Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, Linguistics (Arts and Sciences)

Travel writing is one of the ways to communicate and discover other cultures. It essentially introduces the “Other'' and their culture through literary texts. My research is a stylistic analysis of Resala (922) by Ahmad Ibn Fadlan and Travels in Arabia (1889) by Bayard Taylor. The research examines how two main concepts, “othering” and “ideology,” are linguistically manifested in both texts. The research begins with closely reading the texts to identify major content themes: religion, death, sex, food, traditions, etc. Alongside this content analysis of said themes, instances of sense impressions: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste are recorded. Special attention is paid to the source of these sense impressions and the language used to describe them. The content themes and the sense impressions are analyzed for instantiations of othering and ideology. The use of pronouns, nouns, and adjectives marks othering. In the case of Ibn Fadlan, key instantiations of language used in the translated text are compared to the original Arabic text. The results show that Ibn Fadlan and Taylor use their linguistic choices to represent the “Other” negatively.

Committee: David Bell (Advisor); Jermey Webster (Committee Member); Chris Thompson (Committee Member) Subjects: Linguistics; Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2022, Art History (Fine Arts)

Physiognomy is the pseudoscientific study of the causal relationship between a person's exterior body and their inner character. Physiognomy was largely accepted in Victorian society and had a tremendous impact on both the arts and sciences of the period. One of the areas we can see evidence of this is in illustration, particularly in the way good and evil characters are designed. The fairy tale illustrator Arthur Rackham shows this strong contrast in the way that his characters are portrayed. His protagonists are serene and idealized, incorporating beauty standards of the Victorian Era. His villains are grotesque, often with animalistic features which make each creature seem like an evolutionary missing link. By incorporating principles of physiognomy, Arthur Rackham used a visual shorthand to identify which characters were good and evil in fairy tale illustrations.

Committee: Samuel Dodd (Committee Member); Jennie Klein (Committee Chair); Charles Buchanan (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Anatomy and Physiology; Art Criticism; Art Education; Art History; British and Irish Literature; Criminology; European History; Evolution and Development; Fine Arts; History; Science History; Womens Studies

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Arts and Sciences: Germanic Languages and Literature

During the time period in Germany history from 1989-1990 known as the Wende, activist writing, movies, and mass protests highlighted the exclusion of racial minorities from Germany's unity story. These activists decried the racial violence and scapegoating that followed the mass disenfranchisement of East Germans. However, in wake of the pogroms and mass killings from 1991-1993, Germany did not adopt policies that would create structural change and prevent future right-wing radicalism and violence. Instead, Germany passed reforms, falling in line with the discourse of the intellectual, that focused on stopping the racialized “outside” assault on white German identity rather than ensuring the safety of its People of Color.

Committee: Sunnie Rucker-chang (Committee Member); Evan Torner Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: European Studies

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

This qualitative case study provided evidence that engagement in a collaborative action research method led stakeholders in one suburban Michigan school district to change their activity of kindergarten readiness. Popular education and cultural-historical activity theory framed the study of the teacher, administrator, and parent participants' experiences as they worked collaboratively through a reduced expansive learning cycle during three intervention sessions. The researcher and participants explored the neoliberal-influenced contradictions inherent in their activity of kindergarten. The exploration of contradictions uncovered issues of power and control related to neoliberal educational reform policies and practices that contributed to the Othering of young children, their families, and early childhood educators. The participants' experiences led them to resolve the contradictions by creating a more just and sustainable model of kindergarten readiness.

