Critical and Cultural Studies Commons^™

American Sign Language As A Foreign Language Equivalent At James Madison University, Abigail E. Compton

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

ASL is increasingly gaining acknowledgment as a foreign language in the university setting. At James Madison University, sign language classes have traditionally been housed within the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. This research makes a case for considering ASL as an equivalent to courses in the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and argues that ASL meets the university standards for the study of a foreign language with regard to fulfilling Bachelor of Arts requirements.

Considering the linguistic history of ASL and the language’s accompanying culture, we will demonstrate the standards for teaching ASL are identical to the …

Padded Assumptions: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Patriarchal Menstruation Discourse, Kathryn M. Lese

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In 2015, Rupi Kaur’s photography project featuring a menstruating woman was censored on Instagram, a photo sharing social media platform. The menstruation censorship created a surge in public media discourse about what is and is not appropriate to discuss about menstruation. Menstruation communication is often discrete or invisible in dominant discourse and focuses of medicalization rather than the social norms of “performing menstruation”. This thesis explores menstruation communication in public media discourse and examines how it empowers and disempowers the menstruating female body. Themes including the everyday language of menstruation, patriarchal censorship of women’s bodies, shame and stigma in menstruation …

Contesting “Obligation”: Memory, Morality, And The (Re)Construction Of Divestment Narratives, Christina Quint

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Leaders in the medical field representing organizations abroad such as the British Medical Association (BMA) and MedAct have called for health care organizations to divest from fossil fuels, on the grounds that it is hypocritical for health care leaders to take the Hippocratic Oath and be implicated in the health impacts for which the burning of fossil fuels is responsible. The emerging discourse highlighting the imperative to divest draws parallels to the health care sector’s leadership in divesting from tobacco in the 1990s on the grounds of its health implications. Even before the current fossil fuel divestment movement and the …

(Re)Positioning Black: Negotiating Racial Subjectivities In White Discursively Constructed Spaces, Elisa Davidson

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis is both a personal and social inquiry of the experience of Black students at a predominantly white university. Within this inquiry, I extend Nakayama and Krizek's (1995) concept of whiteness as having "no true essence" to conceptualizations of blackness to assert that blackness is “a pattern of negotiation that takes place in conditions generated by specific discursive formations and social relations” (McLaren, 1999, pg. 40) rather than a fixed, essential category. Viewing blackness as encounter means that it is emergent through specific social and discursive conditions that are constantly constructed and negotiated through interactions with whiteness. I approach …

My Body, Our Illness: Negotiating Relational And Identity Tensions Of Living With Mental Illness, Erin E. Casey

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis uses an autoethnographic methodology informed by narrative theory to interrogate my experiences of relational and identity tensions as both a consumer of mental health services and an advocate for the care, autonomy and acceptance of those who identify with concepts of mental illness recovery. In doing so I am using my personal diaries and medical records from the past seven years as archival data to assist me in recovering and reconstructing narratives that represent meaningful truths about these experiences. I also call on heavily what Carolyn Ellis (2004) calls "relational ethics" because I know that while I am …

Trying To Restrict Her Range: The Backlash In Response To Ree Drummond, “The Pioneer Woman,” And Drummond’S Agency In Constructing And Profiting From A 21st Century Pioneering Persona, Jennifer R. Oskin

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Ree Drummond is the creator of the wildly popular lifestyle blog, thepioneerwoman.com, and star of the Food Network show, “The Pioneer Woman.” This thesis analyzes the rhetorical practices of Ree Drummond, as “The Pioneer Woman,” and how critics’ responses to this constructed persona have taken shape on blogging platforms. To conduct this analysis, I examined a variety of artifacts from Drummond’s public persona including her blog, cookbooks, television episodes, as well as YouTube videos of her public appearances and speaking engagements. I also analyzed the forums in which people respond to “The Pioneer Woman”; this includes op-eds on the …

Landfill Communities Within The Land Of Eternal Spring, Blanca Vaneza Guzmán

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

This paper examines the placement and impact of landfills within Guatemala City, Guatemala. By examining the municipal cite and its accessibility to policy taken on towards proper waste management, the recurring theme of lack of information will be obvious. It specifically looks at the lack of information provided and describes the landfill communities by looking at the minimal scholarship and media attention offered. This paper will also interrelate the importance of all beings, living and non-living with its surroundings and highlight ideas of ecological thinking. An emphasis on environmental racism will be stressed, particularly with the enormous impact it has …

