Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2006, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

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

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Sociology

Beginning around 2020, conservative politicians and media outlets have launched an aggressive campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives via the symbolic vilification of critical race theory. Several scholars have observed that this crusade has largely taken the form of a conservative media-driven disinformation campaign that seeks to obscure the true intent and scope of critical race theory's influence on American society for political gains. Drawing upon critical race literature, framing theory, and various scholarship pertaining to the relationship between media and cultural hegemony, this project sought to qualitatively interrogate the frames used to discuss critical race theory within live Fox News broadcastings. Upon analysis of 50 randomly selected live Fox News transcripts, I found that Fox News commentators regularly invoked 6 common frames in discourses surrounding critical race theory. Therein, critical race theory was often projected to be: 1.) Divisive, 2.) Governmental Overreach, 3.) Indoctrination, 4.) a Marxist/Communist Agenda, and 5.) as Racist, with 6.) people of color (POC) often being used as legitimizers of these narratives. To conclude, I contemplated the implications of these frames, particularly in regard to what they unveil about mass media's influence over knowledge production and dissemination processes, as well as what they project for future social and racial justice strategies in light of the impending direction of the conservative political agenda.

Committee: Michael Vuolo (Advisor); Vincent Roscigno (Committee Member); Dana Haynie (Committee Member) Subjects: Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Social Research; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Political Science

This dissertation argues that when leaders use ideological foreign policy rhetoric, it makes war more likely. The U.S. - led international order faces challenges from both Russia and China, and U.S. leaders are using ideological rhetoric to mobilize a response. I explain why such rhetoric is attractive to leaders and how it also makes the United States more likely to get pulled into wars it might otherwise avoid. Leaders use this kind of rhetoric because it allows them to explain to the public why they are being asked to endure the taxes, military service, casualties, and social disruption associated with efforts to shape the international order. Ideological appeals (e.g., “fighting for freedom and democracy”) tap into deeply held beliefs and identities, encouraging the public to bear the burdens of an active foreign policy. Unfortunately, this rhetoric also raises the stakes of international disputes, limits U.S. diplomatic flexibility, and creates a commitment to intervene in situations that implicate the country's ideology more than its material interests. Using an original dataset of rhetoric by leading states (1816-2014), I show that justifying one's international leadership in ideological terms is associated with fighting more wars. By contrast, a framing that emphasizes hegemonic goods provision has less mobilizational power but also produces less international conflict. This is the orderer's dilemma. The policies that help a state motivate its domestic population exacerbate tensions and make war more likely.

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Committee Chair); Jennifer Mitzen (Committee Member); Randall Schweller (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Media and Communication

Generations of women in the Evangelical Church have embodied narratives passed from mother to daughter, from church leadership, and through their religious communities. These narratives, including those of women's subservience and deserving of suffering endured from spouses, church leaders, and others, have origins in the earliest days of church history. In this thesis I examine how such narratives are embedded in books on pubertal guidance targeted to mothers and daughters in Evangelical Christian communities. Building on Fish's work on interpretive communities, Gramsci's conceptualization of hegemony, Foucault theorizing on power, and an interdisciplinary literature on the interaction between religion, culture, and politics, I interrogate themes of puberty, sexual function, gender roles, consent, and gender-based violence addressed in books on pubertal guidance, and how these books contribute to or reinforce evangelical Christian doctrinal narratives on gender and sexuality. Through a methodological approach using grounded theory, narrative inquiry, autoethnography, and textual analysis, findings indicate Evangelical Christian culture creates an interpretive community which drives only acceptable interpretation of religious texts (primarily the Bible), gender norms, and patriarchal power dynamics. Themes emerging from the texts analyzed, including Complementarianism, submission, purity, modesty, inadequacy, and silencing, have deep consequences not only for women and girls in Evangelical Christian communities, but for society at large as the legislative push for adherence to Evangelical Christian doctrinal ideologies work to remove access to basic human rights for people who do not adhere them. Misinformation, incomplete information, and hegemonic narratives serve to perpetuate gender inequality and have broad effects on women's and girls' mental, emotional, and physical health. In light of the most recent intrusions by Christian Nationalists into the legislative (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lara Martin Lengel Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Clayton` Rosati Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lisa Hanasono Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Behavioral Psychology; Bible; Biblical Studies; Biographies; Communication; Divinity; Education; Ethics; Families and Family Life; Gender; Gender Studies; Health; Health Care; Health Education; History; Individual and Family Studies; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Pastoral Counseling; Personal Relationships; Philosophy; Public Health; Public Health Education; Public Policy; Religion; Religious Congregations; Religious Education; Religious History; Rhetoric; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology; Spirituality; Theology; Womens Studies

