Matching Items (14)
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Description
This dissertation explores the rhetorical significance of persecution claims produced by demonstrably powerful publics in contemporary American culture. This ideological criticism is driven by several related research questions. First, how do members of apparently powerful groups (men, whites, and Christians) come to see themselves as somehow unjustly marginalized, persecuted, or

This dissertation explores the rhetorical significance of persecution claims produced by demonstrably powerful publics in contemporary American culture. This ideological criticism is driven by several related research questions. First, how do members of apparently powerful groups (men, whites, and Christians) come to see themselves as somehow unjustly marginalized, persecuted, or powerless? Second, how are these discourses related to the public sphere and counterpublicity? I argue that, despite startling similarities, these texts studied here are best understood not as counterpublicity but as a strategy of containment available to hegemonic publics. Because these rhetorics of persecution often seek to forestall movements toward pluralism and restorative justice, the analysis forwarded in this dissertation offers important contributions to ongoing theoretical discussions in the fields of public sphere theory and critical cultural theory and practical advice for progressive political activism and critical pedagogy.
ContributorsDuerringer, Christopher (Author) / Brouwer, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Carlson, Cheree (Committee member) / McDonald, Kelly (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
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Description
Simultaneously culture heroes and stumbling buffoons, Tricksters bring cultural tools to the people and make the world more habitable. There are common themes in these figures that remain fruitful for the advancement of culture, theory, and critical praxis. This dissertation develops a method for opening a dialogue with Trickster figures.

Simultaneously culture heroes and stumbling buffoons, Tricksters bring cultural tools to the people and make the world more habitable. There are common themes in these figures that remain fruitful for the advancement of culture, theory, and critical praxis. This dissertation develops a method for opening a dialogue with Trickster figures. It draws from established literature to present a newly conceived and more flexible Trickster archetype. This archetype is more than a collection of traits; it builds on itself processually to form a method for analysis. The critical Trickster archetype includes the fundamental act of crossing borders; the twin ontologies of ambiguity and liminality; the particular tactics of humor, duplicity, and shape shifting; and the overarching cultural roles of culture hero and stumbling buffoon. Running parallel to each archetypal element, though, are Trickster's overarching critical spirit of Quixotic utopianism and underlying telos of manipulating human relationships. The character 'Q' from Star Trek: The Next Generation is used to demonstrate the critical Trickster archetype. To be more useful for critical cultural studies, Trickster figures must also be connected to their socio-cultural and historical contexts. Thus, this dissertation offers a second set of analytics, a dialogical method that connects Tricksters to the worlds they make more habitable. This dialogical method, developed from the work of M. M. Bakhtin and others, consists of three analytical tools: utterance, intertextuality, and chronotope. Utterance bounds the text for analysis. Intertextuality connects the utterance, the text, to its context. Chronotope suggests particular spatio-temporal relationships that help reveal the cultural significance of a dialogical performance. Performance artists Andre Stitt, Ann Liv Young, and Steven Leyba are used to demonstrate the method of Trickster dialogics. A concluding discussion of Trickster's unique chronotope reveals its contributions to conceptions of utopia and futurity. This dissertation offers theoretical advancements about the significance and tactics of subversive communication practices. It offers a new and unique method for cultural and performative analyses that can be expanded into different kinds of dialogics. Trickster dialogics can also be used generatively to direct and guide the further development of performative praxis.
ContributorsSalinas, Chema (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis advisor) / Carlson, Cheree (Committee member) / Olson, Clark (Committee member) / Ellsworth, Angela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
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Description
This dissertation examines the influential relationships between popular culture depictions of superheroes and the substantive, malleable, and real possibilities of human body transformation. Cultural discourses condition and constrain the ways in which identity and bodies are formed and expressed. This includes popular culture texts that, through their evocative narratives, provide

