MFA, Kent State University, 2017, College of the Arts / School of Art

This essay analyzes the works in Trey D. Gehring's M.F.A.- Textile Arts Thesis Exhibition Musclebound. The writing discusses how this exhibition presents, in the form of woven and knitted works, the male body as a decorative object and proposes that the sculpting of the male body into an idealistic form– suggestive of patriarchal power and extremes of biological maleness– is an intentional act of objectifying one's own body to allow for homosocial bonding within the patriarchal structure that regulates men's homosocial interaction. It further asserts that the digital nature of the processes, imagery, and their underlying reliance on optical mixing emphasize the abstract quality of identity and gender.

Committee: Janice Lessman-Moss MFA (Advisor) Subjects: Art Criticism; Fine Arts; Gender; Gender Studies

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2018, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

Substance abuse disorder is a characterized by the presence of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological symptoms from substance use with continued use despite these consequences. It has serious individual and societal implications, such as negative health effects, overdose, poor work and school performance, negative impacts on relationships, and even death. Economic effects include more frequent use of emergency and hospital services as compared to peers without substance use disorder. A variety of treatments for substance use are available, including inpatient and outpatient programs accompanied by behavioral interventions, individual or group psychotherapy, or 12-step programs. However, there is no one treatment that is effective for all patients, and so exploring alternative treatments continues to be important. Although knitting has existed for centuries, there has been a resurgence in popularity since the early 2000s. This mixed-methods multiple case study evaluated the efficacy of individual knitting lessons to reduce the presence of perceived stress and increase mindfulness during knitting sessions. Five adults participated in a series of individual knitting lessons and provided feedback about their experiences through quantitative assessments and qualitative interviews. Quantitative analysis, both overall and by individual, did not show any significant reductions in perceived stress or increases in mindfulness. Post-intervention interviews revealed that all the participants had generally positive experiences and planned to continue knitting after the conclusion of the study.

Committee: Mark Russell Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Arthur Lewy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Maile Bay Psy.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Mental Health; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2014, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

This dissertation explores needlework and its use as a rhetorically significant meaning- making tool. A term for this phenomenon—“rhetorical needlework”—is proposed and defined through the application of work from several authors, most particularly Robert Herrick. While rhetorical needlework has been the subject of study by many scholars in rhetoric, it has most often been studied as a historical phenomenon. However, there is a great deal of modern craft that fits this definition of rhetorical needlework; thus far, however, it has not had the depth of scholarly attention given to historical work. This dissertation seeks to help remedy this problem. In analyzing this modern rhetorical needlework, this dissertation argues that several areas of knowledge must be combined, including craft, multimodality, and feminist rhetoric. These areas of knowledge are combined through the generation of a heuristic, with which modern rhetorical needlework can then be analyzed. In creating that heuristic, several areas of work are reviewed and synthesized into four main categories: rhetorical, craft, feminist, and multimodal. Pieces consulted in this literature review come from Macdonald, Berners-Lee, Humphreys, Royster and Kirsch, Goggin, Parker, Dasler Johnson, Bratich and Brush, Shipka, Bateman, Glenn, Cixous, Greer, Mattingly, Palmeri, and others. The resulting heuristic consists of thirteen questions that help in reaching a deeper, multifaceted understanding of specific pieces of rhetorical needlework. After it has been generated, the heuristic is then applied to a case study: The Red Sweater Project/redsweaters.org. Using the heuristic helps reveal both why this work succeeds and, potentially, some of the reasons that it went unfinished. Conversely, this application also helps suggest further ways that the heuristic might be developed and applied in future work.

Committee: Sue Carter Wood (Advisor); Kristine Blair (Committee Member); Radhika Gajjala (Committee Member); Vibha Bhalla (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Rhetoric; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, Arts Policy and Administration

The purpose of this thesis is to explore three threads of intertwining interest: knitting, artmaking, and qualitative inquiry. I explore the history of knitting as women's work, a creative outlet, and community activity and from this historical basis I investigate the contemporary role of knitting in women's culture. My contemporary analysis serves as the groundwork for creating a community knitted artwork. I approach this artmaking through mixed arts and feminist based qualitative methodology of A/r/tography and the corresponding methods of Autoethnography and Knitalong. To evaluate this work, I encouraged knitters to read, reflect, and revise the research findings and artmaking processes. I identify areas of resonance, transparency, communicability, and coherence throughout, highlighting ways in which this research can apply to other projects. My goal is to perpetuate knitting, engage in and encourage communal artmaking, and provide a forum for discussion about the role of knitting in the participants lives.

Committee: James Sanders III (Advisor); Candace Stout (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Fine Arts; Textile Research; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2006, Communication Studies

This study examines the ways in which gender is constituted through everyday performances, with a specific focus on knitting. Because knitting has a feminine connotation in the United States, female and male knitters have much different experiences when engaging in this activity and as such, knitting influences the ways that they negotiate their performance of gender in varying ways. Through the theoretical lenses of ethnomethodology and critical gender and communication research, I use autoethnography to investigate my own experience with knitting as a gendering activity; I also use in-depth interviewing to gain insight from five male knitters about how they understand knitting in ways that reify and resist cultural norms. The study suggests that gender performance is a constant negotiation to establish believability or proficiency as masculine/feminine, rather than a static performance that either meets or does not meet the cultural norm of masculine/feminine. The study also offers insight into the often overlooked ways that we transgress gendered norms in our everyday lives.

Committee: John Warren (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2007, Family and Consumer Sciences-Clothing, Textiles and Interiors

The latest revival of knitting, which began around the year 2000, is part of a history of hand-crafts revivals occurring over the last 150 years. What sets the current revival apart from its predecessors is the use of knitting in the larger context of Progressive social and political activism. The revival has its roots in the social movements that began in the 1960s (feminism, ecology, civil rights, and anti-war) that became permanent though often unrecognized fixtures of Western culture and thought. As part of the larger Post-Modern world, activist knitters in the twenty-first century have continued their advocacy of human rights and the peace movement and have further championed a broad spectrum of social justice and ecological causes. The communication revolution afforded by the World-Wide Web has allowed like-minded individuals to connect and participate in a grassroots movement largely unrecognized and unreported by corporate media, leading knitting to become a personal and collective symbol of both empowerment and dissent as well as a tactic of protest.

Committee: Virginia Gunn (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts