MA, Kent State University, 2015, College of the Arts / School of Art

This research focuses on the motivation of adolescent students, including several with special needs, in an art classroom to create artworks through the use of digital and Visual Culture experiences. Action research was conducted in two different classroom settings over several months in a public school. Each class period was recorded with audio and video to analyze the students' responses to Visual Culture stimuli with structured discussion questions and relevant studio production. To blend this study with Narrative inquiry, other field texts collected as data included research notes, written and audio-recorded critical reflections on teaching, and photographs of students' artworks. Students involved in the study were part of inclusion classrooms including students with special needs, and students who are identified as gifted. All the students went through a unit of lessons that centered on artworks created as responses to Visual Culture experiences from the student's lives. Interpretations of student art production indicated that all of them were similarly motivated, though students had different responses to Visual Culture experiences that ranged from strong likes and dislikes of celebrity images and enjoyment of humorous personified animal images. Capitalizing on their fascinations with popular images such toys, video games, and animals, Visual Culture can serve as a bridge between students of varying cognitive and academic backgrounds, allowing them to create art as a community rather than as individuals. Research findings concurred with a pilot study which also found that students both collect Visual Culture as a way to construct their identity, and that Visual Culture can be a language through which students can communicate. Though in this study the Visual Culture studied was carefully curated to benefit the lessons taught, the students showed their interests in many other varied experiences that surfaced during the implementation of this pedagogy. One of the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Koon-Hwee Kan PhD (Advisor); Linda Hoeptner-Poling PhD (Committee Member); Juliann Dorff MAT (Committee Member); Jeanne Ruscoe-Smith PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, Art Education

Gender and technology scholarship demonstrates a longstanding, persistence gender gap reflecting the inequity between the large numbers of men and small numbers of women in technology educational courses and careers. What instructional and institutional changes can address and counteract the current gender inequity status quo? This dissertation presents a two-year critical case study of Digital Animation: A Technology Mentoring Program for Young Women, a pedagogical intervention that intends to increase the likelihood of young women participants pursuing future educational, personal, and professional technology opportunities. The program, situated at The Ohio State University's Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design, provides a group of 15 to 18 young women with an intensive two-week animation experience using Maya 3D animation software to produce short films on local environmental issues. The major program hypothesis is that women may be more likely to learn technology as embedded within an arts-centered curriculum, where arts function as the primary medium for learning and communication, as opposed to traditional computer technology instruction. Learning becomes co-constructed, collaborative, interdisciplinary, creative, and personal; learners become active. The aim is to provide participants with personal instructional support, a peer network, mentors, examples of successful women in technology, personal success, and exposure to a wide range of technology possibilities. I use gender and technology scholarship in conjunction with multiple critical theoretical perspectives, including feminist poststructuralist pedagogy and visual culture art education, to create a multi-faceted, complex framework for analyzing Digital Animation, its efforts, and its outcomes. This case study presents data highlighting ways a visual culture art education orientation can also utilize other critical theoretical perspectives, such as feminist poststructuralist pedagogy, to a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Candace Stout PhD (Committee Chair); Maria Palazzi MFA (Committee Member); Sydney Walker PhD (Committee Member); Jennifer Eisenhauer PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Computer Science; Education; Gender; Technology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2007, Art Education (Fine Arts)

The research question for this case study was based on how students in a beginning education class would respond to studying visual culture. In this study, participants were shown a film titled "Ethnic Notions." This film discussed racial visual culture and how it affected and still affects African Americans. The participants in this study answered questionnaires and participated in a critical discussion about visual culture and racist images. Many of the participants had a strong emotional response to the film. The participants stated that they understood the racist imagery better, as well as visual culture. Included in this study are recommendations for teaching topics using visual culture and how it could be incorporated into many educational topics.