This dissertation examines the influential relationships between popular culture depictions of superheroes and the substantive, malleable, and real possibilities of human body transformation. Cultural discourses condition and constrain the ways in which identity and bodies are formed and expressed. This includes popular culture texts that, through their evocative narratives, provide guidance or solutions for dealing with real world problems. From the perspective of communication studies, this project involves examining ways people project and perform fantastic future versions of humanity in relation to popular culture artifacts, like superheroes, but also examines how such projections are borne out of and get expressed through our everyday, less than extraordinary experiences. Key theoretical tensions regarding identity and culture are elucidated. These tensions are then developed discursively into a genealogy of body transcendence that features the historicizing of social functions to determine from where such tensions and changes manifest, and how they ultimately affect us. Several key artifacts are introduced to help inform the investigation, including eight specific superhero body types that provide an ideal perspective through which transformative power can be observed. The superhero discourse is particularly relevant because it offers a utopian/dystopian tension regarding how the splendor and seduction of the discourse materializes in both liberating and problematic ways. Another aspect of this embodied approach involves adopting the alternate superhero persona of Ethnography Man. By undertaking my own identity transformations, I am better able to investigate spaces that encourage such identity slippage and play, such as the annual San Diego Comic Con International. The once strongly held perception that our bodies are fixed and stable is fast disappearing. In bridging the body with culture through a genealogy, it becomes much more apparent how body transformations will continue to manifest in the future. Therefore, from the experiences and analysis contained herein, implications regarding powerful discursive conditions and constraints that influence our ability to change take form in revealing, problematic, and sometimes unexpected ways. More specifically, implications of who has power, how it is exercised, and the effects of power will materialize and indicate whether or not everyday humans have the potential to become superheroes.
ContributorsBoras, Scott Daniel (Author) / McDonald, Kelly (Thesis advisor) / Goodall, Jr., H. L. (Committee member) / Gilfillan, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
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Description
In a mere thirty years, hospice has grown from a purely ideological philosophy of care for terminally ill individuals and their families, to a large and well organized healthcare entity. And government statistics project that healthcare will generate more new jobs than any other industry in America until at least

In a mere thirty years, hospice has grown from a purely ideological philosophy of care for terminally ill individuals and their families, to a large and well organized healthcare entity. And government statistics project that healthcare will generate more new jobs than any other industry in America until at least 2018. While most of the extant literature that has been published on healthcare workers has focused on negative organizational processes, such as stress and burnout, there has been a recent shift in scholarly ideology in which researchers have been challenged to consider the positive aspects of organizational life as well. Compassion, theorized as a three-part interrelated process, is one area that is garnering interest within organizational studies. Utilizing grounded theory, this study engaged literature from organizational studies on emotional labor, stress, and burnout, as well as literature on positive organizational communication. What emerged from the data is a richly detailed picture of the emotional highs and lows that hospice workers experience in their jobs. Research was conducted at two large hospices in the desert southwest, utilized qualitative methods of participant observation (161 hours), and informal and semi-structured interviews (29 interviews) as a means to understand hospice workers--nurses (32), nursing assistants (23), social workers (14), and spiritual care providers (4)--experiences of emotion. Through data analysis, compassion emerged as a salient concept in worker's daily experiences. Yet, my data suggested a reconceptualization of the way in which compassion has been theorized in the past--as noticing, feeling, and responding. Based on my findings, I argue that the three subprocesses could more accurately be described recognizing, relating, and responding.
ContributorsWay, Deborah (Author) / Tracy, Sarah J. (Thesis advisor) / Carlson, Cheree (Committee member) / Kastenbaum, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
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Description
In Arizona, people flock the streets of Tombstone in droves, chatting in period costume while gunshots ring down the street. Others in Bisbee walk in the Queen Mine, listening to the tour guide discuss how the miners extracted ore. Still others drive up the precarious road to Jerome, passing through

In Arizona, people flock the streets of Tombstone in droves, chatting in period costume while gunshots ring down the street. Others in Bisbee walk in the Queen Mine, listening to the tour guide discuss how the miners extracted ore. Still others drive up the precarious road to Jerome, passing through the famed Grand Hotel. As former Arizona mining towns, Tombstone, Jerome and Bisbee have a shared identity as former mining boomtowns, all of which experienced subsequent economic and population decline. Left with the need to reinvent themselves in order to survive, the past takes on a different role in each city. In Jerome, visitors seem content to "kill a day" against the backdrop of the historic town. In Bisbee, time seems stuck in the 1970s, the focus having shifted from the mining to the "hippies" who are considered to have resuscitated the town from near-extinction. Tombstone seem to inspire devotion, rooted in the influence of the 1993 film titled after the town. By memorializing portions of their past, these three towns have carved out new lives for themselves in the twenty-first century. As visitors are informed by the narrative of the "Old West," as shaped by the Western movie and television genre, they in turn impact how the towns present themselves in order to attract tourists. In all these sites, the past is present and like a kaleidoscope, continually recreated into new formations. While the designation of Jerome, Bisbee and Tombstone as "ghost towns" is disputed by individuals in each site, these stories of visitors and residents reveal the intricate ways in which these towns have acquired new life.
ContributorsLemme, Nicole Lee (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Paulesc, Marie Louise (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
For my honors thesis, I decided to do a creative project in the form of an extended comedy act. With this performance, I wanted to make jokes about my identity and experiences in my life while synthesizing the skills I had acquired over my college career. I decided I wanted

