Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Art Education

Robert Frost once speculated on the relationship between poetry and thought, conjecturing that all thinking was grounded in metaphor. Many people never took him seriously. Now, thanks to the work of many theorists in a number of diverse fields, from linguistics to philosophy to cognitive science, we can say with some certainty that he was right. Sentences build themselves around analogies; thought creates visual pictures in our brains; metaphors shape our ways of seeing the world. All of this appears to be done mostly unconsciously, as we filter messages, both verbal and visual, from our environment and shape those signs and clues into world-responses. The work which hasnt been done thoroughly enough yet is how to apply this central understanding to education. That means investigating metaphor as a means of linking the whole of learning. As one step toward to such a curricular move, this study first traces some of the key theorists involved with what might be called the metaphor revolution and connects them to some related studies in the area of the physicality (the body and its contact with its surrounding world shapes our perception); playfulness (plays role in childhood, art, and society in general); and visuality (the role of visual imagery in the shaping of thought and consciousness). Secondly, I follow the progress of two high school classes as I introduce them to some of the key concepts in poetry, emphasizing the above concepts. Through writing poems about literature, about their home town environment, about sports activities, elemental memory, and visual images, I trace some ways the above concepts influence their writing, their thinking and their perception by means of my own analysis of the text of their poems and their own analysis of their responses via interviews. By the close of the study, I propose a kind of working generative cycle revolving between each of the four categories, so that metaphoric thought breaks down into a four-tiered process, drawi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sydney Walker (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, English

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Slavic and East European Studies

The Symbolist period in Russian culture emphasized intense cross-pollination and hybridization of the arts. The purpose behind these "poetics of blending" was to show the existence of a spiritual world beyond physical-material reality and that the boundaries between them were not insurmountable. In my dissertation, I claim that this vision of the creative process as pursuing various strategies of blending draws on the overarching metaphoric conceptualization of our world, and the human domain as its integral part, as not "solid", but "fluid matter". I employ conceptual metaphor and blending theory approaches from the field of cognitive linguistics to account for the following: how three interactive arts of the period, poetry, painting and film, use the metaphor of world liquescence in their attempts to transcend the material world, realia, and to reach spiritual reality, realiora. The concept of world liquescence reveals itself not only in the choice of water as a physical substance present in the space of a given poem, canvas or film. The Symbolist arts with their close attention to the inner depths of the human psyche attempt to capture and symbolize the slightest stirrings of the soul through the domain of water and very often introduce this element through the plasticity of music. The "endless" Wagnerian melody reveals itself in poetry through protracted poetic meters and specific types of rhyme as well as various phonetic and semantic devices; in painting it is "endless, monotonic, impassive line without angles", in early filmmaking it is the use of movement vs. stasis, special lighting effects and long takes, including (extreme) close-ups of a person's face. In this connection we can also speak about moving water as a traditional metaphor for time: thus the introduction of music as a temporal element into both the temporal art of poetry and the spatial art of painting marks an attempt to convey its flow in both a congenial dynamic art and in a less congenia (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Helena Goscilo (Advisor); Irene Delic (Committee Chair); Myroslava Mudrak (Committee Member); Vitaly Bergelson (Committee Member) Subjects: Film Studies; Fine Arts; Literature; Slavic Literature; Slavic Studies

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Leadership and Change

This study focuses on better understanding students and their internal worlds through conceptual metaphor theory and sensory language. Using a phenomenological and arts-based approach, I examined students' metaphorical constructions of their college experiences and the sensory language and information informing those constructions. By engaging participants in a multimodal process to re-see their experience through connoisseurship and criticism, I explored the following research questions: How do students metaphorically structure their college experience? What sensory language do college students use to describe the metaphorical dimensions of their college experience? How does sensory information shape the metaphorical structuring of their college experience? Through conversations centered on participant-generated images and chosen sensory language, I identified five complex metaphors that represented participants' constructions of their college experience: college is an unwieldy package; college is up, forward, and out; college is current and future nostalgia; college is a prism; and college is a movie and peers are the soundtrack. By considering these themes, it may be possible for educators to better partner with diverse learners to design personally meaningful experiences that support student development and success. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Donna Ladkin PhD (Committee Chair); Jon Wergin PhD (Committee Member); Steven Taylor PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Developmental Psychology; Education; Education Philosophy; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2019, Journalism (Communication)

