Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, Communication Studies (Communication)

I began this dissertation with two goals in mind: 1) to understand how queer Appalachians negotiate their intersectional identities to reframe our understanding of queers, Appalachians, queers in Appalachia, and queer Appalachians, and 2) to investigate the types of social support available to queer Appalachians as well as their awareness of and perceived access to these resources. Using grounded theory and an engaged scholarship approach, I examine how queer Appalachians in/from Central Appalachia negotiate their queer and Appalachian identities, and how they experience outlets of and access to social support. Drawing on 14 semi-structured interviews with individuals who self-identify as queer and live in or are from Central Appalachia, I explore how individuals navigate their identities and utilize various forms of social support. I utilized a constant comparative method to analyze the data (Charmaz, 2004) and report the findings in three chapters. First, I situate negotiations of a queer identity, and the identity itself, along a continuum between the public and the private where several contexts and factors influence identity negotiations. Then, I offer a participant-produced definition of “Appalachian” and describe identity negotiations within this definition. Finally, I highlight the ways in which queer Appalachians are resilient in a seemingly unsupportive region and I detail three major needs for queers in/from Central Appalachia. To conclude this project, I use the communication theory of identity (CTI) as a sensitizing framework and propose an extension to the theory. At a time when national conversations about Appalachians are abuzz, I strive to contribute new voices and queer narratives.

Committee: Brittany Peterson (Advisor); Amy Chadwick (Committee Co-Chair); Angela Hosek (Committee Member); Risa Whitson (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

MFA, Kent State University, 2024, College of the Arts / School of Art

As an artist and writer, I create work to explore my own complicated identification and disidentification with queer aesthetics, experiences, and environments through conceptual and physical processes. My thesis, entitled Someone's Sun, is a meditation on gay loneliness in the current age of gay-male sociality made material in a series of handwoven tapestries. I aim to embody a sense of self-inflicted ennui, a self-defeating act of seeking for connection while simultaneously hiding oneself behind banal / insipid landscapes. Through the remediation of photographs of sunrises and sunsets posted by gay men as placeholders for their own portraits on social media apps, I abstract and amplify saturation and composition in photoshop to create a digital painting of an otherworldly environment akin to those of Science Fiction films and television. I use my digital paintings as references, glancing up at them as I dye-paint warps with a variety of color using painterly brushstrokes, once again filtering each image through a further filter of abstraction. Through these digital and analog painting processes I explore color and scale, culminating in a final remediation by weaving with single toning color of wool and a metallic lurex weft yarn on traditional floor looms to create shimmering watercolor tapestries. I weave queer tapestries, that whisper seductively hushed desires while screaming “look at how I shine.”

Committee: Gianna Commito (Committee Member); Gianna Commito (Committee Member); Eli Kessler (Committee Member); John Paul Morabito (Advisor) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art History; Behavioral Psychology; Communication; Developmental Psychology; Fine Arts; Gender; Gender Studies; Personal Relationships; Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Educational Studies

The purpose of this study was to understand how Queer Collegians of Color explore and make meaning of their intersecting identities during their time in higher education. With intersectionality as a theoretical framework, this research also examined how axes of oppression at historically white institutions (HWIs) influenced the process of identity exploration for Queer Students of Color. Guided by constructivism and critical theory as its epistemological foundations, this constructivist grounded theory study included the following four research questions: 1) how do Queer Students of Color explore their identities during their time at historically white institutions; 2) how do collegiate experiences play a role in the process of identity exploration for Queer Students of Color at HWIs; 3) how do systems of power influence the process of identity exploration for Queer Students of Color at HWIs; and 4) how do Queer Students of Color at HWIs make meaning of their identities during the process of identity exploration? Twenty participants with differing races, ethnicities, sexualities, and institutional types served as the sample for this research. Data were collected using three intensive interviews to align with constructivist grounded theory methodology. In addition, participants engaged in a reflective journaling activity between their first and second interview. The data gathered in this research project were analyzed using the constant comparative method characteristic of grounded theory methodology. To honor the two epistemological foundations (constructivism and critical theory), data analysis involved two different readings of the transcripts and journals, including one reading that paid specific attention to issues of power and structural inequality. The outcome of this study was an intersectional grounded theory detailing how Queer Collegians of Color explore and make meaning of their intersecting identities during their time at HWIs. The theory cente (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Susan Jones Ph.D. (Advisor); Marc Johnston-Guerrero Ph.D. (Committee Member); Wendy Smooth Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Higher Education