Committee: James Schwieger (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, English

"Playing with Comics: Material Culture in the Hands of 20th-Century American Readers" examines how 20th-century newspaper comic strips and comic books encouraged readers to play with their contents and, subsequently, how readers reproduced, altered, and transformed comics content through their play practices. I argue play has an essential and productive role in our experience reading comics, and yet the visual and narrative tools provided by 20th-century comics were used in personalized ways shaped by individual contexts. Drawing from original archival research, this project seeks to answer two sets of questions: (1) How did comics create opportunities for play, and how did they imagine readers would respond to their invitations? (2) How did readers actually play with comics, and how did material, social, cultural, and historical contexts shape that play? In "Playing with Comics," play is defined through the intertwined processes of imagining oneself and others through printed content and the interpretation of those materials within personal contexts. Inspired by Rebecca Wanzo's work in The Content of Our Caricature (2020), I argue that the character types in comics provided one of the primary tools for play, and comics' invitations were defined through the visual logic of two distinct yet interconnected types: the idealized caricature and the undesirable stereotype. These character types served as models for readers' play, and my analyses investigate how idealized caricatures functioned as models for imitation and encouraged readers to imagine their own transformations while undesirable stereotypes restricted opportunities for play and reinforced racial, ethnic, and gendered stereotypes. The visual markers of identity and their associated narratives were reinforced through mechanical and ideological reproduction, but character types also relied on those readers who played with and within these types. As a result, the contexts in which readers encountered and pla (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jared Gardner (Advisor); Robyn Warhol (Committee Member); Caitlin McGurk (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Gender; Mass Media

BA, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

This thesis explores what I have termed the "myth of Bologna" a phrase that refers to an early modern city being renowned for its women citizens, but the reasons as to why remaining shrouded in mystery. Although recent scholarship on women's history in Bologna has covered a variety of topics including women as religious figures, women in the arts, and women in the silk trade, few have attempted to take a wholistic approach to connect the vast and unprecedented influence of female participation in the city. This thesis will argue that women's history in Bologna and, more importantly, as a whole requires a broader lens to be able to fill in the gaps left behind by fragmented documentation, a general lack of sources, and the unique challenges posed by studying women in history. Using traditional written sources, as well as visual and material culture, this thesis attempts to reconstruct the reality of women in Bologna beyond what the mythic perceptions of the city can provide. If we can understand "why Bologna?" through an interdisciplinary lens, we can begin to bridge the gaps between the fractured pieces of women's history and challenge our limited perceptions of women during the early modern era.

Committee: Matthew Crawford Ph.D (Advisor); Gustav Medicus Ph.D. (Advisor); Don-John Dugas Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lindsey Starkey Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kristin Stasiowski Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; European History

MFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

Though there has been increased discourse on non-Latin type design practice within the type design community in recent years, there still exists a need for many more high-quality digital typefaces in most of the world's written languages—societies, who, without these resources, are less able to contribute to global discussions. As a result, this thesis uses a number of different methods to analyze the pathways in multi-script type design research, examine the expansive relationship between typography and culture, and investigate the relationship between anthropological methods and the type design process. The questions posed include: how does one become prepared to design an effective and well-researched typeface in a new script? How does one research a new script? Does the use of anthropological research methodologies increase a type designer's understanding of a script's cultural context, and therefore increase the success of their design practice? If so, to what extent, and in particular, which aspects of the contextual typographic culture should the designer investigate? How does an understanding of the relationship between type and design affect this research process? As a catalyst for further practice and discussion of these topics, a comprehensive research framework outlines best practices when pursuing type design research in a non-native script. By utilizing anthropological and human-centered design research methods in the process of creating multilingual type systems, as well as examining culture, a non-speaking designer can begin to gain a wider, more global sense of typography, as well as better understanding for the needs of the global community for whom they are designing.

