Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Design

Git Gud: A Braided Comic About the Good, Bad, and Ugly in the Video Games Community (2024) is a creative inquiry into presenting research in a comic format. Comics-based research refers to a broad set of practices that use the comics form to collect, analyze, and disseminate scholarly research. The unique design aspects of this project include the creation of a braided comic about harassment in video games, which adapts the principles of a braided essay into a visual braid of three strands: a narrative short story, research on harassment in video games, and my autoethnographic experiences with harassment as a video game player. This paper reviews the development of the braided comic as a format to present these three strands of harassment in video games. This paper then documents the process of creating this research-informed comic and reflects on creative inquiry and design discoveries from working within this comic-making process.

Committee: Maria Palazzi (Advisor); Kyoung Swearingen (Committee Member); Dr. Jesse Fox (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Ed.D., Antioch University, 2023, Education

This is a critical-phenomenological qualitative research study in which young people who participated in Social Justice Youth Arts (SJYA) programs during their teenage years engaged in a series of semi-structured arts-based interviews focused on recollecting their lived experiences in those programs and the years since. These interviews investigate the ways in which the principles of Healing-Centered Engagement (Ginwright, 2018) were present within these young people's experiences of those programs, as well as the extent to which those experiences may have encouraged or cultivated a lived praxis of the principles of the contemporary abolitionist movement (Kaba, 2021; Kaepernick, 2021). This study describes how these young people's engagement with SJYA programming encouraged their process of identity formation as artists and activists, and how the durability and evolution of those self-identifications manifested in their broader social and behavioral context over time. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Richard Kahn Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Heather Curl Ed.D. (Committee Member); Susie Lundy Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Curriculum Development; Education Philosophy; Educational Theory; Pedagogy

Ed.D., Antioch University, 2023, Education

My research inquiry is centered on the larger project of building a transformational, empowerment model of worker voice in workplaces. The purpose of my research is to explore/illuminate the question, “How can I use workers' stories to center and advance collaborative worker voice on the job through peer-driven training initiatives?” I frame this general research inquiry around two key questions: (a) How do I create authentic spaces for workers' stories to emerge from the heart? (b) How do I use workers' stories to create the environment needed for workers to become peer teachers/leaders of their own training initiatives? This study's intended audience is any practitioner who seeks to center workers' experiences/stories as the fulcrum for transformational workplace change. My research method is Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN). SPN is a sustained exploration of one's own narrative experiences of dealing with a particular question, problem, or dynamic that has broader social significance. It entails analyzing that experience through the lens of relevant research and theory. I have chosen a hybrid video/written format for my SPN, to create a first-person storytelling experience for the viewer/reader that replicates my methodology with workers at their worksites. The video segments of this dissertation can be found at http://debmoy.weebly.com/. My findings document the key elements needed to be an effective change agent supporting organic leadership in organizations through workers' stories. My dissertation can influence the effectiveness of California Transit Works (CTW), the statewide consortium bringing my approach to scale nationally. My dissertation can bring academic recognition to key roles that third-party neutrals, or “intermediaries,” can play in building worker voice empowerment within labor/management partnerships. Finally, I hope this dissertation inspires and guides workers and change agents to take an holistic view of what it means to have our own voic (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stephen Brookfield Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Michael Raffanti Ed.D. (Committee Member); Laura Dresser Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Labor Relations; Organizational Behavior; Transportation; Vocational Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

