Specialist in Education (Ed.S.), University of Dayton, 2020, School Psychology

Anxiety is on the rise in the world today. The American College Health Association (2018) surveyed 31,463 college students and found that 60.9% of the respondents had experienced overwhelming anxiety at some point within the last 12 months. Social media use has become more and more rampant, with research suggesting that the majority of people in the United States use social media in some form. Media literacy, which incorporates the ability to critically assess and interpret digital content, is a topic are that is increasingly becoming of interest with the pervasiveness of technology. The present study examined the relationship between social media use, media literacy, and anxiety in first-year college students. A sample of (n = 82) first-year college students was surveyed to investigate these variables. Results indicated a significant relationship between social media use and anxiety as well as between social media use and media literacy. No significant relationship was found between media literacy and anxiety. Implications for how educational professionals can serve students based on these results are discussed in this paper.

Committee: Elana Bernstein Dr. (Committee Chair); Sawyer Hunley Dr. (Committee Co-Chair); Ronda Scantlin Dr. (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Continuing Education; Counseling Psychology; Curricula; Demographics; Developmental Psychology; Early Childhood Education; Education; Educational Evaluation; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Educational Tests and Measurements; Elementary Education; Higher Education; Mental Health; Psychological Tests; Psychology; Quantitative Psychology; Social Psychology; Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2020, Foundations of Education: Educational Psychology

Journalists and academics have lamented that the United States is in an epistemic crisis and has entered a post-truth era due, in part, to a proliferation of fake news and ideologically slanted sources. It is the duty of the educational system to equip students with the attitudes, critical thinking skills, and knowledge necessary to engage with the news and make informed decisions; thus, this exploratory study investigates high school students' epistemic beliefs concerning news as a knowledge source. The review of literature provides an overview of frameworks from personal epistemology with a focus on components that are relevant to educational strategies for news media literacy, as well as a summary of news media literacy models and educational initiatives for high schoolers. This is followed by a description of a proposed epistemic framework for news media literacy--the ASK Framework--that integrates the two streams of research. Using a mixed methods approach, this study drew on semi-structured interviews and surveys administered in 2010 to 60 high schoolers from a rural district in northwest Ohio. Results demonstrated that while most participants agreed that the news should inform the public, many also observed that it could persuade, appeal to, or worry people as well, and these views impacted participants' attitudes and levels of trust toward the news. Although all participants noted using a portfolio of news sources, they most heavily favored television and expressed the most interest in news topics that they found directly relevant to their lives, such as healthcare or the economy. Participants also demonstrated high levels of news discourse with teachers and adults in their lives, particularly on local and national events. When it came to determining the quality of news, the majority of participants noted that an article should present an abundance of facts and details, and many also noted the importance of their news coming from a trusted outlet, citing its (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Florian Feucht (Committee Co-Chair); Dale Snauwaert (Committee Co-Chair); Susanna Hapgood (Committee Member); Judy Lambert (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2023, Educational Leadership

This teacher-action research project explores using critical contemplative pedagogy in an upper elementary classroom setting to determine how youth media practices can be informed with combined critical media literacy instruction and contemplative exercises. Analysis of students' media production and deconstructions reveal promising outcomes for enhancing students' media literacy as well as relationships to self and others as formed through media use. A teacher-researcher curriculum provides a structured yet flexible critical contemplative experience for students, and research outcomes are analyzed through students' responses along the Center for Medial Literacy's Five Key Questions, Tatum's Seven Categories of Otherness, and Kaufman's Five Dimensions of Critical Contemplative Pedagogy. The efficacy of a critical contemplative approach to media literacy education and the implications for educators hoping to adopt such practices, as well as potential impacts on those inside and outside of the classroom, are addressed through this year-long snapshot of a classroom.