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The purpose of this qualitative self-study was to investigate my own critical teaching practices in a freshman university classroom and to see what happened to my teacher identity when my curriculum and instruction focused on issues of social justice. Believing that “…the Eurocentric worldview is so thoroughly hegemonized in the United States…most teachers don't realize they are teaching from this limited point of view” (Malott, 2011, p. 8) and that a “Failure to understand differences, or to subjugate or reject other worldviews, leaves no alternatives to challenge one's understanding of the world [leading to] stagnation and increasingly unusable ideas in a fast-changing cultural environment” compelled me to take a close look at my own teaching practices and teacher ideology. To become aware of my own complicity in maintaining the status-quo (Lewison, Leland, and Harste (2015), I used a Values Coding system (Saldana & Omasta, 2018) to see what values, beliefs, and attitudes would emerge. I collected fieldnotes, created concept maps, composed vignettes, and engaged with critical friends for data collection. I composed found poetry, created emotional arcs, composed vignettes, and engaged with critical friends for data analysis. I used Kincheloe & Steinberg's (1993, 1997, 2017) postformalism as my theoretical framework. A postformal curriculum and instruction involves problem detection, uncovering hidden assumptions, noticing relationships and patterns, connecting logic and emotion, and attending to particularities. Findings revealed that I was largely unaware of the particularities of Generation Z. Not knowing and understanding the values of Gen Z resulted in moments of discomfort and pushback. Results also showed I value comfort and safety and I would make curricular adjustments so that comfort and safety would be a priority in my classroom. Furthermore, analysis revealed feelings are a valued way of knowing and resilience would be vital attitude to push me throug (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: William Bintz (Committee Chair) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Theory; Higher Education; Pedagogy

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2023, Foundations of Education

The proliferation of educational technology currently marketed by textbook publishers reflects the neoliberal influence in higher education that emphasizes automated, standardized delivery and skills-based curriculum. Inclusive access programs are publisher developed digital packages that include access to digital course materials at a lower cost to the student, claiming to provide equitable access despite evidence that a digital divide still exists. This embedded single-case study is a critical analysis of the decision-making power of faculty and administrators as it relates to the adoption of inclusive access programs at a community college. The purpose is to explore if the adoption of inclusive access contributes to inequality in the form of digital structural violence. Hegemony is used as the theoretical framework. Data collection methods include student and faculty focus groups, faculty and administrator interviews, and faculty and student surveys. Findings indicate that while faculty members do hold some hegemonic power, the greater hegemonic force belongs to publishers and bookstores. Student data shows an appreciation for the lower cost and immediate access, but they prefer printed textbooks for academic reading. The data also suggests the possibility that inclusive access contributes to digital structural violence, but further research is needed.

Committee: Edward Janak (Committee Chair); Vicki Dagostino (Committee Member); Christine Fox (Committee Member); R. William Ayres (Committee Member) Subjects: Community Colleges; Education; Educational Sociology; Higher Education; Technology

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Bowling Green State University, 2023, Creative Writing

The Frailty of Fruit is a young adult post-apocalyptic thriller, set in a far future subterranean farming community. The novel follows protagonist Qari Hofler, a reluctant tomato farmer, who must develop a hybrid tomato to earn her family's stewardship or be banished to the Deep Dark. Her 33rd great-grandfather's tomato strain cured violence. But because their cultural understanding of violence didn't include sexual violence, Qari develops an asexually reproductive strain with the naive hope of curing gender. Little does she know, she's not the only one with the seeds of that idea. Told in intertwining narratives, a second protagonist Iona also must race against time to beat Qari at her own hybrid game. But once the two of them find each other, with the help of a humanoid sexbot-turned-scientist named Misty, Qari and Iona realize that finding a place where they could grow together was the point all along. Told in the dystopian tradition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Frailty of Fruit draws upon themes of reproductive justice, hegemony, posthumanism, and the subaltern. Written in a traditional narrative structure, the novel invents an accessible story with textured social imaginings. It posits a poetic truth that utopias will always become dystopias, that will then become utopias, and so on. Like nature, human social conditions have birth and death cycles. In this way, the novel employs contemporary feminist methodologies which utilize post-structural theories to challenge the notions of stable concepts. The ground, literally and conceptually, is always shifting.

