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

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

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

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, EDU Teaching and Learning

This dissertation is a conglomerate of three distinct, yet related, studies each exploring the question: How do the gendered experiences of a man elementary school teacher as well as portrayals of fictional men teachers in middle-grade novels contribute to the conceptualization of the gendered identities and masculinities of men who teach in the predominantly female environment of an elementary school? The first study is a content analysis of 85 middle-grade school stories using gender theory to analyze the gendered identities of 357 fictional teachers across the text set. In this analysis, I found that 40.34% of these 357 fictional teachers were constructed as men, with no transgender or nonbinary teachers in the text set. Over 90% of the teachers were constructed as White, and when they had an identified sexuality, they were most likely to be heterosexual, with only four teachers constructed as homosexual. Men teachers were most likely to be portrayed teaching P.E. or after-school classes. The teaching roles they were most likely to be shown performing included the delivery of content, the disciplining of students, and the daily management of the classroom. They were more likely than women teachers to be portrayed as fun and to give their students life advice. The second study in the dissertation is another content analysis with a much smaller text set, this time comprised of 10 middle-grade books. In this second analysis, I employ masculinity theory to examine various patterns of masculinity in the portrayals of 10 fictional teachers, each constructed as a man. In this analysis, I found that most of the fictional men teachers were constructed as successfully navigating between hegemonic and subordinate masculinities. At the same time, half of the teachers also operate to an extent within marginalized masculinities, two as gay men, two as Latinx men, and one as a Black man. These portrayals promote some gendered stereotypes of men teachers, specifically portra (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Linda Parsons (Advisor); Petros Panaou (Committee Member); Lisa Pinkerton (Committee Member); Jonda McNair (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Gender; Gender Studies; Literature

PHD, Kent State University, 2007, College of Education, Health, and Human Services / Department of Adult, Counseling, Health and Vocational Education

Within the broad and multidisciplinary field of men's studies, the exploration of men's issues in counseling is one focus. The purpose of this study was to begin to develop a new model for understanding men's issues in counseling which included increased recognition of diversity, consideration of both internal and external influences, and the concept of multiple masculinities. Participants in the study included 6 African-American and 6 Caucasian men between the ages of 19 and 92 years and representing both low and high incomes. The researcher interviewed each of the men 3 times in a process of theory development based on the Grounded Theory Method proposed by Corbin and Strauss (1990). Results of the study included the development of a new model for conceptualizing men's issues in counseling. According to this grounded model, men are adaptable in their expression of masculinities. Masculinities are defined by flexible adaptations of the masculine self over time and within multiple contexts. The range of potential adaptation of a man's masculinities is based on exposure to multiple models of masculinity and intrapsychic factors. The flexibility of adaptability in a given situation is tempered by perceived responsibility for others. Additional findings are also discussed. The experiences of African-American participants pointed to the importance of religion and suggested coping skills that have developed in response to racial discrimination, including maintaining a cautious stance and going around dangerous situations. The experiences of all participants suggested the value of the interview process for raising gender consciousness and personal awareness. Finally, the men in the study suggested that they maintain some deep connections with other men through straight talk and teasing. Implications of the model include the importance of research focus on the process of enacting masculinity, inclusion of men's issues within the framework of multicultural competency in cou (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Betsy Page (Committee Co-Chair); Jason McGlothlin (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Education, Guidance and Counseling

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Theatre and Film

In my dissertation, “‘What a Man': The Crisis of Masculinity on the Broadway Musical Stage,” I examine masculinity represented within new, popular, and award-winning Broadway musical productions as a telling example of contemporary culture in the United States. I explore how masculinity is specifically constructed in five productions and how these representations potentially subvert the societal expectations for masculine performance. Through archival research, close reading of the texts and performances, and qualitative interviews with seventeen members of the original productions, I argue that these musicals specifically and intentionally offer alternative views of masculinity that potentially pave the way to end the binary rigidity captured in what masculinity scholars have deemed the “crisis of masculinity.” This crisis addresses the current sociopolitical moment in which men in Western society that are expected to perform their gender in line with one of two binary archetypes: the hypermasculine strong man or the non-masculine effeminate, in actuality, do not fall into either category. The productions I consider, in order of their openings, are Spring Awakening by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater; The Book of Mormon by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone; Kinky Boots by Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein; Hamilton: An American Musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda; and Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson. I draw on theoretical insights from scholars including Fintan Walsh, Michael Kimmel, Judith Butler, Stacy Wolf, and Barbara Herrnstein Smith to ground my work in current disciplinary conversations about gender, performativity, and musical theatre. My chapters explore how traditional qualities of masculinity are performed through these musicals in ways that nevertheless actively grapple with the crisis and challenge representations found in their predecessors. Overall, my aim is to provide insight into how musical theatre has, in recent y (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lesa Lockford Ph.D. (Advisor); Jeffrey Miner Ph.D. (Other); Jonathan Chambers Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Ellison Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, American Culture Studies

