Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons^™

Hillary Rodham Clinton And Shifts In Gendered Rhetorical Style, Mackenzie Lombardi

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Hillary Rodham Clinton is arguably the most visible and controversial female political figure of our time. As First Lady, the Senator from New York, the Secretary of State, and a two-time Presidential candidate, the rhetorical space around Clinton is saturated with cultural assumptions of gender, power, and politics. In many ways Clinton is emblematic of the infamous “double bind” that all women who seek to challenge normative gendered roles must inevitably face. Much academic and cultural focus has been centered on the ways in which Hillary Rodham Clinton is a subject of gendered rhetoric. This paper, instead, builds on the …

Am I White Enough?, Sarah Dahsohl Im, Risd Archives

Racial Justice

Representasian Campaign poster created by RISD Alumni Sarah Dahsohl Im. REPRESENTASIAN is a campaign made to raise awareness about the lack of diversity in Hollywood, specifically criticizing the whitewashing of Asian characters. Creating a visual system that was cohesive, bold, and easy to recognize was key. The color yellow and white paint were used as the main design elements. The deliverables for this campaign were accessable across print and digital platforms. Stickers, posters, and social media posts were spread with the hashtag #representasian. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with peers responding with their own experiences with whitewashing and others …

The Institute Of New Feelings: Plastic Identities And Imperfect Surfaces, Weijian Zhou

Theses and Dissertations

Digital media are moldable spaces where an image is simultaneously a thought. This instance and flexibility enables digital existences to be malleable, transformative, situational, and unstable. They are plastic images. Video games generate digital bodies that are a fusion of subjectivities and cybernetic simulations, in a perceivable and ambiguous process. Such bodies are extensions of ourselves, being girlish, imperfect, unfinished and happening—digesting and emitting clusters of feelings, regardless of our biological gender and age. The performative experience of play is progressively departing from spectacle, gambling and competition, and increasingly shifting towards an emotional journey of alternate realities, spreading subjectivities into …

An Analysis Of Black Undergraduate Students' Social Activism Through Social Media Usage, Tayla Richards

Masters Theses

Social media has become a tool for college students to engage in social activism. Black undergraduate students is one population that actively utilize social media's impact as illustrated through recent activist movements and demonstrations within university communities. This study sought to explore and analyze the ways that Black undergraduate students utilize social media platforms in general and for activism. The researcher conducted one-on-one interviews with three Black undergraduate students and analyzed their posts on each of their frequently used social media platforms in order to study how their personal narratives were connected to their social media use.

Results showed that …

On Solid Ground I Stand: Narratives On Disclosure, Resilience, And Faith Amidst Recognition Of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Wade Rhodes Dundee

Masters Theses

Childhood sexual abuse seems to be a hidden secret in American society; one of the famous, "If we don't talk about it, it won't happen" narratives. However, we know this is not true. Both the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (2012) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2005) state one in four girls and one in six boys will fall victim to sexual abuse before they celebrate their 18th birthday. There is a high probability that because of the alarming lack of disclosure of male survivors, these statistics could be incorrect and could hinder creating or allowing for conversations …

Let's Talk About How We Talk: Communication Agreements In The Library Workplace, Kabel Nathan Stanwicks

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Purpose: This chapter introduces a new tool, termed the Communication Agreement, for enhancing communication in the library workplace. The chapter defines the communication agreement, provides discussion questions for forming a communication agreement, provides examples of how communication agreements are beneficial to a diverse library workforce, and provides strategies to informally assess communication agreements’ effectiveness.

Practical implications: Communication problems in diverse library workplaces can lead to, or exacerbate, conflict between employees. Generational, cross-cultural, gender, and other differences can lead to misunderstandings and conflict between employees. The communication agreement provides library managers with a tool to bridge differences in communication styles …

Communicatively Constructing The Bright And Dark Sides Of Hope: Family Caregivers’ Experiences During End Of Life Cancer Care, Jody Koenig Kellas, Katherine M. Castle, Alexis Johnson, Marlene Z. Cohen

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

(1) Background: The communication of hope is complicated, particularly for family caregivers in the context of cancer who struggle to maintain hope for themselves and their loved ones in the face of terminality. In order to understand these complexities, the current study examines the bright and dark sides of how hope is communicated across the cancer journey from the vantage point of bereaved family caregivers; (2) Methods: We analyzed interviews with bereaved family caregivers using qualitative thematic and case oriented strategies to identify patterns in the positive and negative lived experiences when communicating about hope at the end of life; …