"Do Not Fashion The Other": Representing Contemporary Haudenosaunee Literature 2016, Michael Patrick Brewster

Master's Theses

Historically, the issue of representation in postcolonial studies is one of some contention. While scholarship might recognize the necessity for highlighting the plights and struggles attendant to postcolonial societies, the primary literature being studied is most often written by natives of those societies themselves. This gap is especially evident with Indigenous cultures, because there are relatively few Indigenous scholars working in the academy. We are at the point now when we have a multiplicity (but not a plurality) of Indigenous voices writing literature (poetry, memoir, fiction, film, etc.) and academic criticism. However, there is value in non-Natives reading and writing …

Mixing It Up: Teaching Information Literacy Concepts Through Different ‘Ways Of Learning’, Lorna M. Dawes

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

The new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy (ACRL, 2015) has propelled librarians into new approaches to teaching that concentrate on the concepts and not the procedures or tasks that relate to the effective use of information. It is known that students vary their learning strategies in response to the context of their learning environment (Richardson, 2011) and so it is imperative that instruction facilitates various ways of learning, that can be accommodated in both the small and large classes. Historically librarians have focused on the teaching of the skills: how to search databases, how to find information, how to evaluate …

Cinematic Transmedia: A Physiological Look At Engagement With Marvel's Cinematic Universe As Measured By Brainwaves And Electrodermal Activity, Tabitha Cassidy

Masters Theses

This study looks at engagement levels within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) at physiological and neurological levels, and with self-reported measures. One show or movie in each of three categories of Marvel media (a movie, television show, and streaming show) were shown to participants who then had their brainwaves and galvanic skin response recorded to determine whether or not they were engaged with the transmedia aspects of the MCU. Results showed that participants were consistently engaged with the transmedia throughout all three media types, with brainwaves varying only slightly between each content. The Marvel movie, “The Avengers” was most engaging …

All Lives Matter: Media Agenda, Brittany Minard

Masters Theses

This thesis proposal addresses the role that the media play in influencing public opinion with specific attention paid to CNN and Fox News in the way that they covered the shooting of Mike Brown by officer Darren Wilson in August 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. The research has been divided into several sections starting with an introduction which includes, a statement of the problem being addressed, the significance and purpose of this study, and a section about myself as the researcher. This is followed by a literature review which consists of explaining the Agenda Setting Theory to examine how the media …

Challenging Students At Fort Worth Christian School To Engage The Economically Disadvantaged In Their Community, James Hensley

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents a project in which I led a group of students at Fort Worth Christian School in experiences that challenged them to be more engaged with the economically disadvantaged in their community. The problem I identified at the outset of the project was a lack of such experiences along with troubling attitudes about poverty. Many students initially demonstrated ambivalence or even outright hostility toward the notion of helping people who live in poverty. I found such attitudes to be contrary to the teachings of Jesus and to my central beliefs as a Christian. I believed …

When Ink Turned Into Bullets: The Effect Of The Press In Buffalo, New York And The Nation Along With Its Role In Igniting A Civil War, Nicole C. Kondziela

History Theses

The American Civil War was a multi-faceted conflict: North versus South, states’ rights versus federal law, slavery versus abolition. Due to increasing and constant advancements in technology, this was the first war in American history that developed in full view of the public through newspapers. The Industrial Revolution and capitalism allowed the press to evolve into rich and powerful soap boxes for political bosses and editors alike to voice their opinions far beyond the village square. Unbeknownst to much of the public at the time, the Union had been at the mercy of newspaper editors and politicians in a grand …

If We're Mocking Anything, It's Organized Religion: The Queer Holy Fool Style Of The Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence, Christina L. Ivey

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Asking questions in and about the often rough terrain at the intersection of sexuality/gender and religion/spirituality, this dissertation seeks to excavate the concept of queer holy fool style as a fitting response to dominant Judeo-Christian narratives that marginalize LGBTQ individuals. To do so, I utilize the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), a drag performing community of “21^st Century Nuns,” as a synechdoche; pulling examples of their communication and performances as evidence of queer holy fool style. In exploring three facets of stylistic study (embodied, textual/hypertextual, and sociological), I blend queer theoretical concepts (like camp, performativity, and disciplining) with rhetorical …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Feminist And Patriarchal Themes Within Shonda Rhimes' Television Shows "Grey's Anatomy," "Scandal," And "How To Get Away With Murder", Katelyn Roshetko

