MA, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Philosophy

This thesis examines the relationship between Hegelian dialectics and Derridean deconstruction, ultimately questioning their apparent tension. It is my contention that, despite Derrida's critique of Hegel, Derrida's own thought draws heavily from Hegel and, thus, deconstruction comes to exhibit key features of the Hegelian dialectic. In light of this, the guiding thread of our investigation will surround the question of whether their alleged philosophical tension is genuine, or, if it relies on a certain (mis)understanding of Hegel's thought. Whereas Derrida comes to view Hegel as a homogenizing and totalizing philosopher, I will, instead, argue that Hegel should be seen as a radical philosopher of difference, failure, and instability. Thus understood, Hegel's aim is not to subsume difference in a totalizing synthesis but to draw out and stress how identity relies on the affirmation of an irreducible difference. Therefore, I will argue that Hegel's thought is situated far closer to Derridean deconstruction than has generally been accorded.

Committee: Gina Zavota (Advisor); Matthew Coate (Committee Member); Frank Ryan (Committee Member); Michael Bracher (Committee Member) Subjects: Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2024, Communication Studies (Communication)

This dissertation centers the lived experiences of N = 43 American millennials who during their adult lives, have deconstructed, disidentified, and exited from organized evangelical Christianity in the United States. In order to investigate this context, I implemented a methodological bricolage (Levi-Strauss, 1966) of semi-structured interviews, iterative analysis (Tracy, 2013), and autoethnography (Ellis et al., 2011) to quilt together a data corpus that provides a partial yet comprehensive insight into the experiences of the individuals interviewed in this study, as well as my own. Theoretically, this dissertation is grounded in the organizational socialization (Van Maanen & Shein, 1979; Jablin, 1982, 1987, 2001), organizational identification (Cheney, 1983, 2001, 2004; Mael & Ashforth, 1992, Cheney et al., 2014), and the social identity/identification (Burke, 1959; Tajfel & Turner, 1986, 2004) literatures, which provides a framework and opening for this research. Findings from this dissertation add to the faith-based voluntary exit and religious communication literature through the proposal of four theoretical contributions: The Triad of Control, The American Millennial Evangelical Christian Exit Model, The Duality of Deconstruction, and lastly, The Millennial Resistance to Exclusionary Binaries.

Committee: Lynn Harter (Committee Member); Brittany Peterson (Advisor); Rebekah Crawford (Committee Member); Laura Black (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, French, Italian, and Classical Studies

Ce travail se propose de demontrer, par l'analyse detaillee du roman Soumission de Michel Houellebecq, que l'effritement de la notion de transcendance, incarnee a la fois dans la nation francaise et dans la religion chretienne, mene a une perturbation des deux elements vitaux de ce qui constitue une assise identitaire nationale : un passe et un futur envisage collectivement, et menent des lors a une fuite hors du temps. L'auteur francais dresse ce constat a l'instant present, par son univers romanesque desormais coutumier de pessimisme ambiant, dindividu isole et de desenchantement du monde neoliberal. Il ne laisse cependant pas le heros de son roman en l'etat, mais lui fait vivre une decouverte d'une nouvelle possibilite d'elevation spirituelle par l'islam. Ce reenchantement sera egalement l'occasion pour le protagoniste de retrouver une place dans la ligne du temps.

Committee: Audrey Wasser Dr. (Committee Chair); Mark McKinney Dr. (Committee Member); Jonathan Strauss Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Foreign Language; Literature; Philosophy; Sociology

Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University, 2019, Political Science

President George W. Bush's construction of a gendered narrative during the war on terror seeks to produce disciplined, docile, and individually punished subjects as part of an obedient whole. The discipline and punishment of women in particular, and their position of silent subservience to men, functions to produce willing bodies capable of bearing offspring necessary for reproducing the hierarchical stature of a patriarchal society. Through such a narrative, Bush proclaims the salient US identity as the global hegemon, justified in its imperialist endeavors and aggressive and militant international relations during his own presidency and secures the same avenues of legitimacy for future administrations.