In late 2014 the mainstream press reported about a far-right movement that sought to discredit feminist, anti-racist, and trans-inclusive interventions in the video games industry, its products, and its consumer culture. Called GamerGate by its devotees, the movement began when American game designer Zoe Quinn weathered public harassment after her ex-boyfriend published a five-part essay falsely alleging she had sex with a game journalist to collect a positive review for her game Depression Quest. GamerGate activists launched a smear campaign against Quinn but attempted to absolve themselves of harassment by rebranding the movement as a game consumer revolt against unethical journalists and leftist academics. Almost five years later, GamerGate continues to grow in membership on its official subreddit, /r/KotakuInAction, which is a self-governed community hosted on the popular discussion forum-based social media platform Reddit. Shortly after /r/KotakuInAction materialized, a conscientious objector created the pro-feminist /r/GamerGhazi to resist GamerGate. Despite Reddit's massive user base, its 1.2 million subreddits, and its ubiquity in American culture, it remains an underexplored space in the academic literature. Academics have neither adequately addressed Reddit's role in promoting far-right communities like /r/KotakuInAction, nor the efficacy of using Reddit as a space for staging feminist resistance to such communities. Drawing from feminist epistemology, intersectionality, and masculinity studies, this dissertation investigates /r/KotakuInAction and /r/GamerGhazi's use of the Reddit interface—most particularly its upvoting and downvoting mechanic—to shape debates around feminism and critical race issues in American culture. The research is based on data collected over the course of six months from discussion threads on each subreddit, subreddit wiki documents, and the video game Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Using a mixed methods approach defined by textu (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Radhika Gajjala Dr. (Committee Chair); Sandra Faulkner Dr. (Committee Member); Timothy Messer-Kruse Dr. (Committee Member); Laura Landry-Meyer Dr. (Other) Subjects: American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2016, English

Advocacy for the rights of undocumented migrants and members of the LGBT community have emerged as defining social justice movements in the early 21st century in the U.S. In both movements, citizenship has been invoked as a legal category of particular concern, the first advocating for a pathway to documented status leading to citizenship and the second asserting that denying same-sex couples the right to marry renders gay and lesbian communities second-class citizens. This dissertation uses the contemporary deployment of citizenship as point of departure, arguing against understandings of the category as defined by inclusivity. Exclusion, I argue, is a defining trait of citizenship, one that allows us to reorient considerations of cultural and legal membership in the U.S. Rather than considering citizenship as the site where disenfranchisement is resolved, I use the failures of citizenship as an analytical point of departure guided not by an interest in citizenship as a site of justice, but instead as a legal institution that insists on the impossibility of non-normative identity categories. In doing so, I turn my attention to legal, historical, and/or literary moments where our commitment to citizenship has failed to ascertain rights for queer and migrant communities. To interrogate the limits of citizenship, I analyze works by gay Chicano writers where I locate historical intersections of queer and migrant narratives that attend to depicting the limitations of citizenship. In each chapter, I pair a novel with a historical context that function as a legal setting for the disenfranchisement of queer migrant people. The first chapter considers the impossibility of culturally or legally identifying as citizen in John Rechy's iconic City of Night in the context of anti-sodomy laws upheld in Bowers v. Hardwick. In the second, I analyze the retroactive criminalization of queer identity in The Rain God by Arturo Islas in the legal context of Boutilier v. Immigration an (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stefanie Dunning Dr. (Committee Co-Chair); Julie Minich Dr. (Committee Co-Chair); Madelyn Detloff Dr. (Committee Member); Anita Mannur Dr. (Committee Member); Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr. Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; American Studies; Ethnic Studies; Gender Studies; Hispanic American Studies; Legal Studies; Literature; Minority and Ethnic Groups

