the decisive impact of economic, domestic, and foreign policies.

Was Feinstein’S Response To Netanyahu’S Speech Too Blunt?, Debra Johanyak

The Actual

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Viability Of Establishing A Children’S Grief Camp In South Africa, Joann Borer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The death of a loved one is an inevitable and unavoidable phase of life that everyone must experience. A variety of thoughts and feelings follow the death a close friend or relative. It is crucial to address the thoughts and feelings associated with the death so that individuals can grief in a healthy manner. Those living in South Africa are most likely going to experience the death of a loved one since South Africa has such a high mortality rate. Through a qualitative study, this paper explores the death system and culture in South Africa. In addition, the organizations and …

Life Histories Of Refugees From Burma In Akron, Ohio, Megan Powley

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper examines the life histories of members of the Karen refugee community in Akron, Ohio. This research was done to better understand the difficulties the community faces as the Karen adjust to life in the United States. The larger historical context of ethnic conflict in Burma, the country they fled, is explored before a discussion of the anthropological work that was undertaken by the author. Life histories, collected through interviews, were analyzed thematically. Finally, suggestions are made for ways to aid in the transition of the Karen with a focus on the process to gain U.S. citizenship.

The Quiet Conversation, Samantha Weisend

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

No abstract provided.

Social Media & Audience Participation In Regard To Television, Jean Marie Mcbride

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Jean McBride

Major: Communications: Radio/TV Broadcasting & Mass Media Production

Project Sponsor: Dr. Sylvia White

Number of Project Credits: 3

Social Media & Audience Participation in Regard to Television

The purpose of my honors project was seeing if social media had an influence on television show ratings and popularity by incorporating audience participation. Especially in regards to television shows that have been around for years, I was interested to see if television ratings went up when using Twitter compared to when they did not use Twitter to increase viewers and audience participation. I surveyed forty-nine collegiate women between the ages …

Mandarin Chinese As A Second Language: A Review Of Literature, Wesley A. Spencer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Mandarin Chinese has become increasing prevalent in the modern world. Accordingly, research of Chinese as a second language has developed greatly over the past few decades. This paper reviews research on the difficulties of acquiring a second language in general and research that specifically details the difficulty of acquiring Chinese as a second language. Based on this research, the author also reveals some areas that should be researched further in order to advance the field.

Interpretations Of Patterns And Actors In The Lapp Fund Documents, Geir Grenersen

Proceedings from the Document Academy

The Lapp Fund (“Finnefondet” in Norwegian) was an important instrument in the norwegianization policy toward the Sámi and Finnish minorities between 1852 – 1921. Two studies, one from the midst 1950s (Dahl 1957) and one from the early 1980s (Eriksen & Niemi 1981), have been the standard works on this period. Recent archival studies (Grenersen N.d. & Maliniemi 2009, 2010) prove the need for a new look at the Lapp Fund documents. Through a detailed archival study Maliniemi has shown that the Sámi and the Finnish languages was much used in a local political administration. But the documents written in …

Docam 2014 Founders Lecture: Photocutionary Acts, Selfies And Public Knowledge, Brian C. O'Connor

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper is drawn from the DOCAM 2014 Founders Lecture Selfies and Public Knowledge: DOCAM 2014 Founders Lecture, "Selfies and Public Knowledge: Technology & Situational Documents"

Instantiation: Academia's Pop-Up Museum, Corina M. Iannaggi, Kiersten F. Latham

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article provides an overview of the creation and installation of the Document Academy (DOCAM) 2014 Instantiation, an experimental exhibition intended to develop a three dimensional representation of the DOCAM 2014 participants’ spoken presentations. During the installation process, it was evident that the Instantiation resembled a current trend in the museum profession known as “The Pop-Up Museum.” An evaluation of the Instantiation in the context of the Pop-Up Museum uncovered a similar core objective, the ability to create meaningful conversations centered around the participants’ documents on display. This objective was supported by participants’ responses to follow-up questions about their …

Time Served In Prison Shakespeare, Niels Herold, Matt Wallace

Selected Papers of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference

No abstract provided.

Transmedial Documentation For Non-Visual Image Access, Melody J. Mccotter

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In my doctoral studies on information accessibility for the individual who is blind or visually impaired, I’ve been exploring the ways we can make image documents more accessible. This requires using an alternative sensory modality, and translating the document into a different format. The questions that arise when we consider this process are many, but among them are:

• Is it the same document once we’ve converted it to an audio narrative about the work, or a 3D topographic map of an artwork, or a musical interpretation?
• If it is not the same document, how truthful can the “trans-medial” translation be …

From Séance To Science: A History Of The Profession Of Psychology In America, Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr., David B. Baker

University of Akron Press Publications

This book is intended to round out the picture of American psychology's past, adding the history of psychological practice to the story of psychological science. Written by two well-recognized authorities in the field, this book covers the profession and practice of psychology in America from the late 19th century to the present. FROM SÉANCE TO SCIENCE tells the story of psychologists who sought and seek to apply the knowledge of their science to the practical problems of the world, whether those problems lay in businesses, schools, families, or in the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of individuals. Engagingly written and full …

Slaves To Contradictions: 13 Myths That Sustained Slavery, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

People have a fundamental need to think of themselves as “good people.” To achieve this we tell each other stories – we create myths – about ourselves and our society. These myths may be true or they may be false. The more discordant a myth is with reality, the more difficult it is to convince people to embrace it. In such cases to sustain the illusion of truth it may be necessary to develop an entire mythology – an integrated web of mutually supporting stories. This paper explores the system of myths that sustained the institution of slavery in the …

Elizabeth Cady Stanton And The Notion Of A Legal Class Of Gender, Tracy A. Thomas

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In the mid-nineteenth century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton used narratives of women and their involvement with the law of domestic relations to collectivize women. This recognition of a gender class was the first step towards women’s transformation of the law. Stanton’s stories of working-class women, immigrants, Mormon polygamist wives, and privileged white women revealed common realities among women in an effort to form a collective conscious. The parable-like stories were designed to inspire a collective consciousness among women, one capable of arousing them to social and political action. For to Stanton’s consternation, women showed a lack of appreciation of their own …

Elizabeth Cady Stanton And The Notion Of A Legal Class Of Gender, Tracy A. Thomas

Tracy A. Thomas

In the mid-nineteenth century, Elizabeth Cady Stanton used narratives of women and their involvement with the law of domestic relations to collectivize women. This recognition of a gender class was the first step towards women’s transformation of the law. Stanton’s stories of working-class women, immigrants, Mormon polygamist wives, and privileged white women revealed common realities among women in an effort to form a collective conscious. The parable-like stories were designed to inspire a collective consciousness among women, one capable of arousing them to social and political action. For to Stanton’s consternation, women showed a lack of appreciation of their own …