Committee: Reema Rajbanshi Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lawrence Coates Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Literature; Modern Literature

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Sociology

Diversity scholarship has long focused on how Whites use diversity ideologies to reproduce White hegemony. However, this research has not examined whether and how people of color adopt diversity ideologies and their contribution to the reproduction of White hegemony. I address this gap by drawing on the Religious Leadership and Diversity Project (RLDP) data of 12 focus group interviews (N= 59) of multiracial church congregants of color and aiming to understand how congregants of color use the logic of diversity ideology to make sense of diversity in the context of multiracial churches. I find that these congregants of color do so by using the logic of diversity as intent to claim an ethereal Christian identity and positioning themselves as morally superior in status to their mono-racial churchgoing peers. I also find that congregants of color adopt the logic of diversity as liability by abstractly appreciating the racial diversity of their churches while both sacrificing their religiocultural preferences and embracing racial discomfort for the sake of White comfort. These findings suggest that centering White experiences within diversity scholarship obscures the role of people of color in reproducing the White hegemonic order and intellectually marginalizes people of color's experiences.

Committee: Anthony Johnson (Committee Member); Eric Schoon (Committee Member); Korie Little Edwards (Advisor) Subjects: Sociology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Arts and Sciences: Political Science

Most International Relations literature suggests that when power becomes imbalanced, such a situation will be corrected – hegemony cannot persist over time. However, history offers us several examples of hegemonies lasting over a century, e.g., Ancient Rome, Ming China. So far scholars have offered four explanations for such enduring hegemony (Coercive Hegemony, Cooperative Hegemony, Cultural Hegemony, and Opportunist Hegemony), with a common mechanism: ineffective balancing. Namely, the hegemon has the capacity to put balancing at bay using different strategies flowing from the nature and fundamental principles of its hegemony. Hence, the hegemon uses coercion, institutional leverage, ideological indoctrination, or buyout, in order to assure its hegemony can endure. Yet, through time and through crisis the capacities of the hegemon to make the balancing ineffective diminishes. As such, these theories all share a similar assumption – imbalance is transitory and thus hegemony will breakdown. But what if that common assumption is incorrect. What if under certain conditions, imbalance is not resisted, but rather serves interests of non-hegemonic states as well as the hegemon? Twentieth and twenty-first century US hegemony suggests such conditions may exist. This American imbalance displays a different nature and fundamental mechanism behind its functioning. Although US relative power is declining, its global monetary network centrality is not. Moreover, even in times of severe crisis, such as the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system, or the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, we have not witnessed US monetary centrality decline. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The dynamics associated with an imbalance of power in favor of the United States runs against the expectations of existing theories. Therefore, we need a different theory to make sense of these particularities and make better policy recommendations. Thus, I have developed a Pervasive Hegemony Theory, which is (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Harknett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Thomas Moore Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brendan Green Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2021, English

Women are oftentimes forgotten in history due to the pursuit of their male colleagues. Much is the case for Lady Colin Campbell, nee Gertrude Elizabeth Blood (b. 3 May 1857), as she was left behind in history. However, unlike other similar stories, Blood was subject to the thoughts and opinions of a nation when she and her husband went through the longest and nastiest - dismissed - divorce trial in UK history. After the trial, she engaged in journalistic writing, submitting over a period of time to the periodical The World which would eventually turn into her essays A Woman's Walks. Despite her popularity at the time Blood and her writing faded out of the public sphere. What this project intends to accomplish is to reintroduce Gertrude Elizabeth Blood back into society not for her scandal, but for how her work can be considered part of the Flaneur genre. As a woman born to a family capable of social climbing and then eventually a shunned member of the upper class, Blood's work can shed unique light on the machinations of the Flaneur and the effects of class and gender. This proposed project will perform an analysis to (a) engage in understanding of the flaneur, working the flaneuse into the definition of the flaneur using Blood's writing and (b) a reintroduction of Blood as a woman worthy of analysis, and appreciation for her work as a woman who went against the grain of society.