Though art education and creative placemaking are two established fields within the arts and culture ecosystem, very little research examines the intersections of these two domains. Specifically, a gap exists in practitioner voices to share their practical knowledge and experiences in the field. This study is an investigation of intersections between the self-identified practices of specific art educators and the field of creative placemaking. As a participant researcher, I worked with three art educators from around the United States to engage in collaborative inquiry. This study took place from November of 2020 to March of 2021 and the team worked virtually due to a global pandemic. The team of art educators engaged in a participatory action research (PAR) study to investigate their own practice(s) and potential intersections with the field of creative placemaking. This PAR study is grounded in critical theory to engage in inquiry that can promote a deeper understanding of our own contexts and support transformation through dialogic work with people to elevate and voice the unique experiences and expertise they bring to the research. My participant collaborators brought their expertise as a high school art educator, a museum educator, and an arts education consultant. Utilizing a PAR framework, dialogic work occurred virtually through semi-structured interviews, a group call, and individual arts-based inquiry to answer research questions surrounding their work within art education and intersection and divergence with the field of creative placemaking. Using narrative and arts-based methods, the PAR team shared specific stories where their work as art education professionals converges with creative placemaking and the distinct separation they find among the fields. Through this emergent and collaborative process, participant collaborators and I found intersection with their art education practice(s) and the practices identified within creative placem (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Hutzel PhD (Advisor); Christine Ballengee Morris PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Shari Savage PhD (Committee Member); Richard Fletcher PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

This study explores the phenomenon of gender-bending cosplay (GBC) through its material culture using costuming (the acts of making and wearing artifacts and the artifacts themselves) to examine the motivations/interests/expectations of women who participate. GBC embraces the shifting, or bending, of the identified gender and/or biological sex of a fictional character to match the gender identity and/or biological sex of the player. This study concentrates on self-identified women adapting male characters to female versions of the same characters. The principal approach of the research design is Practice as Research (PaR) from an Art-Based Research (ABR) paradigm. Research methods include costuming, performance, ethnography, narrative inquiry, interviewing, participant observation, and discourse analysis. The worlds of text and image are melded in the amphibious, mixed-methods design and presentations of this study. GBC involves creating and using material culture, the artifacts of a culture/community. It becomes a creative outlet for many who may not otherwise be making art. When material culture can be worn, an interactive embodied performance can be experienced between the maker and the player, the player and the artifacts, the player and the audience, the player and fellow players, the player and cultural texts. This performance simultaneously emphasizes and challenges gender binaries, gender roles, and expectations. It is a performance of culture. The communities of play collaborate to interpret and reinterpret the performance and the material culture. They tell and share stories that uncover insights into the phenomenon, society, and culture.

Committee: Shari Savage PhD (Committee Chair); Jennifer Schlueter PhD (Committee Member); Christine Morris PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

MA, Kent State University, 2018, College of the Arts / School of Art

This qualitative research study utilized narrative inquiry and action research methods to systematically investigate specific ways an ethic of love manifests in my teaching practices and art curriculum; to nurture a heightened degree of student engagement and inspire creative exploration. Based on the principles of agape, love is put into action through an interplay of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust. In broader contexts, transformative learning and holistic education models, born of critical pedagogy, set the theoretical framework for an approach that strengthens the case for love as a vital component of critical education.

Committee: Koon-Hwee Kan PhD. (Advisor); Linda Hoeptner-Poling PhD. (Committee Member); Robin Vande Zande PhD. (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education; Education; Education Philosophy

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2018, Design

Eliciting multiple stakeholder narratives is a critical factor when designing systems, services or products. This thesis explores the development of a new methodology rooted in the idea of eliciting narratives from stakeholders, with potential use in applied design research, particularly designed for social innovation. Combining my skillset and training as an architect, designer, and an artist, I chose to conduct an exploratory, qualitative research that focuses on people and their stories by creating a new methodology for participatory design research. This methodology makes use of picture postcards as `narrative probes' to elicit sociocultural narratives from stakeholders through dialogue, and helps build relationships between them before moving to co-design settings. It emphasizes the need for slow design in the process, and seeks to create an immersive process that primes participants for future steps exploring the sociocultural topic of investigation. The narrative probe methodology involves the use of the postcard exchange between a pair of stakeholders as the sole means of communication to discuss the topic in conversation (this research explores what “Home and Community” means to participants) and dialogue, along with process interviews and a generative design research activity. I, the researcher, took part in the process as one of the stakeholders as a remote witness and facilitator to an analog means of communication in the situation of a digital times. Participants responded to the process's pain points and successful aspects during three one-on-one process interviews. These data were used to analyze the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of the participants as reflected in the iterative interviews. The findings of the exploration research have been recorded in terms of personal narratives of introspection and sociocultural narratives through dialogue. Using narrative probes in research has shed insight on how the co-design processes (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders (Advisor); Mary Anne Beecher (Committee Member); David Staley (Committee Member) Subjects: Design

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

The main goal of this study was to expand understanding of a Korean-American community's cultural identities through storytelling and artmaking, which was conceptualized as Visual Storying in this study. Ethnic minority students in the United States often experience confusion or conflict between American and their heritage cultures. This study sought to identify the experiences of a contemporary Korean-American community through learning and teaching Korean language, history, culture, and/or art. The conceptual framework of this study combined the three following research backgrounds: (1) critical multiculturalism; (2) narrative inquiry and arts-based research; and (3) community-based participatory action research. Understanding cultural identities of Korean-American students is a complex process that required multiple approaches. In order to examine social and political backgrounds as well as power relations of the students' multicultural settings, this study applied a theoretical framework of critical multiculturalism to the settings. In addition, narrative inquiry and arts-based research were used as basic means of this study. Both practices were effective ways to convey thoughts, emotions, and experiences in approachable ways, which revealed unknown stories of a Korean-American community in multicultural settings. Lastly, this study utilized a community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) approach. Exploring a cultural and social aspect required deep integrations and interactions with the community members to gain better understandings of the local context. Therefore, CBPAR was the main methodology in this study that explored the complexity of the Korean-American community's cultural understandings through deep engagement in their local community. The Korean-American Community School of Central Ohio (KACSCO)'s students participated in this study via two classes, Advanced and Art & Craft classes. In the Advanced class, the students learned Ko (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karean Hutzel (Advisor); Shari Savage (Committee Member); Joni Acuff (Committee Member); Timothy San Pedro (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Art Education; Asian Studies; Ethnic Studies; Multicultural Education; Multilingual Education; Teacher Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Art Education

My dissertation, a self-reflective autoenthnography investigates, examines, analyzes, and critiques Lolita-like or eroticized girl representations in popular visual culture. Using a non-academic voice, I construct a novelistic research narrative that is critically grounded in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (1958), and I format the dissertation to mirror the structure of his book. My study investigates sociocultural beliefs about gender, authority, and erotic narratives inscribed onto girls. I write reflexively from multiple positions: girl, artist, woman, wife, mother, teacher, and scholar. I weave in and out of my narrative with identity-based reflective commentary, journal excerpts, and artifacts I made showing that research is fluid, collaborative, and influenced by many things outside of collected data.Central to my study is the belief that Dolores Haze, the 12-year-old girl known as Lolita, should be heard. I question those who have had authority over her story, offer alternative voices, trouble and disrupt tacit understandings, while arguing for a critical shift in her mythic reputation. By following the teleological development of the Lolita phenomenon, I locate and identify ruptures that assist in the acculturation of her myth. An interdisciplinary literature review focuses on the eroticization of prepubescent bodies in multiple sites; including teen magazines, advertising, fashion, Lolita porn, and art photography. I posit that sexualizing girls in popular visual culture, a normalized and socioculturally accepted depiction, has broad social implications that should be recognized. In creating artifacts, I critically dismantle, alter, and re-imagine Lolita-like popular culture representations. Finally, I suggest visual culture curriculum that examines and critiques mythic or persuasive cultural narratives, while empowering student voices.

Committee: Terry Barrett PhD (Committee Chair); Patricia Stuhr PhD (Committee Member); Candace Stout PhD (Committee Member); Christine Ballengee-Morris PhD (Committee Member); Robert Cook PhD (Other) Subjects: Art Education