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Rhetorical Fantasies Of The Kent State Rioters: A Study Of Sds Peripheral Influence, Amanda Stanley

Masters Theses

In the 1960s and early 1970s, American colleges were shaken by a group whose collective view of the country was so abhorrent that they tried, through word and action, to tear the country apart. The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) created and sustained a vision that was shared by thousands and fueled by stories of members who traveled the country recruiting college students to carry out the organization’s mission of war against society. The words spoken in speeches and written in publications created by the SDS demonstrate the power in a shared vision and served to create unity among …

Smartphones And Cognition: The Case For An Updated Theory Of Electronic Eloquence, Omar Adams

Masters Theses

As Marshall McLuhan first proposed, humanity has progressed through several stages of communication technology that have each fundamentally changed the way people think and behave within society at large. Electronic media redefined society in the 20th century, and now we stand at the cusp of a new revolution. This paper examines the changes brought about by the Internet and new media, with a particular focus on the effects of smartphone and social media use, through the lens of Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s theory of electronic eloquence. An anonymous survey was conducted to determine participants’ preferences on different forms of media as …

Divergent Discourse: A Case Study Analyzing The Effects Of Campus Communication About Sexual Assault, Melissa H. Nipper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research analyzes campus discourse at a university in south central Appalachia in an effort to highlight the role of communication in the prevention of sexual assault and its powerful effects on communities and individuals. Using a critical feminist lens, this qualitative case study identifies the communication goals, interpretations, and strategies of two important speech communities who participate in sexual assault discourse on college campuses—campus professionals who communicate about the issue of sexual assault (issue managers) and sexual assault survivors whose identity is shaped by sexual assault (identity managers). While both groups talk about the problem, the parties diverge on …

Exploring Ethnic Stereotypes Through The Production Of Five Short Films, Ines Galiano Torres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a nontraditional thesis that combines social research in ethnic stereotypes in TV and film with the creative process of film production. This paper contains the formal step of research, in addition to the details on the production and creation of five original short films related to the issue of ethnic representations.

Love On - The Life Of A Suicide Survivor: A Performance Autoethnographic Study, Patricia R. Wheeler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicide touches the lives of millions of people each year in this country alone, yet conversations about suicide loss and survival after a loss remain taboo and often do not happen. The story I performed for this performance autoethnographic study centers on my life as a survivor of suicide. It provides a starting point for dialog regarding trauma, grief, and suicide loss. The narrative was constructed directly following the sudden death of my father, which had a direct effect on my ability to produce artistic work. The development, staging and performance of the story were altered to account for the …

Branding Faith: Do Christian Ministries Reach Millennials With Branding?, Bolashade Hanson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research study is to discover what branding techniques used by Christian organizations are effective in connecting with Millennials and why, and to determine what are effective branding practices in a religious context. A convergent parallel mixed–method research design was used to gather the data. It included a content analysis of the branding components of four Christian organizations that target Millennials—The Passion Conference, The VOUS Conference, Acquire the Fire and Winterfest. A survey of 150 Millennials of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds within the age range of 18-34 was conducted to collect quantitative data on Millennials’ predispositions …

Uncovering America’S Horror Story: A Content And Critical Analysis Of American Horror Story., Jessica Maio

Honors Projects in Communication

The popular television series American Horror Story has captivated millions of Americans with its shocking and twisted plotlines that never fail to surprise. Perhaps one of the reasons that the show has become so popular is that it uses the horror genre as a way to explore controversial topics. The purpose of this project is to examine the controversial topics that are presented in American Horror Society and compare them with the current views of mainstream society to determine whether the show primarily reflects the views of the larger society or challenges them. In other words, how does American Horror …

"In The Land Of Tomorrow": Representations Of The New Woman In The Pre-Suffrage Era, Natalie B. O'Neal

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This digital anthology explores feminism in selected short fiction by women writers from the 1911 run of the popular women’s magazines Woman’s Home Companion, Ladies’ Home Journal, and The Farmer’s Wife. This fiction furthered the women’s rights movement by allowing women to imagine a world similar to their own with a heroine who voiced their desires and enacted change. Rather than the more experimental, inaccessible literature of avant garde high modernist writers consumed by the upper class, popular fiction reached a wider, middle class audience and was more effective at producing a progressive zeitgeist following the stilted Victorian …

2nd Place Contest Entry: From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma F. Plotnik

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Emma Plotnik's submission for the 2016 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won second place. She wrote about the impact of salons on the musical world in past centuries, and created a modern virtual salon of her own.

