Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2022, Art History (Fine Arts)

Physiognomy is the pseudoscientific study of the causal relationship between a person's exterior body and their inner character. Physiognomy was largely accepted in Victorian society and had a tremendous impact on both the arts and sciences of the period. One of the areas we can see evidence of this is in illustration, particularly in the way good and evil characters are designed. The fairy tale illustrator Arthur Rackham shows this strong contrast in the way that his characters are portrayed. His protagonists are serene and idealized, incorporating beauty standards of the Victorian Era. His villains are grotesque, often with animalistic features which make each creature seem like an evolutionary missing link. By incorporating principles of physiognomy, Arthur Rackham used a visual shorthand to identify which characters were good and evil in fairy tale illustrations.

Committee: Samuel Dodd (Committee Member); Jennie Klein (Committee Chair); Charles Buchanan (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Anatomy and Physiology; Art Criticism; Art Education; Art History; British and Irish Literature; Criminology; European History; Evolution and Development; Fine Arts; History; Science History; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2019, Philosophy

In this thesis, I show that Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein's comparisons between aesthetic and linguistic expression are mutually illuminating. Particularly, by conceiving of expression as physiognomic, we find that what is expressed in language or in art cannot be disassociated from the expression itself. As such, meaning is embodied and on the very “face” of the word or work. Both Merleau-Ponty and Wittgenstein utilize the physiognomic capacity of music to set into higher relief the opacity of language, its ability to be meaning rather than simply point to it. Similarly, language and painting are compared in terms of their ability to express meaning as their respective mediums. Lived, public language “inaugurates” meaning itself; it is not a placeholder for an inner lexicon held within private subjects. We cannot, then, appeal to a “language before language.” So too with painting; even in pictorial modes, we cannot appeal to a “painting before painting” which an innocent eye receives. I argue that this implies the boundary between conventional and natural signs is a false dilemma. I further critique Merleau-Ponty's account of music in Eye and Mind. By setting his and Wittgenstein's views on language and art side by side, we undo various distinctions such as that between mind and body, signifier and signified, convention and nature, self and world.

Committee: Ammon Allred (Committee Chair); Benjamin Grazzini (Committee Member); Madeline Muntersbjorn (Committee Member) Subjects: Aesthetics; Philosophy

MA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies

This thesis examines the passages in Seneca's Apocolocyntosis, Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars, and Dio's Roman History, which pertain to the Emperor Claudius' disability. The passages are discussed in terms of how they reflect the Roman perception of disability. This perception equates leadership with physical control of one's body and hence portrays Claudius as an unsuitable leader. The thesis concludes with portions of a letter which Claudius wrote to the Alexandrians, the contents of which reveal Claudius as a man who commands authority, making him appear as a capable leader despite what his physical differences implied.

Committee: Jennifer Larson PhD (Advisor); Sarah Harvey PhD (Committee Member); Brian Harvey PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Ancient Civilizations; Classical Studies; Families and Family Life; Foreign Language; Gender; Health; Literature; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Social Structure

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Arts and Sciences: English and Comparative Literature

Nearly a century and a half after their initial publication, it is clear that Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and novels continue to be a cultural phenomenon throughout the world. However, less clear are the ways in which those works emerged in response to—and as an example of—cultural anxieties surrounding advancements in science, particularly in the fields of biology and medicine. Advances such as Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection not only called into question basic long-standing assumptions about man's relationship to the universe; they also promised to improve the investigation of crime, as well as potentially justify certain imperialist beliefs about racial difference—beliefs that themselves influenced the development of criminal investigation. This project demonstrates how the Sherlock Holmes novels and stories both respond to and participate in the ideological nexus of biomedical science, criminology, and British imperialism by examining the ways in which certain key texts in the Holmes canon deploy medical discourse, criminological theory, and imperialist assumptions in the creation of a rational and “scientific” worldview through the characters of Dr. John Watson and Sherlock Holmes.

Committee: Tamar Heller Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Beth Ash Ph.D. (Committee Member); Leland Person Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Greek and Latin

Until now, eunuchs in early Greek and Roman literature have been ignored by classical scholars, but this dissertation rectifies that omission. In the ensuing chapters, eunuchs in literature ranging from the Classical to the early Christian period are subjected to a scholarly analysis, many of them for the first time. This comprehensive analysis reveals that eunuchs' presence indicates a breakdown in the rules of physiognomy and, consequently, a breakdown of major categories of identity, such as ethnicity or gender. Significantly, this broader pattern manifests in a distinct way, within each chronological and geographical period.

Committee: Benjamin Acosta-Hughes PhD (Advisor); Carolina Lopez-Ruiz PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Anthony Kaldellis PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Classical Studies; Ethnic Studies; Gender Studies; Literature

Master of Science in Engineering (MSEgr), Wright State University, 2006, Human Factors Engineering

The development of computer agents to enhance human-computer interfaces is an evolving field of study. This study examined whether people perceive personality in static digital faces that portray expressions of emotion, and if the digital faces would influence human performance on a simple human-machine collaborative task. The first experiment measured user-perception of personality, based on the emotional expression in two sets of five static digital faces. The results from this first phase revealed that participants provided different ratings, of the Big-Five personality model sub-traits, based on the emotional expression of a static digital face. This indicates a perception of personality based on expression. The second experiment measured how faces with identified personality traits influence decision making in a simple collaborative task. The results revealed that the different faces did not have a significant impact on performance criteria. Results from this study indicated some isolated differences related to gender and nationality.

Committee: Jennie Gallimore (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2003, English

The unique question my thesis addresses can be stated thusly: Why does physiognomy appear—suddenly and forcefully—as a discursive component of character development in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales? When examined against contemporary literary texts (i.e. Jean de Meun, John Gower and Giovanni Boccaccio) no similar implements of narrative “marking” work, as they do in the Canterbury Tales, to physically and accurately ground causal linkages between behavior and the individual. My thesis argues for three possible explanations: the 12th/13th century reemergence of Aristotelian empiricism and its subsequent effect on philosophers such as Duns Scotus and William Ockham; the increasingly ornate (and politicized) aesthetics of High Gothic art and architecture; and, finally, an emerging impulse towards decolonizing the English nation. I also offer the argument that Chaucerian physiognomy might very well operate—conterminously with the aforementioned influences—as a mode of class interpellation.

Committee: Britton Harwood (Advisor) Subjects: Literature, Medieval