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

This dissertation examines how and why worldwide attitudes toward homosexuality and national policies that affect the lives of gay men and women have changed over time. I use three main theories to frame my analysis of attitudes and laws. The first – world society theory – describes the globalizing influence of an elite “global culture.” Support for gay rights has, in recent years, become institutionalized within this global culture. Second, multiple modernities theory points to the effect of region-specific cultural programs. Third, the postmaterialist thesis casts the experience of existential security or insecurity as a main influence on societal norms. Results indicate that both global and region-specific cultures have driven change over time in worldwide attitudes toward homosexuality. I use data from the integrated World Values Survey/European Values Survey (1981-2012) and a longitudinal multilevel design to investigate how societal attitudes toward homosexuality have changed over time – and to test the relative power of world society theory, multiple modernities theory, and the postmaterialist thesis to explain worldwide attitudinal change. In line with world society theory, the results show that there has been a broad global upswing in the acceptance of homosexuality, driven in large part by the diffusion of favorable global cultural messages. The results provide perhaps the strongest evidence yet that global culture has shaped collective attitudes globally. High levels of religiosity may, however, act to moderate the positive influence of exposure to global culture. And, even as attitudes toward homosexuality in most societies have become more accepting, the pace of change has been uneven. My analysis finds a widening attitudinal gap between countries, and, consistent with multiple modernities theory, suggests this is due in part to the role of anti-gay region-specific cultural programs in the Muslim World, sub-Saharan Africa, and the for (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Political Science

My research questions are: Do non-governmental organizations (NGOs) impact the Bretton Woods Institutions, and why or why not? I advance four hypotheses to explain change at the BWI which accord with NGO preferences: H1) Response to Member States (Null), H2) Organizational Defense, H3) Mission Efficiency, H4) Institutional Redefinition. These hypotheses are based in the three main paradigms of international relations theory: H1 from neorealism; H2 and 3 from neoliberal institutionalism; H4 from social constructivism. I use organizational theories to fill out the substance of H2-4. Systems theories of organization suggest that organizations adapt to pernicious environmental impacts; I term this ‘organizational defense.' Structural-functional organizational theories suggest organizations adapt for the rational purpose of more efficient mission completion. Finally, interpretive and sociological theories of organization suggest that organizations, like any social institution, may learn from environmental pressures and so redefine their self-understanding. In the case the null is incorrect, I postulate a battery of indicators of NGO impact to correspond to the counter-hypotheses. Change on these indicators suggests support for the parallel hypotheses. These indicators begin with the adaptive behavior of simple organizational defense and rise to the deep organizational learning of institutional redefinition: I1) Organizational Change (H2), I2) Program Consultation (H2), I3) Program Impact (H3), I4) Evaluation (H3), I5) Legitimacy (H4), I6) Policy Change (H4). The method is a structured, focused comparative study across this spectrum of indicators of NGO impact. Each institution is mapped against the scale of indicators, with evidence, or the lack, for each indicator presented individually. The means of data collection were 1) a survey, 2) interviews, 3) documentary analysis, and 4) participant observation. I found that the Bank has moved further down the list of indicator (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2008, Communication Studies

This critical research seeks to better understand the hegemonic process of globalization. Due to power differences, globalization results in differential advantage and disadvantage for the involved cultures. The dialectical criticism of globalization aims to monitor social injustice and advance concepts on media homogenization, uneven information flow, and cultural imperialism. This interdisciplinary study explores the practices of globalization that are less culturally biased. Particularly, it makes a first attempt to conceptualize a new globalization form, interlocalization. Premised upon a competitive and free market system, the study explores the ways interlocalization might offer a more equitable relationship for the players of different cultures. Some interlocalization practices are also elaborated through two critical case studies. While studying forms of commercial minority media, the first critical case study examines the implications of interlocalization in the media expansion of a Catalan communication firm, Grupo Planeta. Based on the Roma projects of the Open Society Institute in Europe, the second critical case study presents research on the role of interlocalization in social change. Analyzing cross-cultural participatory communication, this second study explores the use of interlocalization as tool in the creation of global practices for sustainable development. The overarching goal for this research is the advancement of equity and justice in media and development communication practices globally.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2005, American Culture Studies/History