Committee: Michael Evans (Committee Chair); Thomas Poetter (Committee Member); Lisa Weems (Committee Member); Brady Nash (Committee Member); Michael Edwards (Committee Member) Subjects: Curricula; Education; Elementary Education; Literacy; Multimedia Communications; Pedagogy; Teaching; Technology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies

Educational paradigm shifts call for 21st century learners to possess the knowledge, skills, abilities, values, and experiences associated with multiple forms of literacy in a participatory learning culture. Contemporary educational systems are slow to adapt. Outside of school, people have to be self-motivated and have access to resources in order to gain media production experiences. Community-based media centers join arts and culture with technology and computing while addressing issues of social justice, access equity, and public policy. These agencies function as community technology centers and can be complex organizations, existing in many forms, each with unique characteristics as well as fundamental commonalities. The goal of this study was to learn if and how community technology centers foster learning in multiple forms of literacy. Three forms of literacy were identified: technological, media, and critical. To move beyond the phenomenological approach to understanding teaching and learning practices, the objective was to develop an evaluation protocol that would capture the rich ecological context of the organization with qualitative indicators of the unique aspects of each center, as well as objective, measurable factors aspects common to all. This study was conducted in two phases. Phase One was the creation of the protocol including indicators of multiple literacies, a site selection matrix, and a data collection guide. Phase Two was piloting of the evaluation protocol to develop a foundational case to be used for future comparisons. In Phase One, indicators of multiple literacy learning were devised relevant for 21st century learners. These indicators were aligned specifically with organizational, programmatic, and production activities within a community media arts center. The site selection instrument was developed as a means to pre-screen sites for the likelihood of multiple literacy learning experiences. The data collection guide was aligned with (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lanthan Camblin PhD (Committee Chair); Catherine V. Maltbie EdD (Committee Member); Roger Collins PhD (Committee Member); Karen Davis PhD (Committee Member); Wayne Edward Hall PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Evaluation

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Art Education

This mixed method arts-based study aims to answer the research question: How do undergraduates enrolled in an online course investigating visual culture at a large public Midwestern university relate to possibly manipulative and misleading online media imagery? Before educators can attempt to improve student media literacy, they must first understand how students experience visual media online. A holistic approach where students visualize their relationship with online media, respond to a survey of their attitudes and behaviors concerning online media, and demonstrate their abilities on an assessment of their critical media literacy, provides a rich snapshot of how members of Generation Z or Zoomers relate to online media. My findings reveal that students are extremely susceptible to manipulative or misleading media and that their unwarranted overconfidence may compound that vulnerability. Meanwhile, their art depicted feelings of anxiety, distrust, confusion, and helplessness regarding their relationships with media. With the increasing reliance on online media, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems as though misinformation online will only continue to proliferate with increasingly dangerous consequences in the real world. As a result, educators, especially art educators, are urged to try to help students develop visual and critical media literacy skills. Recommendations and lesson ideas are provided.

Committee: Christine Ballengee Morris (Advisor); Jerome D'Agostino (Committee Member); Brian Edmiston (Committee Member); Jennifer Richardson (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2017, Mass Communication (Communication)

This dissertation explores the relationship between citizen journalism and political outcomes (political literacy and political participation) and their potential impacts on the Malaysian political arena. In the course of exploration this study examined the positive attitudes towards citizen journalism and political literacy, the association between political knowledge and political participation, and the correlation between positive attitudes towards citizen journalism and political engagement among students at four different Malaysian universities in 2016. The four campuses involved in this research were 1) Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, 2) Taylor's University College in Selangor, 3) Universiti Malaysia Sarawak in Kuching and 4) Curtin University Sarawak in Miri. This research employed a mixed method approach to answering the research questions – a survey of students from the four Malaysian education institutions and in-depth interviews with eight informants. I received 393 responses to the survey. To investigate the potential impacts of citizen journalism and political participation on Malaysian politics I selected for interviews eight informants, among them were news editors, public figures, and activists. The fieldwork for this research was carried out in Malaysia and the United Kingdom from April, 2016, to October, 2016. The results revealed a negative correlation between positive attitudes towards citizen journalism and political literacy. Other potential reasons found for low political literacy among Malaysians included low media literacy and social factors such as age, types of university attended, locality, race, and religion. I also discovered a negative correlation between political literacy and political engagement among respondents – respondents with lower political literacy were more likely to participate in politically related activities. Research outcomes revealed that respondents who showed positive attitudes towards citizen journalism h (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Drew McDaniel (Advisor) Subjects: Mass Communications; Mass Media

