Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2008, History

In the first five decades of the twentieth century, millions of American boys took up the hobby of building and flying model airplanes. For these, mostly middle-class, white youth, aeromodeling became a means to channel their fascination with the recent revolutionary developments in aviation and to participate in modernity. Adults who praised their interests, by contrast, viewed aeromodeling as more than just a timely popular pastime for boys, but as a way to encourage early technological engagement in the young and to inspire a future generation of professional inventors, engineers, and scientists. Beneath these glowing predictions about the benefits of boys' technologically inspired play, however, lay a subtext that expressed a host of anxieties about the place of boys in modern America. As a case study in the history of childhood, of technology, and of popular culture, this dissertation situates the development of the consumer craft hobby of aeromodeling against the backdrop of the long history of American enthusiasm for technology and the highly contested landscape of childhood in the early twentieth century. In the process, I find aeromodeling's many meanings bound to widespread anxieties about the pace of technological change, the rise of consumer-oriented society, and the status of boys. Technical craft hobbies like building model airplanes reinforced gendered norms of technological engagement for boys and served as a cultural counterweight to the perception that boys risked becoming feminized by the allures of consumer culture. Ironically, these measures taken under the guise of cultivating masculine production also helped pave the way for the development of a vibrant consumer culture for children during the Great Depression. Aeromodeling, in short, provides an entry point into the history of the development of a specific consumer culture for children in the United States. In charting the social and cultural developments of this popular American pastime, thi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Carroll Pursell (Advisor); Alan Rocke (Other); Renee Sentilles (Other); Todd Oakley (Other) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Gender; History; Science History; Technology; Transportation; Vocational Education

Bachelor of Science (BS), Ohio University, 2023, Environmental Studies

Ramps are a type of Onion found throughout the Appalachian region. They have been valued by Native American and Appalachian people for thousands of years, but have recently gained popularity with foodies. This popularity has led to an increase in harvesting, which puts pressure on ramp populations. This thesis deconstructs the impact that the foodie movement has had on ramps and their traditional users, as well as how ramps are perceived as a source of authenticity for foodies to consume. These ideas parallel greater trends of Appalachian resource extraction, media portrayal, and economic and cultural exploitation.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan (Advisor); Timothy Anderson (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Economics; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Law; Environmental Management; Environmental Philosophy; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies

Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University, 2023, Geography

Ramps are a type of Onion found throughout the Appalachian region. They have been valued by Native American and Appalachian people for thousands of years, but have recently gained popularity with foodies. This popularity has led to an increase in harvesting, which puts pressure on ramp populations. This thesis deconstructs the impact that the foodie movement has had on ramps and their traditional users, as well as how ramps are perceived as a source of authenticity for foodies to consume. These ideas parallel greater trends of Appalachian resource extraction, media portrayal, and economic and cultural exploitation.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan (Advisor); Timothy Anderson (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Economics; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Philosophy; Environmental Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, History of Art

This dissertation focuses on exhibition venues, a topic normally treated as minor historical information in art historical studies. It examines exhibition spaces and everyday exhibition practices in Republican China (1912-1949) through a case study of the Daxin Gallery, the first art gallery in Shanghai. Located on the fourth floor of the Daxin Department Store (The Sun Company), this gallery was at the center of Shanghai's commercial culture on Nanjing Road, in the city's International Settlement. From its opening in 1936 to its closing in 1950, it was one of Shanghai's most popular art venues, hosting about 340 exhibitions featuring all types of art, from ink painting to oil painting to photography and manhua. The gallery offered a platform for prominent painters like Liu Haisu (1896-1994) and helped numerous fledgling artists promote their art and explore new exhibition practices. With its active role during prewar (1936-37) and wartime years (1937-49), the gallery demonstrates that the commercial culture in Shanghai was not a mere background against which the art world prospered. Instead, the commercial space was an active agent playing a major role in the creation, perception, and circulation of art. By taking a spatial approach, this dissertation broadens our understanding of modern Chinese art history as a part of the symbiotic whole of the urban landscape and urban culture. It starts by mapping exhibition culture in Shanghai and then examines the history of the Daxin Gallery. By focusing on the previously ignored question of exhibition spaces, it draws attention to the connection between exhibitions and the urban landscape and brings out details of how artists found public spaces for exhibition. Likewise, by considering a department store gallery's role in the art world, it explores the liberalizing role that the consumer culture associated with the space played in the production and reception of art.