Few scholars have attempted to document the nature of coalition building within the anti-globalization movement, and this study is an attempt to analyze part of this complex and important social movement. This study is a synopsis of Northwest Ohio's anti-globalization movement and concentrates on the nature of alliances across movements and the numerous dilemmas they encounter. The major assumption of this project is that neoliberalism dominates the globalization process through the policies and practices of various governance institutions and that the anti-globalization movement arose as a counter-movement in response to neoliberal changes. Based on thirteen interviews conducted within Northwest Ohio's activist community, this study is a qualitative research project that explores the motivations of labor, peace, farm worker, environmental, and anarchist activists, their concerns about the nature of globalization, and their experiences with cross-movement alliance building. The objective of this study is, first, to provide some historical context on globalization, political and economic thought, coalition building, anti-globalization's antecedent movements and the broader national and international movement; second, to explain how and why various social movements in Northwest Ohio became part of the anti-globalization movement and identify the problematic issues of cross-movement alliances. The study begins with a review of literature on coalitional movements, anti-globalization activism, and the antecedent movements of Northwest Ohio's anti-globalization movement. I also provide a history of contending liberalisms and the process of globalization. Finally, interviews with Northwest Ohio activists are analyzed to examine personal recollections of the emergence of concerns about the nature of globalization, anti-globalization activism, and experiences with coalition building across movements. The findings of this study center around the dilemmas of coalition building (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Popular Culture

Folklore may be transmitted and diffused through many forms of media, adding to pre-established meanings and interpretations. This may be accomplished through the reinterpretation of mythological or legendary figures or stories in popular media, such as video games, novels, or cinema. Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) such as Dungeons & Dragons are often built on a foundation of mythology and folklore, which players use as inspiration to craft their own shared stories and experiences, allowing for endless reinterpretations and transmission of those interpretations. Through forms of subtle performative acts, players may experience different resistances to the narratives of dominant society. These resistances present themselves in different ways but may come as an active choice by the players or because of underlying shifts in framework or perspective. Medusa has become a symbol of feminine rage and resistance against Patriarchal institutions, which has been reflected in the developing resources of TTRPG material. This allows players to engage with that resistance on personal scales through performance in a safe, imaginative space. The types and styles of games that players engage with are varied, but many have correlations with other forms of media. These cross-media genres bring their own motifs and underlying frameworks into the TTRPG medium. Inspired by Dark Souls, the Soulslike subgenre provides a series of rules heavily, and subtly, influenced by European Christian motifs reinterpreted through a Japanese framework in a form of hybridization. The genre conventions that have been translated into TTRPG mechanics allow players to explore these hybridizations which themselves act as a resistance against globalization in a type of cross-pollination of cultural elements. Recent additions to the TTRPG library are also showing a shift in the outlook on accessibility and respectability of the player-base. Older TTRPGs often succumb to Orientalist and insensitive approa (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, American Culture Studies

The study focuses on the shifting socioeconomic and cultural practices of street vending in Solo City, Indonesia, in response to structuring the global economy and culture. The dissertation seeks to answer the research questions: (1) How did street vending socioeconomic and cultural practices shift in Solo City from the 1980s to the early 2020s? (2) How has the changing cultural landscape of Solo City changed from the 1980s to the early 2020s concerning street vending? (3) How does American global cultural influence affect Solo City's spatiotemporal cultural landscape from the 1980s to the early 2020s? (4) How does Solo City negotiate with American global cultural influence in everyday-life cultural street vending practices from the 1980s to the early 2020s? I employ Burawoy's extended case method in this qualitative transnational American studies project by immersing myself into the field to delve within the context of the study and collect primary data from fieldwork—field observation and interviews—and personal narratives. The secondary data are artifacts, such as historical archives, statistical data, regulations, spatial mapping, news, social media posts, and so on, concerning street vending in Solo over time. I view the diffusion process of the global norm as friction (Tsing, 2005) between aspirations within global connections. Therefore, the study critically examines stories of the continuous reproduction of habitus (Bourdieu, 2013) as represented by shifting practices of sociocultural and political-economic activities committed by stakeholders and actors in street vending in Solo. The findings demonstrate that street vending socioeconomic and cultural practices in Solo City persist despite the shifting values affected by the modern capitalist economy. Street vendors constantly negotiate with local, national, and global structuring in such spatiotemporal politics, whether through formalization or strategizing the spatiotemporal gaps of left-over space and tem (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2024, Art History (Fine Arts)

