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All Subjects: Identification
All Subjects: Nairobi
Creators: Eder, James

Identifying with Fictional Characters

Description

The study of literature, which has traditionally been the work of the humanities, has seemingly opened up to biology in recent years through an infusion of cognitive science and evolutionary psychology. This essay examines two perspectives on the potential for reader/character identification, one perspective from cognitive/evolutionary studies, and the other from the humanities. Building on both perspectives, I propose my own notion of reader/character identification called immersive identification. I argue that fiction is especially suited to prompt readers to identify with fictional characters in an immersive way. Then, I demonstrate how different cognitive/evolutionary perspectives of fiction can accommodate my notion of immersive identification. Finally, I defend my account of immersive identification against a counterexample.

ContributorsDhein, Kelle James (Author) / Eder, James (Thesis director) / Kobes, Bernard (Committee member) / Cassell, Paul (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)

Created2014-05

An ethnography of moving in Nairobi : b pedestrians, handcarts, minibuses and the vitality of urban mobility

Description

This ethnography follows mobile trajectories on roads in Nairobi to investigate how the transformation of transport infrastructure has affected people’s everyday mobility. I follow diverse mobile actors, including pedestrians, handcart (mkokoteni) workers, and minibus (matatu) operators, whose practices and ideas of moving are central to understand the city’s ordinary mobility. I also situate their everyday ways of moving in the rules, plans and ideas of regulators, such as government officials, engineers and international experts, who focus on decongesting roads and attempt to reshape Nairobi’s better urban mobility. Despite official and popular aspirations for building new roads and other public transport infrastructure, I argue that many mobile actors still pursue and struggle with preexisting and non-motorized means and notions of moving that are not reflected in the promise of and plans for better mobility. This ethnography also reveals how certain important forms of ordinary mobility have been socially marginalized. It explores what kinds of difficulties are created when the infrastructural blueprints of road “experts” and the notions that politicians promote about a new urban African mobility fail to match the reality of everyday road use by the great majority of Nairobi residents. By employing mobile participant observation of the practices of moving, this study also finds important ethnographic implications and suggestions for the study of mobile subjects in an African city where old and new forms of mobility collide.

ContributorsKim, Tae-Eun (Author) / Eder, James (Thesis advisor) / Bolin, Robert (Committee member) / Swadener, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Ballestero, Andrea (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2016

RFID Chip for DNA Tracking Identification

Description

A primary need of Forensic science is to individualize missing persons that cannot be identified after death. With the use of advanced technology, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) implant chips can drastically improve digital tracking and enable robust biological and legal identification. In this paper, I will discuss applications between different microchip technologies and indicate reasons why the RFID chip is more useful for forensic science. My results state that an RFID chip is significantly more capable of integrating a mass volume of background information, and can utilize implanted individuals’ DNA profiles to decrease the missing persons database backlogs. Since today’s society uses a lot of digital devices that can ultimately identify people by simple posts or geolocation, Forensic Science can harness that data as an advantage to help serve justice for the public in giving loved ones closure.

ContributorsChastain, Hope Natasha (Author) / Kanthswamy, Sree (Thesis director) / Oldt, Robert (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)

Created2021-05