Committee: Julia Andrews (Advisor) Subjects: Art History; Asian Studies; History

MA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

Mechanisms of control throughout organized society (whether they be conscious or unconscious) serve to organize and categorize everything from thoughts to products. These mechanisms of control are simply a byproduct and a necessity of a modern democratic society. Due to increased mechanization, diversification, and demand there are too many products for one individual to test and evaluate to come to a sound decision. In order to better navigate the infinite amount of products at our disposal, we, as members of a consumer society, render a reasonable amount of our freedom of choice to corporate entities. A consumption based society allows personal identity to be crafted through brand association. Layers of branding are used to distance individual products from their parent companies. This distancing allows for moral ambiguity among corporate entities. Public opinion can sway this moral compass but profit is always the main goal. The works within “Consumer Conscious” remove this distance, providing a new perspective for us as consumers to play the game that we are locked in to.

Committee: Ebanks Davin (Advisor) Subjects: Design; Fine Arts; Social Research

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, History

Tyson, Chick-fil-A, Walmart, and Hobby Lobby's presence within the faith-based business community is mostly thanks to corporate lineages that reached well into the previous century. Tyson was founded in 1935, Chick-fil-A in 1946, Walmart in 1962, and Hobby Lobby in 1972, each undergoing various business model and philosophical shifts along with their executives' changing understanding of Christian faith. This thesis analyzes these businesses through a series of case studies, highlighting various uniting themes in their corporate narratives, exploring the ways they interact with their customers and the cultures in which they flourish, while noting that there is a discernible, yet-unexplored gap between faith-based business and workplace spirituality. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that faith-based businesses choose to identify as such as an expression of belief in a Christian supernatural deity's influence in their careers rather than as a way of garnering specific markets or making a profit.

Committee: Scott Martin Ph.D. (Advisor); Amilcar Challú Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; American History; American Studies; Animals; Audiology; Bible; Biblical Studies; Business Administration; Business Community; Business Costs; Divinity; Economic History; Economic Theory; Economics; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Food Science; History; Labor Economics; Labor Relations; Management; Marketing; Modern History; Religion; Religious History

Bachelor of Arts, University of Toledo, 2016, English

Although much scholarship has been devoted to his juxtaposition of historical and cultural circumstance with personal narrative, not much of this discussion has examined Wojahn's fascination with the consumer-driven culture that has emerged in America within the last century. In this paper, I argue that Wojahn's work has consistently concerned itself with providing both an interrogation of consumer culture and an examination of its pervading and unbreakable influence over American culture and the individual experience. I propose that by examining the consequences of consumer culture over a wide spectrum of individuals, Wojahn critiques the ways in which consumer culture sacrifices artistic and personal identity in favor of consumption, sensationalism, and greed. To support this claim, I examine the poems “At Graceland With a Six Year Old, 1985” (1990), “Double Exposures” (1990), “Hey Joe” (1997), “Spirit Cabinet” (2002), “Kill Born, Weed Smoke, Chk Mark, Onchola Senn” (2002), and, “Board Book and Whooping Crane” (2006). By looking at poems written throughout Wojahn's career, I show how Wojahn not only challenges the assumptions of consumer culture, but also how his examination develops from one of scornful interrogation to downright nihilism as he realizes the extent to which consumption has overwhelmed and shaped American culture. I compare and contrast Wojahn's own work with the theories and research of other scholars in order to provide a richer discussion of an aspect of Wojahn's poetry that I believe has until now been overlooked in the critical conversation.