Committee: Aoife Mooney (Advisor); Ken Visocky-O'Grady (Committee Member); Sanda Katila (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2016, Educational Administration (Education)

The purpose of this study was to explore the organizational culture of two high schools in Ghana, examine the unique influence of cultural components on the schools' outcomes, identify the exceptional contributions of the schools' subcultures, investigate the emergent leadership styles of the schools' leaders, and determine how these approaches promoted their work. This qualitative dissertation examined the various ways that the schools defined culture; how the schools' subcultures participated in school governance; and how school leaders approached school governance. The description of the cultural components focused on the physical structures, symbols, behavior patterns, and verbal expressions, beliefs and values; and expectations. These descriptions were based on Edgar Schein's diagnosis of the levels of culture. Efforts to improve school outcomes have not considered school culture, as a strategy in Ghana, neither has any educational research focused on the organizational culture of schools. This study was based on the premise that the inclusion of the cultural approach to school reform produces more sustainable results than the technical or political approaches, used in isolation. The sample size for this study was 26 and comprised two school leaders, six teachers, two PTA chairpersons, two alumni, and 14 students. The study employed the case study tradition and garnered data through one-on- one interviews, focus group interviews; observation at morning devotions/assembly, Sunday church services, classrooms, dining halls, orientation, sports festival, staff and academic board meetings, and the physical environment; and review of relevant documents. Results indicated that although the Ghana Education Service managed both schools, and the schools were similar in some ways, they each demonstrated some unique characteristics. The major factors that influenced the achievement of school outcomes included the tangible and intangible cultural components; the in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Moore (Committee Chair) Subjects: Educational Leadership; Organization Theory; School Administration; Secondary Education; Sub Saharan Africa Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, History of Art

This dissertation examines the understudied topic of portraiture during the July Monarchy (1830-48), the constitutional regime that has long been associated with both the social and political rise of the bourgeoisie as well as the development of an extensive commercial culture in France. The second quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed the proliferation of portraits executed in a variety of alternative media that allowed for their mechanical reproduction and subsequent distribution to a mass audience of cultural consumers. This phenomenon coincided with the development of a new kind of celebrity, one that was dependent upon a brand of notoriety generated by the rapidly expanding press as opposed to lineage or professional accomplishment, the sources of more traditional forms of personal fame. This dissertation examines these intertwined phenomena in detail and posits them as evidence of a fundamental reconceptualization of the notion of the self during the July Monarchy. Both media-driven celebrity and the reproduction and large-scale distribution of portrait imagery attest to the fact that the self was no longer a solidly fixed identity emanating from some internal “essence” of the individual, but rather the product of an increasingly complex network of perceptions and representations. This dissertation begins with an investigation of the theoretical literature on selfhood and how it pertains to the crisis of self in the post-revolutionary age. Concurrent with the explosion of portraits in printed media was an unprecedented rise in the production of traditional, one-of-a-kind painted portraits and their public display at the Salon. As representations of contemporaries, portraits served as discursive and participatory sites not simply for aesthetic debates about representation but, more largely, about questions of class, politics, and gender—debates that in turn contributed to the generation and constantly changing discourses of the self. The second ha (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Andrew Shelton (Advisor); Lisa Florman (Committee Member); Christian Kleinbub (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, EDU Teaching and Learning

Although the illustrations in picturebooks have been a subject of scholarly inquiry for years, often with an interest in attempting to understand how they work or create meaning, few have attempted to look at particular visual motifs as cultural products and drivers. In taking a material culture approach in combination with semiotic theories, this study explored how images of houses in picturebooks reflect themes of innovation and tradition in comparison with children's depictions of houses in their artwork. These images reveal how American culture considers the house through its representations of it while suggesting new ideas of how pictures work to convey meaning. This study took a mixed methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analysis of the images to triangulate observations about: a) how houses are depicted in picturebooks; b) how the patterns of house depiction in picturebooks correlated to children's drawings; and c) how illustrators and children innovated in their depictions of houses. The data collected included a random sample of 110 picturebooks that depicted houses and 84 drawings created by 39 children ages 4 to 8. Each child was asked to first "draw a house" and then "design a house" in an uninhibited manner in order to assess how they innovated. The data was analyzed using a combination of a priori categories as the result of a pilot study and categories developed using grounded theory. Basic inference tests helped describe the features of both sets of data. The findings identified nine patterns, each with their own conventions of house depiction (iconic, tall, simple, square, urban, neighborhood, haunted, castle, and tree), as well as other characteristics of house depiction: text/picture differences, location within the book, number, variety, criterial aspects, role of the house, and reflections of the American Dream. The patterns found in children's drawings diverged from those of illustrators along the lines of pattern feat (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Barbara Kiefer (Advisor); Barbara Lehman (Committee Member); Linda Parson (Committee Member); Deborah Smith-Shank (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; American Literature; American Studies; Architecture; Art Education; Communication; Design; Early Childhood Education; Education; Elementary Education; Literacy; Literature; Multimedia Communications; Teacher Education