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

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2022, History

Hockey holds a central place in Canadian national identity. Despite the traditional dominance of Canadian teams in the pre-war and immediately post-war years, European nations such as the USSR, Sweden, and Czechoslovakia developed their hockey programs quickly in the post-war years, challenging Canadian dominance, and thus jeopardizing, in the eyes of Canadians, one of the most central aspects of their national culture. This loss of hockey supremacy compounded an already challenging period in which Canadians struggled to define what it meant to be Canadian in the US-led Cold War world. This thesis examines the Canadian cultural dynamics of Canadian participation in international hockey competitions during the 1960s and 1970s. These tournaments and exhibition tours played against foreign teams were commonly detailed by the Canadian press using no uncertain terms to express their contempt for their opponents. This thesis suggests the public focus on international hockey during this period reflects the uncertainty of Canadian culture and politics at home. Faced with trouble defining Canadian national identity in the Cold War world, Canadians looked to their national sport as a means of reaffirming their identity, rooted in northern masculine toughness and “Canadianness.” This work uses sports periodicals from the period between 1955 and 1975, to assess the shifting attitudes towards Canadian hockey in international competitions, and how Canadians viewed themselves in relation to the wider Cold War world when confronted with a domestic cultural crisis. This work expands on the diligent work of scholars of Canadian culture and those in the expanding subfield of hockey studies by providing a look at the thoughts of Canadians, and how their attitudes towards hockey reflect their attitudes towards Canadian culture.

Committee: Benjamin Greene Ph.D (Advisor); Rebecca Mancuso Ph.D (Committee Member) Subjects: Canadian History; Canadian Studies; History

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, English (Arts and Sciences)

WISLAND KIRK E, Ph.D., April 2022, English The Long Road Director of Dissertation: Eric LeMay The dissertation is comprised of two sections—a critical introduction titled “Pinning the Butterfly: Masculinity, Queerspawn, and the Living Elegy” and a book manuscript titled The Long Road. In “Pinning the Butterfly: Masculinity, Queerspawn and the Living Elegy,” Wisland explores the concept of “Queerspawn” and the genre of Queerspawn Memoir, seen in the nonfiction works of Abigail Garner, Alison Bechdel, Alysia Abbott, Susan Cheever, Alison Wearing, Gregory Martin, Stefan Lynch, Meema Spadola, Ariel Chesler and Jenny Gangloff-Rain. Based on his reading of these texts, Wisland elucidates five universal elements common to the Queerspawn Memoir: “Timestamp,” “Discovery,” “Otherness and Stigma,” “Secrecy and Silence,” and “Coming Out as Queerspawn”. He argues for the classification of Queerspawn Memoir as a genre within creative nonfiction as demonstrated by the above authors and his own work. He further identifies an additional subgenre of the Queerspawn Memoir—HIV Elegies—before noting that his own dissertation is an “Elegy for a Life Unlived,” a rare, tragic case that applies to the small band of long-term HIV survivors from his father's generation of gay men. On a chilly October night in 1986, Kirk Wisland's father shared earth-shattering news across a table in a crowded Wendy's restaurant: he, and his partner Dave, were HIV-positive. While shocking, this news was hardly surprising. HIV had been ravaging the gay community for years already, and fourteen-year-old Kirk mutely absorbed this news, and the expected short-term horizon of his father's life. Kirk's father starts setting grim calendars for the future: I want to make it to see your high school graduation. Fast-forward seventeen years, and Kirk's father, now a long-term HIV survivor living in Alaska, arrives in Minneapolis in mid-July at the helm of a motorhome, to begin a thirteen-day journey to San (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eric LeMay (Committee Chair); Paul Jones (Committee Member); Patrick O'Keefe (Committee Member); Vincent Jungkunz (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Individual and Family Studies; Literature; Modern Literature; Personal Relationships

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, History

Throughout the first twenty years of television's history, the programs that aired simultaneously reflected and shaped American society based upon sets of values and ideals, specifically regarding gender roles. While the representation of women deviated from the traditional femininity of the idyllic housewife to career-oriented individuals, the portrayal of men increasingly reinforced traditional or hegemonic; masculine traits and core values via the depiction of strong, manly protagonists. Even as masculinity shifted against the backdrop of the Cold War from rugged individualism to gentle yet stern breadwinners for families, television series continued to reaffirm the desire of men to acquire their manhood by fitting into the ever- changing mold. The three television programs of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966), and Star Trek (1966-1969) each demonstrate different facets of masculinity in different contexts. The Twilight Zone uses the genre of horror to visually present men's fears of never obtaining manhood via the punishment of unmanly men. The Dick Van Dyke Show employs situational comedy as a means of reestablishing men within the home as the heads of the household. Star Trek, through the genre of science-fiction, displays traditional masculinity and its values holding firm in a futuristic society.