Committee: Melissa Valiska Gregory (Advisor); Sara Lundquist (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature; Literature

Undergraduate Honors Program, Malone University, 2015, Honors Thesis

This thesis is an analysis of the effects of consumerism on Christianity. In the United States of America, we consume in an attempt to fill our desires by making material items absolute goods. We look for fulfillment through the process of consuming because advertisers promise fulfillment and happiness, but those feelings never last. This thesis explores four aspects of consumerism and builds a definition of consumerism throughout these four chapters. Each chapter also includes a response as to how Christians can respond to consumerism and how they are called to living differently than consumerism calls us to live. As Christians, we must focus on our ultimate fulfillment coming from God who created us to be in relationship with him. The goal of this thesis was to explore how consumerism can be problematic for Christians but discover how Christians can honor God while still functioning as consumers in the United States.

Committee: Stephen Moroney PhD (Advisor); T.C. Ham PhD (Committee Member); Sue Wechter PhD (Committee Member); Jay Case PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biblical Studies; Theology

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2003, Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning : Architecture

Society has been slowly replacing all product importance with brand equity; this has caused a shift in thinking from the quality of a good to lifestyle assimilation. The effect on architecture is evident in the promotion of ‘signature architects' who have branded themselves and their style, creating a market for those clients who wish to look at architecture as a product of brand bolstering. Whole communities have lost a sense of their own identity, lacking any real vernacular and hoping that an architect can repeat ‘the Bilbao effect' to invigorate them. In order to restore an authenticity to this culture that defines itself by the designer label, architects can create buildings which not only are more honest in their detailing but allow a community to create for themselves an identity. This adds a flavor of the vernacular that has been lost and lets the architecture and the people determine character, not the architect.

Committee: Michael McInturf (Advisor) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, History

This work offers a new perspective on the standard interpretation of suburbanization in the United States and provides a historical model within the literature of New Urbanism. The work investigates aspects of both the community and commodity of the “modern” home and what I refer to as the near urban neighborhood. During the early decades of the twentieth century, there was a fundamental change in the nature of housing in the United States. This change resulted in a new residential streets developed to be both automobile- and pedestrian-friendly; a new floor plan, what I refer to as a box for technology; and the commodification of the American home, equated with items such as the radio and automobile. The house itself, as it exists today, is a record of this change. In this study, architectural archaeology and an in depth investigation of one street in Columbus, Ohio, were used to gain historical insight about why the house changed. This study of eight primary artifacts (houses) was augmented by trade journals, plan books, and ladies' magazines to show how the new house plan of the 1920s became standardized across the United States. These investigations showed that by the 1920s: 1. The house sat on a street. The street connected the house to services, often technological. And the neighborhood connected the house to community; 2. The house was a box for technology holding the appliances and artifacts connected to the systems on the street; 3. The box consisted of a series of rooms, each with its own technological appliances and devices; 4. Emergent middle-class families bought these homes. Evidence suggested that changes in technology became the common thread in the development of the new house type. The technological change within the near urban home was not a slow, progressive transition. The change was fast and revolutionary. By purchasing a near urban home, the homeowner bought and embraced the entire package of twentieth-century technology and culture. The home (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: John Burnham (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2003, Sociology (Arts and Sciences)

A large body of research on men and masculinity has emerged in the past decade, paralleling the already vast writings on, and explorations of, women and feminism. Just as feminism has critiqued and examined the ways in which women and femininity are shaped and constructed by society, so too has recent research discussed social constructions of manhood. While such masculine examinations may seem contradictory to the aims of feminism on a superficial level, they actually support and further feminist work by deconstructing and analyzing the social and cultural expectations for men. In essence, such research uncovers what it means to be a man in contemporary US society (i.e., masculinity), which cannot occur without also understanding societal expectations for women. The category of masculine is itself a nebulous one, and is characterized by a range of behaviors, appearances, words, and presentations, that serve to organize social life by ascribing meaning to the sex category of man. Previous writings have discussed each of these gendered phenomena at some level and in various contexts, such as those focusing on sexuality (Kimmel, 1990: Dines, Jensen, & Russo, 1998; Stoltenberg, 1999), violence (Katz, 1999; Hatty, 2000) identity (Connell, 1995), embodiment (Edwards, 1997; Bordo, 1999), historical development (Kimmel, 1996), and social change (Kimmel, 1987; Stoltenberg, 1999; Connell, 2000; Pease, 2001), among others. Although these researchers have examined the methods through which various aspects of masculinity are shaped and reinforced socially, few have looked to these active constructions in relation to, and within a, consumer culture. In this work, masculinity is examined as it is constructed through advertisements; specifically, the ways in which masculinity is related to certain products, and the form and content of masculine identity that is conveyed through such goods. From the sampled advertisements, eight dominant themes emerged as central components of hege (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christine Mattley (Advisor) Subjects: Sociology, Theory and Methods