Committee: Maria Fanis (Advisor) Subjects: International Relations

Bachelor of Arts, Walsh University, 2019, Honors

My thesis explores the dynamics of the literary epiphany in the early modernist period (defined here as 1895-1915). For James Joyce (and others) the literary epiphany manifests when a character experiences a moment of sudden illumination or deeper insight into reality. The early modernist period sees extensive application and sustained development of the epiphany, and I strive to isolate the major occurrences, as well as their implications upon the meaning of the text, our understanding of the characters, and how it articulates essentialities of the human condition. To do so, I use the literary criticism theory of Deconstruction, a way of reading a text that focuses on ambiguities and contradictory tensions that complicates meaning of that text. Out of these theories comes the notion of aporia, or a state of undecidability, that I use to indicate the epiphany's manifestation as a crisis point between two irreconcilable sides of a dichotomy. These dichotomies within the literature are often thrown into tension over a character's identity or role within the narrative, and the epiphany occurs as a response to this confusion. I use three works appearing in the time period as the cornerstone of my analysis: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, and “The Dead” by James Joyce, each of which I deconstruct in light of the concepts of aporia to explore the fundamental contradictory impulses of the texts and their effects on the character that ultimately experiences the epiphany or moment of vision. I break my findings into a tripartite structure that diagrams the shape and function of the epiphany and how it develops throughout this time period, each focusing on a deeper level of engagement with the text, from the epiphany as an instrument of plot progression, to the epiphany as a medium for character interaction and insight, to a deeper medium that establishes a metaphysical author-reader relationship. Furthermore, certain commonalities exist bet (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Kandl Ph.D. (Advisor); Amanda Gradisek Ph.D. (Advisor); Ty Hawkins Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Dance

I surface the artistic lineage of the Maharis or temple dancers marginalized in the history of the eastern Indian classical dance style called Odissi by focusing on the mediation of Mahari ritual performance within the embodied knowledge of contemporary Odissi practice. I position my investigation in the field of Practice-as-Research evidencing my research inquiry through praxis—theory imbricated in practice as defined by Practice-as-Research scholar Robin Nelson. Imbricating critical cultural theory and movement practice, I examine Mahari praxis within an interdisciplinary investigation combining religious studies, sexuality studies, technology studies, dance studies, and South Asian studies. The Mahari danced in the Hindu temples of Odisha, the state from which Odissi originates, from the twelfth to early twentieth century. Mythically, she descends from the Alasa-Kanya, female sculptural figure adorning the temple-walls of Odisha. Being ritually married to Jagannath, the Hindu male deity presiding over Odissi dance, she had a sexual life outside of social marriage within circles of the indigenous elites. Although, Odissi is premised on Mahari ritual performativity in front of Jagannath to establish historical continuity, it does not acknowledge her creative practice for her alleged links to prostitution. I redress the appropriation of the Mahari in Odissi technique, by reimagining her in my choreographed Odissi movement and in its subsequent digital mediation as 3D data using motion capture technology. In solo and group choreographic works and their virtual adaptations, I explore the Mahari's ritual performance in the temple alongside examining her mythical associations in ancient and medieval temple-sculpture. In an intermodal inquiry spanning live dancing, digital visualization of live movement, and stone sculpture, I highlight the unacknowledged aesthetics of the Mahari tradition within the Odissi body by discovering the twisting movements of the Mahari in my p (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Norah Zuniga-Shaw (Advisor); Karen Eliot (Committee Member); Mytheli Sreenivas (Committee Member) Subjects: Dance