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2024, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Trans members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and other marginalized sexual and gender identities (LGBT+) community may be at risk of erasure from both dominant sociocultural scripts and clinical psychological research. Identity development experts have asserted that identity is fixed by late adolescence, with some room for evolution depending on context (Marcia, 2002; Sokol, 2009). Research about grief suggests that anything that has been lost has the potential to be experienced through the lens of grief (Chapple et al., 2016; Collings, 2007). This grief of non-death loss has been linked to loss of relationships, expected life trajectory, and self-concept. The loss of relationship to the previous gender label has not been discussed in the extant literature. This lack of research might both be endemic to and perpetuate self-concealment in LGBT+ communities. Trans individuals might also be vulnerable to grief, becoming disenfranchised and exacerbated by lack of representation. The current dissertation offers a mixed-method Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to address gaps in the extant literature. Surprisingly, the current research supports that, while internal processes may play a role in shifting gender labels, participants are more impacted overall by the loss of social factors such as understanding self in relation to social environment. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Shannon McIntyre Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Katherine Evarts Psy.D. (Committee Member); Lorraine Mangione Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Psychology; Psychotherapy

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Sociology

In the past decade, the number of studies of transgender individuals has grown exponentially, but specific research into subcommunities under the broader transgender label is lacking. Most studies focus on either binary transgender individuals (transgender women and transgender men) alone, or combine all persons identifying as any gender other than their gender assigned at birth into one large group of “transgender people.” However, the limited intragroup research that has been done suggests that experiences vary drastically depending on one's gender identity, and we can imagine that the experience of binary transgender individuals would be very different than the experiences of nonbinary transgender individuals. This study reports on the lived experiences of nonbinary people – individuals identifying as neither men nor women, but rather existing outside of the gender binary. Qualitative interview methods were used to gather information from nonbinary individuals about their personal experiences with identity development, external experiences of stress from other people, and the internalized impacts of minority stress. Based in grounded theory, the subsequent report on these interviews includes discussion and analyses of the data collected. This discussion utilized a newly suggested framework – the Respect, Support, and Perception Theory – for analyzing interpersonal relationships with genderqueer individuals and the potential internalized effects that these relationships have on nonbinary individuals.

Committee: Charlie Morgan (Advisor); Patricia Stokes (Advisor) Subjects: Gender; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Sociology

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

The origination and application of a textual analysis of identity, identity formation, and perception of the self and the individual is, as a part of a specific time and space, something that is sociological in nature. The anthropological links between fiction and its sociological aspects highlight symbols of identity and interactions between the self, the other, and the individual. The end goal of this project's articulated theoretical model is to contribute to readings and analysis of the self and identity in different, othered spaces. This project works towards locating patterns and understanding that make the text and its underlying archetypal and mythological structures work so well with contemporary readers. It is grounded in the serious nature of contemporary storytelling as a part of the self, individual identity, and its place in society and culture. There is no shortage of specific work in literary analysis that relies on aspects of the hero's journey, the archetypes, and identity. This theoretical model of analysis adapts myth and C.G. Jung to incorporate much of this material into something cohesive and applicable to contemporary genre fiction. Because of this, this project necessitates the introduction of a definition of myth that situates contemporary genre texts as uniquely anthropological artifacts and as items worth analyzing and containing content capable of explicating overarching themes of the individual, the self, and the other in relation to identity formation in opposition. This new and adapted terminology from both myth and Jung assists in reorganizing a vocabulary that allows the analysis to delve into discussions on the creative representation of self, other, gender, sexual identity, the mind and body, transhumanism, and trans(inter)national identity, as well as help highlight how these representations are internalized or externalized by those who read these works of contemporary genre fiction and how these representations and internalizati (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christopher Roman (Advisor) Subjects: Classical Studies; Folklore; Gender Studies; Literature; Psychology