PHD, Kent State University, 2017, College of Communication and Information / School of Communication Studies

Contemporary political discourse is rife with accusations of shadowy forces operating in secret to accomplish nefarious goals. Such discourse has been a mainstay in U.S. politics, but little quantitative research has been done on the impact of government-related conspiracy theories in media and how people differ in their use of such fare. This dissertation situates conspiracy theories in a media effects framework, applying uses and gratifications theory to examine whether specific background characteristics (i.e., media skepticism, need for cognition, locus of control, and conservatism or liberalism) work in concert with individuals' motives for and exposure to government-conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare to impact individuals' trust in government as an attitudinal outcome and political participation as a behavioral outcome. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify four motives for choosing media fare related to government conspiracy theories: (1) social utility/relaxing recreation, (2) political evaluation, (3) pass time, and (4) general information seeking. Significant correlations were found between several background characteristics and use of government-conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare. Use of such fare also correlated with trust in federal government entities and with political participation. Additionally, hierarchical regression analysis revealed the relative contribution of individual differences, motives for conspiracy-theory-oriented media use, and exposure to such fare in predicting levels of trust in four entities of the federal government. Regression analysis also showed the relative contribution of individual differences, motives for conspiracy-theory-oriented media use, exposure to conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare, and trust in government in predicting four forms of political participation. This study affirmed the value of a comprehensive uses and gratifications model for studying the political impact of government conspi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paul Haridakis Ph.D. (Advisor); Danielle Coombs Ph.D. (Committee Member); Janet Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Member); James Ponder Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Literacy; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2014, Educational Leadership

It is visible in academic dialogue, specifically educational research, that there has not been any substantial research published that constructs or examines The Boondocks animated series in a capacity that extends the discourse past stereotypical issues and paradigms that are associated with the inferiority of African American males and the marginalized experiences they encounter. One primary purpose of this study is to offer a counter argument to the negative conversations that surround The Boondocks comic and animated series. Because most arguments about the text stem from the images and language, the conversations surrounding anything positive or hopeful as it pertains to being a Black male, are left out. Furthermore, this media text is currently not perceived as a reference that can be used as a pedagogical tool. In this qualitative critical media analysis, I sought to answer the question: How does the curriculum of The Boondocks represent issues of race, spirituality, and masculinity? Although The Boondocks is typically understood and critiqued as a Black Nationalist text, I intend to look at the animated series through the lens of race, spirituality and Black Masculinity. I specifically examine the text through the theoretical underpinnings of Critical Media Literacy and Critical Race Theory. Methodologically, Critical Media Literacy, Critical Race Theory and Qualitative Media Analysis help to contextualize The Boondocks animated series. I ultimately argue that the animated series can be understood and used as a curriculum text.

Committee: Denise Taliaferro-Baszile (Committee Chair); Dennis Carlson (Committee Member); Sally Lloyd (Committee Member); Paula Saine (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Curriculum Development; Education; Minority and Ethnic Groups

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, English

In this project I construct a democratic model of new media composing education and production that uses nostalgia (a community, tradition, and emotion-focused lens) to uncover design lessons within a diverse set of techno-composing milieus: the hipster craft movement, the new capitalist workplace, debates in the field of composition studies, and several client-designer interactions. In doing so, I argue that because communities value diverse technological pasts, so, too, do they inevitably imagine diverse ideal futures. Sadly, citizens and students who value technological futures beyond efficient high-tech profusion are historically labeled technophobic and/or illiterate. Through such a dismissal, scholars of technology--from ER doctors to new media composition instructors--miss out on a wide array of design assets and possible futures that could make the world a better place. To counter this anemic thinking, I develop a cross-cultural rhetoric of technology, which uses nostalgia to identify, mediate, and design from techno-logical "contact zones" (see Pratt; Pfaffenberger; Selfe and Selfe; Canagarajah), spaces where different communities with different understandings, values, goals, and literacies surrounding writing technologies interact and clash in systems of uneven power. In doing so, I call for the expansion of definitions of technological literacy in new media composition; I argue for teaching composing students to mediate technological conflicts; and I illustrate how composers can learn from the contextualized memories of their audiences in order to create more inclusive, creative, and profitable texts.