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Popular Culture

One of the most powerful arenas where the construction of ideal femininity gets constructed is through the depiction of women on television. My thesis investigates one of the most popular television shows in the 21st century, Desperate Housewives. It explores how the female protagonists are depicted through the ways they attempt to maintain power within their suburban worlds. My thesis discusses how certain power is allotted within the narrative of the show. I investigate the implication that power is a good thing, and also offer analysis with some of the problems of gaining power. We not only see constrained power, but also see women in positions of status. Power within family dynamics, romantic love/marriage, and domestic and professional activities are central to my thesis. I focus on beauty and image through consumption, the struggles for women balancing their domestic and professional worlds, and alternative depictions of femininity through the repression of emotion. I use textual analysis to examine dialogue, plot and narrative, character development, genre, and aesthetics/formal elements within production, which include costumes, make-up, cinematography, editing, acting, lighting, and sound. My thesis draws on feminist scholarship within media studies and popular culture studies; specifically elements of sociological and psychological theory within the context of gender.

Committee: Becca Cragin (Committee Chair); Marilyn Motz (Committee Member); Sandra Faulkner (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Personal Relationships; Sociology; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Popular Culture

This thesis analyzes the highly popular Old Spice commercials as a contemporary cultural guide on masculinity; it addresses a number of issues related to the construction of masculinities in contemporary American culture. Both Old Spice campaigns under analysis offer great insight into cultural ideals related to the construction of hegemonic masculinity. Through a detailed textual analysis of the commercials in these campaigns, I unravel those ideals and analyze how masculinity is constructed through the protagonists' appearances and bodies, sexuality, behaviors, as well as their character patterns and mannerisms. I argue that while both Old Spice campaigns suggest that hegemonic masculinity is the only acceptable form of masculinity, hegemonic masculinity is perpetuated in two very different ways. In the Smell Like A Man, Man campaign, satire is used as a means to disguise the blunt promotion of hegemonic masculinity. The Smell is Power campaign, on the other hand, uses a very blunt approach: its overt character clearly encourages the viewer to directly align with hegemonic notions of masculinity. Both campaigns are thus representative of a certain ambiguity that is so often to be found in postmodern texts. The analysis in my thesis therefore analyzes how both campaigns serve as prime examples of how paradoxical American beliefs about masculinity are in contemporary, postmodern America.

Committee: Becca Cragin (Advisor); Marilyn Motz (Committee Member); Rebecca Kinney (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Communication; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Marketing; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, History