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Counseling, Mental Health

Within counseling and other mental health disciplines, the queer community as a whole has been widely under recognized and othered within our western spaces. Within many of the structures that western culture has curated to benefit that of the general population, there has been and still continues to be active internal erasure as well as purposeful othering within many religious and spiritual spaces. The current study is based on the work of Wood & Conley 2014 who made note of the disparities between those who uphold a queer identity and either hide their queerness and/or renounce themselves from a religious/spiritual affiliation. Using the Interpretative Phenomenological Approach, and previous research, I have been able to dive into the lives of queer perspectives and understand whether it is possible to integrate, instead of harm, queer identities among being religious and/or spiritual. Findings indicated that there is a process of deconversion that includes education alongside increasing self-esteem and mental health, as well as feelings of internalized queerphobia and difficulties navigating both R/S and queer spaces. Counseling implications and areas for future research are discussed.

Committee: Andrew Wood Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Rachel Saunders Ph.D. (Committee Member); Amanda La Guardia Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mental Health

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2023, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Counselor Education

LGBTQ+ individuals use psychedelics at significantly higher rates than their cis/heterosexual peers (Center for Behavioral Health Statistics, 2016) and counselors working with these individuals may have inaccurate knowledge and beliefs regarding the effects of psychedelic use, particularly in naturalistic settings (Hearn et al., 2021), despite evidence which suggests that psychedelic use in these settings is generally beneficial and low risk (Kopra et al., 2023). Given that initiation to psychedelic use occurs primarily between the ages of 18-25 and this cohort also is the most likely to identify as queer (Goldberg et al., 2022), developing an understanding of experienced psychedelic users who identify as queer is a necessary first step in developing queer-affirming approaches to psychedelic harm reduction and integration (PHRI). This dissertation study addresses this need by analyzing the results of an anonymous online study using interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith et al., 2009). Results found five primary themes among respondents' experiences of naturalistic psychedelic use including: 1) Autonomy and Openness Central to Queer Identity and Psychedelic Use; 2) Catalyzing and Affirming Identity Development; 3) Perceived Therapeutic and Healing Effects; 4) Interpersonal Trust Important to and Enhanced Through Use; and 5) Optimism Towards Third-Party Facilitation is Setting Dependent. Each of these themes is explored and discussed in detail alongside recommendations for counselors and the counseling profession.

Committee: Michael Brubaker Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Andrew Wood Ph.D. (Committee Member); Annulla Linders Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Mental Health

MFA, Kent State University, 2023, College of the Arts / School of Art

I have mourned many people, most of whom are still alive. Forming and maintaining relationships has always been difficult for me. They blossom and die in unexpected ways. For the vast majority of my life, I have felt like an outsider, never quite fitting in with family, friends, or community. This has led to relationships ending in sudden and unexpected ways, and I carry an immense amount of grief with me. These experiences have led me to create a collection of mourning veils in which I explore my non-linear grieving process of interpersonal relationships. These pieces are heavily influenced by my identity as a fat, neurodivergent, genderqueer dyke. I find it impossible to separate my mourning process from my identities which often leave me alienated and on the outside of my communities. Through captured pearls, cast silver, linked steel chain, and laser cut acrylic, I create a structure for my grief to manifest. These wearable objects allow me to physically express the emotions I experience internally but struggle to appropriately display. The weight and/ or placement of the pieces make them impossible to ignore, much like the aching pangs of sorrow.