The number of people fleeing to Europe increased dramatically in 2015. Each day, countless reports on the refugee issue were published prominently on every channel. The media played a crucial role not only in providing information to the insecure public and to policy makers, but also in framing the arrivals. Previous studies have examined the way refugees are depicted in the media discourse of host countries, indicating that media systematically discriminate these minority groups and deem them as a threat to the majority group. Decisive for this study, was the assumption that metaphors – as it often is the case in reporting – must have been part of the media discourse on refugees in 2015. Figurative language types such as metaphor are powerful devices in framing societal issues and shaping public discourse. Based upon Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) as well as against the background of framing theory, the metaphors used in the refugee issue could potentially have the power to establish prejudiced opinions of the readership towards refugees, depending on their meanings and implications. To analyze how refugees were being represented through metaphors in the German newspaper discourse during the peak of the events in 2015, a qualitative content analysis of five German national daily mainstream newspapers is carried out. The survey finds that besides the omnipresent water metaphor, seven other conceptual metaphor themes are repeatedly used. Interpreted based on CMT, these metaphor themes are discriminating, portraying refugees as a common threat, creating a strong differentiation between an ingroup and an outgroup, or are even stripping the refugees off their humanity.

Committee: Bernhard Debatin Professor (Committee Chair) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Language

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2018, Journalism (Communication)

Despite the vast acquisition by American businesses of Chinese companies, little is known about the reverse, the acquisition by Chinese of American companies. The general image of Chinese companies and the Chinese market is developing and growing instead of strong and well-developed. In 2012, Chinese Dalian Wanda Group acquired the United States' second-largest cinema line— AMC, for a price of $2.6 billion, which surprised the world. As a Chinese student, the researcher was curious about how American newspapers and Chinese newspapers frame this acquisition and whether cultural discount and cultural imperialism involved. 12 Chinese newspapers, and 13 American newspapers, articles were analyzed with five descriptive categories. The researcher found that American newspapers held a more positive and supportive position compared to Chinese newspapers, although American newspapers showed negative attitudes and disagreement of China's tight restrictions and Chinese market piracy problems. Both sides doubted their respective native companies' capability to complete this acquisition.

Committee: Michael Sweeney (Committee Chair); Bernhard Debatin (Committee Member); Carsten Junker (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Communication; Journalism; Linguistics; Mass Communications

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2018, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

Thomas Hobbes uses a metaphor about mushrooms to define humans in the state of nature. In light of recent research regarding mycorrhizal fungi, this thesis examines the descriptive and prescriptive implications of a civil society structured as though people were truly like mushrooms. By drawing upon the intersection between political theory and ecology, this thought experiment has profound implications for creating a society where harmony is maintained through a sustainable balance of conflict in order to guarantee the shared flourishing of human, nonhuman, and nonliving components of the environment.

Committee: Julie White (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Philosophy; Philosophy; Political Science

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2015, Cognitive Linguistics

Unlike medical conditions for which biologically--based diagnostic tools and treatments exist, the diagnosis and treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) usually requires face--to--face communication. Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment of MDD is based in language. However, clinicians receive little to no training in analyzing language. This study demonstrates how analyzing language has the potential to enhance therapeutic treatments for MDD. It presents a conceptual metaphor (CM) analysis of the metaphors that people with and without MDD use to describe emotions. Analyzing the metaphors that people use to describe emotions will help us learn more about how people conceptualize emotions, and, more broadly, how they think about themselves and the world around them.

Committee: Fey Parrill (Advisor) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Linguistics

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2015, Management

Evidence-based management (EBMgt) has been advanced as a way to utilize empirical research findings to propose an `optimal' solution to a problem within a centralized authority structure. In shared leadership settings, decisions are typically complex and punctuated by divergent perspectives emerging from within the organization. In these circumstances, the substantively rational decisions advanced by EBMgt must also be infused with commitment for coordinated action among diverse and often conflicted interests. Is EBMgt a viable approach in these circumstances? This thesis reports on a three-phase mixed methods research project into evidence-based shared decision making in organizations, and the conditions under which EBMgt practices can bring about commitment to a decision. In the first phase, we conducted an inductive, grounded analysis of interviews with community college leaders to find that it is the process of inquiry, rather than the evidence itself, that emerges as the important driver of commitment to a decision. In this study we propose a fundamentally different view of evidence in management decisions—evidence not as a predetermined solution to be implemented but instead as a boundary-object to focus attention and dialogue throughout the process. In the second study, we conduct a cross-sectional comparative survey of 139 public community college faculty, staff and administrators. We find support for the importance of the collaborative process in driving commitment when using research evidence in shared decision making groups where conflict is present. In conflicted environments, the use of evidence in group decision making may actually erode the commitment necessary for decision implementation. However, we also discover that a process of joint inquiry involving collaborative search for and analysis of evidence can be effective in bolstering commitment. As such, this study identifies novel facilitative and restrictive conditions for implementing EBMgt (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kalle Lyytinen Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Richard Boland Ph.D. (Committee Member); Paul Salipante Ph.D. (Committee Member); Nicholas Berente Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Leadership; Management; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2013, Journalism (Communication)