Committee: Kirsten Mendoza Dr. (Committee Chair); Patrick Thomas Dr. (Committee Member); Laura Vorachek Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; European Studies; Gender; History; Journalism

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

With one of the largest and most dedicated fan bases, the Disney Company enjoys a strong following with adults. A portion of these fans purposefully and pointedly incorporate the Disney brand into their everyday lives making it their chosen lifestyle. Through social media, they have formed a tight knit community that, for many, has become the nexus of their social lives. Disney fandom, however, is not so straightforward and fans face conflicting pressures as Disney, their fellow fans, and their own personal desires attempt to influence their behaviors and fan practices. Disney pressures fans to unquestioningly promote it, consume as much of its products as possible, and to convince others to do the same. The fan community gatekeeps what it means to be a Disney fan and pressures fans to conform to social norms that can suppress individual expression. Fans themselves want to be completely dedicated to both Disney and their community but simultaneously independent and uninfluenced by both. Rather than choosing any one influence, they find a way to accommodate all parties by situating themselves in a paradox that enables them to continue being fans. They are both independent from and dependent upon Disney, they keep community unity through rejection and angst, and they are able to be better community members and Disney fans by pursuing their own self-interests. Using participant-observer ethnography, this dissertation explores the world of these fans to understand how they negotiate agency between the conflicting pressures. Each chapter highlights a paradox fans manage as they establish themselves in their identities as Disney fans. From these paradoxes, I demonstrate that media fandom, particularly with Disney, is not as simple as straightforward admiration and instead, is a complex process that requires careful navigation.

Committee: Radhika Gajjala Ph. D. (Advisor); Bradford Clark Ph. D. (Committee Member); Rob Sloane M.A. (Committee Member); Emily Brown Ph. D. (Other) Subjects: American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2020, Higher Education Administration

Dr. Kenneth Borland, Advisor College, specifically undergraduate, men are often described as “drunken, promiscuous… lovers of pornography, sports, and video games who rape women, physically assault each other, [and] vandalize buildings on campus” (Harris & Harper, 2014, p. 10). These behaviors are perceived to be common, even normal, for undergraduate men. The behavior is observable on today's college campuses and was commonplace at the conception of post secondary institutions in the United States. The research on college men and masculinity primarily focuses on toxic behavior. These studies perpetuate the belief that most college men behave this way, amplify participation in toxic behavior, and undermine most men that do not. I focused on college men who worked to disrupt toxic gender norms that perpetuate men's violence. I sought to understand how college men defined masculinity by listening to the stories they told of how they learned to define masculinity as children, as adolescents, and as college men involved in anti-violence initiatives. The study also attempted to understand how their definitions of masculinity were shaped and informed by their involvement in these initiatives. In addition, the study considered why some college men were motivated to disrupt toxic gender norms; why they became and remained involved in anti-violence initiatives. This qualitative study was conducted using narrative inquiry and a constructionist paradigm. Josselson (2011) suggested four processes for narrative data analysis: overall reading, re-reading for narratives, re-reading for patterns, and dialoguing the themes. I utilized these steps for data analysis. Participants initially defined their masculinity in concert with traditional masculine norms; ideals they were taught as children. Gender and cultural discourse informed how they defined and performed their masculinities. They also engaged in behavior consistent with dominant gender and social discourse (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ken Borland Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); D-L Stewart Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Jeanne Novak Ph.D. (Other); Ellen Broido Ed.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Gender Studies; Higher Education Administration

MA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

The purpose of this study was to find out whether or not black NFL players attend higher quality schools than black students in general regarding financial status, and the same for white NFL players. The other rather important purpose of this paper was to analyze whether or not there were any significant differences in socioeconomic backgrounds and race between the players and their owners, general managers, and coaches through the demographics of their respective high schools. To accomplish this, I used the method of `perceived race' to match with the individual players, NFL owners, general managers, and head coaches and then matched that with NCES data on their high schools. The results revealed white NFL players on average go to high schools that are slightly more financially advantaged than white students in general but are significantly more financially advantaged than black NFL players and black students in general. Furthermore, black NFL players go to slightly more advantaged high schools than black students in general and overall NFL players go to schools that are more disadvantaged than students in general. Also, NFL owners, general managers, and head coaches on average went to high schools that are more white and financially advantaged than NFL players. The theoretical base this paper uses to analyze the systematic exploitation in our American economy comes from a Marxist perspective of capitalism.