Committee: Andrew Kuebeck (Advisor) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theological Studies

This thesis argues that Mary Magdalene is a perfect unofficial patron saint for the Catholic LGBQ community due to similarities in experienced and assumed identity. People who actively identify as both Catholic and LGBQ experience a tension between these two identities, particularly in light of such Church teachings as the USCCB document Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination. Neither identity can easily be set aside in favor of the other without causing harm to the person's mental and spiritual health, and so the person's sense of self is torn between these two innate and unchosen identities. Mary Magdalene's identity, on the other hand, was split by her devotional cults after her death into the blessed and beloved apostle to the apostles, and repentant sexual sinner. Given that the LGBQ Catholic experiences a dual identity between beloved child of God as a Catholic, and an imposed identity of assumed sexual sin as a queer person, the natural conclusion is for the LGBQ Catholic to find a devotion to Mary Magdalene and seek her intercession on their behalf as they navigate their identity, affirming both love of God and love of self.

Committee: Jana Bennett (Advisor) Subjects: Theology

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2022, English

Focused on alternate universes where you can get your car taxidermied, where you can be reincarnated as your neighbor's golden retriever, and where you have conversations with loved ones you've meant to all your life (but couldn't), In This Universe is a collection of branching what-ifs and cosmic could've-beens, a multiverse-jumping selection of short speculative personal essays, lyrical essays, and braided essays that challenges genre conventions and questions the idea of whether a single universe even exists that can accommodate multiple ways of being. Though it deals with many different subject matters, there is always the presence of an alternate universes working as a sort of metaphor for future-thinking and alternate ways of being. Written with the intention of providing a space for folks who don't see themselves as valid in this world, or who can't imagine possibilities for themselves in this world, In This Universe looks to reimagine embodiment and to reshape spaces and ways of being, so that we might discover for ourselves far grander, perhaps far stranger, and mostly hidden possible realities.

Committee: Daisy Hernández (Committee Chair); TaraShea Nesbit (Committee Member); Jody Bates (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2022, Music Ethnomusicology

This thesis is an exploration of the sounds of the queer side of TikTok. TikTok is a social media platform, driven by user-generated audio-visual content that is delivered through the “For You” page's individually curated algorithm. As such, TikTok is uniquely situated as a social media network that inadvertently creates online communities situated around not only common interests but the trends and sounds that accompany them. Within TikTok's queer community, sounds present avenues for exploring and performing gendered and sexual identities as well as developing preexisting queer-coded communications. These sounds also serve as opportunities to raise issues of gender identity, race, and inclusivity within the LGBTQ+ community. This work is centered on case studies of TikTok sounds and their accompanying trends, each supporting a critical analysis of queer TikTok spaces as indicative of a need for intersectionality within the queer community.

Committee: Katherine Meizel Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Heather Strohschein Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sidra Lawrence Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Gender Studies; Music

BS, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Anthropology

In a world of countless identities, people often face challenges when forming their own. These identities are enriched and influenced by many sources. When forming one's identity, some people face the challenge of belonging to several groups that overlap. One such example is the Latin@ communities and the LGBTQ+ communities. These intersecting identities are elaborately intertwined and require a lens that examines this overlap. The theory of intersectionality is the primary lens used in this thesis. The goal of this research is to answer the question: How do Latin@ people who belong within the LGBTQ+ community negotiate their intersecting identities?

Committee: Evgenia Fotiou Ph.D. (Advisor); Michelle Bebber Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lauren Vachon Ph.D. (Committee Member); Suzy D'Enbeau Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Gender; Gender Studies; Womens Studies

Master of Social Work, The Ohio State University, 2019, Social Work

There is a lack of research on the resilience experiences of non-binary survivors (NBS) of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault. The primary aim of this study is to highlight the resilience experiences of NBS from their own knowledge, experiences and perceptions related to exploring identities, experiences with trauma, coping mechanisms and social support. NBS (N = 5) participated in an in-depth semi-structured interview. Data was analyzed using Atlas.ti, a qualitative data analysis software. The findings highlight the resilience experiences of NBS and the need for affirming spaces as non-binary people and as survivors. Implications for social workers, agencies, support services, policy change and future research are discussed. An affirming space focusing on resilience is highly recommended to bridge the gap between service systems and NBS and to help NBS find new ways of healing.