ABURAM,ERIC M.A., May2024, Art History Comparative Study of Ato Delaquis and Ablade Glover: Ghanaian Contemporary Artists in the Era of Globalization Director of Thesis: Andrea Frohne This study compares the education and artwork of Ato Delaquis and Ablade Glover using methodologies of iconographic analysis, formalism and globalization. The two artists received formal education and training from universities in Europe and America. Although in different periods, both artists locally received formal education in Ghana at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). It is evident from the educational background of Delaquis and Glover that both artists have enormous exposure through education, which as explained, has influenced their color palettes and artistic styles. However, the two artists differ in terms of the focus of their paintings and the messages drawn from the works. The primary artistic focus of Delaquis were on horsemen and landscapes, which were meant to primarily discusses and compare the history, culture and economic characteristics of Africans in the period before colonialism, during colonialism, as well as the post-colonial era. On the other hand, the paintings of Glover, which focused on vibrant scenes of Ghanaian life were largely in the form of lorry parks, urban landscapes, shanty towns, and crowded markets. His realistic artworks focused on the immediate environmental challenges of Ghanaians, and the courage of African women in the marketplaces.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2023, Geography

The changing urban morphology, particularly in African cities, is due to the changing regimes of accumulation from colonialism to globalization. Ridge in Accra, Ghana, has witnessed a change in its morphology and the conversion of most colonial bungalows into high-end land uses. The thesis examined the underlying processes of urban morphological change at Ridge by contextualizing ground evidence with frameworks of frontier urbanization, speculative urbanism, gentrification, and urban renewal. The thesis used High-resolution aerial photograph, Google Earth imagery, and field inventory to map the morphological changes. Interviews were conducted to examine the spatial processes underlying the transformation of Ridge. I also employed archival records, news articles, a public land sale document, and the Strategic Development Plan for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area to contextualize field findings. The findings show a remarkable change in the morphology of Ridge. Also, the frameworks of frontier urbanization, speculative urbanism, gentrification, and urban renewal did not fully explain the changes due to a lack of data. However, local and global forces have interacted to provide a conducive environment for private capital to enable the production of Ridge. I provide three related recommendations for further research in the urbanization of African cities.

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2023, Geography

Despite high poverty levels, and limited manufacturing and production activities, the morphology of the Sub-Saharan African cities is modernizing through the development of infrastructure including interchanges. The theoretical interpretations of the modernization of African cities have been couched within the frameworks of frontier urbanization and speculative urbanism. Using Accra-Tema City-Region (ATCR), Ghana as a case study, the primary purpose of the thesis is to map the geography of interchanges, examine the processes or reasons for the production of interchanges, and what they might mean for the urban development process of ATCR. I used Google Earth Satellite Imagery and Open Street Map (2000-2022) to locate the interchanges. I also employed archival research sources to obtain data on the sources of capital and builders for the interchanges. Open-ended interviews were conducted with the Department of Urban Roads and residents to ascertain the reasons for the development of interchanges and the implications for urban development. The findings show that ATCR has witnessed a concentration of 25 simple to tier-four complex interchanges under globalization. The production of interchanges has occurred because local forces have provided enabling circumstances for foreign direct investment. I provide three recommendations for the urban development process of ATCR.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Music