BA, Oberlin College, 2015, Comparative Literature

Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, known for his theory of "constant flux," may be one of the most misunderstood and misquoted thinkers of Western philosophy. The way that the protagonist of Julio Cortazar's Rayuela misreads Heraclitus serves as one example of this phenomenon wherein poorly-conceived postmodern inquiries that seek to weaken the idea of a Truth lead to a nihilistic apathy. Horacio Oliveira misunderstands Heraclitus' doctrine of constant flux and uses this misreading to “logically” justify his sexist and elitist behavior towards others. This phenomenon crops up again in Samuel Beckett's absurdist play Fin de Partie through Hamm, a patriarch that no longer sees any point in trying because the world as he knows it is disintegrating. We can use Heraclitus as a central theoretical point for parsing through what exactly goes wrong with the ethical decisions of these characters. Carole Maso's AVA serves as a counterexample to Rayuela and Fin de Partie, for the novel revolves around similar theoretical questions but provides us with a more properly “Heraclitean” approach for how to confront a world without fixed meaning. Studying these failures and successes supply us with examples of how Postmodern thought can be used for harm or for good. A Heraclitean reading of these texts shows us how, properly understood, Postmodernism moves not only towards deconstructing structuralized systems of violence and marginalization, but also towards building something out of the rubble.

Committee: Claire Solomon (Advisor); Jed Deppman (Committee Chair); Benjamin Lee (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Ancient Languages; Classical Studies; Comparative; Comparative Literature; Epistemology; Ethics; European Studies; Gender Studies; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Literature; Metaphysics; Modern Literature; Philosophy; Womens Studies

BA, Oberlin College, 2015, English

This paper examines The Book of Salt as a subaltern project. Binh, the protagonist of the novel, is a figure whose story has been recovered from the margins of history. The first part of the paper examines the oppressive conditions that marginalize him and how he negotiates and subverts those conditions. The second part explores the limits of such subaltern subversion and representation. Through such an examination, I raise critical questions about representing the subaltern subject in the fields of literature and Asian American studies. How can we represent the subaltern, when we cannot represent the subaltern? How do we hear their voice, when the subaltern cannot speak? These paradoxical dilemmas need not preclude Asian American studies scholars from exploring subaltern narratives. Rather, hybrid narratives such as The Book of Salt, when accompanied by a critical examination of their limits, are essential to subverting official narratives and decolonizing the fields of literature and historiography.

Committee: Harrod Suarez Professor (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature; Asian American Studies

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2014, Experimental Psychology (Arts and Sciences)

Prior research aiming to predict general strategies for sorting objects into categories has relied on determining when and if subjects will sort unidimensionally (Handel & Imai, 1972; Imai & Garner, 1965) or sort based on a family resemblance principal (Medin, Wattenmaker, & Hampson, 1987; Rosch & Mervis, 1975; Wattenmaker, 1992). Experimental results are mixed, however, and recent investigations suggest the type of strategy employed by subjects depends on the particular demands of the task (Milton & Wills, 2004; Regehr & Brooks, 1995). Although informative, these investigations are qualitative in nature and lack the type of quantitative rigor found in the area of human categorization (Medin & Schaffer, 1978; Nosofsky, 1984; Vigo, 2009, 2013b). To address this quantitative deficit, we implemented representational information theory (RIT; Vigo, 2011a, 2013a) and its' associated formal model to predict and explain how humans choose which objects to either add to or to remove from preexisting category structures. RIT provides an explanation as to when the aforementioned qualitative sorting strategies are most likely to be utilized by subjects. Additionally, we compared predictions from this model to those made by a leading prototype measure (MPMP-2, Estes, 1986; Nosofsky & Zaki, 2002; Vigo & Basawaraj, 2013).