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2010, Psychology

Though women who have already had children make up over 60% of all women seeking abortions, common public discourse perpetuates the myth that women seeking abortions do not understand what it means to be a mother, do not know what it means to be pregnant, or are making irresponsible parenting decisions. The stories of mothers who are raising children and decide to terminate a subsequent pregnancy contain enormous potential to disrupt these discourses about motherhood and abortion. Here, tenets of feminist constructivist psychology and methods of creative ethnography including photo elicitation are combined to explore the complex personal, social, and political dimensions of mothers' decisions to abort unwanted pregnancies. Five women were interviewed and performative narratives were constructed and reflexively and collaboratively analyzed to illustrate each woman's process of building her personal construct of motherhood and how, or if, her construct of motherhood played a role in her decision to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The stories indicate that women's personal constructs of motherhood contain elements of individuality, commonality, and transition. In addition, each woman's construct of good motherhood was central to her process of deciding what to do with an unwanted pregnancy: In short, each woman found that being a good mother meant, at least one time in her life, not continuing a pregnancy. Concluding thoughts demonstrate how narratives that complicate or disrupt social discourse can be directed toward the purposes of reproductive rights activism, explore the utility of photo elicitation as a narrative research method, and suggest future directions for research on the intersection of women's personal constructs and the dictates of dominant social discourse.

Committee: Ann Fuehrer PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Larry Leitner PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Heidi McKee PhD (Committee Member); Vaishali Raval PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Womens Studies

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2012, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

The overarching research topic for this study is the issue of effectively engaging and informing community and government decision makers about health issues that can negatively impact a community's resilience. The question guiding this study is how can formative research engage and inform community and government decision makers about the under addressed issue of youth problem gambling (YPG) in Windham County, Vermont? The study has two aims: 1) to develop a formative research conceptual framework and evaluate its effectiveness in addressing the public health issue of youth problem gambling, and 2) to use the formative research methodology to develop a better understanding of Windham County community dynamics relative to the public health issue of youth problem gambling. As defined in this study, formative research is the first stage of a health intervention initiative through which the dimensions, dynamics, stakeholders and general community awareness and understanding about a health challenge are established (Gittelsohn, J. Steckler, A. and Johnson, C. 2006; Valente, 2002). Research methods included interviews based upon snowball sampling, focus groups, journaling, relevant document review and informal conversations. Interview analysis was based upon Computer Aided Thematic Analysis (CATA) and developed within the framework provided by Greenhalgh et al's (2005) five-step qualitative research protocol. The study's conclusions, as well as informing next steps for approaching the under addressed issue of youth problem gambling in Windham County, Vermont, establish the broad applicability of formative research as a methodological approach for addressing all public health concerns whether the health risk is socio-economic, political, environmental and/or spiritual in origin.

Committee: James Jordan PhD (Committee Chair); Tania Schusler PhD (Committee Member); Bradley Olson PhD (Committee Member); Darrell Wheeler PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Climate Change; Communication; Cultural Resources Management; Educational Sociology; Environmental Education; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Philosophy; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; Health; Health Education; Health Science

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

This teacher inquiry study documents my personal journey as a teacher. The main research question was how have my teaching practices as an early childhood educator changed over time in relation to my changing understanding of learning, teaching, and drama in education? This study is a story of my growth and transformation as a teacher over ten years. I draw on my experiences as a kindergarten teacher in Korea, my work using dramatic inquiry with emergent bilingual children in the United States, and my experiences as a graduate student at Ohio State. Using teacher inquiry and narrative inquiry as my methodologies, I analyzed raw data, such as journals, fieldnotes, photographs, and video-and audio-recordings to create narratives of my teaching practice. I engaged in reflective dialogue with my past selves as a teacher in different times and places when I had used play and dramatic inquiry in my own classrooms. I also analyzed the teaching practice of my advisor using dramatic inquiry. My analysis was shared in a community of inquiry as part of my coursework at Ohio State. This reflective process allowed me to better understand my changing teaching practices in more depth and to confront feelings of discomfort that became pivotal moments of realization that I analyzed to show changes over time. I used Cultural Historical Activity Theory as my main theoretical framework for analysis. In addition, I used a framework created by Janet Emig. I analyzed the narratives to identify my changing hidden assumptions, beliefs, and theories of teaching, learning, and drama in education. My findings showed significant changes over a ten-year time frame. I used an innovative approach to construct, present, and analyze the narratives as data. I present and then analyze narratives of the practice of four past teacher-personae. Each persona represents a unique phase in my teaching journey. Collectively, they show change and reveal some of the complexity of my growth and transformati (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brian Edmiston (Advisor); Melinda Rhoades (Committee Member); Patricia Enciso (Committee Member) Subjects: Bilingual Education; Early Childhood Education; Education; Teacher Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Communication