This dissertation examines K-pop as a genre, not as a fixed concept bound to national identity (“Korean Pop”), but as a floating signifier that operates in a global sphere, in which the “K” in K-pop takes on multiple meanings. Though K-pop has been studied and understood in the conventional sense, as an ethnic national musical genre and cultural community (Korean popular music performed by dance idol Korean musicians), the live and mediated reality of contemporary K-pop reveals that this convention is not enough to explain K-pop today. K-pop resounds beyond Koreanness. For example, it is now quite normal to have non-Korean musicians in K-pop groups. Indeed, K-pop groups consisting entirely of non-Korean musicians have been present on the scene since the 2010s. K-pop groups also often sing in non-Korean languages. In addition, the K-pop style, which has been musically diverse from the beginning, continues to incorporate other musical forms, including popular and folk (“traditional”) musics from around the world. As such, K-pop continues to be defined by an ever-shifting social diversity and stylistic complexity. This research aims to explore how K-pop has become a transnational phenomenon, how the meaning of K is (re)interpreted differently by individuals and social groups in a new context, and what social, cultural, political, and musical elements constitute K-pop today. Through close textual analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and archival study, this project sheds new light on the neglected diversity and apparent transnational impact of contemporary K-pop, among artists and fans, in government policy, and through the music itself.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Educational Studies

The internationalization efforts of the United States (U.S.) institutions have resulted in large-scale international branch campuses and overseas representative offices. In this case study, the university's global physical presence will be referred to from hereon as a Gateway Office. This qualitative study investigates a Shanghai Gateway Office (SGO) affiliated with a large U.S. university. The office has fostered a robust global community by cultivating relationships between the home institution and the network abroad. This study employs a conceptual framework comprised of three perspectives to investigate an economically, politically, and culturally significant bi-national organization known as the SGO in the higher education landscape. This study was guided by three sets of research questions in an exploration of how the SGO operates as a bi-national organization affiliated with a U.S. university: (a) how does it negotiate resources within and between the two nations? (b) how does it establish legitimacy within and between the two nations? (c) how does it navigate cultures within and between the two nations? Case study, based on constructivist paradigm, served as the primary methodology. Artifact analysis of office displays, document analysis of the annual report, audit reports, newsletters, and articles about SGO history and leadership; and eight semi-structured interviews with key participants who participated and engaged with the SGO over the past five years, comprise the methods of data collection and analysis. In conjunction with study of artifacts and documents, the data were processed using a narrative inquiry-led restorying approach. To this methodological blueprint, I have added a culturally significant insider perspective by utilizing Chinese concepts such as Guanxi and Mianzi. The case reports and extended discussions provided a rich and nuanced description of the SGO from the bi-national perspective and revealed that, (a) the SGO survives by re (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2022, Film Studies (Fine Arts)

The thesis considers the transnationalism of cinema's last thirty years and its disruption of the previous ways for conceiving of isolated national cinemas. The work of filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Tsai Ming-liang are examined for their dealings with national identity, both of whom resist the label of national filmmaker and instead embrace the international cultural exchanges that reflect the 21st century's globalization. I argue that by confronting cinema's past and its relationship to nation, these filmmakers posit a cinematic identity unbounded by borders. Specifically, I analyze Assayas's work as an instrument to capture the crisis of both national cinema and national identity, while for Tsai a cinematic lineage dating back to mid-century art cinema supplants identity for the transnational filmmaker.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2021, Anthropology