Committee: Cynthia Selfe (Advisor); H. Lewis Ulman (Committee Member); Beverly Moss (Committee Member); Nancy Johnson (Committee Member); Susan Delagrange (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Communication; Composition; Design; Education; Education Philosophy; Literacy; Philosophy; Rhetoric; Technical Communication; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2004, English

My dissertation explores how students' interactions with visual media inform their subject positions as students, writers, and rhetoricians. I use a cross-disciplinary approach that intertwines Composition and Rhetoric scholarship with work from Media Studies to understand how visual media affect the way students write, read, and use language. Throughout my dissertation, I work with the theory of “remediation” to demonstrate how new media, such as the Internet, have been conceptualized, revised, and reformed as a result of their relationship to preexisting, or “old”, media like film and television. I predict that remediation can encourage students to position the texts they create on a continuum alongside visual and print media, and, in turn, participate more fully in the “mediatic network” as critical consumers. My classroom-based research reveals that students insist on articulating their relationship to media through a metaphor of addiction, and claim to be dependent on media to the degree that they rely on television, film and the Internet for companionship, information, and entertainment. I argue that composition classrooms frequently address students' relationships with media by teaching them to resist media and its supposedly harmful effects. My project works through the ramifications of introducing visual media into a classroom when the primary intention of doing so is to create this resistance. I argue that students will be more willing to think critically about the mediatized texts that entertain them if they do not feel discouraged from taking pleasure from those texts. Rather than frame media through resistance, I propose that students study both print and visual texts from the standpoint of critical pleasure. Because students simultaneously interact with, decode, and make meaning of print and visual media, their print and visual literacy may become conflated to the degree that it's difficult to distinguish between the two. In studying these literacies c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kate Ronald (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Music Composition

Beyond its integral function in children's media, music has the potential to enhance the emotional literacy of young viewers. While many studies have explored the benefits of incorporating music in educational programming, its role in promoting emotional literacy within contemporary children's television and streaming shows has not been extensively examined. This document addresses this gap by analyzing the musical approaches in three children's television shows: Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! (1996 - 2004), PBS's Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (2012 - present), and YouTube Kids' Doggyland (2022 - present). Using Patrik Juslin's BRECVEMA framework – which stands for brainstem reflex, rhythmic entrainment, evaluative conditioning, contagion, visual imagery, episodic memory, musical expectancy, and aesthetic judgement – to explain the causality of emotions, this analysis reveals compositional considerations contributing to the shows' literacy-enhancing effects. Furthermore, this document examines how music in these shows promotes speech prosody and supports emotional self-regulation. The findings offer valuable insights for children's media composers by employing evidence-based strategies to improve young viewers' emotional literacy through music. Future research should explore empirical studies considering BRECVEMA mechanisms in children's media.

Committee: Christopher Dietz Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Elaine Colprit Ph.D. (Committee Member); Per Broman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dena Eber Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Music

MDES, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Design

To minimize the spread of fake news, a media literacy mindset can be cultivated through education that teaches skills for identifying false information. This study focuses on media literacy for retired adults, aged 65 and above, who experience post-retirement disconnection from society leading to greater susceptibility to deception by fake news. In order to address this issue, a study was created to (1) understand fake news features and the state of the issue, (2) develop user journey maps showing the receipt and sharing of information on social media and create a flowchart of media literacy education, (3) generate design guidelines for a media literacy education platform design, and (4) implement these guidelines into a design proposal for a media literacy education platform. This study collected fake news features and categorized them into five groups by affinity mapping; these five groups include headings, sources, content, images, and videos. The researcher then carried out a thematic analysis on an interview with experts who contributed to helping people identify fake news. Based on the results of this analysis, user journey maps and a flowchart were created to demonstrate the process of sharing information on social media and teaching media literacy. By integrating these insights, the design guidelines of Media Literacy Education for retired adults were generated. This study developed seven design guidelines that are intended to (1) provoke awareness of fake news at first glance, (2) demonstrate comprehension thoroughly, (3) use common fake news examples to connect with the audience's life, (4) systematically introduce false information features, (5) cultivate critical thinking ability, (6) share credible channels as information sources, and (7) introduce fact-checking tools and simple report methods. Lastly, this study applied these guidelines to an online educational platform design that can be implemented in the future, supporting retired adults' lea (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vittoria Daiello Ph.D. (Committee Member); Emily Verba Fischer M.F.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2022, English