Committee: Nishani Frazier (Advisor); Erik Jensen (Committee Member); Kerry Hegarty (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; History; Modern History; Motion Pictures

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

BA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Through a combination of queer and feminist criticism, masculinity has been proven to have an ever-changing definition, one based on historical time and sociocultural influences. Throughout the Victorian era, only a certain form of manhood had social hegemony; this sense of masculinity stressed delicacy and a stately manner of sophistication that exceeded the ability of the lower classes to attain. Unfortunately for the Victorians, their definition of masculinity would soon be linked with effeminacy and the controversy surrounding the Oscar Wilde trials of the 1890s. Therefore, by the turn of the new century, masculinity was in a crisis. What ensued from this uncertainty was a radical redefinition of manhood. As the Victorians' hold on hegemonic masculinity faltered, the middle class began to cast off what they saw as a restrictive and effeminate manhood. Public institutions to the populace itself all began promoting heartiness of character and virility as proper characteristics of a man. With the outbreak of World War One, this new definition of manhood was only cemented further by its appropriation into war propaganda. Britain, German, and American propaganda all used their countries' new robust forms of manhood, radicalizing it in order to lure young men into enlisting. But the realities of the war broke this illusion of masculinity, leaving a generation of men destroyed; subsequently, a distinct sect of anti-war literature developed in in all three countries that sought to expose the destruction caused by this hypermasculine war lie. Through the use of historicism, critical theory, and literary analysis, I argue that America's Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, Germany's All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque, and the war poetry of Britain's Wilfred Own are all literary pieces of social dissent. Each author writes about the war, or war experience, that destabilizes the hegemonic form of masculinity used before and during the war, producing works of c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kevin Floyd Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Suzanne Holt Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kimberly Winebrenner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Charlene Schauffler M.A. (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative Literature; Gender Studies; History; Literature; World History

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2015, English

This thesis attempts to illustrate how war video games deploy their rules and mechanics to rhetorically reinforce or reconfigure the male-gendered (hyper-)masculine player-subject. Because video games enable player-subjects to interactively take part in simulations of war, video games have rhetorical power that scholars, video game developers, and players must learn to critically harness in order to tell imaginative narratives that value peace over violence. Split into three chapters, this thesis critically examines what I believe constitutes a small representative sample of influential or potentially influential war video games. The first chapter argues that the Gears of War series of video games reinforces the traditional hyper-masculine subject of war with a xenophobic narrative that glorifies violence against a feminized and reified enemy threat. By contrast, the second chapter argues that the Mass Effect series of video games responds to this violence by more imaginatively reconfiguring the masculine subject of war through its encouragement of diplomacy instead of aggression. The third and final chapter argues that the independently-produced September 12 and This War of Mine both further reconfigure and ultimately redefine the masculine subject of war by enabling the player to embody the subject positions of multiple civilians adversely affected by war. The thesis comes to the conclusion that critical video game studies must seek to access larger portions of the video gaming population in order to shift the public's demand toward narratives of peace that nonetheless entertain.

Committee: Kimberly Coates PhD (Advisor); Kristine Blair PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Literature