Perceived character depth is a concept relevant for understanding and predicting audience responses to narrative media, yet it has been largely unexplored in the field of media psychology. Through a careful review of diverse literatures, the current work offers a formal conceptualization of character depth as the extent to which a character's textual exposition evokes a detailed and multi-faceted mental conception of a character's psyche, behavior, and experience. After devising a series of items to measure character depth, this work then presents a series of experimental studies designed to test various aspects of validity of the proposed measurement scale and to test a causal path model of the relationship between character depth and processes specified by affective disposition theory (see Zillmann, 2000). Study 1 uses a known-groups approach and confirmatory factor analysis to test the predictive validity and measurement model of a 20-item proposed perceived character depth scale. Selective item retention results in a 6-item scale with excellent model fit. Studies 2 and 3 lend additional support to the validity of this 6-item scale's measurement model through tests of the scale in two different narrative contexts, both of which result in excellent model fit. Across Studies 1-3, evidence emerges of the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale in relation to other character perception variables. Study 4 applies this new measure in a 2 X 3 between-subjects experimental design that manipulates both character depth and character moral behavior independently. Results show that character depth impacts disposition formation and anticipatory responses above and beyond audience reactions to moral behavior. This finding has important theoretical implications for affective disposition theory (Zillmann, 2000), indicating that perceived character depth may serve as an additional predictor of disposition formation not specified in the original theory. Future research d (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Matthew Grizzard (Advisor); Emily Moyer-Guse (Advisor); Nicholas Matthews (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2023, English

Scholars and practitioners have legitimized narrative and storytelling as areas of study within not only composition and rhetoric (Vealey & Gerding, 2021) but also related fields, such as data visualization (Knaflic, 2015) and design (Quesenbery & Brooks, 2010). Composition and rhetoric scholars such as Natasha Jones, Kristen Moore, and Rebecca Walton have developed grounded theorizations of narrative for community-based research. However, undeveloped is a theorization of community-based writing and narrative that examines years-long community development. This dissertation builds upon past scholarship to investigate how the nonprofit Millvale Community Development Corporation (MCDC) tells the narratives of its work. I interviewed twelve participants as part of a community-engaged study, one which employs an antenarrative methodology. Key to this methodology was tracing marginalized or outlying stories, or antenarratives, and reifying how the Millvale Community Development Corporation centralizes them in its communications to rewrite harmful narratives of Millvale, a former mill town which borders Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. An antenarrative also refers to a bet, as in to “up the ante,” and I further examined how the Millvale Community Development Corporation “wagered” on its new narratives and what it did to ensure the odds were in its favor (Boje, 2001). My methods also include analysis of Pivot, a planning report which coordinates social action under six themes: energy, food, water, air, equity, and mobility. I theorize how a community's plot contains people resolving a complication around a theme, such as water, which initiates social change. The resulting narratives are both internal and external. For the MCDC, the external narrative involves making Millvale a hip destination to visit while the internal one involves keeping the borough an equitable, prideful, and sustainable place to live. This work applies to community-based writing, professional and tec (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Timothy Lockridge (Committee Chair); Heidi McKee (Committee Member); Timothy Holcomb (Committee Member); Emily Legg (Committee Member); Michele Simmons (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Rhetoric; Technical Communication