Committee: Lynne Hamer (Committee Chair); Dale Snauwaert (Committee Member); Mark Templin (Committee Member); Michelle Howard-Brahaney (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Educational Sociology; Preschool Education; Social Research; Sociology

PHD, Kent State University, 2019, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

Imahori and Lanigan's (1989) intercultural relational model was used as the analytic framework for a better understanding of intercultural practice among international and American graduate students with their so-called culture other on a U.S. mid-sized college campus. Data were collected and analyzed in the two phases. In Phase I, the subjective views of intercultural practice on campus were collected from 12 research participants through semi-structured interviews. In Phase-II, Q methodology employed enabled 4 out of 12 participants to model their subjective views on the issues of intercultural interactions and relations on campus through operating three Q-sorts respectively. Each Q-sort was comprised of the 42 statements generated from the interview data in Phase I. These 42 statements were statistically grouped by factor analyses. By the end, there were three types of intercultural practice emerging: (a) relation-oriented; (b) knowledge-skill oriented; (c) seeking intercultural field for self-fulfillment. The research participants cut through the conventional conception of group identity bipolarized as “international” and “domestic” through unstable-othering for forging connection and developing relationships in an interchangeable interpersonal-intercultural manner. That promised them to move among different communities of practice and unnecessarily being the full membership of these communities. The current study made the theoretical contributions in the following perspectives: (a) intercultural adaptation as a one-way relation; (b) “small culture” among students defining their communities of intercultural practice. By the end, the constructive suggestions were put forward for HE institutions designing intercultural educational program for promoting intercultural interactions among students.

Committee: VILMA SEEBERG (Advisor); STEVEN BROWN (Committee Member); AMY DAMROW (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, American Culture Studies

This dissertation examines the experiences of the final Cold War generation. I define this cohort as a subset of Generation X born between 1965 and 1971. The primary focus of this dissertation is to study the ways this cohort interacted with the three messages found embedded within the Cold War us vs. them binary. These messages included an emphasis on American exceptionalism, a manufactured and heightened fear of World War III, as well as the othering of the Soviet Union and its people. I begin the dissertation in the 1970s, - during the period of detente- where I examine the cohort's experiences in elementary school. There they learned who was important within the American mythos and the rituals associated with being an American. This is followed by an examination of 1976's bicentennial celebration, which focuses on not only the planning for the celebration but also specific events designed to fulfill the two prime directives of the celebration. As the 1980s came around not only did the Cold War change but also the cohort entered high school. Within this stage of this cohorts education, where I focus on the textbooks used by the cohort and the ways these textbooks reinforced notions of patriotism and being an American citizen. The dissertation ends with a textual analysis of the various popular television, film and music that reinforce the three messages found within the us vs. them binary, and the ways these texts served to continue this cohort's socialization.

Committee: Andrew Schocket Ph.D. (Advisor); Karen Guzzo Ph.D. (Other); Benjamin Greene Ph.D. (Committee Member); Rebecca Mancuso Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; History; Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2016, Geography (Arts and Sciences)

The purpose of this research is to explore the maternal health experiences of immigrant women in southeast Ohio, as well as the differences among those experiences. Common narratives often paint immigrant women as having homogenous maternal healthcare needs and outcomes, and they are viewed as vulnerable and unable to make their own healthcare decisions. Current research has focused on the negative maternal health experiences of immigrants in urban spaces and has, therefore, failed to include populations from rural environments. Athens, Ohio, the primary area where the maternal experiences in this research took place, is a rural environment that has limited maternal healthcare facilities. It does, however, have numerous community resources and is closely connected to Ohio University, which makes it a unique research location to examine immigrant experiences. Consequently, this thesis will examine the significance of spatial context coupled with the frameworks of intersectionality, Othering', and authoritative knowledge to uncover the factors that contribute to the positive maternal healthcare experiences of immigrant women. Uncovered from semi-structured interviews were three factors participants used to describe their positive experiences. These are interactions with healthcare providers, community resources and support structures, and differences in maternal healthcare from their home countries. I conclude that although the rural spaces of Southeast Ohio provide limited maternal healthcare services, immigrant women have access to numerous community resources and connections to the international student population at Ohio University. This connection contributes to the agency of immigrant women that allows them to defy common narratives in which immigrant women are often viewed under racialized assumptions.

