Critical and Cultural Studies Commons^™

The Gendered Body In Virtual Space : Sexuality, Performance And Play In Four Second Life Spaces, Judith Elund

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This work is principally an investigation into visual and screen culture, using four specific regions of the three-dimensional virtual world of ‘Second Life’ as case studies. The analysis follows a thematic application of discourse analysis as a basis for critiquing Western screen culture, most importantly the cultural and social conditions that replicate dominant paradigms of power and agency. Of particular pertinence to this study are the framing, representational and spatial practices of gendered and sexual identities within ‘Second Life’ spaces. As is typical of the internet, sexual freedom is a given, yet representational performance (how one appears through their embodied …

“All Girls Are Barbies”: A Feminist Critique Of Nicki Minaj’S Barbie Persona, Camellia Sarmadi

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Privacy Rules For Academic Advisors And College Student-Athletes: A Communication Privacy Management Perspective, Jason Thompson, Sandra Petronio, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study explored how academic advisors managed revealed private information from college student-athletes. The 37 academic advisors were interviewed to address: What criteria advisors use to judge privacy rules regulating access or protection of shared private information from student-athletes, and how privacy-rule choices function in this context? Academic advisors interviewed represented 21 different institutions of the four NCAA division levels and 10 separate athletic conferences. Using Communication Privacy Management theory as a framework, findings indicated there were two main criteria: motivations and risk-benefit ratios used to develop privacy rules managing revealing and concealing the student-athlete’s private information.

Measuring Classroom Engagement By Comparing Instructor Expectations With Students’ Perceptions, Paul Savory, Amy Goodburn, Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Even instructors who can demonstrate student success in their courses can be challenged to document which practices are most effective in engaging student learning. National surveys designed to assess student engagement do not provide individual faculty with information that can help them assess their individual teaching efforts. This paper highlights a survey designed to help individual faculty members learn about their students and provides a comparison of instructors’ expectations with students’ perceptions. This paper illustrates the value of such a survey through an extended example of the insights that an instructor gained by using it in her course.

Genesis In Hyperreality: Legitimizing Disingenuous Controversy At The Creation Museum, Casey Ryan Kelly, Kristen E. Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay analyzes the argumentative structure of the “Answers in Genesis” ministry’s Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Founded by a $27 million grant, the 70,000-square-foot museum appropriates the stylistic and authoritative signifiers of natural history museums, complete with technically proficient hyperreal displays and modern curatorial techniques. In this essay, we argue that the museum provides a culturally authoritative space in which Young Earth Creationists can visually craft the appearance that there is an ongoing scientific controversy over matters long settled in the scientific community (evolution), or what scholars call a disingenuous or manufactured controversy. We analyze the displays and layout …

Public Relations In Kenya: An Exploration Of Models And Cultural Influences, Dane M. Kiambi, Marjorie Keeshan Nadler

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

This pioneer study explores the public relations models that inform the practice of public relations in Kenya, and the cultural values that influence this practice. Results show the personal influence model as the most used by practitioners in Kenya, while individualism is the most experienced cultural value. The strong correlation between personal influence model and Hofstede’s cultural value of femininity points to the practitioners’ strong desire for good interpersonal relationships with colleagues, supervisors, clients and key publics.

Fathers And Their Views On Discussing Sex And Sexuality With Their Daughters, Kindann M. Stone

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research project was to identify characteristics and perceptions of fathers associated with discussions about sex and sexuality with their daughters. Parental communication, education, and value sharing reduces the risk of STD's and teen pregnancy. Participants were fathers (N=108) who were recruited by their daughters who were attending a Southeastern University. Demographics were utilized and researcher developed modified scales used in previous studies (citation). The newly developed scales were the Sexual Knowledge Inventory (SKI), Value of Self-Efficacy of Sexuality Communication (VSESC), Safe Sex of Self Efficacy of Sexuality Communication (SSSESC), Father's Role as Sex Educators Outcome Expectancy …

Blood-Speak: Ward Churchill And The Racialization Of American Indian Identity, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

After publishing a controversial essay on 9/11, Professor Ward Churchill’s scholarship and personal identity were subjected to a hostile public investigation. Evidence that Churchill had invented his American Indian identity created vehemence among many professors and tribal leaders who dismissed Churchill because he was not a “real Indian.” This essay examines the discourses of racial authenticity employed to distance Churchill from tribal communities and American Indian scholarship. Responses to Churchill’s academic and ethnic self-identification have retrenched a racialized definition of tribal identity defined by a narrow concept of blood. Employing what I term blood-speak, Churchill’s opponents harness a biological concept …

Navigating Socio-Spatial Difference, Constructing Counter-Space: Insights From Transnational Feminist Praxis, Sarah E. Dempsey, Patricia S. Parker, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In recent years, feminist activists have increasingly transnationalized their struggle against local forms of oppression. Our study explores the contentious nature of feminist transnationalism, asking how transnational feminist networks (TFNs) navigate socio-spatial inequalities within their own practices and as a wider social movement. We argue that: (1) TFNs make socio-spatial differences meaningful in part through their constructions of regional, international, and trans-local imaginaries; and (2) TFNs construct resistant feminist counter-spaces through dialogue and strategies aimed at destabilizing dominant structures. Our findings highlight the central role of spatial praxis within transnational feminism.