Committee: Cecilia Mengo (Advisor); Sharvari Karandikar (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Work; Womens Studies

MA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This thesis examines queer identity in the twelfth-century theological treatise Spiritual Friendship by Aelred of Rievaulx, and the anonymous thirteenth-century Aucassin and Nicolette. I argue that these texts queer medieval and contemporary understandings of gender and sexuality, both spiritually and narratively. In Part One of this project, I focus on Rievaulx Abbey in the North of England as a space for free expression from strict social binaries of sex and gender. Here I focus on Aelred, an abbot who promoted close, intimate bonds with others as a means of understanding theological notions of God in his text, Spiritual Friendship. Rather than contributing to the exploration of Aelred sexuality as a gay man, my aim in this chapter is to offer a shift in focus towards Aelred's gender expression and performance. Ultimately, I argue, Aelred queers traditional notions of love, God, and Cistercian theology through his emphasis on community and shared love in Spiritual Friendship. In Part Two, I move from English mysticism to French chantefable, or “song-story,” in Aucassin and Nicolette. I argue that the text engenders in its two main characters queer identity through the inversion of traditional gender roles. Further, I argue that the performative aspect of the text allows for a dispersal of transgressive, queer identity via performance. In doing so, I push the definition of queer further than the tale's characters, arguing that the text itself becomes queer in its interaction with the reader. In expanding the genre and scope of this project from twelfth-century England to thirteenth-century France, I illustrate how expansive queer identity was in the Middle Ages.

Committee: Christopher Roman (Advisor); Ryan Hediger (Committee Member); Ann Martinez (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Literature; Medieval History; Medieval Literature; Middle Ages

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Higher Education Administration

In this study, I centered the experiences of individuals who identify as polyamorous or ethically non-monogamous. My purpose was to explore how polyamorous students at one institution made meaning of their polyamorous identity and how they described the relationship between the postsecondary environment and their meaning-making. The philosophical perspectives of constructivism and queer theory were blended to acknowledge the subjective experiences of the participants while also recognizing the systemic oppression surrounding identities like polyamory. Through these frameworks, I applied Baxter Magolda's theory of self-authorship (2001) and Bronfenbrenner's developmental ecology model (2005). Using collective case study methodology, I recruited seven participants who each consented to participate in two open ended, semi-structured individual interviews. At the time of data collection, six of the seven participants were graduate students; one was an undergraduate student. I utilized journaling, memoing, epoche, bracketing, and holistic and embedded analysis throughout the study design, implementation, and data analysis. Several themes emerged from the data, each with multiple subthemes. Primary themes included: misrepresentation/misconceptions stemming from heteronormative constructs in society; coming out which all participants had to constantly navigate, support including the lack thereof as well as some supportive individuals; and multiple dimensions of identity as participants shared that their meaning-making was related to other identities they also hold. Five recommendations for policy and practice emerged from the findings. First, student affairs practitioners should consider polyamory when claiming to focus on inclusion and holistic identity development. Second, student affairs units should sponsor programming focused on polyamory and other family and relationship structures. Third, relevant academic units should include polyamory when (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dafina-Lazarus Stewart Ph.D (Advisor); Christina Lunceford Ph.D. (Advisor); Sarah Smith Rainey Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kenneth Borland D.Ed. (Committee Member) Subjects: Families and Family Life; Gender Studies; Higher Education; Higher Education Administration; Sociology; Womens Studies

BA, Oberlin College, 2017, Art

In altering and regenerating, I strip clothes from gendered confines. This reuse explores the value of originality and reinterpretation. This action is also one of empowerment in its disregard for the typical sanctity of consumer products. Furthermore, renewing old clothing references the psychological, political, and environmental consequences of excessive accumulation and consumption.The parallel practices of art and fashion in my work inform each other in both their material and the contemplation of fashion's function. My fascination with the meaning behind personal style derives from how what we wear signifies, particularly within the queer communities of which I am a part. Style can subvert social constraints such as gender norms and socioeconomic stratification. Style can veil a troubled mentality or festively externalize one's interior--a celebration that, outside of safe spaces, is subject to attack. Style can present a problematic dichotomy between necessary self-expression and superficial judgement within a classist culture.This thesis is for anyone who wears clothes and wants to contemplate the significance of clothing as more than just a social and climatological necessity.

