Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2013, English

The structures of power in the Potter universe are both evident and insidious. Whether one considers the disciplinary influences enforced by Headmaster and mentor Albus Dumbledore; The Ministry of Magic's Fudge, Umbridge, and Scrimgeour; or, the power watching over them all: Voldemort, J.K. Rowling presents a world marked by surveillance and self-policing in her Harry Potter novels. These three levels of the Panoptic Gaze discipline Harry in various ways that ultimately result in producing him as a self-sacrificing hero at the series' close. Rowling depicts an individual completely shaped by the authoritative gazes that inhabit his world; even the freedom he finds from those gazes is possible only because the gazes have created such spaces for him. In a series that seems to promote choice and agency for the day's youth, one finds that in fact the hero has been trapped in his role since the night he received his lightning-bolt shaped scar.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, History of Art

In the decades following Edward Said's 1978 formulation of the discursive theory of Orientalism and the publication of his book of the same name, scholars working in a variety of disciplines, including the history of art, have deployed the theory to explain the nature of the historical relationship between the Eastern and Western worlds. One defining concept of Orientalism proposed by Said that is also found in the work of these other scholars is that the historical interaction between the East and West has been governed by a gendered hierarchy that proposes the East to be feminine and the West masculine. The material products of this interaction are Orientalism, according to Said, thus revealing his belief that the discourse of Orientalism is not only binarily gendered but also heterosexually oriented. While this manner of thinking has inarguably produced important works on the art of Orientalism, it has also limited its interpretation. Primarily relegated over the past four decades to studies of enticing harems, cavalier European explorer-painters, savage warriors, and generative landscapes, art historical scholarship has largely heterosexualized Orientalist art and essentialized its gendered components. Recently, however, an increasing number of scholars working in both the history of art and in associated disciplines have begun to suggest that such a theorization is problematically binary, and that it fails to entertain the possibility that other narratives and motifs, such as those concerning queer bodies, gender nonconforming individuals, and male homoeroticism, are found within the linked textual and visual archives of Orientalism. One such motif is the eunuch, whose image is frequently found in nineteenth-century France. Focused on France and French colonial contexts and geographies, this dissertation examines the representation of the eunuch during the long nineteenth century. It suggests that the image of the eunuch functioned as a type of Orientalist (open full item for complete abstract)

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

This dissertation project used an interpretivist qualitative research design to study how the right-to-read claim made by seven teenagers attending Detroit public schools in 2016 reflects, addresses, or describes contemporary discussions about educational access. Using situational analysis (SA) as a theory/method, the entirety of the claim comprises the situation of the social phenomenon being studied, not the people. This research combines critical race theory (CRT) with Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems and uses situation analysis to map historical discourses to conduct a study that examines the history of a present situation of inquiry as presented by this question: How does the 2016 right-to-read claim made by high school students in Detroit, Michigan reflect, address, or describe contemporary discussions about educational access? The study collected data to allow me to construct a prosopography that articulates an answer to the question that claims access to literacy is a public school policy right. Because situational analysis (SA) is designed to open research data to aspects of a circumstance that may have been overlooked, marginalized, or silenced, I was not certain the research results would answer this exact question. Additionally, critical theory and SA were used to conduct this qualitative research, examining historical data that addresses the right-to-read claim as a Foucaultian programmatic social problem. As such, it seeks to understand the complexities of recurring and historically situated education practices that limit actualizing U.S. education policies that embrace access to basic literacy skills as a human right. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, East Asian Studies

