Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This is a feminist project that investigates the performative practices of contemporary female Colombian artists. It was guided by a main research question: Is there a particular kind of strength that comes from their specific situation as contemporary Colombian female artists? As such, this dissertation relies on fieldwork and critical theory in order to elucidate how such diverse individuals perform multiple art practices and what they do in and with their art practices. Two dozen women opened their doors, provided their time for video taped conversation and gave their archival material for the realization of this project. The main hypothesis this dissertation worked with relates to the existence of a possible double work or doubling of the work a woman artist executes in the need to undo what has been culturally assigned in order to then create her own images, ideas and concepts about being a woman in her society. Within the undoing and the doing, a liminal space allows the artists to realize how the cultural ideas of feminine essences evidence a conceptual void. Once the artistic work uncovers these supposed essences as false expectations, the strength that emanates from the vantage point of un-definition becomes the source of unbound creativity that produces artwork of political significance. The themes that emerged during fieldwork and writing show that in the same way these artists become others; multiplying possibilities of being while in their practices, they are able to influence their surroundings in minute, effective ways. Otherness is a central theme that has aided the understanding of the work these women realize. An important theoretical source is the seminal work of Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex, even though in five chapters the artistic work of nine artists are thoroughly discussed through multiple theories that traverse the text. Some of the theorists that have aided the present text are: Gloria Anzaldua, Rosi Braidoti, Judith Butler, (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, English

"Playing with Comics: Material Culture in the Hands of 20th-Century American Readers" examines how 20th-century newspaper comic strips and comic books encouraged readers to play with their contents and, subsequently, how readers reproduced, altered, and transformed comics content through their play practices. I argue play has an essential and productive role in our experience reading comics, and yet the visual and narrative tools provided by 20th-century comics were used in personalized ways shaped by individual contexts. Drawing from original archival research, this project seeks to answer two sets of questions: (1) How did comics create opportunities for play, and how did they imagine readers would respond to their invitations? (2) How did readers actually play with comics, and how did material, social, cultural, and historical contexts shape that play? In "Playing with Comics," play is defined through the intertwined processes of imagining oneself and others through printed content and the interpretation of those materials within personal contexts. Inspired by Rebecca Wanzo's work in The Content of Our Caricature (2020), I argue that the character types in comics provided one of the primary tools for play, and comics' invitations were defined through the visual logic of two distinct yet interconnected types: the idealized caricature and the undesirable stereotype. These character types served as models for readers' play, and my analyses investigate how idealized caricatures functioned as models for imitation and encouraged readers to imagine their own transformations while undesirable stereotypes restricted opportunities for play and reinforced racial, ethnic, and gendered stereotypes. The visual markers of identity and their associated narratives were reinforced through mechanical and ideological reproduction, but character types also relied on those readers who played with and within these types. As a result, the contexts in which readers encountered and pla (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Theatre