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2015, Theatre

In this dissertation, I argue for the dandy as a spectral force haunting contemporary masculinity. Using the framework of Derridean hauntology, I posit that certain contemporary performances of masculinity engage with discourses of dandyism, and that such performances open up a space for the potential expression of a masculine identity founded on an alterity to hegemonic gender norms. The basis for this alterity derives from the philosophical underpinnings of dandyism as articulated by its most prominent nineteenth century theorizers. As a result, I divide my study into two halves: the first focuses on a close reading of texts by Balzac, d'Aurevilly, and Baudelaire; the second centers on three case studies illustrating the spectral nature of dandiacal performance in relationship to contemporary masculinity. Chapter One establishes the framework for my argument, articulating the way in which both nineteenth century French philosophical dandyism and Derrida's concept of hauntology, particularly his “three things of the thing” (mourning, language, and work), serves to structure the rest of the study. Chapters, Two, Three, and Four, which constitute Part I, provide close readings of texts by Balzac, d'Aurevilly, and Baudelaire, respectively. Chapters Five, Six, and Seven form Part II, and consist of individual case studies examining the spectral traces of dandyism in performances of masculinity by three contemporary celebrities. Chapter Five takes as its subject the self-proclaimed dandy Sebastian Horsley. I position him as the object of a performative act of mourning, one which identifies and locates the spectrality within the dandy's performance. In Chapter Six, I explore the commodification of the dandy's identity in the person of David Beckham, deploying Werner Hamacher's arguments about commodity-language as a means of exploring the dandiacal performance's relationship to contemporary consumer culture. Andre Benjamin, more popularly known as Andre 3000 of the hi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jonathan Chambers Dr. (Advisor); Juan Bes Dr. (Other); Cynthia Baron Dr. (Committee Member); Lesa Lockford Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Performing Arts; Theater History; Theater Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Comparative Studies

For people living homeless in America, even an unsheltered existence in the urban spaces most of us call “public” is becoming untenable. Thinly veiled anti-homelessness legislation is now standard urban policy across much of the United States. One clear marker of this new urbanism is that vulnerable and unsheltered people are increasingly being treated as moveable policy objects and pushed even further toward the margins of our communities. Whilst the political-economic roots of this trend are in waning localism and neoliberal polices that defined “clean up the streets” initiatives since the 1980s, the cultural roots of such governance in fact go back much further through complex historical representations of masculinity, work, race, and mobility that have continuously haunted discourses of American homelessness since the nineteenth century. A common perception in the United States is that to be homeless is to be inherently mobile. This reflects a cultural belief across the political spectrum that homeless people are attracted to places with lenient civic attitudes, good social services, or even nice weather. This is especially true in the American West where rich frontier myths link notions of homelessness with positively valued ideas of heroism, resilience, rugged masculinity, and wilderness survival. Today even formerly tolerant liberal municipalities are rationalizing aggressive anti-homelessness campaigns by connecting homelessness with mobility. In Boulder, Colorado, like many similarly sized towns in the west, there is a real population of highly visible young travelers whose presence is ubiquitous downtown during the spring and summer. In recent years these seasonal groups have become the topic of much debate in Boulder as the city struggles to reconcile its reputation as one of the nation's most socially progressive and tolerant communities, with a public and political call to clamp down on all visible homelessness. Therefore, in order to examine the effect (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Leo Coleman PhD (Advisor) Subjects: American Studies; Comparative; Cultural Anthropology; Journalism; Sociology

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2014, Theatre

This thesis takes a Performance Studies approach to explore the relationship between collective memory and imagination through the lens of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1904) and Laura Ferdinand's adaptation of the play produced at Miami University (2014). Both the thesis and adaptation emphasize performance and play as critical modes of transmission of collective memory. Considering both the archival (text-based) and non-archival (performance-based) transmission of the Peter Pan myth throughout its century-long history, this thesis examines the evolving role of Peter Pan's performance of childhood and gender in simultaneously shaping and subverting ideologies of masculinity. Rooted in Peter Pan's relationship to the paradigmatic shifts in the construction of boyhood during the early twentieth century – especially World War One, this thesis uncovers the tensions between “real” and “imagined” bodies and the reciprocal relationship between memory and imagination that shaped Peter Pan.

Committee: Ann Elizabeth Armstrong PhD (Advisor); Elizabeth Mullenix PhD (Committee Member); Lisa Weems PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Performing Arts; Theater; Theater History

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

In this thesis, I examine intertextuality present between The Sopranos and Mad Men, particularly in regards to each show's protagonist. Tony Soprano and Don Draper are complex characters, each with their own conflicts, neuroses, and supporting characters, yet both men address a similar question: what does it mean to be a man in 21st century America? Both men deal with complex identities due to their pasts, exacerbated struggles due to their jobs, and most importantly, equally complex women who challenge their authority. While addressing issues of gender, I discuss the linkages present between each show's creator, David Chase and Matthew Weiner, which speaks to the broader thematic overlap between the two dramas. Intertextuality, partially stemming from Weiner's time in the Sopranos writing room under Chase, can help to interrogate television's own auteur, the showrunner. I also analyze the white male antihero archetype as a whole, which has been popular on American television in the past fifteen years, as I trace the major conflicts to Robert Warshow's formulation of the gangster as a tragic hero. For Warshow, though, the gangster ultimately worked as a straightforward morality tale - in these shows, the message of the antihero is deliberately muddled, crafting an intimate portrait of masculinity in crisis. Ultimately, Tony and Don fail to hold on to their past identities and masculinities in the face of their antiheroism, which may help to explain the appeal of the white male antihero archetype.