Committee: Edna Wangui (Advisor); Risa Whitson (Committee Chair); Thomas Smucker (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2015, American Culture Studies

This dissertation employs a mixed-method approach to explore the experiences and perceptions of domestic and sexual violence victim advocates. Advocates are trained professionals who provide support, information, and resources to victims who have experienced gendered violence. Little research examines domestic and sexual violence victim advocates despite the thousands who work across the United States. The existing literature research primarily uses quantitative methods to examine the negative emotional impact of employment. Few, if any, studies ask questions about how external factors and experiences of every day life affect advocates, on or off the job. As a result, this research investigates what it means to be an advocate in a socio-relational context by exploring advocates' experiences of occupational identity when interacting with strangers or new acquaintances. Occupational identity is a primary point of interaction within the social world, and advocacy is a complex, politically, and culturally situated occupation within the United States. Advocates are subject to a host of reactions when they introduce their jobs to strangers or new acquaintances—many of these experiences communicate stigma based on occupational choice rather than personal identity. Thus, this dissertation examines the presence and effects of occupational stigma on advocates, which is most clearly seen through the deployment of positive and negative stereotype and the relational process of Othering. Using data gathered from 21 in-depth interviews with advocates as well as a survey with 221 respondents, this study uses cultural studies, feminist methodology, and sociological theory to demonstrate that occupational stigma experienced through short introductory interactions has an effect on advocates' sense of self, sense of work, and willingness to share their occupational identity. Advocates and advocacy organizations have few resources to consider and prepare their employees (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sandra Faulkner Dr. (Advisor); Madeline Duntley Dr. (Other); Jorge Chavez Dr. (Committee Member); Lisa Hanasono Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Gender Studies; Sociology; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2014, History

This dissertation investigates the worldview of German frontline soldiers during the Eastern Front conflict of the Second World War. It argues that Nazi era propaganda's creation of a racial and ideological “Other” in the Soviet Union had a significant impact on the attitude of the military in the East. These ideological imaginations of the enemy were often transformed by the realities at the front through the experiences of common enlisted men. While the Nazis constructed a racially and politically charged image of the enemy to justify a war of conquest, the German soldiers fighting in the East developed their own views of an expanding imperial landscape. An identity transformation amongst German combatants took place during the Eastern Front campaign for many reasons, including the effects of Nazi dogma, a foreign environment and local populace, the strains of combat, changing war circumstances, and genocidal policies. This project utilizes the wartime writings of Hitler's ordinary men to provide a partial reconstruction of their mentality, revealing their beliefs, fears, and perceptions of the Soviet enemy.

Committee: Larry Wilcox (Committee Chair); Beth Griech-Polelle (Committee Co-Chair); Roberto Padilla (Committee Member); Robert McCollough (Committee Member) Subjects: European Studies; History; Holocaust Studies; Military History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, Communication

Contact theory has been successfully used to predict when inter-group contact will reduce prejudice among group members. The theory, though, usually does not focus on the perspective of the person experiencing the contact and the communicative practices people engage in when they come into contact with a person of another culture. The present study uses Sense-Making Methodology to explore how people in an intercultural contact situation encounter and deal with stereotypes about people from other cultures. It focuses on a situation where a person who holds a stereotype about a cultural other overcomes this stereotype through interacting with them. Specifically, the study examined two questions. First, how do people make sense of or interpret communicative acts in an intercultural contact situation that leads them to review a prior stereotype? Second, what role does communication play in helping people overcome a stereotype? Ten individuals who identified themselves as voluntary seekers of intercultural contact were interviewed using the Sense-Making Methodology. Participants also completed an open-ended questionnaire. Interviews were analyzed using grounded theory techniques. The findings indicated that participants engaged in a sequence of interpretive activities that helped them overcome the stereotype. First, participants interpreted an interactional trigger as meaningful, which then set them on a series of interpretive activities. Second, participants became aware of an intense emotional reaction as well as an inconsistency in the way they were thinking about the other person. Third, participants made communicative and relational moves to refocus their attention on the other person. Communicative moves included taking the other's perspective and showing empathy whereas relational moves included seeing similarities in the other, appreciating their differences and seeing the other as an equal. Fourth, participants recalibrated their view of the other person based o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susan Kline PhD (Advisor); Felicia Ross PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Multicultural Education