In Performing Indigenous Fiesta Resistance: Velas, Muxes, and Zapotec Style, I investigate the role of performance, material, and visual culture in festivals known as velas (candle or vigil), which occur throughout the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Oaxaca, Mexico. I analyze the vela system to demonstrate how it enacts what I call Indigenous fiesta resistance, which theorizes how these festivals provide an opportunity for resistance by Indigenous people, women, and trans/queer communities. Velas are multi-day fiestas composed of processions, large outdoor parties, and ceremonial dances that meld Zapotec ritual with Mexican Catholic traditions. These events function as a public forum where local identity is both constructed and contested through the performance of Zapotec style: the visual and material culture of the Isthmus Zapotec people. Using decolonial methods, my examination of the performers and producers of the local fiesta system demonstrates how women and muxes influence the reproduction of ethnic and cultural identity in the Isthmus. After tracing the history of Zapotec style, I examine two case studies, the Vela de San Vicente Goola and the Vela de las Intrepidas, investigating their histories, organizational structures, and local festival economies. The Vela de San Vincente, I demonstrate, enacts decolonial gestures and exemplifies the use of labor by third gender individuals known as muxes. The Velas de las Intrepidas, organized by the muxes, increases acceptance of trans, queer, and other nonnormative identities by enacting public forms of plural performativity. I argue that the vela system supports contemporary forms of activism (decolonial, feminist, and trans/queer) rooted in Indigenous values and practices, which illustrate various forms of Indigenous fiesta resistance. My examination demonstrates how festivals can function as a dramaturgy of resistance, adding to a limited body of scholarship that examines performances at the intersection of tran (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2020, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation explores the role of African media in shaping Africa's image through both the analysis of newspapers over the course of the 2014 Ebola crisis and an exploration of African films. This methodology redeploys aspects of Africa's (in)visibility in global politics and discourse on representation in geopolitics. Placing African film and media organizations at the center of analysis in this study is vital, as they add diversity of voices to the conversation about Africa's image in the media. The dissertation looks at how Africa is framed as perpetually “in crisis.” Specifically, the research engages analysis of African film and media depictions under the premise of crises to advance Africa's visual culture and representation. I am interested in exploring how coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in The Inquirer, a major English newspaper in Liberia, compares with that in the New York Times coverage of the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Likewise, I explore how African cinema frames and represents crisis through three films – Xala (Ousmane Sembene, 1975); Pumzi (Wanuri Kahiu, 2009); and Les Saignantes (Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 2005). I argue that African films speak to the possibility of positive anticipated outcomes ignored by western scholars, and, therefore, possess the agency to decolonize minds. For instance, Pumzi and Les Saignantes offer an outlook on Africa's challenges and possibilities through newly imagined futures. Precisely, the selected films first address Africa's crisis in relation to the political, economic, and environmental struggle as well as gender discourses and, second, offer a prescription of development and progress. How do African filmmakers and media personnel, through their various creative works, reconstruct Africa's global identity? Finally, I advance that this research gives voice to how Africa frames crisis. This dissertation interrogates an unbalanced global power structure that has been typically Eurocentric. Taking an opposing pos (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, French and Italian

At the crossroads of French Studies, Visual Studies, and Queer theory, my dissertation seeks to confront notions of risk and responsibility to argue that society's perceptions of risk have changed in relation to a pre-AIDS world and the onset of AIDS and that contemporary treatments such as PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) continue to refine our definition of risk. While much recent scholarship has been written about AIDS in the 1980s and 1990s, I would like to address contemporary AIDS narratives that respond to advances in medication and a shift in our understanding of AIDS from a death sentence, to a chronic disease, and now to a preventable illness. In order to explore how gay men's relationship with risk has been articulated in artistic production and has evolved with the availability of PrEP in France, my dissertation confronts cultural production throughout the epidemic. Film and literature analysis of Herve Guibert's work establishes a relationship between taking risks with one's health and the feelings of shame often felt in the early days of the epidemic, while a critical look at Cyril Collard's Les Nuits fauves in tandem with public health campaigns demonstrate how beauty is manipulated in times of epidemic. Engaging with Erik Remes's allows for further nuancing of the question of responsibility, and suggest that the epidemic resulted in a vilification of behavior that was not only deemed risky, but also irresponsible. Finally, I explore contemporary notions of risk through a study of prevention campaigns, film, newspaper articles, and interviews. The HIV/AIDS narrative in contemporary France is one that is marked by new modes of communication, the creation of a digital queer space, and a revisiting of the trauma of AIDS. The first three chapters are in the tradition of medical humanities and film studies approach, and the fourth chapter requires a shift methodology to one that emphasizes cultural studies and oral testimonies, necessitating onsite rese (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2015, American Culture Studies

My dissertation focuses on intersections of gender, power, and emotion in different digital spaces, specifically video game-related spaces. I'm predominantly concerned with ways in which gender operates in the video gaming subculture in such a way that it can elicit a range of strong emotions that are often skirted or even neglected in academic studies of the medium. My primary focus is on a triangulation of visual and qualitative content analysis with participant observation to examine the different ways in which power and emotion manifest around the female body. Two of these areas include the different ways players, viewers, audiences, whatever one would call a person who comes into contact with the visual components of a video game, interact with playable- and non-playable video game characters. Additionally, I focus on digital non-gaming space interactions, such as those in discussion boards or popular media article comment sections. The entire dissertation is structured from a critical feminist perspective and uses the video game Dead Island (2011) as an anchor to ground the discussion.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Spanish and Portuguese