Committee: Ronaldo Vigo Dr. (Advisor); Robert Briscoe Dr. (Committee Member); Gary Schumacher Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Experimental Psychology; Information Science; Quantitative Psychology

MFA, Kent State University, 2014, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

Strategies, systems, experiences and services are part of the new challenges faced today by design students and designers. These challenges include shifting audiences with specific needs due to the broad offer of services and products that often create new needs. These needs include limited resources, sustainable solutions with low environmental impact, and production costs. Besides, there is a great demand for multidisciplinary designers that are able to generate and perform ideas in a co-creation environment. An approach to meeting these challenges can include an open-ended, scaffolded brainstorming process. This might involve design students and designers, instead of advancing towards potential solutions from an unstructured ideation process. Structured methods have many benefits such as collaboration between teammates, ordered and constructive creative sessions as well as increased efficiency. One structured method that has found a place inside classrooms across the world is the Deconstructive discourse, in the areas of philosophy, linguistics, architecture, and others. This paper describes the process, and findings of building a creative framework based on the Deconstructive discourse and its implications in the learning process of design students. Deconstruction provides a structured way of analyzing complex problems. An example of successful application of Deconstructionist theories in design education is the academic work of Cranbrook Academy of Art. In the late 1980 and early 1990s under the direction of Katherine McCoy, Graphic Design students explored the semantics and syntax of their. This demonstrated the importance and the value of the Deconstructive discourse in the studio classroom. As a result, its use as a critical tool it exposed the gap between sign and meaning in the context of culture. This research follows the definition of Deconstruction as a mode of questioning stereotypes, traditional ideas and popular views by comparing them and exploit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sanda Katila MFA (Advisor); Tameka Ellington PhD (Committee Member); Gretchen Rinnert MFA (Committee Member); Jessica Barness MFA (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Education; Linguistics

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2013, English

The rhetoric of cultural identity generally goes in two potential directions: One a universal line that insists on an overall pattern of integration and harmony among all peoples regardless of their differences, and the other a line which suggests that various cultures are so specific and different that they will eventually enter into clash, violence and war. Drawing upon Derrida's concept of differance, I will point out that such rhetoric as examples of current political discourses fail to open the concept of cultural identity through redefining its relationship with otherness. This will be accompanied by poetry of Rumi and Whitman to suggest that their literary language through its non-dialectic characteristics is familiar with the problematic of identity and has the ability to form a cross-cultural dialogue. Sufism And Transcendentalism: A Poststructuralist Dialogue envisages the possibility of dialogue against the background of political conflict. It is a comparative study of Rumi and Whitman in which the parallelism of poetic style and content goes further to find common ground in challenging the conventional definitions of self and other.

Committee: Keith Tuma Dr. (Committee Chair) Subjects: American Literature; Comparative Literature; Ethics; International Relations; Islamic Studies; Literature; Middle Eastern Literature; Middle Eastern Studies; Near Eastern Studies; Peace Studies; Philosophy; Religion

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

Architects and builders continue to build structures that are intended to last forever while it is increasingly apparent that buildings will fall into disrepair, fade out of style or become programmatically obsolete relatively soon after their construction. The natural and economic resources that were invested into the building become waste; deposited into landfills to slowly rot. This is an architectural opportunity to create buildings that are designed to respond and adapt to maintenance requirements, stylistic updates and user needs. In order to test this design process, I will design a building reuse learning center. It will be a learning center for architects, engineers and contractors to deconstruct, learn to reuse and reconstruct in such a way that it allows the process to start again. Design must become the process in which there is a critical forethought into the inevitable reuse of materials. Construction must accommodate potentials for future reuse, reappropriation or recycling. Programmatic arrangement of buildings must be focused on grouping alike building services so that buildings become a collection of services rather than materials. The design process has no beginning or end; it in itself is a continual flow of design services as buildings become temporary resting places for materials. The thesis is a study into understanding a building logic that enables and encourages the reuse of building materials through deconstruction.

Committee: George T. Bible (Committee Chair); Vincent Sansalone (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Architecture

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Arts and Sciences : Communication

The purpose of this study is to analyze how members of a firefighting organization in Cincinnati discuss issues of race as these issues have been experienced since the riots of 2001. Specifically, the research objective is to understand the discursive structuration of race and racial identity within this suburban department. The members of this organization reside in predominately middle to upper class suburbs of the city, are all white, and almost exclusively male. The purpose of choosing this particular subculture for analysis is two-fold: (1) I have spent a considerable amount of time as an “inside member” of this organization and am familiar with their general worldview, and (2) I cannot justifiably attempt to understanding other groups without deconstructing the “sensemaking” of my own. This project's aim is to understand the often “unarticulated” role of “whiteness” in racial discourse from the perspective of an “inside member” of this particular group.

