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Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Transnational Networks Of Film Repetitions In East Asia : Proliferation And Limitations, Roman Kusaiko

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

A growing number of contemporary film critics, influencers, and audiences criticize film remaking, a tested and successful Hollywood practice. The main complaints are a lack of originality, overreliance on repeated titles, and an openly commercial nature. Despite criticism, film remakes have existed for decades and are a vivid and resilient form of recycling under new cultural and geopolitical circumstances. Contemporary film remaking reflects the impacts of globalization, transnationalization, and the rapid development of new media and digitalization.

Nevertheless, there is a tendency to theorize on film remaking, often relying on the dichotomy of the source and a remake or, less …

Dungeons & Dragons In Times Of Transmedia, Nazario Robles Bastida, Ricardo Victoria Uribe

Journal of Roleplaying Studies and STEAM

This paper explores the current state of transmedia storytelling, that is, the art of developing a cohesive narrative through a variety of media. Using Dungeons & Dragons as a case study, this study explores the complex nature of current forms of transmedia storytelling, as well as the complex relationships between media producers and consumers that have arisen due to this narrative technique. Focusing in three specific examples within the franchise: Drizzt Do'Urden, the Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon series and the 2023 film Honor among Thieves, our analysis illustrate the fact that current media franchises are constituted by a …

Grounded Aesthetics: Pedagogy For A Post-Truth Era, Becca Cragin

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

With the rise of cultural studies, positivism and formalism fell out of favor. But in recent years, altered versions of these methodologies have been suggested as solutions to the deficiencies of the ideological approach dominating the field. Where the ideological approach looks at the content of texts to determine their meaning, the aesthetic approach adopted by media scholars in recent years returns to the close textual readings of formalism (while abandoning its assertion that meaning resides in the text alone). Similarly, where the ideological approach tends to use textual analysis devoid of sociological empiricism, the use of “big data” in …

Deconstructing "Proper Condom Use" As An Introduction To Literary Analysis, Julie Stewart, Thomas D. Clark, Marilyn Clark

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Popular culture figures in television, movies, comics, and video games have captured the imaginations of young people. The themes and characters of shows students watch regularly help shape their views on contemporary issues, especially as they compare their personal experiences with those portrayed on their favorite shows. This paper examines how "Proper Condom Use," an episode of South Park, one of the most popular shows among young viewers, can be used as a springboard for in-class discussion of tools for literary analysis through an exposition of this episode’s visual and aural humor, themes, characters, audience, and genre.

Our experience …

Four Decades, Three Songs, Too Much Violence: Using Popular Culture Media Analysis To Prepare Preservice Teachers For Dealing With School Violence, Edward Janak, Lisa Pescara-Kovach

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Since teacher education has morphed from normal schools into colleges of education, the goals of preparing teachers have expanded. While it is essential to prepare teachers to utilize scientifically proven methods as well as to read and use research in the field, there are ever-expanding other goals that must be met as well. For one example, with the increase of school violence taking place in the United States, it is imperative to include preparation for preservice teachers on how to prevent bullying and how to handle traumatic events, such as school shootings, with their future students. However, broaching such a …

Hyping The Hyperreal: Postmodern Visual Dynamics In Amy Heckerling’S Clueless, Andrew Urie

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

An iconic staple of 1990s Hollywood cinema, director-screenwriter Amy Heckerling’s Clueless (1995) is a cult classic. This article examines the film’s postmodern visual dynamics, which parody hyperreal media culture and its connection to feminine teen consumerism amidst the image-saturated society of mid-’90s era Los Angeles.