This dissertation analyzes the construction of a pervasive social imaginary of unequal order in Central America between 1870 and 1900. This period was crucial in the region, which underwent a series of economic, political, and social reforms that would forever transform the natural and social landscapes of the isthmus. Although most of these structural changes have already been studied, it is still unclear how literary and cultural production intersected with the liberal elites' endeavors of social classification, economic modernization, and political institutionalization. This dissertation addresses that problem through theoretical elaborations on the social imaginary (Cornelius Castoriadis) and the distribution of the sensible (Jacques Ranciere). I specifically analyze three different types of cultural texts: household economy guides for girls and young women; cuadros costumbristas (sketches of manners); and sentimental novels and theater plays. Part 1 deals with the cultural measures that contributed to a symbolic and material division of public spaces and private spaces, both ruled by the rationale of capitalism. Chapters 1 through 3 study in detail the role of household economy manuals in the dissemination and implementation of the new capitalist logics of productivity, rationalization, and accumulation across the domestic or private spaces. Chapter 1 analyzes how these cultural texts created two opposing female archetypes: the "economic woman" or "productive housewife", figured as an agent of domestic modernization, and the "abject servant", a subaltern subject that would undergo a set of new domestic policies of surveillance, discipline, and exploitation. Chapter 2 addresses the role of the productive housewives in the implementation of new modes of regulation of time and desire within the urban households, while Chapter 3 covers the rearrangements in domestic spaces brought by the new concepts of comfort and hygiene. Part 2 deals with the simultaneous reo (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Popular Culture

One of the most powerful arenas where the construction of ideal femininity gets constructed is through the depiction of women on television. My thesis investigates one of the most popular television shows in the 21st century, Desperate Housewives. It explores how the female protagonists are depicted through the ways they attempt to maintain power within their suburban worlds. My thesis discusses how certain power is allotted within the narrative of the show. I investigate the implication that power is a good thing, and also offer analysis with some of the problems of gaining power. We not only see constrained power, but also see women in positions of status. Power within family dynamics, romantic love/marriage, and domestic and professional activities are central to my thesis. I focus on beauty and image through consumption, the struggles for women balancing their domestic and professional worlds, and alternative depictions of femininity through the repression of emotion. I use textual analysis to examine dialogue, plot and narrative, character development, genre, and aesthetics/formal elements within production, which include costumes, make-up, cinematography, editing, acting, lighting, and sound. My thesis draws on feminist scholarship within media studies and popular culture studies; specifically elements of sociological and psychological theory within the context of gender.

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Popular Culture

This thesis analyzes the highly popular Old Spice commercials as a contemporary cultural guide on masculinity; it addresses a number of issues related to the construction of masculinities in contemporary American culture. Both Old Spice campaigns under analysis offer great insight into cultural ideals related to the construction of hegemonic masculinity. Through a detailed textual analysis of the commercials in these campaigns, I unravel those ideals and analyze how masculinity is constructed through the protagonists' appearances and bodies, sexuality, behaviors, as well as their character patterns and mannerisms. I argue that while both Old Spice campaigns suggest that hegemonic masculinity is the only acceptable form of masculinity, hegemonic masculinity is perpetuated in two very different ways. In the Smell Like A Man, Man campaign, satire is used as a means to disguise the blunt promotion of hegemonic masculinity. The Smell is Power campaign, on the other hand, uses a very blunt approach: its overt character clearly encourages the viewer to directly align with hegemonic notions of masculinity. Both campaigns are thus representative of a certain ambiguity that is so often to be found in postmodern texts. The analysis in my thesis therefore analyzes how both campaigns serve as prime examples of how paradoxical American beliefs about masculinity are in contemporary, postmodern America.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Womens Studies