In Hojoki, Kamo no Chomei presents an alternative to the way court society organizes life. To present this life project, Chomei uses the image of the hut. The hut emerges as a reworking of several aspects of human existence. Although the hut works as an emblem of this transformation, it does not provide an explicit analysis of its content. In approaching Hojoki from different angles, diverse interpretations in English have revealed several dimensions of this transformation. However, none of them thematizes an important element of the piece: the individual. The present thesis aims to explore how the dimension of the individual is presented and developed in Hojoki. To develop this proposal, I use an interdisciplinary approach. I try to connect the piece with the theme of the individual from three perspectives: literary, historical and philosophical. First, I trace a comparison with Chiteiki, an earlier piece and an important influence on Chomei. Second, I explore the historical context in which the piece was produced. Finally, I use Michel Foucault's ideas on the subject to show how the concern with the individual articulates the hut. This reading shows us the centrality of the problem of the individual. The comparison with Chiteiki makes clear that Hojoki conforms to a type of discourse that has the question of the individual among its central concerns. This concern was widespread among literary producers in the second half of the Heian period, which can be linked to changes in the Heian social structure. Finally, the hut can be seen as emerging as a way to deal with this concern. Foucault's framework allows us a fresh perspective on Chomei was deals with the problem of the individual through the image of the hut.

Master of Arts in English, Youngstown State University, 2020, Department of Languages

In 1966, French philosopher Michel Foucault outlined the notions of “heterotopias” in a talk given to a group of architects, titled “Of Other Spaces: Of Utopias and Heterotopias,” exploring the principles that constitute these very “other” places and their relationship to the spaces that define them. Foucault's theory was largely abandoned and left unfinished, though completed enough to puzzle scholars with its contradictions and incompatibilities. This project explores practical applications of Foucault's theory on heterotopias, allowing for a flexible interpretation with the deployment of queer theory. Though Foucault's theory on heterotopias largely explores space, this project attempts a new interpretation of the theory that examines queered identities and their relationship to space, arguing that it is queered identities that queer a space and characterize it as heterotopic. Exploring Ari Aster's 2019 film Midsommar and Margaret Atwood's The Heart Goes Last, the project uses the two texts as case studies for the application and expansion of Foucault's theory on heterotopias.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, English/Literature

Various forms of discipline played significant roles during the Victorian era, yet, as with many aspects of Victorian society, discipline and disciplinary systems were still viewed as being separated between the public and private spheres. However, according to Michel Foucault's theories from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975) and Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the College De France, 1973-1974, discipline and disciplinary systems are not separate, but are entwined and intrinsically linked to power, particularly power over the body. Using Foucault's theories as a lens, this thesis examines the use of disciplinary systems and their effects on Victorian heroines who are non-docile bodies in three works of fiction: Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South (1854) and “The Poor Clare” (1856) and Sheridan Le Fanu's The Rose and the Key (1871). In these works, the heroines – Margaret Hale in North and South, Bridget Fitzgerald in “The Poor Clare,” and Maud Vernon in The Rose and the Key – all encounter disciplinary systems that are controlled by sovereigns and use surveillance to ensure the people in the disciplinary systems remain docile bodies. Because the heroines are non-docile bodies, they do not conform to the expectations placed upon them by society or the disciplinary system and are each punished for their transgressions. Even so, each heroine reacts differently to the disciplinary systems they find themselves in, and some heroines work to subvert those systems. Margaret Hale is punished within the disciplinary system of Milton because she puts her body and actions on display multiple times, but she manages to subvert her discipline and remain a non-docile body. In contrast, Maud Vernon's non-docile body can withstand the disciplinary system of her family's country house, Roydon, but she becomes a docile body after iv she is sent to the disciplinary system of the private asylum, Glarewoods. Finally, Bridget Fitzgerald uses her pow (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, Communication Studies (Communication)