This study builds on research that has documented the persistence of negative stereotypes of Arabs and the Arab world in the U.S. media during more than a century. The specific focus is Time magazine's portrayal of Arabs and their societies between 2001 and 2011, a period that includes the September 11, 2001, attacks; the ensuing U.S.-led "war on terror" and the mass "Arab Spring" uprisings that spread across the Arab world beginning in late 2010. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study explores whether and to what extent Time's coverage employs what Said (1978) called Orientalism, a powerful binary between the West and the Orient characterized by a consistent portrayal of the West as superior--rational, ordered, cultured--and the Orient as its opposite--irrational, chaotic, depraved. A quantitative content analysis of 271 Time feature stories and photographs revealed that Time's coverage focused predominately on conflict, violence, and dysfunction. Nations that received the most frequent coverage were those where the United States was involved militarily, such as Iraq, as well as those that receive the most U.S. foreign aid or are strategically important to U.S. interests. These findings coalesce with the study's qualitative portion, a critical discourse analysis of approximately 20 percent of the data set that employs metaphor and framing theory. This thread of the study reveals an overarching Orientalist binary where Arabs are portrayed either as "atavistic"; or "modern." As "atavistic," they are backward and irrationally violent, possessing corrupt and failed leaders and terrified, preyed-upon women; as "modern," they strive to look, dress, act, and think like Westerners. Arab moderns oftentimes apologize for their societies'; atavistic ways. Media scholars have noted an apparent shift in coverage of Arabs after the events of September 11, with more favorable or complex portrayals found in journalism, television, and film. However, this study revealed no such (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anne Cooper Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Marilyn Greenwald Ph.D. (Committee Member); Duncan Brown Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jaclyn Maxwell Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sholeh Quinn Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Journalism

Bachelor of Science of Journalism (BSJ), Ohio University, 2010, Journalism

This thesis explores the extent and effects of militarized language in modern American coverage of climate change. Research on framing theory, metaphor theory, and militarized language provides background to original research about the form and prevalence of phrases like “battling climate change” and “war on global warming”. Articles from three leading U.S. newspapers published from 2006-2009 were analyzed for instances of militarized language and the use of specific words were tallied. Militarized language was found in 1.5% of articles published throughout the time period studied. Though there has been no apparent empirical testing on the subject, theoretical research described in this thesis indicates that users should avoid militarized language because leading scholars have proposed few potential benefits and many drawbacks of a metaphorical association with war.

Committee: Bernhard Debatin (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Linguistics; Mass Media

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Art Education

This study is an investigation into the implications inhering in the Lacanian psychoanalytic approach to metaphor and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) for understanding the production and reception of meaning in writing about artistic production. Cognitive and psychoanalytic approaches to metaphor differ in the grounding frameworks, philosophic positions and methodological assumptions that shape how metaphor is understood; this study is interested in developing ways to read difference between and within what seem to be incompatible theories in order to complicate understandings, conceptions and reception of writing about artistic production as it promotes meaning through metaphoric structures and processes.This is a qualitative, philosophic study utilizing analyses of metaphoric structures within a piece of art critical writing by Daniel Birnbaum about artist Mark Dion and his 1999 work Tate Thames Dig. Dion's work interrogates the character of meaning and history, and Birnbaum's writing about Dion's work affords readers particular routes of access to meaning about the work. This study analyzes Birnbaum's writing utilizing both Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory with attention to ways that meaning is produced, pointed to and supported through the use of metaphor. The study then seeks to develop an understanding of ways attention to differing approaches to metaphor can complicate the reading and provide insight into writing about artistic practice. Utilizing a Bakhtinian dialogic framework a dialogic encounter is enacted to explore the possibilities for a complicated approach to metaphor as uncovered through the readings of Birnbaum's writing. Finally, the study, taking both Lacanian theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory into account, discusses a complicated approach to metaphor with attention to insight, communication, thinking and knowing, and the body as a source of meaning. Within this discussion a consideration of the necessity of int (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sydney Walker PhD (Committee Chair); Arthur Efland PhD (Committee Member); Jennifer Eisenhauer PhD (Committee Member); Kevin Tavin PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Linguistics