Committee: Heather Zoller (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, English

The purpose of my dissertation is to illuminate the depth of Herman Melville's philosophical and aesthetical inquiries into the fundamental questions about human existence and possibilities in his novel Moby-Dick. I investigate the ways in which the novel interrogates the basic tenets of Platonism and Christianity and explores a positive alternative to the limitations of the existing system of knowledge by reading the novel in relation to Arthur Schopenhauer's and Friedrich Nietzsche's revision of the traditional understanding of human will, epistemology, and religion of the West. In his views of human life and the world, Melville's remarkable affinities with Schopenhauer have drawn much critical attention, but not many critics have paid attention to the import of the similarities between Melville and Nietzsche. My analysis of Melville's intellectual relationship with these two German philosophers contributes to current scholarship not only by bringing to light Melville's position in the larger intellectual tradition beyond his immediate cultural milieu, but also by exploring how Moby-Dick provides an answer to whether literature has a positive power especially when literature seems to undermine its own credibility and authority by questioning the validity of narrative and truth. I contend that Schopenhauer's differentiation between the veil of appearance and an inner reality of every natural phenomenon can elucidate Ahab's investigation of the incongruities between seems and is, while the concept of will as “merely a blind, irresistible impulse” can throw light on Ahab's “will determinate” and “madness maddened” in his pursuit of Moby Dick. Regarding Ahab's rejection of conventional religious doctrines in his attempt to give meaning to his life, I argue that Ahab's self-overcoming does not extend to examining the implications of his mad pursuit of Moby Dick, ultimately differentiating him from the Nietzschean Overman despite their similarities. My analysis of Ishma (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Steven Fink PhD (Advisor); Elizabeth Hewitt PhD (Committee Member); Susan Williams PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: English literature

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2009, Educational Leadership

Situating my research within the theoretical framework of poststructural feminism, I pose the question, “How do evangelical Christian women negotiate, appropriate, resist, and embrace the multiple and conflicting discourses through which they are constituted and constitute themselves?” To explore this question, I asked participants to create artifacts to address a prompt designed to explore their multiple and conflicting discourses. I also conducted two-part interviews with each participant. Using the methods of textual analysis and deconstruction, I concluded that each of the women moves—often uneasily—between the dominant discourse of complementarianism and the counter-discourse of egalitarianism. Each woman's views are complex, nuanced, and at times paradoxical. While each of the women remained committed to the discursive construct of headship at least symbolically, each of the women also employed multiple strategies to emasculate it. Further, all of the women rejected dominant and hegemonic readings of key biblical passages and used a variety of strategies to re-read and un-read the passages. While each participant invokes the language and claims of liberal feminism, especially within her professional discourse, most participants eschew the term “feminist,” and all of them evince complex views on the discourse of feminism. These findings have implications for teacher education, K-12 public education, and the advancement of feminism.

Committee: Lisa D. Weems PhD (Committee Chair); Kathleen Knight-Abowitz PhD (Committee Member); Peter Magolda PhD (Committee Member); Tammy Schwartz PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Gender; Religion; Womens Studies

BA, Kent State University, 2012, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