Committee: Theresa Walton-Fisette Dr. (Advisor); Kathryn Wilson Dr. (Committee Member); Brian Yim Dr. (Committee Member); Mark Lyberger Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Demographics; Economics; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology; Sports Management

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

Scholars have identified various reasons for the underrepresentation of women in the upper echelons of organizations. This study used grounded theory methodology enhanced by situational analysis to explore how American women at senior levels in large organizational contexts engage and negotiate the totality of their situation. Utilizing a predominately White, married, middle to upper class, heterosexual sample, this study sought to understand how women create and consign meaning around their experiences; how they experience the fluidity and boundaries of multiple identities; and how they experience the entanglement of macro, meso, and micro societal forces. It explores relationships among factors participants named as influential in experience in leading. Most importantly, this study sought to elevate not just one component as problematic, but to elucidate all interconnecting complexities that are problematic. Five key contexts were identified in the situational analysis as spaces of influence, related to the conditions of the dimensional analysis. Five emergent dimensions were rendered in the dimensional analysis: Growing in Leadership, Solving for Having It All; Stalking the Unknown, Leading in a Glass Box and Negotiating Equality. A grounded theory model was developed of the experience of women who lead, providing an interactive model of how women interpret and engage with the totality of their situation. Four theoretical propositions were extrapolated from the study. The study combined a commanding view of the situation in which women lead, with an interactive theoretical model, mapping places of entry toward resolution of gender leadership parity. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lize Booysen DBL (Committee Member); Harriet Schwartz Ph.D. (Committee Member); Susan Adams Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Business Community; Gender Studies; Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Media and Communication

As the fastest growing population in the world and in the U.S., Muslims increasingly draw the attention of many researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines. Biased perceptions of Islam and Muslims that are based on “oriental” views have been fueled by different wars and conflicts involving Islamic countries or nations in different parts of the world. Driven by biased ideologies, perceptions and attitudes, along with political and socioeconomic forces of a capitalist system in the U.S., mass media, and other anti-Islam institutions played a significant role in spreading and perpetuating Islamophobia. This dissertation addresses Islamophobia by reviewing its origins, definitions, and consequences, and investigates its dynamics through the theoretical frameworks of capitalism, hegemony, and agenda setting. By selecting certain topics to dominate daily news stories and talking points, major media outlets can significantly impact the public discourse and perceptions and prioritize these issues on people's minds. In response to the negative media coverage, many Islamic organizations were established to counter such misperceptions and empower the Muslim communities in the U.S. through various methods including the use of social media. This dissertation examines major Islamic organizations' used of social media to communicate their messages, respond to Islamophobic portrayals and actions, support Muslim communities, set the agenda, and connect with local communities and social institutions. A total of 420 social media posts over the course of three months by five major U.S.-based Islamic organizations were gathered and analyzed using quantitative content analysis method. The organizations' Facebook-page-likes networks and Twitter-mentions networks were drawn, analyzed, and graphed to supplement the findings of the main method. The results show that the Islamic organizations adopted different and complementary approaches to promote their values, support th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Gi Woong Yun Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Lisa Hanasono Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Madeline Duntley Ph.D. (Committee Member); Clayton Rosati Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Communication; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Middle Eastern Literature; Multicultural Education; Religion; Religious Congregations

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Music Ethnomusicology

This thesis explores the roles of internal others in constructing a Soviet and post-Soviet Ukrainian national identity. I begin with an analysis of the kobzars—a group of blind, itinerant minstrels who performed across Ukraine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before they disappeared entirely during Stalin's Great Terror in the 1930s. First, I explore the ways in which the Ukrainian bandura, an asymmetrical lute instrument, has become a site for documenting epistemologies of blind musicians in Ukraine. I then examine how these ways of knowing blindness have been influenced by myths of blind musicians in Ukraine that seek to demystify these internal “others.” Furthermore, I discuss how these myths continue to influence 21st century depictions of blind minstrels through an analysis of the 2014 Ukrainian film, The Guide. Finally, I turn my focus to the Eurovision Song Contest in order to examine how narratives of internal others are deployed in order to negotiate Ukraine's position in 21st century Europe and in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. I then reflect on the ways in which deploying these narratives of internal others does not draw these groups into the mainstream, but instead emphasizes and exploits their difference for the purpose of rejecting external hegemony in Ukraine.

