Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, English (Arts and Sciences)

In this project, I propose and develop normative masculine ideology as a generative rhetorical construct in order to reinvigorate Rhetoric and Composition's engagement with issues of masculinities and to contribute to the field's emerging scholarship on rhetorical embodiment from a gendered lens. This research addresses our field's lack of functional/critical frameworks required to adequately address and challenge traditionalist ideologies that still influence our cultural understanding and practices of modern masculinity. As an (orienting) construct, normative masculine ideology provides scholars of Rhetoric and Composition with a functional term that complements their critical/cultural frameworks. As a rhetorical construct, normative masculine ideology incorporates social-epistemic rhetorics, gendered rhetorical embodiment, and Discourse to expand its utility into critical and liberatory work. As a generative construct, normative masculine ideology provides new inroads for inquiries into masculinities as a rhetorical project. Challenging and changing the deeply entrenched cultural myths that produce inequitable social, societal, micro- and macro-political relations is not only possible, it is necessary. This project stands as one effort toward such social justice progress.

Committee: Mara Holt (Committee Chair) Subjects: Composition; Gender

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Arts and Sciences: Sociology

Visualizations of Black males have transfixed the minds of laypersons and scholars for hundreds of years. Yet, while diverse Black boys and men are hyper-visible in contemporary U.S. films, scholars still utilize a deficit perspective when analyzing their representations and argue that they are overwhelmingly depicted in deleterious, disparaging, and stereotypical ways. Scholarship on the impacts of such representations assumes a link between negative portrayals and negative outcomes. Much less attention has been given to the potential benefits of more nuanced and positive portrayals of Black characters on the lives of everyday Black men. Moreover, such limitations means that we know surprisingly little about how audiences of Black males interpret their on-screen equivalents as related to their own understandings of who they are. Drawing on qualitative data from in-depth individual and focus group interviews with 51 Black men from across the United States with varied social locations, I examine how they (re)negotiate race, masculinity, and personhood with respect to the Black cinematic characters they consume. Relying on foundations in Black Male Studies, conceptualizations of Black males and masculinity, and Collins Black feminist thought, I develop the theory of Black Masculine Thought to understand how Black men decode Black male characters in film. More specifically, the findings reveal three main strategies that the men use to decode their on-screen counterparts. First, while they acknowledge the existence stereotypical portrayals, they either deflect them as unimportant, or they actively resist them by reconsidering the characters in complex, humanizing ways. Second, they approach Black men in film as sources of social representation or identification. They see themselves in a range of characters and use them as inspiration for their own lives—especially instances where characters persevere through struggle. Finally, they are especially attuned to, and inspire (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Annulla Linders Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Earl Wright II Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ronald Jackson II Ph.D. (Committee Member); Omotayo Banjo Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Political Science

How is peace experienced by everyday people after armed conflict? What on-the-ground stories do people tell themselves about continuing violences after war has ended? This dissertation represents a sustained intervention in the ways political science typically theorizes peace, developing an everyday ontology of peace which accounts for the persistence of everyday violences and the justifications for those violences across communities affected by the dual wakes of conflict and colonialism. I build a case that (1) our existing ontologies of peace in International Relations (IR) are essentially reverse, if not empty, ontologies of war, and (2) that even recent efforts to thematize peace as something more than the absence of conflict fail to address the central roles that gender and gendered subjectivities play in the lived realities of peace. Bringing postcolonial feminist theories to bear on the entanglements between gender, violence, and colonial durabilities after war, I unravel the stories of people who are trying to make sense of violence in the midst of recovering from it, where individuals carry hope and fear and peace and violence together in the same embrace. Using an interpretive storytelling methodology across two case studies—Northern Ireland and Burundi—I show how attention towards ‘good guy' logics of masculinist protection in the post-conflict space reveals distinct, gendered attachments to violence which are often recognized as part of the peace story by people living in the aftermath of war. Ultimately, an everyday ontology of peace illuminates both violent peaces, or peaces which are marked by routine, everyday violences, and peaceful violences, or violences which are invoked in the name of peace. From this everyday ontology of peace, I make the case that efforts to both understand and build peace must examine gender's centrality to human socialization and interpersonal relationships, and further, the coloniality of gender's role in constructing possi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jennifer Mitzen (Committee Chair); Ines Valdez (Committee Member); Christopher Gelpi (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; International Relations; Peace Studies; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, English