This project investigates the ways that the Black female body has been constructed using corpulence as a central narrative that reflects anxieties about race, gender, class, sexuality, and national identity. It identifies how the performance of corpulence through the Black female body has particular ideological meanings that have been articulated through visual and narrative cultures. Corpulence is operative in defining rigid boundaries in regards to identity, which are built on constructed notions of whiteness and Blackness. Moreover, this study identifies corpulence as a facet of identity and illuminates how it intersects with race, gender, and class to relegate Black women to the bottom of American society. Through an analysis of several popular texts, this study illuminates the varied ways that the discourse involving corpulence reflects narratives that deploy race, gender, and class as signifiers of “authentic” American identity and restrict the social, economic, and political mobility of the Black female body. The analysis begins with a historical examination of how pertinent size has been to the construction of the Black female body in visual and narrative cultures and how this particular construction has worked to establish ideals regarding difference. It assesses the historical ‘Mammy' construction of the Black female body in an effort to identify how the physical attributes of this particular construction serve to nurture whiteness in general. The primary interest is to identify the function of corpulence in the construction of this caricature and analyze how it was composed as a signifier of ‘Blackness' that was used to establish, promote and sustain white supremacy through visual culture. Also, corpulence has been appropriated and used in Black folklore as a means to comical effect. This study illuminates the ways in which corpulence is performed in Black folklore as a means to denigrate the Black female body. Moreover, it traces this assault through ana (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, Women's Studies

My project investigates the ways that the representation of Black female revolutionary activists during the 1970s produced images and narratives of justice that have informed the artistic work of Black women over the past 30 years. My analysis begins with Black revolutionary icons, Angela Davis and Kathleen Cleaver, and the various historical discourses that informed the circulation, consumption and meaning of their images. Photographic images of these prominent Black female activists circulated in the sixties and seventies and produced important narratives about the primacy of Black male experience as representative of the Black liberation struggle. They also contributed to the mythological, Amazonian image of Black womanhood that developed into filmic images in blaxploitation films, featuring actresses like Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson. These films reflected anxieties about gender, race and sexuality.My analysis of visual images of icons such as Davis and Grier are linked to a legacy of revolutionary Black feminist rhetoric, representation and critique that continued in the literature of Black women in the eighties. Revolutionary imagery and Black feminist rhetoric embedded in the work of Black female writers and poets, such as Alice Walker and Audre Lorde, provided a space for a more complex and nuanced articulation of Black female revolutionary womanhood. More specifically, their use of the image of the Amazon and the willingness of Lorde and Walker to explore a Black female experience that included both strength and vulnerability were crucial to the development and visual articulation of revolution that emerged in work of Black women in the early nineties. The work of Black female artists such as Erykah Badu and Me'shell Ndegeocello are examples of the ways that young Black female musicians have appropriated and rearticulated Black feminist revolutionary rhetoric, iconography and aesthetics from the 1970s to explore what it means to be a Black female revolution (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2008, English: Creative Writing

This manuscript contains visual poems that use condensed written texts and other visual elements, such as color, line, erasure, positive space, and negative space, to create an emphasis on the visual materiality of language. These poems address conceptualizations of the female body, consciousness, violence, liberation, inclusion, and emphasis. They are the result of manipulations of simple word processing programs (most often Microsoft Word) and follow a poetic tradition of "text as image," or interdependency of verbal, spatial, and visual elements that began in prehistory.

PHD, Kent State University, 2024, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Calls for research in multimodality and multiliteracies have provided the field of writing studies with theories and outcomes suggesting that more research is necessary in FYC students' multimodal composing processes and literacy practices. Much of the research in New Literacies Studies (NLS) focuses on students' final products. This dissertation investigates the literacy activities that take place in situ while FYC students compose a multimodal project. Through empirical research methods, my research on multimodal composing processes addresses the question of what FYC students actually do when composing and aims to discover the literate practices, tools, and sites that FYC students draw on when composing an argument multimodally. Drawing on the scholarship of NLS, specifically that of the New London Group's Framework for Design and other new literacies scholarship, my dissertation provides thick descriptions through the use of screencasts and talk aloud protocol of 18 FYC students' multimodal composing processes. Each study participant recorded themselves for 60 minutes providing rich, generative data for description, interpretation, and analysis. My research interrogates the relationship between digital literacies and the ways in which FYC students identify, interpret, create, and communicate meaning across a variety of modes - - visual, linguistic, spatial, aural, and gestural - - and their affordances. It provides concrete examples of the technological and rhetorical forms of communication students engage with during the multimodal composing process of an academic argument. Participants in my study describe their choices of genres created for persuasion and agency. Beyond a linguistic notion of literacy, this study's participants display an awareness of the social contexts and wider cultural factors that frame communication and, in the case of their multimodal project, further their communicative purposes. This dissertation calls for professional development eff (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Education, Ashland University, 2024, College of Education