For my honors thesis, I decided to do a creative project in the form of an extended comedy act. With this performance, I wanted to make jokes about my identity and experiences in my life while synthesizing the skills I had acquired over my college career. I decided I wanted to do this project because it felt like the best way to combine my passion (comedy) with my major (communication) in the form of a comedic performance study. And while I thought the performance would be the most informative aspect of my project, the workshop process ended up being far more enlightening. Through the workshop process, I was able to better understand the challenges that come with developing a comedic autoethnographic performance, and to discover the true purpose behind the art I was creating.
ContributorsMale, Kathryn Margaret (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Reyes, Guillermo (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
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I wrote creative non-fiction to enrich and expand the existing narratives of Mexican immigrant experiences by preserving oral histories and thus, influence a broader cultural understanding. As a first-generation Mexican-American writer, I believe there is a pressing need to explore the stories of my people, particularly those of my father.

I wrote creative non-fiction to enrich and expand the existing narratives of Mexican immigrant experiences by preserving oral histories and thus, influence a broader cultural understanding. As a first-generation Mexican-American writer, I believe there is a pressing need to explore the stories of my people, particularly those of my father. I also acknowledge the master narratives that work to influence and consequently oppress my own voice as a writer. The master narrative values white experiences and voices in narrative writing while devaluing work from non-white authors. Thus, it became critical for me to reclaim my true voice as a writer and consequently, disrupt this harmful master narrative. Through this project, I reclaimed my voice as a writer, the one that pays homage to my cultural roots by writing my father's stories authentically. I integrated my heritage language Spanish and English in the writing of these stories. As the daughter of immigrants, this is an important way of representing my identity through my writing. Additionally, the importance of this work is greatly exemplified by the unity that springs forth among Mexican immigrants and children of those immigrants when experiences like these are shared and released into the world. At present, the Mexican immigrant community faces social and political discrimination in the form of misrepresentation, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and racism. Therefore, there is a palpable need for more accurate representation to combat these issues. Written storytelling provides a valuable glimpse into my father's experience as a Mexican immigrant and is a valuable tool to challenge harmful master narratives.
ContributorsVillezcas, Araceli (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Cuadraz, Gloria (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
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Description
Across​ ​group​ ​studies,​ ​identifying​ ​as​ ​part​ ​of​ ​one​ ​group​ ​over​ ​the​ ​other​ ​is​ ​instrumental​ ​in determining​ ​the​ ​traits​ ​of​ ​an​ ​individual’s​ ​personality.​ ​Furthermore,​ ​when​ ​someone’s​ ​style​ ​of​ ​dress causes​ ​them​ ​to​ ​fit​ ​into​ ​a​ ​group,​ ​their​ ​personality​ ​is​ ​likely​ ​to​ ​be​ ​dictated​ ​by​ ​what​ ​they​ ​are​ ​wearing and​ ​who​ ​they​