Ready, Player Juan utilizes an interdisciplinary approach centering Latinx studies in conversation with video game, gender, film, and performance studies to analyze themes of borders, whiteness, and criminality. I combine US Latinx cultural and media studies with lived experience to conduct close readings of how developers include Latinxs. Instead of characters who generate identificatory connections with the player via complex narrative, Latinxs manifest through an amalgam of stereotypes I call Player Juan. Latinxs appear as mostly non-player characters (NPCs) whose identities are based in discourse accepted as “truths” by AAA game developers who are mostly white men (≈ 85%). Player Juan takes inspiration from Shira Chess' Ready, Player Two which argues how male developers include women not based on lived experiences, but on perceptions about their play which creates the designed identity Player Two. Thus, my term equates to a framework challenging how AAA games include Latinxs through stereotypes and discourse. I begin recounting personal connections to video games, Loteria (Mexican Bingo), and storytelling to examine cultural lessons in games. The introduction engages Christopher Gonzalez's Permissible Narratives and how audience expectations dictate what is and is not permissible for Latinxs telling their stories through literature. The idea of permissibility weaves throughout this study as game developers continue to limit the permissibility of non-White identities, especially Latinx identities. I posit video games are borders through an examination of stereotypes in popular game titles, such as Tomb Raider: Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Red Dead Redemption 2, and The Last of Us 2. As an example, I theorize “crossing” to argue how players cross into games and how players can cross with or through characters they play or interact with. For example, players cross through Latinx characters and cultures in the introductions to Tomb (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paloma Martinez-Cruz (Advisor); Frederick Aldama (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Ethnic Studies; Gender; Latin American Studies; Literature; Mass Media; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Performing Arts

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2021, Mass Communication (Communication)

This study examines Southern African masculinities in the digital age of #MenAreTrash and #AmINext? This study is a multi-sited digital ethnography which focuses on Twitter and YouTube as field sites. A cyber-womanist framework is used to explore social activism on digital media platforms. The hashtags #MenAreTrash and #AmINext? are concurrent social media campaigns created by women in South Africa to create awareness about gender-based violence. Thus, this study investigates the conceptualization of GBV as articulated by various womxn and men on Twitter and YouTube. The discourse on YouTube includes the documentary film The People vs. Patriarchy and select episodes of The Big Debate. The methodology includes a Thematic Analysis of the audiovisual data and the hashtags related to gender disparities, violence, and femicide. Women are collectively creating a space on social networking sites to critique societal norms and cis-heteronormative cultures. Twitter gives agency to women across Southern Africa as they participate in discussions that center on politics, socio-economic disparities, and violence. This project argues that #MenAreTrash and #AmINext? campaigns as discussed on Twitter and YouTube are resistant measures set as counter-narratives to the normative patriarchal system set in place in South Africa.

Committee: Saumya Pant (Committee Chair); J.W. Smith (Committee Member); Steve Howard (Committee Member); Edna Wangui (Committee Member) Subjects: Mass Communications; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2021, Foundations of Education

This research is an attempt to answer two calls: (1) Betty A. Reardon's (2019a) call to move her work forward, and (2) Tony Jenkins and Betty A. Reardon's (2007) call for the study of masculinities within a peace education, human rights frame using a feminist scholarship and pedagogical perspective. The amalgamation of the two calls inferred the need to query Reardon's current and historical publications and her verbal communications for contemporary feminist thought. Inductive Textual Analysis was applied in examining Reardon's career-long academic work for correlations with four specific theories. It was induced that three of the four theories—human wholeness, democratic equality egalitarianism, and the capabilities approach—were basic to Reardon's scholarship; however, the fourth theory—intersectionality—was an outlier. It was subsequently deduced that the theory of intersectionality should be added to the pedagogical model in two areas—Masculinities Studies and the action and assessment components of Reardon's (2010) pedagogy of engagement for social transformation. The projected combination of pedagogical theory and praxis also includes a focus on the current activism in the area of transformative masculinities with the goal of working towards the interdependence that is requisite for gender equality.