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

Higher education is facing a wave of presidential transitions. While the transition of a president can be a monumental and celebrated occasion for a college or university, it is often accompanied by work disruptions, job uncertainty, and turnover of senior administrators. University presidents can face numerous challenges as they try to adapt to a new culture, team, and work processes; at no time during their career are leaders more susceptible to failure than when they are in transition. Therefore, the development of the senior leadership team comes at a time critical for the new president's success. It is vital for mid-level administrators who have ambitions to serve on the senior leadership team to understand the leadership transition and how university presidents develop their teams. This understanding is equally important for senior leadership team members who are a part of the inherited leadership team and will likely face a presidential transition. This narrative study examined how university presidents and senior team members understand their experiences and decision-making processes while building a senior leadership team after the presidential transition. Five university presidents and six senior leadership team members were interviewed for this study. The senior leaders interviewed were vice presidents and individuals who reported directly to the university president. When making decisions about the makeup of their team, significant influences on the presidents included institutional practices, governing bodies, diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, effective communication, collaboration, expertise, and trustworthiness were vital attributes that influenced the new university presidents' decision-making. Findings show how the senior leaders interviewed understood their path to a senior leadership team and experienced the presidential transition. Finally, the findings suggest that senior leadership team members have had an overall positive expe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Tricia Niesz (Committee Chair); Amoaba Gooden (Committee Member); Charlene Reed (Committee Member); Natasha Levinson (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education; Higher Education Administration

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, EDU Teaching and Learning

This study examines the big and small stories of faculty at a small, internationally-focused graduate school in New England during a time of change in higher education. A macro-micro perspective enables both an aerial view of faculty experience over time and a view of how faculty work with students at the ground level. The landscape of higher education has been shifting, a story which has drawn the interest of researchers looking at change at the institutional level. In the literature, and in the media, stories are told in broad strokes: the rise of the neoliberal university, the wave of campus internationalization, and an increasing reliance on a contingent faculty workforce. However, in spite of faculty's central position within these phenomena, stories of faculty experience during this era of change mostly remain untold. Narrative research has primarily focused on the professional development and situated learning of novice educators as they find their footing and balance a range of commitments. Considerably less attention has been given to veteran faculty whose stories are situated at the confluence of broader changes in higher education. This study addresses this gap and, in its synergy of big and small stories, contributes to the dynamic field of narrative research in educational contexts. Retrospective big stories told in life history interviews capture the life-span of faculty careers, from entering the field to experiencing challenges and change through working with diverse groups of students over several decades. Analysis of these stories produced two key metaphors which are the focus of Chapter 3. Through the use of bedrock stories, faculty preserve shared values and an institutional narrative in the face of change. In faultline stories, faculty make sense of unsettling or unresolved experiences. The findings suggest that these stories of critical events are important sources of institutional narratives and faculty learning. Compared to well-order (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Leslie C. Moore (Advisor); Alan Hirvela (Committee Member); Peter Sayer (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; English As A Second Language; Higher Education; Language; Teacher Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

The erasure of Black women's presence and voices has been a significant problem throughout the course of history–including artistic discourse. Although progress has been made in terms of visibility, there is still an enormous amount of work required to rectify the effects of white supremacist hegemony on Black women's artistic progress. I argue that not only do Black women artists exist in a space of double-subjugation due to the intersections of our race and gender; those who choose to work in the medium of fiber are also faced with the historical baggage and discrimination that accompanies craft-based mediums. Furthermore, I argue that traditional Eurocentric methods of interpreting fiber-based work are limited in their ability to effectively account for the specialized relationship that Black women have to materiality. While literature surrounding women's work may account for the gendered history of fiber and textile-based practices, Black women's contributions and distinct relationships to labor and creativity are in need of continued exploration. Thus, I propose the need for Black feminist interpretations to more equitably account for Black women's lived experiences and creative outputs. The primary research question in this qualitative study asks what language and new knowledge arises when Black women create fiber-based work to explore kinship and consciousness. Furthermore, the study introduces the early makings of a Black Feminist Material Culture Framework. As a part of this study, I employed a narrative approach which focused on co-creating stories that highlighted the experiences of three Black women artists working primarily with fiber. Additionally, I experimented with an arts-based research approach, which included the creation of artwork based on my experiences as an artist-researcher working with and for other Black women. Using an interview format, I collaborated with the three women to explore themes related to storytelling, ancestry, creative (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joni Acuff PhD (Committee Chair); Shari Savage PhD (Committee Member); Dana Kletchka PhD (Committee Member); Richard Fletcher PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Education