Illness can strike a person and family at any time. Although American culture is beginning to shift in how we talk about illness, there is still a cloud over how we communicate about illness; specifically that of our ill/aging parent(s). This study explores how personal experiences intersect with illness and family combining autoethnographic accounts of caring for an ill/aging parent with the works of three comic memoir authors. Seeking to address and analyze the experiences surrounding caring for an ill and/or aging parent, a critical rhetorical framework guided by the works of Raymie E. McKerrow and Michel Foucault is applied to our sociocultural understandings of health, illness, and caregiving. Findings explore both the experiences surrounding caring for an ill/aging parent as well as the systematic structures embedded in the caregiving experience. Chapter Two focuses on personal experiences from an `other' and `self” orientation through autoethnographic accounts, specifically the influential nature of Pastoral Care (Foucault) of the body. Chapter's Three and Four explore these same orientations `other' and `self' through a critical rhetorical analysis of three comic memoirs: Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast, Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies, Aliceheimer's: Alzheimer's Through the Looking Glass by Dana Walrath. The analysis identifies key similarities and differences between each authors' lived experiences. Chapter Five advances the central argument that each author is predispositioned to confirm to and operate within the power structures embedded in our sociocultural understandings of health. I conclude with a discussion of the two major discoveries connected to my central argument, and follow that following with the major contribution of the analysis, the significance of the stories told and used for the analysis, implications for future research, and lastly final reflections.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

This dissertation critically analyzes the relationship between the state and the asylum-seeker through bordering mechanisms, with particular focus on confinement at the border. It argues that in contravention of international humanitarian law, Western signatory states manage refugees through punitive forms of enforcement. These countries enact bordering techniques that “thicken” the border, making it more difficult for people fleeing violence to reach a safe territory. These bordering mechanisms amount to a form of state-sanctioned violence that endangers the lives of refugees during the journey and, through confinement, harms them on arrival. Moreover, individual states enact bordering mechanisms that extend beyond their territories and result in buffer zones that sometimes overlap, forming a transnational sovereign assemblage that works to prevent displaced populations seeking asylum from exiting the Global South. This formation makes it necessary to look beyond individual regimes and think of borders transnationally, something I do by exploring the cases of Australia, the European Union, and the United States to identify a global refugee regime of deterrence, punishment, and confinement. My dissertation combines a novel approach to understanding borders with an analysis of bordering mechanisms at the U.S.-Mexico border. Using a transnational feminist lens, I explore how U.S. intervention in countries of the Northern Triangle creates racialized and gendered subjects that merge with existing stereotypes that criminalize brown migrants. The material consequences of this discourse can be seen at the southern border, where Central American women who seek asylum are punished. I theorize what happens at the border as a combination of sovereign and disciplinary punishment that serves also as a form of governing populations by deterring further arrivals. This methodology unveils how racist narratives of “deviant” motherhood precede these women and shape their receptio (open full item for complete abstract)

BA, Oberlin College, 1993, Politics

Charles Taylor chose to begin his 1984 critique of Michel Foucault with the phrase "Foucault disconcerts." This seems to be a most appropriate choice of words. Reading Foucault changes the way one looks at things. His work, both in style and content, subtly erodes assurances and certainties, leaving one with the feeling of standing at the edge of a cliff in complete darkness with the knowledge that there is something out there without being able to grasp that something-yet without fear of falling off the cliff. The reader is left with an unexplainable gap in understanding where before there was explanation, meaning, even truth; a feeling that there is something missing or something left unsaid. Yet his writing is powerful, sometimes literary or even beautiful. It is at points coldly empirical and descriptive, then speculative; unsettling conclusions drawn from the weight of 'fact'. Foucault's pen pokes at the nerve endings of his readers while explaining to them, in no uncertain terms, why it is that they hurt For these reasons--for the combination of brightly illuminating explanation and gray areas of confusion--Foucault seemed like a good place to start my inquiry into freedom.

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2018, Philosophy

This paper is a five-chapter exploration into the relationship between a Hobbesian notion of sovereignty, and the implementation of Marxism in the Soviet Union. The political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes has been most often interpreted through a particular reading of the German Carl Schmitt, which. as a result, has rendered Hobbesian philosophy synonymous with a strict, authoritarian nationalism like the Nazi party in Germany. However, simplifying the role of sovereign authority Nazism misses the strong parallels present between the relationship of the sovereign and the commonwealth, and the implementation of Marxism under Josef Stalin's rule in the Soviet Union. This model, wherein the Soviet citizens have been removed from the political realm forms an analogous relationship to what is present under the Hobbesian social contract. This is not to say that Marxism can be read back to Hobbes, but, rather, that Stalin's leadership implemented a version of the social contract which inadvertently drew upon Hobbesian influence. Through an assembling of primary and secondary sources, this thesis aims to show that a left-leaning reading of Hobbes is not only possible, but has a real-world example to draw upon.

BA, Oberlin College, 1993, Government

The challenge for me then, and the question that gave rise to this thesis, was how can the value of Foucault's insights into the functioning of power within discourse be salvaged given the critiques levelled by Hartsock and Habermas? That is, how can we link Foucault's analysis of the insidious and all-pervasive nature of power with actual political structures that facilitate and direct its application, and how does this application then affect the functioning of political structures? In attempting to answer this question I have integrated what I see to be two complementary fields of analysis: the critical theory of Jurgen Habermas and the civic republic revival in contemporary American legal theory. Both Habermas and the proponents of the civic republican revival contribute an additional dimension to understanding the place of discourse in society and how that discourse affects power relations. I believe that by drawing on and synthesizing these two fields I can both gain a better understanding of how power operates in society as well as identify potential solutions to counteract its effects.

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2017, Dance

Dancenoise was created by Lucy Sexton and Anne Iobst after graduating from Ohio University in 1983. They worked as an active part of the downtown dance scene—a group of avant-garde dance artists—where they established themselves as prominent members with a fusion of performance art and dance. Due to the explicit feminist perspective embedded in their work and their prominence in the downtown dance scene, it is curious that they have not been the focus of a dance and feminist studies project. This thesis analyzes two of their works Half a Brain (1988) and Open Season (1996) and argues that Dancenoise disrupts and subverts Western culture's heterosexist attitudes towards the body. There are three theoretical paradigms used to analyze how Sexton and Iobst transgress hegemonic culture. Through gaze theory, particularly male gaze theory, I assert that Sexton and Iobst challenge patriarchal representations of women through their fast-paced scene structure and use of nudity in tandem with dialogue. To further argue that they transgress hegemony, I assert that they disrupt the subjugation and docility of the body in the West by utilizing Michel Foucault's theorizing on “docile bodies”. Furthermore, I use Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity to argue that they challenge and subvert bodily norms of behavior, refuting traditional, sexist ways of using the body. To conclude, I assert that Dancenoise adheres to a poststructuralist decentered subjectivity. This is at the heart of their subversive tendencies.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Geography

In the last decade, several leftist countries in Latin America, including Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, among others, have retooled national and regional political, economic, and social governance to push against the constraints of deeply ingrained neoliberalism. This so-called post/neoliberal era is an attempt to move beyond neoliberalism, which was forced upon and adopted by Latin American governments beginning in the 1970s, and its failures, including privatization of State enterprises, persistent poverty and increasing social inequality, and widespread environmental destruction. This dissertation uses the term “post/neoliberal” to acknowledge that post/neoliberal governance models exist alongside neoliberal models. To date, much focus has been paid to post/neoliberal macroeconomic policies and State-civil society relations. The aim of this dissertation, therefore, is to examine the influence of post/neoliberalism on the governance—that is, the discourses, policies, institutions, programs, and practices that manage, direct, and conduct everyday life—of public health, environmental health, and well-being. My conceptual framing draws from Foucauldian governmentalities, urban political ecology, and neoliberalism as governmentality and as policy. Together, these literatures provoke new questions concerning the dialectic relationship among health, environment, and development amid changing political economic governance in Latin America. The empirical basis of this dissertation draws from qualitative (discourse analysis, interviews, and participant observation) and quantitative (household survey questionnaires) fieldwork conducted in Managua, Nicaragua. This dissertation is comprised of three body chapters to be submitted to academic journals for peer review. In the first body chapter I argue that contemporary public health governance in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, three countries where post/neoliberalism is mos (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Arts Policy and Administration