Committee: Dale Snauwaert Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lynne Hamer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Fuad Al-Daraweesh Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jamie Barlowe Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Philosophy; Peace Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2020, Counseling Psychology

Traditional masculinity ideology and conformity to specific masculine norms have been associated with dozens of negative outcomes, including increased depression, violent behavior, and low esteem (O'Neil, 2012). Gender conceptions can also be positively constructed in men to resist traditional masculine norms (Smiler, 2014; Way et al., 2014). Meanwhile, hundreds of studies have linked religion and spirituality to positive outcomes, including increased life satisfaction and life expectancy (Plante & Thoresen, 2012), but few studies have examined masculinity and religiousness or spirituality (Ward & Cook, 2011). The current study examined how Catholic men's religious identities interact with their conceptions of gender and masculinities. In this mixed qualitative study using grounded theory and content analysis, a mixed theoretical and methodological framework was used to investigate what it means to be a Catholic man. Participants were 12 cisgender, middle class, heterosexual, emerging adult, Roman Catholic men from Northeast Ohio and were given questionnaires (e.g., the Inventory of Subjective Masculinity Experiences) and semi-structured interviews. Results illuminate how religious identities and gender conceptions interact to construct self-conceptions similar to and different from how masculine norms have been previously operationalized in the literature. Emerging categories included patterns of responses related to self-improvement, selflessness, and leadership. Implications for theory, health, and practice are discussed including how Catholic men's constructions of what it means to be a man may be related to health and well-being outcomes.

Committee: Ronald Levant EdD (Committee Co-Chair); Margo Gregor PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Ingrid Weigold PhD (Committee Member); John Queener PhD (Committee Member); Robert Peralta PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Counseling Psychology; Gender; Gender Studies; Psychology; Psychotherapy; Religion; Social Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

From the medieval era to the 1950s, European and Euro-American cultures often accused Jews of “deviant” masculinity—asserting that Jewish men lack penises or even menstruate, while deeming Jewish women “mannish.” These masculine stereotypes reinforced the racial stigma on Jews, who were often deemed nonwhite or not-quite-white “Asiatics,” “Semites,” or “Orientals” until the 1950s. Although (light-skinned) American Jews are usually considered white today, debates linger about where Jews “fit” racially—for example, when the 2017 Charlottesville neo-Nazi rally chanted “Jews will not replace us.” These questions link with ongoing stereotypes of deviant Jewish masculinity, like media images of nebbishy Jewish men or aggressive Jewish women. Yet feminist scholarship on race and masculinity often overlooks Jews by conflating them with white gentiles. And despite the masculine stigmas on Jewish women, studies on Jewish masculinity tend to examine only men. Likewise, Jewish studies rarely analyzes how anti-Semitic ideas about race or masculinity impact Jews of color. These gaps limit analysis of Jews and race even as anti-Semitism regains public attention in the United States and Europe. Millennial Jewish Stars: Masculinity, Racial Ambiguity, and Public Allure fills these gaps by examining six young Jewish stars in the U.S. media: the mixed-race rapper Drake, comedic rapper Lil Dicky, film actors Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, and TV comedy duo Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer. I study how these stars repackage historical notions of Jewish race and masculinity to comment on white male supremacy. In turn, these cultural commentaries fuel each star's appeal. Using a “star studies” methodology, I analyze each star's performances (films, TV shows, music videos, stand-up sets, and podcasts) alongside interviews, social media posts, and publicity materials. I advance Jewish, feminist, queer, and critical race studies by showing that the racial position of American Jews is best studie (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Linda Mizjewski (Advisor); Shannon Winnubst (Committee Member); M. Joseph Ponce (Committee Member); Laura Levitt (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender Studies; Judaic Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Educational Studies