Committee: Nanette Yannuzzi-Macias Professor (Advisor); Kristina Paabus Professor (Advisor) Subjects: Art History; Communication; Design; Environmental Justice; Fine Arts; Gender; Gender Studies; Mass Media

BA, Oberlin College, 2017, Gender Sexuality and Feminist Studies

When queer took the world of AIDS activism and the academy by storm in the late 20th century, activists and academics leapt to understand and define this reclaimed word and predict its trajectory. Some academics claimed that queer would avoid obsolescence, remaining an anti-assimilationist beacon for activists, while others worried that lumping anyone with non-normative sexualities or lifestyle practices under the same umbrella would inaccurately homogenize disparate groups and detract from specific causes. This study aims to understand the meanings of the word queer among students at Oberlin College today, over a quarter century after the beginning of the word's reclamation. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews, I asked 17 non-heterosexual or non-cisgender students to describe their relationships with and perceptions of the word queer at their college and in other places they've lived, keeping this question at the core of my research: How are Oberlin College students using queer today, and how do uses of this word impact and interact with the ways in which Oberlin students conceive of identity, community, and politics? I interviewed several Case Western Reserve University students to better understand how current uses of queer in Oberlin are particular to this time and place. My findings indicate that queer's multiple meanings as an identity term and a synonym of non-normative cause it to occupy a position of tension as a simultaneously fixed and relational term. Queer's ambiguity can render it both hopeful and ineffective as a community unifier or political beacon, but the contradictions people encounter at the boundaries of the word allow queer to remain salient as a term that embodies the ever-shifting challenges of people marginalized because of gender and sexuality.

Committee: Greggor Mattson PhD (Advisor); Patrick O'Connor PhD (Committee Member); Margaret D. Kamitsuka PhD (Committee Member); Evangeline Marcella Heiliger PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Sociolinguistics; Sociology

MFA, Kent State University, 2017, College of the Arts / School of Art

I Am Not Abandoning You, but You Have Changed was my Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition that used my lived experiences related to my gender and sexuality. By visually exploring my sense of identity(s) and place that utilizes narrative formats and the creation of personas to portray these lived experiences. Viewers would also become immersed within the environment and landscape created within the gallery space to project their own lived experiences to create a dialogue between the two. The works within I Am Not Abandoning You, but You Have Changed were created from processes and materials within printmedia and drawing.

Committee: Taryn McMahon (Advisor); Michael Loderstedt (Committee Member); Darice Polo (Committee Member); John-Michael Warner (Committee Member) Subjects: Fine Arts

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2017, English

My dissertation explores writing center studies as a useful field not only for developing better approaches to assisting writers, but also for theorizing and transforming wider curricula and institutional norms. Writing center faculty and administrators grapple often with curricular questions—in addition to designing and teaching consultant training courses, they study different disciplinary practices to better assist diverse writers, they work with faculty to run writing-across-the-curriculum programs, they assist departments with writing-in-the-disciplines initiatives, and they support High Impact educational experiences, such as service learning. I contend, however, that writing center scholars could do more to theorize the idea of curriculum itself. To study writing centers as curricular (not just pedagogical), I also develop and employ a methodology of queer assemblage to highlight larger institutional spaces, issues, and pedagogies influenced by—and influencing—writing centers. Specifically, I study a studio approach to the teaching of writing as one of these larger institutional attachments. As courses existing alongside yet separate from traditional classrooms, studios at my research site resist larger systems of oppression by providing students, including a high number of international students, with the opportunity to critique multiple curricula they face in addition to improving as writers—and they employ writing center methods to do so. Thus, by drawing on discourse analysis as well as interviews with studio administrators, teachers, and students, I ultimately articulate studios as an emerging critical modality for asserting a wider curricular force of writing centers within and beyond one-to-one mentoring.

Committee: Jason Palmeri Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Composition; Rhetoric