This dissertation provides a Foucauldian genealogy and governmentality study on the arts clusters in Beijing, the first of which was established in 1990. By investigating how the emergence and disappearance of different types of arts clusters are produced by specific social conditions, I examine the changing power relation between artists and the political authority since the late 1970s and interpret how contemporary Chinese art has been governed. The genealogy of arts clusters takes into account not only arts-related topics but events and phenomena in economics, population migration, land regulation, international relations, etc. Therefore, the analysis also offers a window to Chinese society and its histories more generally. In addition, I conduct a case study on the 798 art factory – the most famous arts cluster in China and the one subjected to the most intense government intervention. An examination of the governance inside 798 provides an account for how contemporary art is governed at a specific site. Subscribing to the ascending research method advocated by Foucault, I ground my analysis on abundant empirical data gathered from interviews, observations, and document studies. In addition to data that accounts for people's daily practices and lived experiences, I collect social discourses on various topics and issues from law, policies, regulations, development plans, entries in yearbooks, government briefs and Party leaders' speeches. Based on these discourses and actual practices, I identify two dominant governing rationalities – Reason of Party and neoliberalism – and examine their interplay. Specifically, I interpret how neoliberalism as an exception to socialism has been promoted by the political authority to reinforce its rule and gradually extend into different social domains. I argue that artists are in a sense “pushed” to adopt the neoliberal mentality and prioritize economic calculations. I also interrogate socialist legacy within neoliberalism in (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2016, Communication Studies

This study situates invasion as a form of what Michel Foucault called governmentality. According to Foucault, governmentality determined how a society was ruled and by whom it was ruled, and under what conditions. A central argument in this dissertation is that invasion, both actual and imagined, has become a fundamental means of governing the population and body, and is as much a productive force as it is destructive. Turning to media representations across a variety of formats, this study examines four key case studies. The first is the Critical Art Ensemble, a tactical media group whose work designed to expose the working of the corporate food supply brought them into direct conflict with the federal authorities. Along these lines, this study argues that tactical media functions as both a form of surveillance and governmentality. Another tactical media group analyzed is the Yes Men, who use their own bodies and the visage of corporate America to expose the often twisted logic at work. This study then turns to representations on film and television, analyzing the film Cloverfield (2008) and the science fiction television series Fringe, both of which rely heavily in the tropes of invasion. Invasion has become a loose term and its workings are not fully theorized. By looking at how invasion, surveillance, and bodies interact, this study lays out a path that not only interrogates the concept of invasion, but also how invasion may be subverted or, by contrast, unquestioned. Methodologically, this study combines visual and ideological analysis, as theorized by Nicholas Mirzoeff and Lisa Nakamura and others, in order to uncover the myriad ways by which invasion works. By combining these methods, the study examines key components from each of these sites. By examining closely the visual representation, and by turns the obfuscation of the such visual representations, of science, law enforcement, the military, surveillance, and destruction - as well as the obfu (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, Educational Studies

American institutions of higher education are increasingly utilizing internationalization as a technology of competition. One of the most prominent techniques of internationalization is the promotion of study abroad program participation amongst undergraduate students. On the other hand, students are increasingly demanding opportunities for international education as they seek to make themselves more competitive in the job market. This study uses Foucauldian discourse theory and the concept of governmentality to analyze how the growing importance of study abroad is illustrative of the larger trends of neoliberalism and neocolonial mentalities within U.S. higher education and dominant society. The findings of this study indicate that while the more nefarious aspects of governmentality are in play in study abroad, there are also opportunities for transformative international and cross-cultural learning if particular care is put into program design and content.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Art Education