This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the relationship between manhood, mindset and academic achievement among a sample of Black undergraduate men across nine higher education institutions. Two primary research questions guided the investigation: (a) What is the factor structure and model fit of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory-46 (CMNI-46) and mindset scale for a sample of Black college men; and (b) What is the relationship between manhood, mindset, and college grade point average (GPA), controlling for high school GPA, parents' education level, and family income level? Confirmatory factor analysis of data from 145 Black college men supported the 3-item mindset measurement and the elimination of four of the nine CMNI-46 (Parent & Moradi, 2009) subscales (risk-taking, violence, playboy, primacy of work). This resulted in an abbreviated five-scale, 27-item, CMNI with improved model fit. A series of regression analyses between manhood, mindset and participants' college GPA offered several findings. High school GPA and mindset both significantly predicted Black males' conformity to traditional manhood. Specifically, higher levels of high school achievement and growth mindset were negatively associated with Black males' conformity to masculine norms. The relationships between manhood and college GPA and mindset and college GPA were not statistically significant; however, Black men with higher high school GPAs reported significantly higher college cumulative GPAs. In addition to findings, implications for theory, research, practice, and policy are considered.

Committee: Susan Jones Ph.D. (Advisor); Natasha Bowen Ph.D. (Committee Member); Marc Johnston-Guerrero Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

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

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2016, College of Education and Human Services

Men teachers are not present in early childhood classrooms for many reasons, despite recruitment efforts. Many men who do choose to follow this feminized career path find themselves positioned as tokens and often quickly leave for administration. Informed by a three-dimensional narrative inquiry approach this research utilized identity and masculinities paradigms to investigate the experiences of veteran men teaching young children. A series of four interviews was used to explore and describe the individual professional life history of participants. The narratives of Frank, Jerry, and George provide a deeper understanding of how men negotiate identity and construct masculinities over time in early childhood education. Findings suggest a critical mass of men teachers can lead to their acceptance in early childhood education while augmenting the male privilege they receive. Themes emerging from the study offer paths for improving the recruitment and retention of men in early childhood education and continuing the discussion of gender and power in the workplace.

Committee: Dinah Volk Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Anne Galletta Ph.D. (Committee Member); Brian Harper Ph.D. (Committee Member); Karl Wheatley Ph.D. (Committee Member); Megan Hatch Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Gender; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation analyzes the intersections between authority, culture, and citizenships in Nicaragua during the thirties and early forties of the twentieth century. I study such intersections in the positionality of three important sectors of Nicaraguan society: the intellectuals of the Movimiento Reaccionario, the organized catholic citizenships, and the National Guard. I analyze the discourses that these groups advertised publicly contributing to the sedimentation of a colonialist, a catholic and a masculine patron of authority. In order to analyze how governmental models results from reasoning about the relationships between authority and culture; I first analyze the thoughts of Movimiento Reaccionario, a cultural group conformed by catholic intellectual men. Second, I examine the geopolitical and gender position of this cultural group. With respect to the Movimiento Reaccionario, I argue that it is empathy and compromise with the extension of a colonial patron of authority in the formation of a national culture. Secondly, I locate a strong masculine position as the sign that produces history, culture, and society. I deepened the study of Reaccionarian positionality focusing in one of its leading and most prolific intellectuals: Pablo Antonio Cuadra. In the second part of the dissertation, I analyze the links between Catholicism and Nation and its effects in the configuration of citizenships. The archives used in this research are catholic culture magazines published in Nicaragua in the late thirties and early forties. The links between Catholicism and Nation created regulatory ideals that configured citizenships. Clericals and ecclesiastic agencies, masculine and feminine, defined the nation as catholic. Therefore, it was imperative to produce bodies on which such cultural signs were reflected. Last, I question the usefulness National Guard as a field of configuration of masculine citizenships to the national project. Such project began once the North America (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ileana Rodriguez PhD (Advisor); Fernando Unzueta PhD (Committee Chair); Laura Podalsky PhD (Committee Member); Juan Zevallos PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies

MA, Kent State University, 2010, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Against the tide of continuing deindustrialization and the decline of the male “breadwinner,” how do men in the Midwest continue to construct masculine identities? This study aims to address this question by examining the masculine social context of recreational fishing in Ohio. Recreational fishing is a widely- popular activity for men and an important contributor to our local and state economies. Using qualitative, ethnographic methods of in-depth interviews and participant observation, I find that fishing is a unique non-work context in which men reconstruct and negotiate their masculinity. Previous research on masculinity confirms that men are increasingly drawing upon their recreational or other unpaid activities in order to feel like and to be seen as men/masculine. Through fishing, men can participate in a masculine environment that is not exclusive by age, class, employment, or ability. Men who fish demonstrate their masculine selves through controlling nature, eliciting deference from others, and by feeling efficacious in pursuing and catching fish. This study contributes to our understanding of masculinity by examining a understudied context that includes a wider variety of men than traditional studies of athletic team sports. It shows how men's non-work activities can serve as cultural shock absorbers in times of gender crisis. It debunks the myth of fishing as a solitary act and sheds light on how men use nature and animals (i.e. fish) for their own masculinity projects.