This dissertation examines the important affective labor of diverse feminist activists and sexual assault survivor advocates and contributes a theory of feminist affective resistance. I define feminist affective resistance as the transformative rhetorics and literacy practices feminists employ to challenge dominant pedagogies of emotion while building toward feminist and survivor-centered futures. In Chapter 1, I situate this dissertation within scholarship on affect, feminist rhetorics, and literacies, establishing how feminist scholars and activists have begun to identify and resist social-emotional scripts. In Chapter 2, I constellate a feminist trauma-informed methodology and introduce my participants and methods. I investigate feminist rhetorical strategies and literacy practices through interviews with eleven feminist activists and an ethnographic case study at a rape crisis center where I have volunteered for three years. In Chapter 3, I describe how feminist activists enact digital tactics of feminist affective resistance while making social media work for them. Participants in this study established feminist affective counterpublics online and carefully navigated the affective burdens of their online activism. In Chapter 4, I investigate the feminist rhetorical pedagogies at the Midwest Rape Crisis Organization (MRCO), including five rhetorical tenets that guide advocate interactions with survivors. MRCO rhetorics and pedagogies help survivors and advocates realign away from discourses of rape culture and toward feminist values of the organization. In Chapter 5, I present MRCO as a literacy sponsor that helps advocates affectively attune with survivors and affectively realign away from vicarious trauma. Literacy practices of MRCO advocates include reading to believe, writing to process, and gathering to heal. In Chapter 6, I review four lessons of feminist affective resistance, including the importance of rhetorical affective education. I conclude this diss (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jason Palmeri (Committee Co-Chair); Sara Webb-Sunderhaus (Committee Co-Chair); Lisa Weems (Committee Member); Emily Legg (Committee Member); Michele Simmons (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Gender Studies; Literacy; Rhetoric; Womens Studies

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Arts and Sciences: Communication

This research study aims to analyze legislation regarding marginalized communities, with news media communication and government official communication thereof. In order for a public health issue to be considered a crisis, it must 1) affect a large number of people, 2) threaten the health of a group over the long-term, and 3) require adoption of large-scale solutions to combat the issue (Galea, 2017). Racism is, and always has been, a public health crisis. Racism has had debilitating consequences on marginalized communities for centuries; socially, politically, economically, etc. After the “Racism as a Public Health Crisis” legislation was introduced by Representative Jahana Hayes in 2020, numerous cities, counties, and states in the United States began declaring racism a public health crisis. Consequently, these declarations require action-steps by elected officials and community members to dismantle structural racism interwoven within policies and practices. Using Iyengar's (1993) Thematic Framing, this study proposes 3 prominent frames of the “racism as a Public Health Crisis” legislation: Public Health, Social Justice, and Political frames. Furthermore, Tajfel's (1979) Social Identity Theory expands upon the use of the pronouns “we” and “them” to categorize members of in-groups and out-groups. With the analysis of twenty news media and government artifacts, this study highlights the most prominent frames by coding words, terms, race of those quoted, as well as the use of an individual or collective narrative identity.

Committee: Ronald Jackson II Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Omotayo Banjo Ph.D. (Committee Member); Nancy Jennings Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, EDU Teaching and Learning

“Buying the blueprints: Investing emotionally and materially in the icy ideologies of Disney's Frozen” uses a cultural studies framework to examine qualitative data collected from interviews with Norwegian children and families, observations of public engagement with the Frozen films both in Norway and at EPCOT's Norway pavilion, and narrative analysis of the Frozen films. Discussions of indigeneity, national/cultural identity, and gender as they are represented in Frozen are situated within the Disney Princess film tradition and examined as social blueprints (Dorfman, 1983) that contribute to audience's constructed schemas. Through these themes, I illuminate the Disney brand's reliance on audiences' emotional engagement with narratives to subdue critique and invite material investment in physical and digital merchandise. “Buying the blueprints” also offers suggestions for critical, creative engagement with the Frozen films, exploring play-based restorying (Wohlwend, 2009)(Thomas & Stornaiuolo, 2016) as a potential site for critical media literacy practice.