The importance of investigating the author in reading a work is one that is historically valuated, indicative of a desire for limitation upon the text. Rather than the author acting from a position of transcendental control, the concept of authorship is rather produced as a repressive structure from a paradigmatic fear of the confusion writing provokes. Therefore, reading that attempts to reduce textual confusion by studying the author is one that, far from deciding meaning, simply recreates the text without the complexities that make it intractable. Notably, Kafka's "The Trial" is a simulation that problematizes reading the author as a form of mastery, as this work refutes the ideological understanding of power as a transcendent presence, arguing that power itself is a machinic effect. Contrary to the pervasive interpretation of Max Brod, who suggests this work demonstrates a negative theology, Deleuze and Guattari illustrate that "The Trial" actually critiques the transcendental, because K, in not acknowledging this authoritative presence, is representative of its dysfunction. A critical investigation reveals that K responds with indifference to the ineffaceable guilt supposedly inflicted upon him, treating the whole ordeal as an incompetent mistake he expects to be corrected at any moment. However, Kafka's looming presence entirely overshadows the fact that this work embodies an absent theology only to refute it as a functional operation of power. The reading of this work's political critique singly in terms of Kafka's persona demonstrates how authorship has operated within these same assumptions of mastery—assumptions that create restrictive oversimplifications. If the text itself is understood as a machinic production and not an authored work, this denies the possibility of textual limitation. The figure of the author is certainly not an absolute determinate of meaning, but neither is his voice one that can be discounted: it is simply another voice in the mach (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kevin Floyd (Advisor); Michael Byron (Committee Member); Tammy Clewell (Committee Member); Sara Newman (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Philosophy

MA, Kent State University, 2012, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism

More than 30 live-action superhero movies (based on comic book heroes) starring A-list celebrities have been released by Hollywood since the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001. Captain America, created during times of war to rally support, is among these. Comic book superheroes have almost always reflected American popular culture in a way that everyone can understand. The entertainment medium provides parallels of social issues within the superheroes' storylines through character dialogue, distinctive art and reader perspective. Symbolic Interaction Theory explains how people create meaning from their surroundings and from their relationships with others. Through symbolic interaction, this paper explores how readers define the American Dream through Captain America's interpersonal battles, interactions with other characters and physical appearance as presented by the comic book authors. The textual analysis reveals that Captain America is important in exploring the evolution of the American Dream.

Committee: Bob Batchelor PhD (Advisor); Tim Smith PhD (Committee Member); Willie Harrell PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2009, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Between his pivotal essays “Nature” in 1836 and “The Poet” in 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson's increasingly negative and distrustful view of language can best be described as a precursor to deconstruction and postmodernism. Contemporary critics are too quick to dismiss a deconstructionist Emerson. There is evidence within his major essays that Emerson's understanding of language not only leads him to public and private displays of pessimism, but also to feelings of internal solipsism, agnosticism, and epistemological anxiety. Emerson demanded that mankind should utilize nature and aesthetics to experience the sublime and an immediate and original relationship with God. Yet, Emerson's essays evidence the idea that art and language itself futilely failed in bringing about an original relationship with God. By the time he wrote “The Poet,” Emerson officially succumbed to the belief that truth and God were ultimately unattainable, a belief that 20th century literary criticism defines as deconstructionist and postmodern.

Committee: Adam Sonstegard PhD (Advisor); Frederick Karem PhD (Committee Member); Rachel Carnell PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2008, Art/Art History

In the October, 1922 edition of the Surrealist journal Litterature, Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp published a collaborative work consisting of a photograph of Duchamp's iconic work The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors Even or The Large Glass (1915-23) covered in dust along with a brief poetic text. Although the photograph, which Duchamp later titled Dust Breeding, has long intrigued scholars their intriguing photo-text work has been completely overlooked. This thesis recovers this unique work from the margins of art history. Drawing on the work of Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, Michael Ann Holly and others this thesis examines four aspects of the photo-text's history identified as the encounter, photograph, text and publication from a meta-critical perspective in order to illustrate the fluid relation between the binaries of subject/object and creator/beholder. This deconstruction, I argue, compels a reconsideration of the relationship between art historians and artworks that moves beyond a binary logic towards a more open, plurivocal and intertextual model of art-historical scholarship.

Committee: Andrew Hershberger (Advisor) Subjects: Art History