Committee: Becca Cragin (Advisor); Esther Clinton (Committee Member); Jeremy Wallach (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Media

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

This project examines the portrayals of male sideshow performers in German and American cinema and literature. Specifically it investigates the manner in which the social expectations of the masculine social role are altered by the perceived physical and mental otherness in the figure of the freak. The main freak performers discussed here are the somnambulist Cesare from Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Hans the dwarf from Freaks, Stan Carlisle from Nightmare Alley, who eventually becomes a geek with a travelling carnival, and Oskar Matzerath, the hunchbacked dwarf who is the protagonist of Die Blechtrommel. The examination of the male freak characters focuses upon three major areas which these works have in common: the portrayal of the freak as an unreliable narrator or signifying the presence of unreliable narration; the problematic interactions between the male freak and female characters, including romantic interests, and various manifestations of the male freak's denial of responsibility.

Committee: Geoffrey Howes PhD (Advisor); Edgar Landgraf PhD (Advisor) Subjects: American Literature; Film Studies; Gender; Germanic Literature; Literature

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

In 1903, forty years after the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation, W. E. B. Dubois published The Souls of Black Folk a semi-autobiographical, non-fictional narrative about the material and discursive conditions that continually create African American subjectivity as a “problem.” I argue that in utilizing the heuristics of philosophical discourse to articulate African American subjectivity, Dubois' text highlights what turned out to be the central preoccupation of the African American intellectual tradition: the cognitive disconnect between white and black subjectivity. For Dubois, and other African American intellectuals, the problem has been the contradiction between the letter of the law and the abject material conditions of African Americans in the New Republic. Rhetorically speaking, the problem that African American intellectuals engage is the burden of representation or the struggle to define oneself outside of social stereotypes about black identity. Thus, I argue that African American intellectuals such as Dubois, Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alain Locke, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, Alain Locke, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Henry Louis Gates, and Michael Eric Dyson have articulated the problem and described new paradigms that may be used to recover African American subjectivity. In the context of this tradition, I explore how Baldwin and Morrison represent African American male subjectivity construction within the discursive divide of identity and subjectivity. By explicating the fictional texts Beloved, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Song of Solomon, and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, I present a complex male subjectivity in response to definitive studies that argue that Baldwin's and Morrison's male characters wholeheartedly or mistakenly embrace or practice Western patriarchy. My analysis demonstrates how male characters construct subjectivities from within the African American context, which means outside of traditiona (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Valerie Lee (Advisor) Subjects: Language, Rhetoric and Composition

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2009, American Culture Studies/Communication

The objective of the study is to intervene in the ongoing discourse that interrogates the relationship between fictional ultraviolent film representations and real life behavior in audiences that these types of films are marketed to. Using a case study approach to apparatus and audience reception theories, the dissertation investigates the significant role Scarface, the 1983 gangster film directed by Brian De Palma, has played in influencing the cultural and social development of young African-American males who live in American inner cities. The study focuses on how the inner city portion of the Scarface audience came to self-identify themselves as “gangstas” (a Hip-hop term for gangster) and why one particular character in the film, a murderous drug dealer, has served as the gangsta role model for heroic behavior for over twenty-five years.The study found that performing the gangsta male identity emotionally satisfies these economic and socially disconnected young men and that this group viewed the violent and illegal behavior in Scarface as offering practical solutions to their ongoing struggle to survive the hopelessness and terror rooted in their environment. The research demonstrated that film narratives can be both a window into, and a mirror of, the often paradoxically complex relationships between marginalized target audiences and savvy multi-national media corporations that successfully market negative representations to these audiences, profit from the transactions and, during the process, manipulate both mainstream and oppositional perceptions of class, race, and power.

Committee: Donald McQuarie PhD (Committee Chair); Priscilla Coleman PhD (Committee Member); Halifu Osumare PhD (Committee Member); Awad Ibrahim PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American Studies; Black History; Fine Arts; Mass Media; Motion Pictures; Social Psychology; Social Structure; Sociology