Committee: Katherine Meizel (Committee Member); Sidra Lawrence (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

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

This thesis uses soup discourse as a vehicle to explore dimensions of class and hierarchies of taste in Mexican cookbooks and newspapers from 1830-1920. It contrasts soups with classic European roots, such as sopa de pan (bread soup), with New World soups, such as sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup) and chilaquiles (toasted tortillas in a soupy sauce made from chiles). I adopt a multi-disciplinary approach, combining quantitative methods in the digital humanities with qualitative techniques in history and literature. To produce this analysis, I draw from Pierre Bourdieu's work on distinction and social capital, Max Weber's ideas about modernization and rationalization, and Charles Tilly's notions of categorical inequality. Results demonstrate that soup plays a part in a complex drama of inclusion and exclusion as people socially construct themselves in print and culinary practice. Elites attempted to define respectable soups by what ingredients they used, and how they prepared, served, and consumed soup. Yet, at the same time, certain soups seemed to defy hierarchical categorization, and that is where this story begins.

Committee: Amílcar Challú (Committee Co-Chair); Francisco Cabanillas (Committee Co-Chair); Amy Robinson (Committee Member); Timothy Messer-Kruse (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Latin American History

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

Since the late 1990s, India has asserted its modernity through a “new middle class” that promises inclusion to all worthy citizens. Yet India's claims to modernity are consistently challenged by trenchant gender, caste, and class inequalities. The figure of the poor, uneducated rural woman marks the limits of Indian modernity. As such, rural young women and their families have become key targets of development programs. This dissertation looks at how families and young women in rural India are responding to new pressures to achieve social mobility and represent the nation. Using ethnographic data from ten months of fieldwork in the Guntur region of south India, I argue that gender, class, and caste are reproduced in distinctive ways, despite the vastness of change associated with modernization in India. I distinguish the current re-articulation of gender, class, and caste inequalities from the formations of the past on the basis of three characteristics: First, though women are becoming more educated, I find that education alone is insufficient to address social inequalities and may even increase disparities. Second, I demonstrate how the transnational migration of elites has transformed social life in Guntur. Lastly, I find that educational privatization has produced a highly stratified educational system that almost perfectly reproduces the class system. My analysis clarifies whether and how rural young women, who are often perceived as the most disadvantaged fraction of Indian society, are able to achieve social mobility.

Committee: Steven Lopez (Committee Chair); Mytheli Sreenivas (Committee Member); Korie Edwards (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Sociology; South Asian Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2016, English

In this project, I undertake a queer Marxist reading of the television series Orphan Black. Specifically, I investigate the portrayal of women and queer characters in order to discover the conflicting dominant and oppositional ideologies circulating in the series. Doing so allows me to reveal cultural anxieties that haunt the series even as it challenges normative power relations. I argue that while Orphan Black's narrative subverts traditional gender roles, critiques heteronormativity, and offers sexually fluid characters, the series still reifies the traditionally ideal Western female body: thin, attractive, legibly gendered, and fertile. I draw on Antonio Gramsci's theory of ideology and hegemony, Heidi Hartman's analysis of Marxism and feminism, and Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity to unpack the series' non-normative depiction of gender and its simultaneous reliance on a stable gender binary. I frame my argument with Todd Gitlin's understanding of hegemony's ability to domesticate radical ideas in television. I argue that Orphan Black imagines spaces and scenarios that offer the potential to liberate women from heteronormative expectations and limit patriarchy's harm. The series privileges a queer female collective and envisions a world where women have freedom from normative conceptions of gender and sexuality. Nevertheless, as I will explain throughout this project, these narrative freedoms come at a cost, as the series domesticates the radical ideas it presents. The series' amalgamation of cultural influences becomes apparent through its inconsistent messages about women's bodies and autonomy. In the series' critique of patriarchal institutions and ideas, it fixates on a specific female body and biological kinship.

Committee: Bill Albertini (Advisor); Kimberly Coates (Committee Member) Subjects: Canadian Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Literature; Mass Media; Philosophy; Womens Studies