How do you know what you know? This dissertation examines the process of knowledge transfer (the interaction of multiple individuals in the process of exchanging and acting upon information which is deemed significant) through a focus on the phenomenon of monstrous births (a contemporary and non-derogatory term used to describe physically deformed humans and animals) in early modern England. In a sense, this study utilizes monsters as the contrast dye in a knowledge-transfer myelogram: monstrous births can highlight the path which knowledge takes between producer and consumer, as well as how the consumer subsequently acts upon that knowledge. A broad variety of media were utilized to this end – including printed, visual, material, oral, and manuscript sources – revealing that the nature of each medium affected the kinds of knowledge exchanged, as well as the process by which the exchange took place. Thus cheap print might privilege news of the prodigious, while gossip focused on the actions of local individuals, and manuscript culture compiled and commented upon specific cases of monstrosity. I argue that balladeers, artists, neighbors, natural philosophers, diarists, and others transferred and consumed knowledge about monsters throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries because they provided news- and gossip-worthy entertainment that could also, under the proper circumstances, reveal the will of God or the internal workings of Nature. Of course, monsters were not at all times all of these things to all people; the precise significance of monstrosity changed depending upon the media in which it was disseminated. However, I have located over 700 descriptions of perhaps 500 individual monstrous births, prodigies, and unusual creatures between 1531 and c. 1800 in a wide variety of media: more than 150 extant pieces of cheap print, 78 advertisements for monster shows, nearly a dozen painted portraits, numerous etchings, a court case and its th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Noel Geoffrey Parker (Advisor); David Cressy (Committee Member); David Staley (Committee Member); Pamela Lucchesi (Committee Member) Subjects: History

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

The valuation process within architecture attaches connotative meaning to productions of architectural practice, especially imagery created by the architect. Architecture, through the written word and escalating masculinization of drawing and imagery, transforms visual aesthetic image objects of marks on a page into connoted aesthetic image objects with possible consequences and meaning in the real world. Architects understand this process as imparting meaning to their work and differentiating their practice from the aesthetic praxis of art, understood to be solely aesthetic. However, the relationship between imagery and the consequences illustrated thereby is not so simple in the time of mass-publication of imagery and the simulation of architectural outcomes. The connoted aesthetic objects created by the architect, through repetition and publication, become re-feminized into visual aesthetic objects, carrying along the consequential information imparted by the architect and transforming that information into atrophied signs or consumer demographics. The aesthetic of the architectural image/artifact and consequences or narratives become equated, threatening the reductive degradation of both. Connotation of architectural images, therefore, can work at cross purposes to both architecture and the narratives it attempts to connote. This effect is increasingly prominent, this research will argue, as the indicative property of architectural images- the possibility of construing virtual images as reality- increases through high verisimilitude images, images attempting to include non-visual information, and images attached to socio-cultural claims. This paper argues the possibility that images of these types can insure a connotative connection between aesthetic and narrative that equates the two, allowing the posited feminization. This research will analyze the connection between visual culture and material culture as basis of the connotation of architecture, and propose (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Aarati Kanekar PhD (Committee Chair); Michael McInturf MARCH (Committee Chair) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Art Education

This dissertation examines the identity construction of five manga fans by exploring their creation of comics and their cosplay. Certain identity themes emerged through a Lacanian interpretation using a qualitative/interpretivist paradigm. Data collection relied primarily on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with participants, and included their cosplay photos as well as their manga drawings and stories. Specifically, Lacan's concepts of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real were used to interpret these participants' identities. The study showed not only that identity is not always determined by the Symbolic (conscious act), but also that it is governed by unconscious desire and fantasy (of the Real). While unconscious desire (Real) continues to break the fixibility of identity, the Symbolic remains an oppressed ruling Other that determines which identity is positive and which negative. The Imaginary is a most important outlet in terms of identity building for the subject, the freedom to make changes, and the power to heal one's fixity against change (provide hope) in light of the Other's gaze. Some of Lacan's concepts – gaze, fantasy, desire/lack, camouflage – are also discussed by way of explaining identity-related themes.