This research employs American freeform role-playing games as a media for participatory arts-based inquiry into the relationships and perspectives of professional and pre-service art educators. The role-played performances and participatory discourse re-imagine relationships within a collaboratively imagined educational community that parallel ones from the professional lives of art educators, such as those between school administrators, staff, teachers, students, and parents. Participants use the roles, relationships, and settings they construct to explore themes and situations that they identify as being present in educational communities. These situations represent points of intersection between members of an educational community, such as parent-teacher conferences, community advocacy meetings, or school field trips. The data from each experience takes the form of personal reflections, participant-created artifacts, and communal discourse. By assuming various roles and reflecting upon them, participants gain access to experiences and points of view that provoke reflection, develop leadership capabilities, and enhance their capacity for affecting change within an educational setting.

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2015, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

Many security technologies have been developed, enhanced, and implemented by the western neoliberal world following the attacks of 9/11. This qualitative case study seeks to identify the purpose guiding these technologies through theoretical lenses shaped by Giorgio Agamben and Michel Foucault regarding power. This project's purpose is to argue that the neoliberal world develops and uses security technologies to serve bio-power and its accompanying liberal rationality of power, as Foucault theorized, rather than sovereign power, as Agamben theorized. Specifically, private military corporations and drones are evaluated to speculate about the form of power future security technologies, such as lethal autonomous robots (LARs), will serve. This project finds that if those who share a perspective of power similar to Agamben, which ignores discourses of truth, succeed and prevent the use of future security technologies, such as LARs, the neoliberal world may be unable to defend its way of life.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2014, Educational Leadership

This study investigates the representation of mental illness in Hollywood film. Using an approach grounded in Foucauldian theory and media literacy, this study will examine six Hollywood films covering a span of six decades, roughly from the end of World War II through the first decade of the twenty-first century. When writers, directors and producers of films portray characters with psychological disorders/disabilities, these representations may result in negative attitudes and skewed impressions among viewers/consumers. Further, inaccurate and demonizing portrayals in filmic texts serve only to create blueprints of stigmatization that could affect real-world persons with psychological disorders. With the agenda of exploring the hegemonic infrastructures of stigma and othering, this study will employ a theoretical framework of Foucauldian theory, along with critical media literacy perspectives to unpack the discursive power carried by popular visual media, as well as to analyze dominant cultural attitudes toward the normal/abnormal binary. In an attempt to emphasize the need for increased awareness of and sensitivity toward the lived experiences of persons with psychological disorders, this study will also highlight the value of curricularizing films featuring mental health/illness issues, and of recommending ways of striving for social justice for persons with these invisible disabilities.

BA, Oberlin College, 2001, English

The act of reading a text is twofold. There not only needs to be a text present, but also a reader who understands and interprets that text. One can think of the act of reading as the creation of a second, interpretive text. This second text documents the reader's interpretations of the physical text at hand. While the primary text remains relatively stable throughout time, the second, interpretive text changes with every reading. While these readings are circumscribed to individual readers, the culture and historical situation that the readers exist within also influence him/her.Michel Foucault proposed that one could look at texts as cultural production. If one were to examine enough texts from any point in time, one could draw out themes and ideas that would define the culture that produced the texts. This method of examining texts as cultural artifact has problems from a literary perspective. It makes the literary critic into a historian and reduces the study of literature to the study of historical artifact. This poses a threat to the entire idea of studying literature as an academic pursuit in its own right. The method employed in this essay is similar to Foucault's, but the focus is changed. This essay constructs a biography of The Blithedale Romance, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. More accurately, it constructs a biography of the readers of The Blithedale Romance. Instead of examining The Blithedale Romance as a representation of 1852, I will examine the different interpretations of The Blithedale Romance as representations of the historical periods in which they were produced. By examining the interpretations of the text and how they change throughout time, I hope to expose how historical circumstance and historically bound modes of thought influence the nature of a text itself, its popularity, and its relationship to the literary canon.