Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2007, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1965, English

Committee: Richard C. Carpenter (Advisor) Subjects: British and Irish Literature

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2021, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

While scholars who investigate the works of African diasporic authors Edwidge Danticat, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Claudia Rankine acknowledge the importance between form and audience in their works, critics have either yet to fully recognize how and/or for what purpose each author implements specific techniques. Paying close attention to what I propose are formal affective strategies in Danticat's Everything Inside, Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck, and Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric, allows us to see how each author infuses experimental forms that are strategically bound to how their future readers will react to their texts with the hope that these reactions will prove more socially and politically moving than just moving—as in readers simply turning the page. Black diasporic women authors, including Danticat, Adichie, and Rankine, destabilize traditional literary paradigms and invent new formal affective strategies in their works. Upon closer consideration, these strategies not only help expose the continuous exclusivity of the American Dream and contemporary problems associated with the enduring patriarchal hegemony, but by engaging the audience with commonly felt affects, reconfigure future possibilities for intersectional solidarity through the very conflicts and difficulties their writings explore and formally embody.

Committee: Julie Burrell Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Frederick Karem Ph.D. (Committee Member); Melanie Gagich Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Literature; American Literature; Black Studies; Caribbean Literature; Gender; Literature; Modern Literature; Rhetoric; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2013, English

This is a novel that sets out to tell the story of one family affected my mental illness, the Morgan's. At its baseline, this novel tells the story of a family who has been rocked by their mother's bipolar disorder and her subsequent actions. However, this piece also endeavors to entice and empower the reader to discover the Morgan's in a modular, non-linear, multi-generic style. The structure and genres are meant to heighten the mystery surrounding the mother's disappearance and highlight the experiences of the individuals in the family. For example, parts of the novel are told through the teenage daughter's diary entries where the reader may experience Aiya more intimately and hear her voice clearly in the midst of confusion. Ultimately, "Journee" presents the mosaic of this family's life.

Committee: Margaret Luongo MFA (Advisor); Timothy Melley PhD (Committee Member); Joseph Bates PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; Fine Arts; Language; Language Arts; Literature

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 0, Arts and Sciences: English and Comparative Literature

Gutter Love explores the connections between graphic narratives, the violence they depict, and the marginalized experiences of minorities and women. While comics and graphic novels, collectively referred to as “graphic narratives,” are seen as artifacts of “low” culture, they often deal with complicated issues. I introduce the terms “historiographic metafictional graphic narratives”, “historio-metagraphics” for short, which refer to graphic narratives that integrate historical realities in fictional settings. Their portrayals of atrocity, the ways in which they mobilize empathy and reader identification, and how navigate questions about the ethics of the gaze are essential to contemporary debates about the representation of violence. While non-fiction graphic novels that deal with violence such as Art Spiegelman's Maus have received attention from scholars and are increasingly taught in college courses, historio-metagraphics have received significantly less attention. My project seeks to redress this gap in the literature, arguing that historio-metagraphics' fictional, and sometimes fantastic, elements are central to the exploration of how experiences of extremity may be rendered in an ethical fashion. By investigating point-of-view and focalization in Deogratias, Watchmen, and Hellbalzer, I demonstrate how the genre is useful in regards to examinations of reader's empathetic reaction to the content. The reader's imaginative closure between two panels that takes place in the gutter creates a space in which the reader's own attitudes must be examined, and furthermore, the gutter signifies a space of transition by which point-of-view is emphasized as a fundamental component of history and narrative. How the reader is positioned in terms of character point of view suggests that graphic narrative creators have ethical concerns about empathetic engagement. My project proposes an intervention strategy that emphasizes how formal elements of graphic narratives create a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jennifer Glaser Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Beth Ash Ph.D. (Committee Member); Gary Weissman Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Perspective plays a central role for controlling views into virtual and remote environments. The choice of point of observation and view direction from a point of observation result in usable or unusable views onto activities on a stage. Perspective-taking is observing activities on a stage from a location - perspective always includes a point of observation. Perspective-taking is cognitive work that is of interest for designers to support practitioners in obtaining meaningful views. Indicating point of observation location for perspective views, and providing systems for view control that implement the principles of ecological optics are a promising design direction to improve the control and coordination of views into virtual and remote environments. Coordinating perspective-taking effectively in these settings is the prerequisite to engage in monitoring and controlling tasks at a distance. This text examines the principles of perspective-taking that enable shifting between views and the coordination of multiple views. A framework for the setting and control of views is introduced as a new model for perspective-taking. In its essence, the model illustrates how in-scene views in coordination with distant overviews, also known as long shots, form the basis for acquiring understanding of activities on a stage that is explored from the in-scene view of a remote or virtual camera. This model forms the framework for a three-dimensional view control interface concept. The findings help designers identify required views to be provided in the design of spatial control interfaces to support perspective-taking by practitioners. Better view control should result in better interpretation of spatial scenes – a prerequisite for more effective intervention into activities on remote stages. The proposed improved view control architecture is the result of the implementation of conditions for ecological observations into the setting and display of views at a distance into remote and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Woods (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2012, Social Welfare

With adoption being viewed as an intervention, it becomes increasingly important to be clear about what outcomes are being sought from the intervention and from whose perspective success is defined. This cross sectional study of public child welfare adoptions examines the definition of adoption outcome from the points of view of both the adoptive parent and the adopted adolescent. Using a secondary analysis of survey responses from 146 adoptive parents and their eldest adopted child, the factors that most contributed to three different conceptualizations of success (adoptive parent satisfaction,adoptive parent perception of the parent-child relationship, and child perception of the parent-child relationship) were identified. The majority of adoptees and their adoptive parents view their adoption relationship very positively, however they define success differently. Other key findings included that although child related factors contributed the largest percentage of the variance in all three definitions, three family process factors (communicative openness, family functioning style and adoptive parent perceived stress)also had an impact on at least one of the definitions. While structural openness did not have an impact on any of the definitions of success, communicative openness in the family was the one factor that significantly impacted all three of the outcomes. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed.

Committee: Victor Groza PhD (Committee Chair); Claudia Coulton PhD (Committee Member); Scott Ryan PhD (Committee Member); Elizabeth Tracy PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Social Work