Committee: Sydney Walker (Committee Chair); Maureen Donovan (Committee Member); Jennifer Eisenhauer (Committee Member); Patricia Stuhr (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Womens Studies

This project investigates the ways that the Black female body has been constructed using corpulence as a central narrative that reflects anxieties about race, gender, class, sexuality, and national identity. It identifies how the performance of corpulence through the Black female body has particular ideological meanings that have been articulated through visual and narrative cultures. Corpulence is operative in defining rigid boundaries in regards to identity, which are built on constructed notions of whiteness and Blackness. Moreover, this study identifies corpulence as a facet of identity and illuminates how it intersects with race, gender, and class to relegate Black women to the bottom of American society. Through an analysis of several popular texts, this study illuminates the varied ways that the discourse involving corpulence reflects narratives that deploy race, gender, and class as signifiers of “authentic” American identity and restrict the social, economic, and political mobility of the Black female body. The analysis begins with a historical examination of how pertinent size has been to the construction of the Black female body in visual and narrative cultures and how this particular construction has worked to establish ideals regarding difference. It assesses the historical ‘Mammy' construction of the Black female body in an effort to identify how the physical attributes of this particular construction serve to nurture whiteness in general. The primary interest is to identify the function of corpulence in the construction of this caricature and analyze how it was composed as a signifier of ‘Blackness' that was used to establish, promote and sustain white supremacy through visual culture. Also, corpulence has been appropriated and used in Black folklore as a means to comical effect. This study illuminates the ways in which corpulence is performed in Black folklore as a means to denigrate the Black female body. Moreover, it traces this assault through ana (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Valerie Lee Phd (Advisor); Linda Mizejewski Phd (Committee Co-Chair); Judith Mayne Phd (Committee Member); Terry Moore Phd (Committee Member) Subjects: Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, Women's Studies

My project investigates the ways that the representation of Black female revolutionary activists during the 1970s produced images and narratives of justice that have informed the artistic work of Black women over the past 30 years. My analysis begins with Black revolutionary icons, Angela Davis and Kathleen Cleaver, and the various historical discourses that informed the circulation, consumption and meaning of their images. Photographic images of these prominent Black female activists circulated in the sixties and seventies and produced important narratives about the primacy of Black male experience as representative of the Black liberation struggle. They also contributed to the mythological, Amazonian image of Black womanhood that developed into filmic images in blaxploitation films, featuring actresses like Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson. These films reflected anxieties about gender, race and sexuality.My analysis of visual images of icons such as Davis and Grier are linked to a legacy of revolutionary Black feminist rhetoric, representation and critique that continued in the literature of Black women in the eighties. Revolutionary imagery and Black feminist rhetoric embedded in the work of Black female writers and poets, such as Alice Walker and Audre Lorde, provided a space for a more complex and nuanced articulation of Black female revolutionary womanhood. More specifically, their use of the image of the Amazon and the willingness of Lorde and Walker to explore a Black female experience that included both strength and vulnerability were crucial to the development and visual articulation of revolution that emerged in work of Black women in the early nineties. The work of Black female artists such as Erykah Badu and Me'shell Ndegeocello are examples of the ways that young Black female musicians have appropriated and rearticulated Black feminist revolutionary rhetoric, iconography and aesthetics from the 1970s to explore what it means to be a Black female revolution (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Judith Mayne (Advisor); Dr. Valerie Lee (Committee Member); Dr. Terry Moore (Committee Member) Subjects: Womens Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2013, Popular Culture

Thinspiration images, meant to inspire weight-loss, proliferate online through platforms that encourage the circulation of user-generated content. Despite numerous alarmist critiques in mass media about thinspiration and various academic studies investigating 'pro-anorexia' sites, surprisingly little attention has been given to the processes of creation and the symbolic potential of thinspiration. This thesis analyzes the formal hybridity of thinspiration, and its use as an expressive medium. The particularities of thinspiration (including its visual characteristics, creative processes, and exhibition) may be considered carefully constructed instances of self-representation, hinging on the expression of beliefs regarding the mind and body. While these beliefs are deeply entrenched in popular body management discourse, they also tend to rely on traditional dualist ideologies. Rather than simply emphasizing slenderness or reiterating standard assumptions about beauty, thinspiration often evokes pain and sadness, and employs truisms about the transcendence of flesh and rebellion against social constraints. By harnessing individualist discourse and the values of mind/body dualism, thinspiration becomes a space in which people struggling with disordered eating and body image issues may cast themselves as active agents—contrary to images of eating disorders proffered by popular and medical discourse.