“Love Needs To Be Exchanged”: A Diary Study Of Interaction And Enactment Of The Family Kinkeeper Role, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Jaclyn S. Marsh, Carol L. Tschampl-Diesing, Margaret S. Leach

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Family kinkeepers enact an important role centered on interaction and maintaining family relationships. The researchers studied kinkeeping communication in light of mediated communication, topics engaged, and kinkeepers’ assessments. Thirty-four self-identified kinkeepers kept an interaction diary over 2 weeks. Their 275 reports represented 1,487 interactions using largely mediated communication channels (text, telephone, e-mail, social media), centered on everyday activities, rituals, and health and safety. Despite potential complications of the role, kinkeepers reported high agreement and openness with family members, little conflict, and overall satisfaction with their interactions. Implications of these findings, new directions for researchers, and the important mediated role of …

Perceived Benefits And Challenges Of A Multiethnic-Racial Identity: Insight From Adults With Mixed Heritage, Jordan Soliz, Sierra Cronan, Gretchen Bergquist, Audra K. Nuru, Christine E. Rittenour

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this inquiry was to explore the lived experiences of multiethnic-racial individuals (i.e., individuals with parents from different ethnic-racial groups). In-depth interviews were conducted with 29 adults from the United States with mixed ethnic-racial backgrounds ranging in age from 18 to 52 (female n = 20, male n = 9). We identified a number of themes related to perceived benefits (e.g., pluralistic world views, stronger sense of self) and challenges (e.g., identity tensions, communal concerns) of having a mixed heritage. Findings are discussed in terms of four considerations for ethnic-racial identity of individuals with mixed ethnic-racial backgrounds: emphasizing …

The Role Of Health Care Provider And Partner Decisional Support In Patients’ Cancer Treatment Decision-Making Satisfaction, Angela L. Palmer-Wackerly, Janice L. Krieger, Nancy D. Rhodes

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Cancer patients rely on multiple sources of support when making treatment decisions; however, most research studies examine the influence of health care provider support while the influence of family member support is understudied. The current study fills this gap by examining the influence of health care providers and partners on decision-making satisfaction. In a cross-sectional study via an online Qualtrics panel, we surveyed cancer patients who reported that they had a spouse or romantic partner when making cancer treatment decisions (n = 479). Decisional support was measured using 5-point, single-item scales for emotional support, informational support, informational-advice support, and appraisal …

How Selective Amnesia Brought Us The First Black Socialist President Of The United States, Kristen Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Post-Racial Amnesia during President Obama’s 2008 Inauguration

My interest in public memory explains why news coverage leading up to President Obama’s inauguration rankled me. The endless news cycle kept repeating trite statements that announced that the civil rights struggle had ended. Reports quoted public officials and former civil rights activists who described Obama’s election as the “fulfillment,” “embodiment,” “culmination,” and “validation” of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream. The inauguration took place the day after Martin Luther King Day, and Obama delivered a pre-inauguration address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the same location where King delivered his 1963 speech. Given …

Postmodern/Poststructural Approaches, Jennifer J. Mease (Also Peeksmease)

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Postmodern and poststructural approaches to organizational communication are marked by an emphasis on ruptures, disjunctions, tensions, instabilities, and other inconsistencies as a part of everyday organizational life. This emphasis is part of an attempt to question, critique, and often compromise the normalized, mundane power structures that regulate organizational life. By questioning and critiquing, these approaches reveal norms and power structures as contingently constructed with particular interests at play. This contrasts with more traditional assumptions that treat norms and power structures as natural, neutral, and stable constructions.

Poststructural and postmodern approaches to organizational communication find their roots in broader philosophical movements …

Canada’S Relationship With Women Migrant Sex Workers; Producing ‘Vulnerable Migrant Workers’ Through “Protecting Workers From Abuse And Exploitation”, Rachelle Daley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Canada’s immigration regulations and policy instructions, collectively known as ‘Protecting Workers from Abuse and Exploitation’ (PWAE), instruct visa officials not to process temporary work permits when there is suspicion that migrants may be at risk of sexual abuse or exploitation in industries related to sex work. The regulations are part of Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, located within an anti-trafficking initiative.