Pengantar Redaksi, Fransisca Sse Seda

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

“Instead Of Growing Under Her Heart, I Grew In It”: The Relationship Between Adoption Entrance Narratives And Adoptees’ Self-Concept, Haley Kranstruber, Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Adoptees are partially or entirely disconnected from those involved in their birth stories, so adoptive families create adoption entrance narratives to fill that void. Scholars assert that these narratives impact adopted child well-being later in life, but that assumption has yet to be empirically tested. The goal of this study was to examine themes emerging from adoption entrance narratives (n = 105), and to then determine the impact of story content on adoptees’ self-concept. Seven themes emerged: openness, deception, chosen child, fate, difference, rescue, and reconnection. Results indicate the salience of the chosen child, negative reconnection, and difference themes …

Dinamika Politik Ekonomi Dalam Masalah-Masalah Lingkungan, Fransisca Sse Seda

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Slave To Fashion: Masculinity, Suits And The Masciste Films Of Italian Silent Cinema, Jacqueline Reich

CMS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fashioning The Self: Performance, Identity And Difference, Jessica L. Neumann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project will examine cultural and rhetorical communication studies to determine how these modes of analysis can be compared with interdisciplinary literature to better understand the role fashion plays within everyday performances and the shaping of identity. Criticisms by second-wave feminist scholars have focused on the fashion industry's overarching male influence; in more recent scholarship, feminist academics have often considered an affinity for fashion to be un-feminist and oppressive. I argue that fashion can instead be viewed as a tool for female agency and expressing individuality, rather than just a mode for reinforcing gendered norms. Using feminist rhetorical analysis …

The Effects Of Commercialization On The Perception Of Hip Hop Culture And Black Culture In Mainstream Culture In The United States, Chris A. Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is examines how the perception of a sub-culture can be altered by a dominant culture. Specifically this project addresses the effects resulting from the assimilation of Hip Hop Culture by mainstream culture in the United States, and its subsequent use as a marketing tool. Because Hip Hop Culture originated in Black Culture, the perception of Black Culture as reflected by hip hop music is also discussed. All of these themes are addressed creatively through a narrative script project.

Coparental Communication, Relational Satisfaction, And Mental Health In Stepfamilies, Paul Schrodt, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study tested a series of actor–partner interdependence models of coparental communication, relational satisfaction, and mental health in stepfamilies. Participants included 127 couples (N = 254). Results revealed 2 actor-oriented models whereby parents’ and stepparents’ coparental communication quality positively predicted their own (but not their partners’) satisfaction and mental health. A final model revealed that parents’ relational satisfaction mediated the effect of coparental communication on their own mental health. A similar pattern emerged for stepparents, although coparental communication continued to have a direct, positive effect on stepparents’ mental health. Importantly, parents’ coparental communication produced an inverse partner effect on stepparents’ …

Ex-Spouses’ Relational Satisfaction As A Function Of Coparental Communication In Stepfamilies, Paul Schrodt, Aimee E. Miller, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study tested a series of actor-partner interdependence models of coparental communication and relational satisfaction among ex-spouses living in stepfamilies. Participants included 41 ex-spousal dyads (N = 82). Results revealed two actor-oriented models whereby ex-spouses’ supportive and antagonistic coparental communication predicted their own (but not their ex-spouse’s) relational satisfaction. A second set of models revealed that nonresidential parents’ supportive and antagonistic coparental communication with the residential stepparent predicted their own satisfaction with their ex-spouses, as well as their ex-spouse’s satisfaction with them (i.e., a partner effect). Importantly, the findings demonstrate the interdependence of coparenting relationships in stepfamilies, as supportive coparental …

Labor Pains In The Academy, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This piece offers autoethnographic reflections on crossroads to which many academics come: whether to seek (or postpone or avoid) parenthood and when. The author deeply explores the personal (her own trajectories from daughter and sister to potential mother and from graduate student to full professor) in order to reflect on structural constraints associated with graduate education, the academic job market, and institutional policies and politics.