Committee: Caroline Clark (Advisor); Michelle Abate (Committee Member); Merrill Kaplan (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Film Studies; Gender; Literacy; Literature; Mass Media; Motion Pictures; Multicultural Education; Scandinavian Studies

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2020, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines youth engagement with financial news and its capacity to boost financial literacy levels through interactive content. An experiment is conducted in which university students (N=125) read one of four stories from the Wall Street Journal and then answer questions about their experience. Results show that participants exposed to interactive stories were more likely to say they learned something new about business, finance, or economics from the story; were more likely to say they would read financial news again in the future; were more likely to say they enjoyed the format of the content; and were more likely to have deeper engagement levels with the content. Results also seem to reveal a perception bias: while most participants said they do not enjoy financial news content and find it boring, irrelevant, and/or difficult to understand, a majority of participants also reported having a positive experience reading their assigned story, interactive or not.

Committee: Victoria LaPoe PhD (Committee Chair); Nerissa Young (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Finance; Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, English

Using a transdisciplinary, multi-method framework of queer rhetorics paired with kinky empiricism (Rutherford, 2012), this dissertation takes as its central concern the question: How can teachers work with students to invent and orient learning toward queer possibilities without reifying culturally oppressive norms through neoliberal accountability logics? This line of inquiry, established in Chapter 1, orients toward digital and multimodal compositions, which offer rhetorical power within and beyond the classroom. Furthermore, digital media composing, when oriented through queer rhetorics, can be a space for disidentifcation from institutionalized accountability logics and related oppressive systems (Munoz, 1999; Ahmed, 2006). In turn, this project studies assessment practices (Chapter 2), curricular developments (Chapter 3), and pedagogical engagements (Chapter 4) as conduits for queer possibilities in digital media composing classrooms. Chapter 2 troubles current neoliberal accountability logics while tracing counter-histories of assessment. Assessment, a notable concept in education and rhetoric, composition, and digital media studies, is easily positioned and co-opted by neoliberal accountability logics animated by learning outcome regimes. However, by engaging early discussions of assessment ethics, the social justice turn in assessment, and the affect of digital media/multimodal assessment, this project shows assessment can and should be (re)oriented as a tool of queer possibility through an ethic of response-ability. Following the theorization of the opening chapters, the third and fourth chapters are grounded by a practitioner inquiry project (cf. Cochran-Smith and Lytle, 1993; Nichols and Cormack, 2017), which collected and analyzed qualitative data in a digital media composing course. The data, when reviewed using qualitative data analysis methods, materialize and triangulate claims of queer possibilities in digital media composing by accounting fo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Scott DeWitt DA (Committee Chair); Beverly Moss PhD (Committee Member); Christa Teston PhD (Committee Member); Eric Pritchard PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Curriculum Development; Education Philosophy; Educational Theory; Higher Education; Literacy; Pedagogy; Rhetoric; Teaching; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, English (Arts and Sciences)

The subject of my dissertation is a neglected area of Food Studies themed composition courses: women's relationships with food and the subsequent connection to food and body image, self-esteem, and overall health. Knowing how to eat and having positive relationships with food are a problem for many people, especially women. And my research for the project is situated in this tension. My methodology uses a feminist theoretical lens for a textual, rhetorical, and critical discourse analysis of: (1) the genre of cooking shows, and (2) popular diets. I further conduct a comparative discourse analysis of the two to gain insight about the ways in which women might navigate the tensions between expectations to cook as a service to others, while following diets to achieve or maintain thinness. The results of my analyses provide the basis for an upper-level Feminist Food Studies composition class, with the goal to teach writing concepts through critical analyses of artifacts (in this case, cooking shows), and through research (researching and analyzing diets), designed for any student who might take the course to evaluate the concepts therein based on her own life experiences. Additionally, beyond the immediacy of students, my research seeks to provide an alternative to toxic gendered expectations attached to food. This approach to understanding the rhetoric of women's relationships with food can additionally aid in re-examining the limitations of diagnosing and treating eating disorders as a mental illness by identifying and understanding them as potential byproducts of toxic grand narratives surrounding food consumption and societal pressures of thinness.