A Framework For Using Popular Music Videos To Teach Media Literacy, Jordan M. Mcclain

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This article discusses the use of popular music videos as a tool for teaching media literacy. First, the article addresses the importance of music videos as popular culture, what other music video research has examined, and what features make music videos a good fit for in-class work investigating media and popular culture. Then the article details a single-class activity for introducing and teaching media literacy through the use of music videos. To achieve this objective, the article also proposes a set of original music video-specific discussion questions. Finally, a particular music video is considered to illustrate possible results of this …

(Re)Learning About Learning: Using Cases From Popular Media To Extend And Complicate Our Understandings Of What It Means To Learn And Teach, Kelli Bippert, Dennis Davis, Margaret Rose Hilburn, Jennifer D. Hooper, Deepti Kharod, Cinthia Rodriguez, Rebecca Stortz

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This article utilizes sociocultural and socio-constructivist learning theories to analyze incidents of learning, and by extension teaching, in six different popular media selections. The authors describe their shared theoretical framework and the nature of the original analyses, which were completed as part of a doctoral course assignment. Each of the six excerpts is then described and discussed employing unique theoretical perspectives. The use of popular culture as the context for examining learning and teaching provides a space untethered from traditional notions of schooling through which typically accepted assumptions about pedagogy are revealed, re-examined, and reframed.

Algorithmic Love: Twenty-First Century Organizations Of The Romantic, Sandra Moyano Ariza

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the highly computed and accelerated experiences of digital love as well as their cultural and artistic representations in order to shed light on the human and more-than-human entanglements producing the algorithmic love experience. The recent turn to love in critical theory and cultural studies examines how love circulates in neoliberal societies and in the subjective processes of the users, foregrounding the control of populations and the very much lamented “end of love” (Illouz 2019). My study of love supplements the neoliberalist critique of algorithmic love with a posthuman and media theory approach that attends to the material …

Dishes Of Yesteryear: Memories, Stories, And Representations Of The Past Within Food Media, Diana Willis Bottomley

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In 1963, Julia Child revolutionized cooking television. Child’s The French Chef, which ran for ten years on the Boston public television station, WGBH, changed how American’s viewed, produced, and consumed food. And in the sixty years since Child’s debut, food media has grown in scope and popularity, increasingly altering how we communicate identity in and through food and foodways. In this dissertation, I examine the relation between food, media, and memory, with particular attention to: how the past moderates the connection between food and identity; how food media produce a sense of place integral to identity; and how food …

“For The Moment, I Am Not F*Cking,” I Am Tweeting: Platforms Of / As Sexuality, Jacob Johanssen

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article develops the argument that digital platforms are significantly infused with originary (and unconscious) residues of the sexual. Drawing on Laplancheian conceptualizations of sexuality, I argue that the digital has always been sexual(ised) in itself – a process that precedes and exceeds the erotic or pornographic. For Laplanche, sexuality is constitutive of the human subject as such. Infantile sexuality is shaped and transformed in an enigmatic relation with the caregiver. Drawing on this model as an analogy, I claim that users are drawn to platforms because they (unconsciously) desire to return to infantile sexuality and a holding environment but …

Teaching Feminist Media Studies In A Post-Weinstein Era, Gigi Mcnamara

Feminist Pedagogy

In this critical commentary, I will address the concept of witnessing as it relates to contemporary feminist empowerment while also properly situating Weinstein-produced films as historical mediated texts.

Influencer Celebrification: How Social Media Influencers Acquire Celebrity Capital, Gillian Brooks, Jenna Drenten Ph.D., Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The digital age has given rise to new pathways for everyday individuals to accrue media attention, which can be translated into promotional endeavors. Such sociocultural currency is referred to as celebrity capital, which can be exchanged within the field of advertising through celebrity endorsements. Traditional celebrities acquire celebrity capital through institutional intermediaries such as sport, television, music, and movies. Research is needed to understand the unique process by which social media influencers (SMIs) acquire celebrity capital. We draw on interviews with 40 global advertising industry practitioners and influencers to better understand how influencers acquire celebrity capital in a saturated media …

The Uncanny Swipe Drive: The Return Of A Racist Mode Of Algorithmic Thought On Dating Apps, Gregory Narr

Publications and Research

As algorithmic media amplify longstanding social oppression, they also seek to colonize every last bit of sociality where that oppression could be resisted. Swipe apps constitute prototypical examples of this dynamic. By employing protocols that foster absent-minded engagement, they allow unconscious racial preferences to be expressed without troubling users’ perceptions of themselves as non-racist. These preferences are then measured by recommender systems that treat “attractiveness” as a zero-sum game, allocate affective flows according to the winners and losers of those games, and ultimately amplify the salience of race as a factor of success for finding intimacy. In thus priming users …