Emma is a senior at Chapman University, majoring in Music with a minor in Law, Justice, and Social Control. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Jessica Sternfeld.

Discourses Of Madness And Me: Critical Examinations Of Western Discourses Of Madness And Psychiatry, Erin E. Casey

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

This paper is a critical examination of western medical paradigms alongside histories of psychiatry that argues for a culturally situated approach to mental health advocacy that maintains the importance of the physiological foundations of traditional biomedical approaches to disease. In doing so, I examine the discourses of madness, and society’s attempts to control and “fix” what is deemed “mad” through a historical lens. My position and critique utilizes a reflexive narrative process embracing my identities both as a consumer of mental health services and as an advocate for those with mental illnesses.

But What Does “It” Mean: An Analysis Of Feminist & Mainstream Pornographies, Alexandra S. Melnick 2225930

SEWSA 2016 Intersectionality in the New Millennium: An Assessment of Culture, Power, and Society

In this project, I am interested in how we as a culture talk and make stories about heterosexual non-fetish pornography that contains fellatio scenes. Fellatio, being a site of social power and relation, can be conceptualized and portrayed in different ways based on the ideology and intentions of the context a text portraying fellatio it is created in. In this project I reasoned that mainstream pornography and feminist pornography would show fellatio in different ways, revealing the basic differences in each genre’s content and execution. To this effect, I analyzed six films from both feminist and mainstream pornographies and have …

Femme-Ing The Fandom: A Cross-Cultural Approach, Lynslei Harris

SEWSA 2016 Intersectionality in the New Millennium: An Assessment of Culture, Power, and Society

In our ever-global society, fandoms, with their ability to reach and reproduce across cultures, have emerged as an important new media worthy of study. As the participatory practices of fans are explored, it is necessary to also apply the intersection of gender. Although each fandom constitutes a public, female members often participate in ways that allow them to form an artistic counterpublic. While male fans tend to gather data and act as gatekeepers of the fandom, their female counterparts engage in dress up or cosplay (costume play) and produce almost all of current fan fiction. These kinds of participatory practices …

Monetizing State Services To The Poor: Intentional Analysis Of Three Latin-American Conditional Cash Transfer Programs, Andrés Dapuez Ph.D., Sabrina Gavigan, Talita Eger

Journal of International and Global Studies

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) have been described as fundamental to the “post-neo-liberal” turn in Latin America. Through an analysis of the stated and unstated goals of three CCT development programs in Latin America, Mexico’s Progresa-Oportunidades, begun in 1997; Brazil’s Programa Bolsa Familia (PBF), started in 2003; and Argentina’s Asignacion Universal por Hijo (AUH), started in 2009, this paper suggests that CCTs portend the continuation of longestablished economic monetarist policies in the region, providing poor families with meager amounts of money, barely sufficient for their subsistence. Despite the fact that progressive populisms in Brazil and Argentina have imbued cash transfers with …

Contesting The Political Economy Of Higher Education: Educating The Good Citizen, Alberto Nicotra, Fay Patel Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

In national and international sectors, citizenship is constantly contested, negotiated, and reinvented across geographical boundaries. Higher education institutions around the world have focused on embedding graduate outcomes that characterize the ideal global citizen across the curriculum. International mobility programs promote international staff and student exchanges as a strategy to develop global citizenship. This paper presents a critical review of the notion of global citizenship through the narrative of a doctoral graduate who made his journey as a good citizen within an international mobility context. A research network-based framework is proposed for the higher education sector to assess the impact of …

Israeli, R. From Arab Spring To Islamic Winter. New Brunswick And London: Transaction Publishers, 2013., Joseph Alagha Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

Book review.