Committee: Clare L. Stacey PhD (Committee Chair); Joanna Dreby PhD (Committee Member); C. Andre Christie-Mizell PhD (Committee Member) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2012, Sociology

I use the Fragile Families data to examine multiple forms of masculinity at a key life-course event: the transition into fatherhood. My theoretical framework integrates mainstream sociological and critical gender perspectives developing a new typology with three forms of masculinity: generative, traditional, and marginalized. Generative masculinity is the modal response among fathers. Marginalized masculinity is the most heterogenous concerning men's characteristics. Traditional masculinity resembles generative in terms of demographic and attitude measures, but traditional fathers are wealthier. I employ multinomial logistic regression techniques comparing men across types of masculinity finding significant differences in relationship status, education, personal income, demographic and attitude controls. Higher education and more stable relationship status increase the likelihood of being generative supporting the critical gender perspective. However, the finding that higher personal income increases the likelihood of being traditional supports the mainstream sociological perspective. The critical gender perspective improves the mainstream sociological perspective by acknowledging alternative forms of masculinity resulting from socioeconomic, demographic, and attitude differences in men.

Committee: Laura Sanchez (Committee Chair); I-Fen Lin (Committee Member); Wendy Manning (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Gender; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2007, American Culture Studies/Popular Culture

This study examines the folklore produced by the Boy Scout summer camp staff members at Camp Lakota during the summers of 2002 and 2003, including songs, skits, and stories performed both in front of campers as well as “behind the scenes.” I argue that this particular subgroup within the Boy Scouts of America orders and passes on a particular constellation of masculinities to the younger Scouts through folklore while the staff are simultaneously attempting to pass as masculine themselves. The complexities of this situation—trying to pass on what one has not fully acquired, and thus must only pass as—result in an ordering of masculinities which includes performances of what I call taking a pass on received masculinities. The way that summer camp staff members cope with their precarious situation is by becoming tradition creators and bearers, that is, by acquiescing to their position in the hegemonizing process. It is my contention that hegemonic hetero-patriarchal masculinity is maintained by partially ordered subjects who engage in rather complex passings with various masculinities.

Committee: Joe Austin (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2009, Sociology

This thesis is an ethnographic case study of an independent men's group in a small mid-western city which claims no affiliation with any organized faction of the men's movement. It is groups such as this that I contend make up the grass-roots of the men's movement. The intent of my research was to understand why White, middle-aged, middle-class, heterosexual men (or middlers) seek the homosocial support of a men's group. I approach this question in two ways. First, I describe what benefits the men hope to gain through their participation in the group. Secondly, I explain how the setting of the men's group provides these benefits. I also examine whether, and in what ways these men are resisting or reinforcing the patriarchal structure that affords them the privileged status they enjoy as a result of their ascribed status characteristics. Data for this study includes field notes from fifteen months of participant observation in conjunction with face-to-face interviews with the eight men who comprise the “core” group members. Analysis of the data reveals that these men seek a time and place in which to periodically relieve themselves of the burdens of the self-presentation that accompanies hegemonic masculinity. The men's group provides a place where the men feel emotionally safe in presenting what they consider to be their “true selves” by normalizing activities such as self-disclosure iv and emotional expression, and through strict adherence to mutual promises of confidentiality. The increased intimacy that results from these practices creates a sense of gendered community that minimizes gender role conflict and dissonance in gendered social identity while increasing social self esteem through mutual support of men's personal masculinity. In short, group participation helps men feel good about being men and perhaps remedies (in part) the isolation men feel in the larger world. However, the men's apparent inability to feel safe engaging in these practices outside of t (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kathy Feltey PhD (Advisor) Subjects: Social Psychology; Sociology