Committee: Mara Holt PhD (Committee Chair); Sherrie Gradin PhD (Committee Member); Nicole Reynolds PhD (Committee Member); Devika Chawla PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Gender; Rhetoric; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Psychology/Clinical

The present study describes the development and piloting of two brief interventions to reduce the negative effects of sexual objectification among college women: one using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and media literacy techniques and another using solely media literacy (ML). Specifically, the short-term effectiveness in terms of reducing negative body feelings, self-surveillance, and psychological inflexibility was evaluated for both interventions as compared to a control group who received no intervention. Trait self-objectification and internalization of appearance ideals were also evaluated as potential moderators of intervention and the outcome variables. Prior research has found ACT to be helpful for treating body image dissatisfaction (Atkinson & Wade, 2012; Berman, Morton, & Hegel, 2015; Follette, Heffner, & Pearson, 2010). However, no previous studies have combined media literacy with ACT techniques to provide a group-based body image intervention. The present study aimed to fill this void. Data were collected from 167 undergraduate females who were randomly assigned to participate in a 4-hour ACT or ML intervention, or no intervention. Participants were given questionnaires pre- and post-intervention to assess changes in the outcome variables (negative body feelings, self-surveillance, and psychological inflexibility). The results found the ML intervention to be most effective in reducing all outcome variables. Furthermore, minimal evidence was found to support trait self-objectification, internalization of media appearance ideals, and internalization of muscular appearance ideals as moderating variables. Findings from the current study have implications for future research, including identifying the appropriate dosage for ACT interventions.

Committee: Eric Dubow Ph.D. (Advisor); William O'Brien Ph.D. (Committee Member); Dara Musher-Eizenman Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Liederbach Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Clinical Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, English

This dissertation intervenes in antiracist scholarship's recent trend of acknowledging/openly critiquing whiteness as primary means to dismantle white supremacy in Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy (Ratcliffe, Inoue). I use intersectional Black Feminist thought (Lorde, Cohen), buttressed by Black Studies (DuBois, Godwin-Woodson, Weheliye) and Afrocentric philosophy (Asante, Mazama), to interrupt that trend by examining marginalized antiracist agency, through analysis of meanings of blackness in the US vis-a-vis institutional power. In centering blackness, I apply “a critical method” that “presents a positive rather than a reactionary posture” (Asante) in mobilizing generative approaches to destabilizing institutional whiteness, as opposed to reparative attempts that often paradoxically center whiteness. At the crux of this project is an attempt to establish a lens for reading rhetorical ecologies of race—race relations interrelated through space, culture, and context. I use that lens to undertake a case study of a large Midwestern historically white institution, Midwestern State University, during a defined cultural moment (post-Ferguson). “Black or Right” foregrounds its Black feminist rhetorical analysis with an eye toward a fracturing multiplicity through a relational methodology, building from Sara Ahmed's work in On Being Included. In doing so, I expand Ahmed's focus on diversity practitioners by emphasizing different positions/locations within the historically white educational institution under scrutiny while adopting differing vantage points or roles from which I analyze material: through a concentration on graduate student positionality (autoethnographist) in Chapter 2; in undergraduate student work in my antiracist composition classroom (critical pedagogue) in the following chapter; via the cultural context of historical, populist, and pedagogic meanings of #BlackLivesMatter (cultural rhetorician) in the fourth chapter; and within the praxis of policy (a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Wendy Hesford (Committee Chair); Beverly Moss (Committee Member); Margaret Price (Committee Member) Subjects: Black Studies; Composition; Literacy; Rhetoric