Across​ ​group​ ​studies,​ ​identifying​ ​as​ ​part​ ​of​ ​one​ ​group​ ​over​ ​the​ ​other​ ​is​ ​instrumental​ ​in determining​ ​the​ ​traits​ ​of​ ​an​ ​individual’s​ ​personality.​ ​Furthermore,​ ​when​ ​someone’s​ ​style​ ​of​ ​dress causes​ ​them​ ​to​ ​fit​ ​into​ ​a​ ​group,​ ​their​ ​personality​ ​is​ ​likely​ ​to​ ​be​ ​dictated​ ​by​ ​what​ ​they​ ​are​ ​wearing and​ ​who​ ​they​ ​are​ ​with.​ ​Attendees​ ​of​ ​comic​ ​conventions​ ​have​ ​been​ ​part​ ​of​ ​a​ ​growing​ ​trend​ ​to dress​ ​up​ ​as​ ​their​ ​favorite​ ​characters​ ​from​ ​different​ ​anime,​ ​manga,​ ​television​ ​shows,​ ​books,​ ​video games,​ ​etc.,​ ​where​ ​they​ ​can​ ​meet​ ​like-minded​ ​people​ ​who​ ​share​ ​similar​ ​interests​ ​and​ ​hobbies. When​ ​combining​ ​changes​ ​of​ ​affect,​ ​and​ ​similarities​ ​of​ ​cultural​ ​and​ ​group​ ​identification,​ ​the likelihood​ ​to​ ​engage​ ​in​ ​a​ ​romantic​ ​relationship​ ​may​ ​become​ ​heightened.​ ​Using​ ​existing​ ​measures to​ ​examine​ ​commitment,​ ​sociosexual​ ​orientation​ ​and​ ​relationship​ ​satisfaction,​ ​1232​ ​convention attendees​ ​responded​ ​to​ ​measures​ ​addressing​ ​their​ ​current​ ​or​ ​most​ ​recent​ ​relationship.​ ​The respondents​ ​were​ ​split​ ​into​ ​4​ ​groups,​ ​individuals​ ​who​ ​are​ ​currently​ ​in​ ​a​ ​relationship​ ​and​ ​cosplay, individuals​ ​who​ ​are​ ​currently​ ​in​ ​a​ ​relationship​ ​and​ ​do​ ​not​ ​cosplay,​ ​individuals​ ​who​ ​are​ ​currently single​ ​and​ ​cosplay,​ ​and​ ​individuals​ ​who​ ​are​ ​currently​ ​in​ ​a​ ​relationship​ ​and​ ​do​ ​not​ ​cosplay. Results​ ​indicated​ ​non-significant​ ​results​ ​in​ ​the​ ​two​ ​groups​ ​that​ ​are​ ​not​ ​in​ ​relationships,​ ​as​ ​well​ ​as non-cosplaying​ ​attendees​ ​currently​ ​in​ ​a​ ​relationship,​ ​for​ ​all​ ​the​ ​measures,​ ​while​ ​there​ ​were​ ​weak, significant​ ​results​ ​for​ ​sociosexual​ ​orientation​ ​and​ ​relationship​ ​satisfaction​ ​for​ ​individuals​ ​who are​ ​in​ ​relationships​ ​and​ ​also​ ​cosplay.​ ​Limitations​ ​and​ ​future​ ​directions​ ​are​ ​discussed.
ContributorsLeshner, Connor (Author) / de la Garza, Amira (Thesis director) / Mack, Robert (Committee member) / Kenrick, Douglas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
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Description

This study examines the distinctions in participation styles of female students in classes where the majority of the students are male as compared to the participation styles of female students in female courses. I utilized metaphor analysis during qualitative interviews to unearth the motivations for female students’ reluctance to participate.

This study examines the distinctions in participation styles of female students in classes where the majority of the students are male as compared to the participation styles of female students in female courses. I utilized metaphor analysis during qualitative interviews to unearth the motivations for female students’ reluctance to participate. Holding back from participating in class can negatively affect the understanding of students, resulting in lower grades and engendering anxiety in a classroom setting. By drawing upon the theories of communication accommodation theory, face threat, and muted group theory, this research was able to come to conclusions about what motivating factors lead female students to participate less than male students and distinguish which classroom behaviors enable them to share their thoughts.

ContributorsPlunkett, Margot (Author) / Tracy, Sarah (Thesis director) / de la Garza, Amira (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2022-05
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DescriptionDeath is a common mechanic in video games, but how does it relate to humanity's understanding of death? This thesis project seeks to understand the cultural dynamics of death within video games, as well as how death is approached and depicted within said games.
ContributorsYen, Jay (Author) / Bauer, Danielle (Thesis director) / de la Garza, Amira (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Arts, Media and Engineering Sch T (Contributor) / Hugh Downs School of Human Communication (Contributor)
Created2023-12