The Post-Nuclear Family And The Depoliticization Of Unplanned Pregnancy In Knocked Up, Juno, And Waitress, Kristen Hoerl, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay explores three films from 2007, Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress, which foreground young women’s unplanned pregnancies. These movies depoliticize women’s reproduction and motherhood through narratives that rearticulate the meaning of choice. Bypassing the subject of abortion, the women’s decisions revolve around their choice of heterosexual partners and investment in romantic relationships. Although they question the viability of the nuclear family for single pregnant women, these films represent new iterations of post-feminism that ultimately restore conservative ideas that valorize pregnancy and motherhood as women’s imperatives. We conclude by addressing how these movies present a distorted and …

Constitutive Discourse Of Turkish Nationalism: Atatürk’S Nutuk And The Rhetorical Construction Of The “Turkish People”, Aysel Morin, Ronald Lee

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article explores the “Great Speech” Nutuk, delivered in 1927 by Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In analyzing Nutuk and its rhetorical features, we identify the mythic underpinnings Atatürk employed to construct a modern “Turkish people.” We use this case to further our understanding of the constitutive discourses of nationalism. We believe Atatürk’s Nutuk provides a profitable discourse to think with as we attempt to understand Muslim nations and their negotiation of modernity.

Sexuality, Exoticism, And Iconoclasm In The Media Age: The Strange Case Of The Buddha Bikini, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Model Citizen: Exploring The Portrayal Of Unconventional Models On Television Shows In Relation To Women's Self Image, Nicole Jenelle James

All Capstone Projects

According to the renowned Mayo Clinic, having a low self-image can lead people to suffer harmful: physical, emotional, and behavioral consequences. Much of women’s selfimage is reliant on comparing themselves to the media’s perception of beauty. In an effort to bolster American women’s self-esteem, a workshop is proposed to explore the relation between portrayal of unconventional models on television shows and women’s/viewer’s self-image.

Transmitting Relational Worldviews: The Relationship Between Mother-Daughter Memorable Messages And Adult Daughters’ Romantic Relational Schemata, Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study investigates memorable messages that daughters report hearing from their mothers about romantic relationships to examine the development of meaning in the content of parent-child communication and the ways in which these messages may affect and reflect adult daughters’ relational worldviews. Findings from a study involving 149 adult daughters revealed 4 supra-categories of memorable messages: value self, characteristics of a good relationship, warnings, and value the sanctity of love. Moreover, statistical analyses reveal that memorable message types significantly related to daughter’s romantic relationship schemata as operationalized by Fitzpatrick’s (1988) couple types. Both message and couple type predicted intergenerational transmission.

Beragam Islam, Beragam Ekspresi: Islam Indonesia Dalam Praktik, Oki Rahadianto Sutopo

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Pluralisme Dan Masyarakat Pasca-Politik, Fransisca Sse Seda

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Orwellian Language And The Politics Of Tribal Termination (1953–1960), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

From 1953 to 1960, the federal government terminated sovereign recognition for 109 American Indian nations. Termination was a haphazard policy of assimilation that had disastrous consequences for Indian land and culture. Nonetheless, termination cloaked latent motivations for Indian land within individual rights rhetoric that was at odds with Indian sovereignty. Termination highlights the rhetorical features of social control under capitalism portrayed in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), in which opposing principles are fused and inverted. This essay critiques termination’s Orwellian language to show how ideographs of social liberation are refashioned by the state to subvert Indian sovereignty and popular dissent.

The World’S Most Perfectly Developed Man: Charles Atlas, Physical Culture, And The Inscription Of American Masculinity, Jacqueline Reich

CMS Faculty Publications

The major wave of Italian immigration between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries coincided with the growth of the physical culture movement in the United States. A principal participant in both phenomena was the Italian male, with a particularly fascinating case being that of the bodybuilder and fitness guru Charles Atlas. Born Angelo Siciliano in Calabria, Italy, Atlas provides an interesting window into how the Southern immigrant became American and how that Americanization was written on the muscled, male body. This article examines how Siciliano/Atlas transformed himself into the world’s most perfect white man at a time when Italians’ whiteness was …

Responses Of Young Adult Grandchildren To Grandparents’ Painful Self-Disclosures, Craig Frowler, Jordan Soliz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study examined grandchildren’s relational and communicative responses to grandparents’ painful self-disclosures (PSDs). From the perspective of young adult grandchildren (N = 297), dis-comfort with PSDs is more significant in differentiating positive and negative aspects of the grandparent-grandchild relationship than simply the occurrence of such disclosures. Furthermore, results reveal that the family communication environment and communicative responsiveness of the grandchild are important factors in predicting discomfort with PSDs as well as grandchildren’s communication with grandparents.

Feminist Criticism: The Importance Of Sharing The Native Female Journey, Michelle Newfield

Communication Studies

The female Native American perspective is grossly neglected in mainstream media. Sadly, stereotypical images romanticize Native American women in a light that disallows them to be taken seriously in a modernized world. The fact is that the majority of women with American Indian ancestry do not live on reservations; they make up a considerable part of the general population.

There is an unfortunate “invisibility of Native women in comparison to men,” and “Native women are often represented by popular culture within the Plains Indian context, the generic Indian. Omnipresent is the ‘squaw’ who is portrayed as servant, concubine, beast of …

Ruang-Ruang Sosial Pekerja Ekonomi Bawah Tanah (Underground Economy), Erna Ermawati Chotim

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.