The researcher investigated the effects of learning in an integrated curriculum environment in a Midwestern urban school among 7th grade students. The control group consisted of students who were enrolled in just a 7th grade social studies class. The test group consisted of students who were enrolled in both a social studies class and visual art class learning about Ancient Greece. The implications of this study have both quantitative and qualitative results. The quantitative show mixed results in the control group vs. the test group in their assessment scores. However, the qualitative results showed an increase of enjoyment in teaching for teachers and learning for students in an integrated learning environment.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation investigates the works, thoughts, and practices of everyday life of a diverse range of emerging contemporary Syrian artists and filmmakers who created art during the Syrian crisis since 2011. Some stayed in Syria. Others fled the country. Some engaged in armed resistance or political activism. Others lost their lives. This dissertation is primarily concerned with how these individuals created art that reflected the everyday life of Syrians throughout the crisis. The focus on everyday life is crucial because it shifts scholarly attention on the Syrian crisis away from the war itself and onto the overlooked Syrians who are creatively trying to survive it. Drawing on interviews, aesthetic analysis, and participant-observation, I argue that Syrian artists try to reclaim the Syrian identity and homeland concepts back to their cultural heritages and away from political or war realities. In addition, I discuss a new model of the Syrian body of survival and its representations based on its transformations between different modes of survival practices. This dissertation seeks to enrich art history, Performance Studies, and scholarly approaches to the Syrian crisis by positioning Syrian art as a global and contemporary art phenomenon and by documenting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting its artists to the international public. It pays particular attention to Syrian art's local, regional, and global specificity while also considering how the artworks and films are produced, distributed, and presented across international art arenas. The ultimate goal of this dissertation is to clarify what it means to be Syrian today, a concept that has been mostly unrepresented, misrepresented, or distorted by stereotyping.

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2021, Art

Monsters are powerful symbols of transformative agency, heavily ingrained in Western culture. With transmutating creatures living rent-free in our collective imagination, I have to wonder: why is it taboo for queer people to transform? Tracing a historical line from biblical angels, Greek mythology, the gothic novel, and contemporary horror cinema, I create a framework for understanding monsters as revered, transformative figures in important texts throughout the centuries. Just as LGBTQ+ activists reclaimed `queer' as a radical identifier, I reclaim `monster' as an uncompromising symbol of bodily agency, engaging with Queer readings and critical media theory along the way. Using my MFA Thesis artwork God Made Me (And They Love Me), I weave my soft sculpture beasties through historical imagery, religious text, folklore, and media pieces depicting `monster' and `monstrosity'.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, EDU Teaching and Learning

The public school curriculum is designed primarily for visual learners, thereby causing insurmountable access barriers for students with visual impairments (SVIs) in education. The inherently visual nature of mathematics, in particular, poses multiple challenges to these students because many essential mathematical concepts are abstract, and they are taught primarily from a visual perspective. This puts SVIs at a definite disadvantage because they have to rely on other senses of attaining knowledge compared to their sighted peers who are privileged in perceiving and processing information through vision. Family members and educators are thus required to provide alternative means for these students to access mathematical content. It is important to investigate how educators adapt to serve the needs of SVIs in the field of mathematics, as well as understanding how these students perceive this support and its impact on their ability to learn mathematics. Current literature about the teaching and learning experiences of mathematics within this population is minimal. Hardly any qualitative investigations have been conducted that simultaneously collect and analyze the perceptions and experiences of the key stakeholders in mathematics education, such as SVIs, families, and educators. The overarching aim of this study is to explore the mathematics learning experiences of students with visual impairments. The study documents both the perspectives of their family members and the teaching experiences of educators regarding their mathematics education across general education school settings in the state of Ohio. The study seeks to better understand how family members and educators address SVIs in mathematics education. The study further attempts to gain insight into students' perceptions, beliefs, and views concerning the types of academic and personal support that they may or may not receive from their educators and family members in this field of study. This study is s (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, German