Beauty Is Not Black And White: A Content Analysis Of Black Women’S Body Image In Television Media, Alexis Hubbard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are few bodies of literature that look at Black women’s body image in television media. When Black women were studied most research (Falconer & Neville, 2000; Jhally & Kilbourne, 2010; Smith, 2014; Shearon-Richardson, 2011;) compared them to White ideals. However, this study did a content analysis of Black women in predominantly Black or ethnically diverse television shows using qualitative studies that suggest a Black ideal. The researcher examined lead character(s) body shapes, comments about their body, hair texture and comments about their hair. This research looked at protective factors (aspects Black life that allow for more body satisfaction) like …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Com 3060 (Media Analysis And Criticism), Riann Subijanto

Open Educational Resources

In contemporary society, the media, including the Internet, television, smart phones, radio, magazines, movies, music, newspapers, and books, saturate our everyday lives to an extent unprecedented in human history. Their effects are wide-ranging and transformative, including affecting our perception of reality, influencing how and what we think about, and framing our understanding of the world around us. Yet, due to their pervasiveness, rarely do we seriously consider the media and the issues they raise. This course will introduce you to the seminal theories in media studies. By considering these different approaches, we will situate the media in a broader historical, …

Converging Horror: Analyzing The Importance Of Convergence Culture On A Digital Audience Through An Examination Of The Conventions And Politics Of The Horror Genre, Kelsey M. Fox

Media and Cultural Studies Honors Projects

This thesis draws attention to the genre of horror in new media through a close examination of various digital texts, arguing that these new texts, while built on traditional horror narratives used in cinema, are also examples of Convergence Culture, a mobile, multiplatform, participatory medium that engages professionals and amateur content creators. The thesis begins with a review of scholarly work about horror as a genre, continues with a close analysis of several digital horror texts and their online communities, and ends with the argument that these new texts are good examples of how horror has accommodated Convergence culture, morphing …

Book Review: Making Media Studies By David Gauntlett, Antonio Lopez

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Making Media Studies is a collection of previously published and updated works by David Gauntlett, including his infamous essay, “Media Studies 2.0.” It explores ways in which the traditional media studies paradigm has been disrupted by prosumers and the practices of everyday people and DIY “makers” who are using the internet to learn, make things and share ideas. He argues that media studies practitioners need to learn from the makers movement to encourage more creativity, design thinking and conversation. Gauntlett positions himself as an optimist and criticizes overly negative approaches to internet culture that he sees as common among media …

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 …

The Meaning And Relevance Of Video Game Literacy, Jeroen Bourgonjon

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The Meaning and Relevance of Video Game Literacy" Jeroen Bourgonjon argues that video gaming deserves scholarly attention as a social practice and a site for meaning-making and learning. Based on an overview of contemporary trends in literacy and cultural studies, he argues that video games cannot be approached like traditional text forms. He contends that video games serve as an important frame of reference for young people and call for informed decision making in the context of culture, education, and policy. Bourgonjon provides an integrated perspective on video game literacy by employing theoretical insights about their distinctive …

Why Don't I Look Like Her? The Impact Of Social Media On Female Body Image, Kendyl M. Klein

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of this paper is to understand and criticize the role of social media in the development and/or encouragement of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body dissatisfaction in college-aged women. College women are exceptionally vulnerable to the impact that social media can have on their body image as they develop an outlook on their bodies and accept the developmental changes that occurred during puberty. This paper provides evidence that there is a relationship between the recent surge in disordered eating and high consumption of social media. I examine the ways in which traditional advertising has portrayed women throughout history, …

Fernández And Cinematic Propaganda In The U.S. And Mexico, Renae L. Mitchell

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Fernández and Cinematic Propaganda in the U.S. and Mexico" Renae L. Mitchell discusses the competing ideologies on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. As one of the foremost filmmakers of the Mexican Golden Age of cinema, Emilio Fernández established what would is recognized as "Mexicanness" by means of Indigenous characters in his films, most apparent in the film María Candelaria. RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures, as the principal purveyor of US-American propagandist cinema, led Hollywood into the cinematic market of Mexico revealing its intentions by means of the RKO film The Falcon in Mexico. Fernández sought to …