The processes of globalization — characterized by global flows of people, technologies, capital, images, and information that shape people's imagined worlds — continue to spur the growth of megacities and the concomitant health dilemmas therein. As globalization shapes both the practice and the idea of medicine and healthscapes, this transformation is translated into shifting desires, expectations, and identities for both physicians and patients in the clinical encounter — the focal points of this study. This dissertation project utilizes an ethnographic design (semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and archival research) over a 19-month period in Mumbai, India to examine the following question: How does the clinical encounter unfold in relation to the doctor-patient interaction to construct expectations? This study takes the following two premises: 1) A thick ethnographic description of the clinical encounter is fundamentally linked to the bi-directional shaping of local, global and micro, macro ideologies. 2) Biomedicine (its practitioners, its seekers, its associated clinical encounters, and its institutions) is a prominent focal point on which the concepts of identity and globalization pivot in Indian society. Therefore, this study of the doctor-patient interaction is framed to serve as a microscopic observation of macroscopic globalization forces. I interviewed physicians and patients and observed their clinical interactions at 3 Obstetrics/Gynecology clinical sites in Mumbai: a private clinic, a semi-private hospital, and a municipal hospital. Based on data collected from 603 participants, the most pertinent aspects of identity in the micro-level clinical encounter in Mumbai involve the following: age, gender, sex, social status, educational level, language, profession, ethnicity, and lifeworlds. Additionally, I provide data on how the emerging themes of physician synergy, ritual, medical record, and traditional remedies illustrate salient aspe (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, American Culture Studies

This dissertation examines how the U.S. visa regime interacted with various aspects of identity such as race, class, gender, and nationality to influence the experiences of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas in the U.S. Through in-depth interviews with twenty Vietnamese women coming to the U.S. as spouses of temporary skilled migrants, my study reveals the racial, class, and gender discrimination against post-1990 Vietnamese temporary skilled migrants and their spouses in both U.S. immigration laws and daily practices. In the dissertation, I clarify how the U.S. gendered and racialized visa regime and the permeation of colonialist attitude in American society relegated many Vietnamese accompanying women to the domestic sphere. I also discuss the negative impacts of Vietnamese accompanying women's housewifization on their psyches, familial relationships, and social integration. Although my study emphasizes the personal agency of Vietnamese accompanying spouses who found different ways to navigate changes in their gender roles, to solve their financial problems, and to create social bonds in the U.S., my study calls for a comprehensive reform in immigration policy toward temporary skilled migrants from the Global South and their accompanying spouses who are currently "wanted but not welcome" immigrants in the U.S. My study makes valuable contributions to various fields of critical studies such as women's and gender studies, critical race studies, and postcolonial studies.

MA, Kent State University, 2020, College of Fine and Professional Arts / School of Music

This thesis explores the role and function of the Bandung Philharmonic as a unique impression in the symphony orchestra world and how its ventures into multicultural education forms bridges from the local to the global community. It further demonstrates the unique negotiations that the Bandung Philharmonic has to make in order to create an Indonesian identity through the utilization of the medium, and I argue that the orchestra's commitment to working with local composers, building a unique symphonic orchestra repertoire, and prioritizing the formation of a distinctively Indonesian orchestra, rejects the concept of orientalism and could be considered a marker of Indonesian identity. I begin by documenting the establishment of the orchestra in the modern era to understand how this newly formed orchestra situates itself in Indonesia while having full agency over its medium without a colonialist influence. I then examine its connections with the local community and show how the orchestra is dedicated to building a lasting legacy in Indonesian symphony orchestra music. Lastly, I reflect on the Bandung Philharmonic's endeavors as a professional symphonic orchestra deeply engaged in the community while revealing the option where an orchestra, of and by the community, can be successful by displaying the unique characteristics of its people.

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2020, Educational Administration (Education)

Institutions of higher learning in the United States have been admitting students from different countries since the 18th century. These universities have arguably had difficulty with the challenge of integrating such students into the life blood of the institutions due to their institutional overriding purpose of developing and sharing knowledge, oftentimes of a highly specialized nature. Given the constraints of time, resources and purpose, universities have struggled to capture the richness of their cultural diversity due to the highly peripheral nature of most cross-cultural engagements. The reality has been that what cross-cultural learning has occurred is largely unidirectional and such students have largely been made to feel that it is their responsibility to conform to local administrator, faculty, staff, and student expectations. Efforts have largely been aimed at recruitment and settlement assistance for such international students. Much of the existing scholarship on internationalization in the context of higher education places the emphasis on one dominant culture, thereby implicitly marginalizing the international student voices. Although careful planning and implementation of internationalization could contribute greatly to curriculum that embodies multi-cultural perspectives, the lack of the international student perspective in the planning and implementation of internationalization is problematic. It ignores the value that they could contribute as stakeholders in such institutions of higher education. This study explored the notion of glocalization, an enriching term suggesting the blending of mutual local perspectives in a global context when it comes to exploring the experiences and perspectives of international graduate students on internationalization planning and implementation in an effort to foster university stakeholders' glocal competence, a cosmos of global proportions. Twenty-nine students from five global regions patiently sat for i (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, Geography