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2012, English (Arts and Sciences)

“Words like Glass Windows” is a collection of essays written and edited during Suzanne Evans' study at Ohio University. The collection includes seven essays in total. Four longer, memoir-based essays speak to the author's experiences with belief, religious faith, her father, and Bruce Springsteen, and three shorter essays of meditative reflection focus intently on the entities central to the longer essays. Though it visits a range of topics, the collection as a whole speaks to the singular yet universal nature of human experience and presents the essay as a window that both reveals and reflects. The collection is preceded by a critical introduction in which Evans discusses the driving theory behind her own work—a theory established through the metaphor of art as window—and situates that metaphor among popular historic metaphors, including art as window and art as lamp.

Committee: Dinty Moore (Advisor); Eric LeMay PhD (Committee Member); Marilyn Atlas PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Language; Personal Relationships; Religion; Spirituality

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2006, Educational Leadership

This dissertation presents the conceptualization of a pedagogy of the blues as an alternative to the techno-rational approach to education. The conceptualization is derived from the blues metaphor in which distinct themes are identified and utilized in formulating and enacting a pedagogy of the blues. This pedagogy is presented as an embodied art of teaching whereby there is recovery of the self by the teacher and student, as opposed to the loss of self so prevalent in present day approaches to schooling. The author grounds this work in the powerful early blues of African Americans, identifying specific themes representative of the blues metaphor that reverberate in the work of early blues artists. Starting with the historical roots of the blues, examining the texts of the blues and the lifestyles of early blues singers that embodied the blues, the author traces common themes from these sources. Next, the author presents the evolvement of the blues metaphor through various other forms of popular music in America, including examples from country music, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock, and Hip Hop. The conceptualization of the pedagogy of the blues is framed within the identified themes of the blues metaphor. Grounding the pedagogy in the work of reconceptualist curricular theory and some elements of critical theory, the author also uses personal narratives and lyrics from popular music to help explain the theory and suggest application of this pedagogical approach in classrooms both in public schools and in higher education.

Committee: Denise Taliaferro Baszile (Advisor) Subjects:

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2013, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

A clinician is entrusted with the difficult task of organizing, integrating, and formulating a vast amount of information provided by a patient in order to conduct therapy. Typically, a theoretical paradigm is employed in this endeavor. This paper constructs a theory of theoretical paradigms—a meta-theory—to understand better how clinicians organize and understand patient information. The theory of theory posits that theoretical paradigms function as complex metaphors developed within a culture. The argument presented here utilizes research from various areas of psychology—including those focusing on cognitive research, psycholinguistics, and philosophy of theory—to develop the meta-theory. The central thesis of this research is that theoretical paradigms function as metaphors, which were developed within a given historical-cultural context.

Committee: Theodore Ellenhorn Ph.D. (Committee Chair); William Slammon Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ronald Cobb Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2013, Humanities

This analysis responds to an ongoing debate between feminist and traditional readings of sexually violent (SV) metaphors in the prophetic texts of Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the New Testament book of Revelation. Whereas feminist scholars have often argued that such metaphors are built upon the exploitation of women's sexuality, traditionalist scholars have insisted that the metaphors are merely literary devices that should only be read within their historical and literary contexts. Taking a moderate position, this analysis uses the cognitive metaphor theory to explain that the SV metaphors depend on cognitive associations of dangerous feminine sexuality to relate to historically-specific concerns of the original authors and audiences. This analysis then examines said historically-specific concerns to reveal the literary function of the metaphors in their original contexts. Finally, this analysis closes by considering current sociopsychological concerns that cause contemporary society to continue relying on the same cognitive associations of dangerous feminine sexuality as seen the SV metaphors.

Committee: David Barr Ph.D (Committee Chair); Mark Verman Ph.D (Committee Member); Andrea Harris M.A. (Committee Member); Ava Chamberlain Ph.D (Advisor) Subjects: Biblical Studies; Religion; Womens Studies