Bachelor of Arts, Miami University, 2009, College of Arts and Sciences - Linguistics

This paper is a critique of the way issues of diet and exercise are discussed in contemporary society. My analysis centers around the use of metaphor in media discourse to propagate certain ideological frameworks that are beneficial for the continued success of consumer culture. I draw my data from diet books, health, beauty, and fitness magazines, group exercise classes, television, and my own experience. The fact that much of the secondary literature I consulted speaks of women's experiences makes this paper appear female-centered, although I specifically address both genders in my argument since both women and men feel pressure to "enhance" their appearance. This study finds the overall message of diet and exercise discourse to be harmful to individuals, since it engenders body-focused anxieties and supports the adoption of extreme or unhealthy body-enhancing practices. I conclude by suggesting an alternative metaphor that offers a more positive way to conceptualize body work.

Committee: Dr. Jacquelyn Rahman (Advisor); Mr. Wm Eric Aikens (Committee Member); Dr. Ann Fuehrer (Committee Member) Subjects: Linguistics

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2012, History

If an inhabitant of Saint-Pierre or Cap Francais wanted to emulate the life of a European, what goods and foods were available to them? This thesis examines the flow of consumer goods that tied France's West Indian colonies to the metopole. It argues that the ports of Bordeaux and Marseille connected the Caribbean consumers to a dense web of regional European trade routes which supplied them with a plethora of manufactured goods. Elites in the islands were able follow French fashions from a distance but often adapted metropolitan objects, such as kerchiefs, to fit homegrown styles. In contrast to this mixing, the diet of West Indies was highly stratified with elites successfully recreating the foodways of France and slaves subsisting on cheap proteins.

Committee: Carla Pestana Dr. (Advisor); Andrew Cayton Dr. (Committee Member); Clair Goldstein Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Caribbean Studies; European History; History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2005, History

As a lawyer, soldier, and politician, Lew Wallace epitomized the nineteenth-century ideals of manhood. Yet a series of professional failures prompted Wallace to turn to writing as a way to reconstitute his identity. The century's best-selling novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, was the result. The questions Wallace explored in Ben-Hur about the historic reality of Christianity also resonated with the popular religiosity of Americans eager to experience faith vicariously. Aided by the late nineteenth-century mass-market machinery that propelled his novel to commercial success, Wallace became a popular authority on secular and religious matters by deriving definition and legitimacy from his audiences. Scholars generally omit Wallace and Ben-Hur from current historiography, yet both reveal important insights into late nineteenth-century American culture regarding manhood, popular religiosity, and celebrity.

Committee: Mary Cayton (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2010, American Culture Studies/Popular Culture

In this project, I seek to explore the ways in which contemporary aspects of militarism and capitalism are expressed and exploited by energy drink manufacturers as part of their efforts to attract young men to buy their products and identify with their brand. Numerous larger and ongoing social, economic, and political shifts are at work here, and I find that examining the visual and textual rhetoric of energy drinks can help us identify how consumer culture reflects as well as perpetuates these forces. I draw from a variety of disciplines, sources, and sites in my efforts, which will ultimately serve to help explicate the content of energy drink advertisements, packaging, web projects, and the self-styled online identities of their consumers. The widespread adoption of masculine-centric rhetoric by nearly all the purveyors of energy beverages, as well as their ever-growing popularity, prompt me to wonder why these messages seem to be so appealing and effective and what that might tell us about masculine gender identity in a post-9/11 era.

Committee: Radhika Gajjala PhD (Advisor); Stephen Ortiz PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Armed Forces; Gender; Labor Economics; Packaging; Rhetoric; Social Research; Womens Studies