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2020, Leadership and Change

There is a gap in the literature on generativity and the leadership philosophy and praxis of African American Female Foreign Service Officers (AAFFSOs). I addressed this deficit, in part, by engaging an individual of exceptional merit and distinction—Aurelia Erskine Brazeal—as an exemplar of AAFFSOs. Using qualitative research methods of portraiture and oral history, supplemented by collage, mind mapping and word clouds, this study examined Brazeal's formative years in the segregated South and the extraordinary steps her parents took to protect her from the toxic effects of racism and legal segregation. In addition, I explored the development of Brazeal's interest in international affairs and her trailblazing diplomatic career. In an effort to understand her leadership philosophy and praxis, the study engaged eight additional research respondents, ranging from proteges and colleagues to Brazeal's fictive daughter, Joan Ingati. Drawing from the Iroquois Great Law of Peace, this study employed the concept of generativity—concern for the welfare and well-being of future generations—as a focal lens. The research concluded that in order to be effective in the 21st century, leaders would do well to emulate Brazeal's example as a generative leader. This dissertation is accompanied by 11 audio files. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu.

Committee: Jon Wergin Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Laurien Alexandre Ph.D. (Committee Member); Richard McGuigan Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Gender Studies; History; International Relations; Womens Studies

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2019, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

Can environmental youth leaders affect meaningful positive change in the global fight to reign in climate change? While the academic literature contains a vast array of youth leadership materials, there is a gap in the research of the effect environmental youth leadership programs have at the community level, and specifically how these effects can contribute to environmental sustainability of that community, region, or country. This mixed methods qualitative study narrows this gap by employing grounded theory and narrative analysis to determine how five Bangladeshi environmental youth leaders understand their role in influencing their school and communities' efforts to adapt to and reduce their contribution to climate change. The purposes of this study are to: (a) describe and understand the experiences of five Bangladeshi environmental youth leaders as they engaged in participatory social engagement as Participant Action Researchers (PARs) during their environmental youth leadership roles (b) understand the conditions necessary for these five environmental youth leaders to experience success in their leadership positions; (c) define environmental youth leadership and environmental youth leaders in this Bangladeshi context; (d) explore environmental youth leadership as an educative process that can facilitate widespread environmental literacy and engagement in Bangladesh, and throughout the world and; (e) contribute a new grounded theory analysis to environmental youth leadership theory. The findings of this study reveal that certain conditions need to be present for these five environmental youth leaders in Bangladesh to experience success in their roles. These conditions include the ability to `convince' others, the presence of other youth to support them, and the experience of individual transformation in worldview and character brought about by the development of an environmental consciousness and pro-environmental behavior. These findings might be valuabl (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jimmy Karlan PhD (Committee Chair); Joy Akerman PhD (Committee Member); Michael Mueller PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Climate Change; Education; Environmental Education; Environmental Studies; Native Studies; Science Education; Secondary Education

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2018, Leadership and Change

This study is a narrative exploration of the experiences of individuals who grew up within a globally mobile community, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Defense. It seeks to surface, through their stories, any benefits of childhood that may have contributed meaningfully to their lives. Affectionately known as Brats (a group to which I proudly self-identify), we are the children of those who serve or are serving in the Armed Forces. Unfortunately, Brats are apt to be viewed from a position of sympathy; often identified by any number of negative characteristics presumed to result from their distinct childhoods. From a purposeful sampling effort highlighting some of the more typical features of Brathood (e.g., high mobility, living in foreign countries, frequent parent absence), ten Brats became participants in a journey using the Qualitative Research methodology of Narrative Inquiry. Their stories, although not generalizable, provide windows on an unfamiliar landscape; they unfold remarkable childhoods that suggest a more complex, rewarding lifestyle than stereotypically negative characterizations. This dissertation appeals to the art of story to advance a more positive identity of Brats, but not by negating any detrimental affect or effects of its noted features. Rather, it offers diversity and depth to a once-limited palette in order to provide a more complex, narrative counterpoint. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

Committee: Elizabeth Holloway PhD (Committee Chair); Al Guskin PhD (Committee Member); Hanna Rodriguez-Farrar PhD, EdD (Committee Member) Subjects: Armed Forces; Families and Family Life; Individual and Family Studies; Social Research