Digital Humanities In Developed And Emerging Markets, Verena Laschinger

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Digital Humanities in Developed and Emerging Markets" Verena Laschinger discusses the impact e-culture has on humanities pedagogy both in affluent countries and emerging markets. Claiming that e-literacy training generally offers opportunities to recover the traditional agency of the humanities thus catapulting the disciplines into the educational forefront of the creative economy, special attention is given to the chances digital humanities education offers in Turkey’s emerging market economy. Given that technology promotes the country's economic development, which includes a rapidly growing private educational sector, digital humanities education helps citizens to adjust to critical democratic exchange, to facilitate and …

Plotting The Pixel In Remediated Word And Image, Sarah Wyman

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Plotting the Pixel in Remediated Word and Image" Sarah Wyman argues that art's historic negotiation of culture continues into the new digital media age as it both asserts the materiality of the medium and acknowledges the impact of embodied perception. She demonstrates that however revolutionary, the new digital media still relate to many traditional paradigms of aesthetic expression. Problems of representation and simulation continue to catch on questions of time, space and human perception. The contingent relationships between categories and entities once kept separate — word/image, observer/observed — determine and define the process of globalization. The new …

Making Sense Of The Digital As Embodied Experience, Serge Bouchardon, Asunción López-Varela

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Making Sense of the Digital as Embodied Experience" Serge Bouchardon and Asunción López-Varela discuss a digital creation — Loss of Grasp <http://lossofgrasp.com/> — created by Serge Bouchardon and Vincent Volckaert. The work is about the notions of grasp and control. Through an analysis of Loss of Grasp, Bouchardon and López-Varela Azcárate show how the Cartesian understanding of private isolated experience, independent of reality external to it, has given way to a communal understanding of experience in which the subject constitutes itself by mirroring himself/herself on its objects, producing a mutual engagement or co-creativity among interdependent intersubjects: …

An Intermedial Reading Of Paley's Sita Sings The Blues, Ipshita Chanda

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "An Intermedial Reading of Paley's Sita Sings the Blues" Ipshita Chanda discusses the film text of Nina Paley's 2008 animation film, a culturally reconceptualized version of Válmíki's Sanskrit epic Rámáyana. Chanda discusses the film as an intermedial retextualization of the Rámáyana in the film where media boundaries and genres are crossed in "textual," audio, and visual media. The basic premise from which Chanda proceeds is that the condition of intermediality in film is produced by a "conceptual fusion" of different media which, in turn, are analyzed using theories of reception and contact between different media …

Intermediality, Rewriting Histories, And Identities In French Rap, Isabelle Marc Martínez

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Intermediality, Rewriting Histories and Identities in French Rap" Isabelle Marc Martínez analyzes aspects of French hip hop culture. As an example of resistant cultural manifestations, hip hop scenes all over the world develop strategies to subvert mainstream values and to replace them by new de-localized, contesting identities via intermedial and intertextual processes. In France during the 1990 rap was intended to reassess French national history and national self-perception. Foundational hip hop bands such as Assassin, Ministère AMER, IAM, and NTM aimed at discrediting official narratives concerning the French culture's colonial and social past. hip hop artists, who …

Introduction To New Perspectives On Material Culture And Intermedial Practice, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek, Asunción López-Varela, Haun Saussy, Jan Mieszkowski

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Towards A Multimodal Analysis Of Da Rimini's Dollspace, Maya Paniagua Zalbidea

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Towards a Multimodal Analysis of da Rimini's Dollspace" Maya Zalbidea Paniagua analyzes Francesca da Rimini's Dollspace <http://dollyoko.thing.net/> (1997-2001). By analyzing Dollspace Zalbidea Paniagua reinforces the proposition that studies on material aesthetics and intermediality encompass a process of rethinking the notion of boundaries across material structures. This is clearly shown in da Rimini's Dollspace, where ambivalence cuts across discursive genres and distinct material formats of image, text, and audio. Hypertext engages the user/participant in a dialogue with the machine and, in the case of Dollspace, across people's sexual attitudes. Dollspace seeks to do more than …