The changing urban morphology around the globe, especially in Africa, is a result of regimes of capital accumulation from capitalist societies. African cities are then regarded as the "new frontier" for global real estate developments in the form of glass towers. Airport City, Accra (ACA), Ghana, has witnessed similar real estate developments. By using ACA as a case study, the purpose of the thesis is to examine how urban space is changing, the processes influencing the change, and what it might mean for development purposes in urban Ghana. The study used Google Earth images (2002-2018) to map the changing landscape. Open-ended interviews were conducted with real estate developers in ACA, Ghana Airport Company Limited, Chiefs, and GaDangme Council to examine processes influencing the transformation, and implication for urban development. The findings show a significant growth and change in ACA morphology. The changing morphology of ACA is because local frameworks provided an enabling environment for global foreign direct investments. However, it is primarily local private real estate developers rather than a global surplus that is changing the ACA pattern. The findings and documented evidence show that the La and Osu are disenfranchised, hemmed in social, economic, and environmental conditions. The thesis recommends four ways forward.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2020, Higher Education

Situated within the context of globalization, the purpose of this historical policy analysis study was to identify and describe the ways in which multiple actors shaped national higher education internationalization policy within the U.S., and to capture the emerging direction in higher education internationalization policy at the national level between 2000 and 2019. The guiding research question was as follows: How has national higher education internationalization policy been shaped, and how has the policy evolved in novel ways since 2000? Data were collected and interpreted using horizontal and vertical historical analysis. The findings demonstrated that the public, voluntary, and private sectors simultaneously shaped higher education internationalization policy at the national level. These sectors shaped policy by complementing each other's efforts, by supplementing each other's efforts, or by merely opposing each other's efforts. Novel policy efforts emerged in reaction to events and not in preemption of events, and were evident in four major areas: (a) international education at home (language and personnel training), (b) international student recruitment, (c) education abroad, and (d) international institutional partnerships. Based on the influential factors of (a) globalization, (b) technology, (c) demographics, (d) global trade, and (e) geopolitics, multiple rationales guided policy trajectory at the national level and rationales for policy efforts shifted under each presidential period. In 2000, President Clinton positioned international education within the context of economic globalization. Following the September 11, 2001, attacks and the ensuing wars in the Middle East, national security became a dominant political rationale during all three presidential periods, and the focus of policy efforts was outbound. In 2009, under President Obama, socio-cultural rationales fashioned novel policy efforts in support of the economy. Finally, in 2017, President T (open full item for complete abstract)

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

In recent years, scholars have commenced to reevaluate the advent and origins of 20th-century artistic movements, with the repositioning of experimental artistic networks like Fluxus as a decentralized, transnational network of artists, a component as integral to Fluxus' identity as its interdisciplinarity. Despite such claims, many art historical and musicological inquiries remain focused upon the activities of Fluxus artists within historically conceived artistic “centers” in the United States and Western Europe, as opposed to a more holistic investigation of Fluxus' “transnational” aspect. Informed by archival and ethnographic research, and engaged with art historians, musicologists, and cultural anthropologists, this dissertation interrogates these dominant narratives through three interrelated, yet distinct case studies involving Icelandic and non-Icelandic artists: Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman's scandalous performance at Reykjavik's Theatre Lindarbær, the emergence of the Icelandic collective SUM, and Magnus Palsson's role in experimental arts pedagogy. Such an investigation is not only concerned with examining Iceland's (and the Nordic region more broadly) historical and socio-political position within this transnational milieu, but also the individuals who cultivated, embodied, and lived these cross-cultural exchanges, who have been relegated to the periphery of contemporary historiography.