Committee: Marilyn Motz (Advisor); Rebecca Kinney (Committee Member); Jeremy Wallach (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Art Criticism; Communication; Folklore; Gender Studies; Health; Multimedia Communications; Social Research; Web Studies; Womens Studies

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

The ideology of the Islamic revolution has influenced the representation of Iranian women in photography after the 1979 revolution. Typically, women are portrayed passively, even in fine art photography, and their representation is often isolated and objective. Equality movements for Iranian women's rights have periodically existed in the years after the 1979 Revolution. However, with the expansion of social networks, photography plays a significant role in the representation of Iranian women and in creating an image in contrast to the previously passive Iranian woman who was repressed and socially excluded. The influence of social networks and photography on the representation of women's bodies in Iran can be traced back to 2017, with the repetitive of Vida Movahed's figure, whose photo protesting the mandatory hijab led to the display of similar images. The influence of photography in turning women's figures into memes has expanded in Iran and worldwide, especially after the moral police killed Mahsa Amini in September 2022 over the issue of hijab. Many Iranian women are inspired to join the WLF/Woman, Life, Freedom movement after seeing viral images of other female figures. These images capture the figures of schoolgirls, protesters cutting their hair, and individual female figures that resemble the iconic figure of Vida Movahed. The WLF representatives can be seen in these photos, and the movement continues growing as more women participate. In this research, I analyzed the street photos of the Women, Life, Freedom movement in 2022 using anthropological and interview methods. In addition, interviews with Iranian photographers and their lived experiences show that due to the oppression system of the current regime of Iran regarding the female bodies and femineity, representation of the body was one of the concerns of their art formation. Furthermore, this research analyzes how Western magazines, like Time, portray the visual culture of the Middle East and Iran. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jennie Klein (Advisor) Subjects: Art History; Middle Eastern Studies; Womens Studies

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theological Studies

This thesis explores visual aspects of megachurches in Korea that suggest how Korean people have merged evangelical Christianity with Korean artistic sensitivity as well as international visual culture to create a new visual church culture in Korea. I categorize and analyze visual characteristics of these visual artifacts, then speculate about theological, historical, and cultural connections active in the making and choosing of these visuals and how those choices support the conservative and aggressively patriarchal culture of today's Korean megachurches.

Committee: William V. Trollinger (Advisor); Anthony B. Smith (Committee Member); Brad J. Kallenberg (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Religion

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation investigates the works, thoughts, and practices of everyday life of a diverse range of emerging contemporary Syrian artists and filmmakers who created art during the Syrian crisis since 2011. Some stayed in Syria. Others fled the country. Some engaged in armed resistance or political activism. Others lost their lives. This dissertation is primarily concerned with how these individuals created art that reflected the everyday life of Syrians throughout the crisis. The focus on everyday life is crucial because it shifts scholarly attention on the Syrian crisis away from the war itself and onto the overlooked Syrians who are creatively trying to survive it. Drawing on interviews, aesthetic analysis, and participant-observation, I argue that Syrian artists try to reclaim the Syrian identity and homeland concepts back to their cultural heritages and away from political or war realities. In addition, I discuss a new model of the Syrian body of survival and its representations based on its transformations between different modes of survival practices. This dissertation seeks to enrich art history, Performance Studies, and scholarly approaches to the Syrian crisis by positioning Syrian art as a global and contemporary art phenomenon and by documenting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting its artists to the international public. It pays particular attention to Syrian art's local, regional, and global specificity while also considering how the artworks and films are produced, distributed, and presented across international art arenas. The ultimate goal of this dissertation is to clarify what it means to be Syrian today, a concept that has been mostly unrepresented, misrepresented, or distorted by stereotyping.

Committee: Charles Buchanan (Advisor); Garrett Field (Committee Member); Erin Schlumpf (Committee Member); Jennie Klein (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art History; Film Studies; Fine Arts; Middle Eastern Studies; Performing Arts