Stretching across disciplines and focusing on critical migration scholarship, this research uses a communications studies lens to unpack the power of categorization, and the dividing practices that produce, maintain and normalize inclusion and exclusion, through the conceptualization of the …

Hiperrealitas Relasi Dalam Sinetron Komedi "Tetangga Masa Gitu?", Eldo Eka Saputra

Informasi

Emergence of non-mainstream way of women representations in soap operas, where women are constructed as an independent individual, brought an impact to the patterns of relation between men and women. If we look at Indonesian soap operas, there are not many of them that can manage to present a non-mainstream construction of female characters. The shift on women representation is associated to how the men were represented in said soap operas, therefore this is a form of the role of the media in altering gender stigma in the society. However, in the process of construction there is a new reality …

Doula Support As A Means To Improve Birth Outcomes For Minority Women, Christina Bao Ngoc Thich

Master's Projects and Capstones

Ethnic minorities such as African Americans, American Indians, Hispanics, Laotions, Hmongs, and Alaskan Natives have higher rates of cesarean delivery, pre-term birth, fetal demise, perinatal laceration, and congenital abnormalities than their white counterparts. Continuous labor support by way of doula care has been recommended for all pregnant women as a means to prevent adverse birth outcomes. Despite this, the population most in need of such support in unable to access doula services due to low socioeconomic status, availability of services, and cultural inaccessibility. This paper focuses on my capstone experience with UCSF and Roots of Labor Birth Collective as we …

Lgbt In Colombia: A War Within, Monica Espitia

Capstones

On the surface, Colombia appears to be at the vanguard of the gay rights movement, having extended legal rights to same-sex couples and transgender people in recent years. But for many of the nearly five million Colombians who are LGBT, these rights have been largely meaningless as a result of the deep-rooted prejudice that often results in violence.

Gay, lesbian and transgender Colombians have been actively persecuted by armed groups involved in Colombia’s decades-long civil war. Members of the LGBT community are four times more likely than the rest of the population to be threatened and abused by both legal …

The Last Gay Man On Earth -- Can The Mainstreaming Of A Culture Be Responsible For Its Demise?, Muri Assunção

Capstones

Social acceptance towards the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer community (LGBTQ) has seen incredible progress in the last few decades. Less than 50 years ago, an act of rebellion against a homophobic police raid at Stonewall, a gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, kicked off the gay liberation movement and the fight for LGBTQ rights. Today, the queer revolution has proved effective: same-sex unions in the U.S. are legally allowed, and gay parenting is socially accepted. But, at what cost? Are queer people conforming to a heteronormative way of life? Can such social advances be also responsible for the …

The Role Of Liberian Community Organizations In The Integration Of Liberian Immigrants: A Case Study Of Immigrants In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Solomon M. Muin

Capstone Collection

Immigrants that settled in a dominant new culture face challenges during the process of acculturation. Though minority culture is always at the disadvantaged end of acculturation in most cases, most research done on acculturation in the West mostly focused on the impact of immigrants on their societies, or on ways of strengthening integration in the host countries. As this continues, the dominant culture role and importance of the majority culture is what influence most narratives and not much is seeing from the minority culture. Most research on acculturation in the United States, for example, placed more emphasis on the Hispanic …

Fortaleza's Immigrant Song: Portrait-Narratives And An Identity Needs Analysis Of Recent Immigrants' Lived Experiences, Carl Weitz-Santiago

Capstone Collection

This inquiry sheds light on the personal stories and lived experiences of a group of recent immigrants currently living in Fortaleza, the sprawling capital of the Northeastern state of Ceará, Brazil. Utilizing a theoretical framework guided by “Epistemologies of the South,” ethnographic principles, and constructivist grounded theory, this capstones presents five first person portrait-narratives highlighting intimate details of project participants’ lives prior to immigrating, and uncovers four persistent and recurrent themes expressed by project participants: (1) language and communication, (2) professional opportunity, (3) personal growth, and (4) “saudade” and belongingness.

Through the lens of Johan Galtung’s Basic Needs Approach, …

Parental Support For Newcomer Children’S Education In A Smaller Centre, Xuemei Li, Antoinette Doyle, Maureen Lymburner, Needal Yasin Ghadi

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

This study explored the issues around parental support for newcomer children’s transition to school in a smaller urban centre in Atlantic Canada where newcomer support is relatively limited. Data were drawn from semi-structured interviews with 11 newcomer parents, five children, and one settlement worker. The findings revealed newcomer parents’ difficulties in understanding the school system, limited engagement with the school community, isolation from other parents, and barriers to understanding and connecting with other parents. Among these newcomers, refugee parents are particularly challenged. We conclude that newcomer children’s parental involvement need to be viewed multi-dimensionally, and that the creation of a …