This thesis highlights the ways in which Bertolt Brecht's concept of epic theatre pertains to video games, more particularly, visual novels. Digital drama and romance genres (aka “dating simulators”) are known for their “realism” for their ability to make the player feel as if they are interacting with real people. Yet, the deceptiveness is their apparent inability to replicate fully the kinds of social interactions a person can have. The plot structure oftentimes is also rather simplistic: the goal of these games is that the player gets the girl of their dreams, despite any hardships. The horror game Doki Doki Literature Club (2017) by game developer Dan Salvato challenges these genre shortcomings and aspire to make productive, I will argue, a Brechtian notion of epic theatre. Salvato had a love-hate relationship with visual novels. To him, visual novels were nothing more than “cute girls doing cute things” where any tragic backstory or character arc is just another objective the player must overcome to make the girl of their dreams fall in love with them. Like Brecht, Salvato wants to destroy the illusions created by visual novels and shock people into reflecting about such illusions. He created Doki Doki Literature Club, a horror game disguised as a dating simulator, which takes a critical look at issues such a mental health that visual novels often gloss over and treat as plot points in the story.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, EDU Teaching and Learning

This three-fold dissertation examines the semiotic and textual ways that childrens literature is mediated by fifth-grade student conceptualizations of normal childhoods. Through a nested case study, I examined the discourses of a small group of fifth-grade girls, narrowed to the specific interactions of three focal students who have a personal connection to disability, to answer the following question: How does critical literacy mediate the reception of texts/covers that include characters with disabilities? Critical literacy theory provided a platform for conversations with students about the representation of childhood on the covers of books and in the books themselves. Students were encouraged to critique texts and participate in redesigning them in favor of a more accurate depiction of disability. Across the course of a year, I collected information about student interactions with the literature using ethnographic methods through audio/video recordings, semi-structured interviews, field notes and artifact collection (i.e. drawings and writings in student sketchbooks). Using discourse analysis, I analyzed this data to uncover the indexical methods that students utilized to index normal childhoods in relation to their discussions of middle grade novels. These findings were partnered with a content analysis and visual social semiotic/visual rhetoric analysis of book covers of the inclusion of disability in three middle grade novels (Rules, Waiting for Normal, and Short) read by the girls across the course of the year-long study. I found that the book covers consistently portray either a normal childhood or an overemphasized abnormal representation that both hide the reality of disability. In conversation with students, images were often rejected in favor of personal understandings of the disability. They did this by redesigning the covers to use semiotic resources that they connected to personally. Additionally, these students used their own experiences to aid in t (open full item for complete abstract)

MFA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

Though there has been increased discourse on non-Latin type design practice within the type design community in recent years, there still exists a need for many more high-quality digital typefaces in most of the world's written languages—societies, who, without these resources, are less able to contribute to global discussions. As a result, this thesis uses a number of different methods to analyze the pathways in multi-script type design research, examine the expansive relationship between typography and culture, and investigate the relationship between anthropological methods and the type design process. The questions posed include: how does one become prepared to design an effective and well-researched typeface in a new script? How does one research a new script? Does the use of anthropological research methodologies increase a type designer's understanding of a script's cultural context, and therefore increase the success of their design practice? If so, to what extent, and in particular, which aspects of the contextual typographic culture should the designer investigate? How does an understanding of the relationship between type and design affect this research process? As a catalyst for further practice and discussion of these topics, a comprehensive research framework outlines best practices when pursuing type design research in a non-native script. By utilizing anthropological and human-centered design research methods in the process of creating multilingual type systems, as well as examining culture, a non-speaking designer can begin to gain a wider, more global sense of typography, as well as better understanding for the needs of the global community for whom they are designing.