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2011, Geography

Within society, a variety of attitudes concerning urbanized spaces exists. Some people adore cities while others detest them. More specifically, there is often a fear of those that dwell in the city. These perceptions are based on difference of class, race, sexuality, or deviance from the constructed social norm. The portrayal of cities in film, both negatively and positively, is a well-established trend. This thesis offers insight into perceptions of the city, its spaces and culture, by bringing together processes of othering, abjection, socio-spatial exclusion, and territoriality to try to explain fear and apprehension of urban space. Cinematic film is a valuable source of geographic knowledge, and John Waters' work speaks to urban spaces and inhabitants deemed undesirable by the hegemonic groups in society. This thesis elucidates his production of the city; his films depict his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland as a refuge of delinquents, miscreants, and perverts.

Committee: Dr. Marcia England (Advisor); Dr. Bruce D'Arcus (Committee Member); Dr. Roxanne Ornelas (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2010, Leadership and Change

This study explored eighteen women's views and experiences in the arena of Arab/American relations, post-9/11. The study engaged three groups of women: Arab women in Qatar, Arab American women in the U.S., and non-Arab women in the U.S. Qualitative narrative inquiry methodology was used complemented by an innovative use of freewriting to help prepare participants for interviews. Clarke's (2005a) situational analysis was used to open up and analyze the data. Findings surfaced around the interconnected themes of identity, racism, discrimination and Othering, the role of the media, and how these ultimately influence a collective sense of and experience of human security. The study adds to the knowledge on East/West understanding and the literature concerning the role of political narratives in meaning-making during times of turmoil. This work explored women's sense of belonging in the political world and women's (political) voices during the post-9/11 period and helps to determine the readiness for dialogue that exists on Arab/American relations. The electronic version of this dissertation is at OhioLink ETD Center, www.ohiolink.edu/etd.

Committee: Philomena Essed PhD (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre PhD (Committee Member); Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Member); Nadine Naber PhD (Other) Subjects: Gender; International Relations; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology; Social Research; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2009, History

This paper examines constructions of gender pertinent to the British analysis of Russia, as emerges through major periodicals across the late nineteenth century. It begins by laying out the methodology and core thematic questions to be undertaken, then proceeds in summary of some of the core insights of recent postcolonial historiography. It also suggests ways that certain tropes on race, gender and the imperial culture can apply beyond the traditional parametersof imperial metropole or colonial periphery. My work then proceeds to analysis of the British strategic situation in this era, focusing on ways in which long-term tension with rival imperial powers was crucial to the British perspective and behavior on their own empire. It makes the case that in the late nineteenth century British men perceived Russia as being of particular significance and a major strategic menace. However, my paper also describes ways in which this situation was peripheral and largely fading by the close of the century. In a final appraisal of the secondary historiography, this work examines major structures of the Victorian periodicals, their significance at their time, their importance in historical analysis, and the ways these connected to British gender and the British empire. Turning to primary sources in the form of diverse authors and periodicals, I look for indications of gender signifiers employed by British authors to frame specific perceptions and evaluations of Russian society. My work proceeds first through examination of a group of dissimilar articles sharing a general hostile stance towards Russia, then a collection that argues for Russia as a more friendly and beneficial polity. Subsequently I look at a gender dynamic in several ostensibly neutral articles, those that avoid a direct evaluative stance on Russia either way. Bringing the larger analysis and tropes together, I look at connections and implications of these sources. Finally, by way of conclusion I bring the threa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Martin Wainwright PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Gender